L-Nutra’s ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet

While Anti-Aging Medicine touts diet as a cornerstone of health and longevity, the latest clinical research suggests that results are not solely dependent on what one is eating—but also when. As a proliferation of scientific information has emerged regarding the benefits of intermittent fasting, A4M/MMI is proud to announce a milestone in public health with one of its sponsor partners: L-Nutra, developer of nutri-technologies including the ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet®. 

Last week, L-Nutra received a fully issued patent focused on enhancing longevity and health span. Originally conceived by biochemist Valter Longo, PhD—Director of the Longevity Institute of the University of Southern California and a keynote presenter at the upcoming 26th Annual World Congress in Las Vegas—the concept of Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) is considered a nutritional breakthrough: designed to provide the body with natural, nourishing ingredients, while not activating any of the pro-aging processes. While FMD has rapidly gained traction and recognition across the globe, and represents the forefront of modern medicine, ProLon is now the very first product in the history of medicine to be developed, tested, sold, positioned, and patented for reversal of aging.

The clinically proven research and science behind the ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet, coupled with NIH sponsorship and the continuous trial results in top medical journals, make ProLon the only product in Integrative Medicine that has achieved the same level of credibility as top products in biotechnology. As quoted in the patent’s official publication, “Fasting Mimicking Diet without malnutrition is effective in protecting the brain against aging and oxidative stress.” The publication further reinforces FMD’s ability to demonstrate neuroprotective properties against neurodegenerative diseases including stroke, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and Alzheimer’s—and that reducing food intake can diminish cognitive dysfunction. Most importantly, the patent confirms that while conventional therapies are limited in their ability to provide a coordinated regenerative process similar to the developmental process that leads to tissue generation in the embryo, FMD’s formulations and methods can overcome these limitations—and induce the beneficial cellular effects. Learn more about the ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet here.

As Fasting Mimicking Diet continues to sweep the nation, Dr. Longo will deliver a lecture at December’s World Congress focused on the applications of intermittent fasting to metabolic syndrome, diabetes, cancer, autoimmunity, peptide therapy, weight management, and cellular rejuvenation programs. Due to the exploding popularity and recognition of FMD, Dr. Longo’s far-reaching potential represents a significant transition surrounding the ways in which clinicians advise patients regarding weight management, wellness, and longevity. Marking an exciting and unique opportunity to be at the forefront of the healthcare industry, delegates will learn firsthand about one of the newest and most effective ways to enhance your practice and patient outcomes.

Exercise as a Treatment for Depression

An extensive body of research throughout the past decade indicates that exercise may be an effective treatment for depression, and could potentially act as a preventive measure against depression. Outcomes from research, and a 2016 pool of studies involving over one million men and women, strongly suggest that regular exercise can not only alter our bodies, but also transform the brain so that the resistance to despair & depression is heightened and increased.

For many years, scientists have investigated the correlation between physical activity and mental health. While it has long been understood that exercise alters the body, how physical activity affects emotional health is less clear: some randomized controlled trials have found that exercise programs ease symptoms in people with major depression.

A group of global researchers in public health, however, has worked to further support the case for exercise as a treatment for–and preventive measure against–depression. For the newer analyses, they initially gathered all of the most recent and most well-designed studies surrounding depression and exercise. The ‘most innovative’ of the new studies, published in 2016 in Preventive Medicine, focused on whether exercise could help to prevent the development of depression.

Due to the frequent unreliability of how we report our exercise and workouts, the researchers solely utilized past studies that had “objectively measured participants’ aerobic fitness,” which will rise or fall depending on whether and how much someone exercises. Other parameters for the study included a measurement of participants’ mental health, at both the initial outset and conclusion of the study, coupled with follow-up time of at least a year.

The researchers found several large-scale past studies that met their criteria, which collectively contained data on more than 1,140,000 adult men and women. Among these million-plus people, the links between mental health and fitness was fairly strong. When the researchers divided the group into thirds, based on their respective aerobic fitness, those men and women with the lowest fitness were about 75 percent more likely to have been given diagnoses of depression than the people with the greatest fitness. The men and women in the middle third were almost 25 percent more likely to develop depression than those who were the most fit.

