ENZYMES / COENZYMES

AMPK

The notion that we must die is a common one.

It’s not like that: we die of cumulative failures within our cellular machinery. Failures should / will be evitable breakdowns, reversible elements of aging. When do these failures happen, among many other reasons? When the energy needed to our cells for repairs is lacking.

AMPK stands for “adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase”.

It is found in every living cell in mammals. If you want to avoid the symptoms of aging you need it because every cell depends on a steady supply of energy, regulated by releasing the energy available stored in fats and sugars.

This enzyme manages the energy from food to power cellular activity in a regular way: too little energy starves the cells, too much can exhaust them. When energy inefficiency occurs, we identify the dysfunctions as diseases or symptoms. This process is perfect when we’re young: rapid, efficient release of energy with little storage as fat or sugar molecules.

AMPK activity fades with age, but can be activated again and boosted through exercise and / or calorie restriction: one more reason it’s very bad to be fat!

To understand aging we have to understand it’s not the automatic result of time passing, but how we age. Boosting AMPK activity is only one part of what should be a systemic anti-aging approach.

Supplements will help you to keep this vitally important enzyme active.

Search for: Gynostemma Pentaphyllum and Trans-Tiliroside.

Hoping of giving useful hints.

….Always humble,

Angiolino

PQQ

Few of us have ever heard about this relatively new antioxidant / neuroprotector coenzyme, related to mitochondrial formation and dysfunction which worsen virtually all killer diseases of aging. It’s actually used as a biomarker of aging itself. But mitochondrial dysfunction can be reversed.

It means: pyrroloquinoline quinone and protects mitochondria from oxidative damage. But it’s not the main purpose, having the potential to reverse cellular aging by activating genes that induce mitochondrial biogenesis (the spontaneous formation of new mitochondria in aging cells), protection and repair. The same result can also be achieved through very intense physical exercise in younger age, diminishing while growing old. The more mitochondria we possess, the better our body fight aging diseases.

PQQ is up to 5000 times more antioxidant than vitamin C, depending on our age and optimizes the function of the entire central nervous system (increasing the release of nerve growth factor).

Although a bit technical, it’s worth saying it prevents development of the alpha-synuclein protein and amyloid-beta protein in our brain, associated respectively to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

Should you decide to use this supplement, my personal hint is to take at least 20 mg per day, otherwise you’re wasting money. Possibly, but not necessarily, in combination with CoQ10 (I’ll talk about this one another time).

….Always humble,

Angiolino

Digestive enzymes

To digest the food we eat, we need powerful enzymes that break it down in order to extract vital nutrients: each of the three major food groups (carbohydrates, proteins and fats) must be broken down by specific enzymes before being absorbed by cells in the digestive tract. The problem is that with age the production of these enzymes begins to decline and amounts of the three major food groups pass undigested causing bloating, gas and most importantly malnutrition in older people. Which results in  lost appetite and declining of muscles. And it’s also exacerbated by a lack of probiotics.

In general, even in young people, after-meal abdominal symptoms often represent poor digestion of complex foods, causing one to be unable to fully absorb nutrients needed for an optimal health. The proper combinations of all foods is consequently very important wherefore different enzymes works in different ways: e.g. proteins should never be eaten with carbs, such as pasta + meat. I’ll write about these food combinations in future posts.

A natural solution to declining levels of digestive enzymes is to supplement with them to break down all major classes of food: starch, proteins, fats, cellulose and milk. Correspondingly:

Amylase, used to break down starch

Protease, to break down proteins

Lipase, to break down fats

Cellulase, to break down cellulose

Lactase, to break down lactose

More in details: a deficiency in amylase enzymes causes undigested carbs and starches molecules to pass into the colon where they are not digested anymore by enzymes but by gut organisms, literally fermenting them to produce carbon dioxide that leads to flatulence.

Proteins are digested by protease enzymes which, if not digested, in the colon produce bad smelling and toxic molecules. Besides, undigested proteins are associated with colon cancer.

Fats are digested by lipase enzymes. A lack in lipases leaves long-chain fats undigested which cannot be absorbed anywhere else and consequently just pass through producing greasy stools and cramping.

Cellulose enzymes break down indigestible dietary fiber essential to feed our colon organisms: we could say that prebiotics feed probiotics (read my previous post on them). The two are totally correlated because another cause of digestive malfunction occurs when microbial populations become imbalanced. Ergo it’s compulsory to properly feed our communities of bacteria living in our intestine.

And lactases break down milk sugar. If there is a deficiency in these enzymes lactose intolerance will manifest, causing abdominal cramps, flatulence and bloating.

Above all, I highlight again that a lack of those enzymes obviously causes malnutrition because vital nutrients cannot be absorbed by our body, with all the consequences you can well imagine. I want to repeat my final hint, already given when I posted twice about probiotics: look for supplements with dual-coating AND acid-resistant characteristics. Otherwise you’re merely wasting money.

….Always humble,

Angiolino