In a separate study (some of the scientists were involved in each of the reviews), researchers looked at whether exercise might be useful as a treatment for depression. In that analysis, which was published in Journal of Psychiatric Research in June 2016, they pooled data from 25 past studies in which people with clinically diagnosed depression began some type of exercise program. The pooled results demonstrated that exercise, specifically a moderately strenuous workout such as brisk walking or jogging, has a “large and significant effect” against depression. People’s mental health tended to improve considerably if they were physically active. The final review further clarifies reasons as to why this may be true. Published in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews in February 2016, it sought to understand what happens to the body during and after exercise that might impact and enhance mood. The researchers analyzed 20 previous studies, all of which included results from blood samples from people with major depression before and after they had exercised. Overall, the findings in the samples indicated that exercise “significantly reduced various markers of inflammation and increased levels of a number of different hormones and other biochemicals that are thought to contribute to brain health.”

As reported in The New York Times, Felipe Barreto Schuch, an exercise scientist at the Centro Universitário La Salle in Canoas, Brazil and primary author on all of the reviews, confirms that the studies provide a strong case regarding the link between exercise and mental health. While further experiments are needed to specify the types and amounts of exercise, Dr. Schuch stated that “the main message” of the reviews “is that people need to be active to improve their mental health.”

SOURCES
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/for-depression-prescribing-exercise-before-medication/284587/
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-depth/depression-and-exercise/art-20046495
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC474733/

FDA Approves First Cannabis-Based Drug

U.S. health regulators have approved the first prescription drug made from marijuana, a milestone that could spur more research into a drug that remains illegal under federal law.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the medication from GW Pharmaceuticals on Monday, to treat two rare and serious forms of childhood epilepsy: Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome, that begin in childhood but can persist in adulthood. The strawberry-flavored syrup is a purified form of a chemical in the cannabis plant — but not the one that leads to the high. It is not yet clear why the ingredient, known as CBD, reduces seizures in some people.

The British drugmaker studied the drug in more than 500 patients with hard-to-treat seizures, overcoming numerous legal hurdles to conducting research with cannabis. FDA officials have stated that the drug reduced seizures when combined with older epilepsy drugs.

The drug is made from purified cannabidiol, or CBD, a compound found in the cannabis plant. The drug will be marketed under the brand name Epidiolex. CBD has medicinal effects, but it does not cause the mind-altering high that comes from THC, the primary psychoactive component of marijuana.

The FDA says this is the first drug approved in the U.S. that contains a purified substance derived from marijuana. The agency has previously approved drugs made from synthetic versions of THC and other marijuana constituents. “This approval serves as a reminder that advancing sound development programs that properly evaluate active ingredients contained in marijuana can lead to important medical therapies,” said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb during a call with reporters about the approval.

Several states have legalized CBD oil specifically for the treatment of intractable epilepsy or seizure disorders. As media outlets have previously reported, CBD supplements are available widely online and in dispensaries in the form of oils or tinctures, and CBD oil has gained popularity with consumers as a remedy for a variety of other ailments. However, the legal status of these products is uncertain, as is their quality; they are not regulated the way pharmaceutical drugs are, so the consistency and dose can vary widely.

Having an FDA-approved, pharmaceutical-grade CBD drug will open up a new treatment option for epilepsy patients by delivering a high-quality, consistent dose of CBD, says Robert Carson a pediatric neurologist at Vanderbilt University who treats patients with epilepsy. “Our biggest concerns with the artisanal [or supplement] versions of CBD were related to the consistency,” Carson says. “We can’t guarantee the consistency.” Carson says he will likely prescribe Epidiolex going forward. “I’m always excited about the potential for a new therapy that has been well-studied and has a great potential for benefit,” he says.

Several researchers are studying the potential of CBD to treat psychiatric conditions. A clinical trial is underway to test whether CBD can be an effective treatment for people with post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol use disorder, and another trial will determine whether CBD could help prevent relapse in opioid abusers.

The approval of Epidiolex may help open the door to more CBD research, as it helps to lift one regulatory hurdle. Until now, the Drug Enforcement Administration has classified CBD as a Schedule 1 substance. Like other drugs in this category, which include heroin and LSD, these drugs are considered to have no medical use and a high potential for abuse.

But now, with the approval of a CBD drug, the DEA will change this, according to Dr. Douglas Throckmorton, deputy director of regulatory programs at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, “The DEA will need to make a different scheduling decision for CBD…because it now has an accepted medical use,” he said during a conference call with reporters. He said the reclassification is underway now.

SOURCES
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/25/uk-epilepsy-drug-set-to-be-first-cannabis-based-medicine-on-us-market
http://time.com/5321299/fda-approves-marijuana-drug-epilepsy/
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/06/25/623236189/fda-green-lights-marijuana-based-pharmaceutical-drug