Note from Carolyn:
My mother died due to complications surrounding Alzheimer's. I didn't know about enzymes and their benefits at that time so I didn't know how to help. But now I do. Check out Plant Enzymes and see how much you or your loved ones health improves.
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Senile dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are progressive, degenerative, neurological disorders that result in memory impairment and deterioration in cognitive function, reasoning, and behavior of the individual. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia - accounting for more than 60 percent of late life disorders of cognitive dysfunction. The loss of intellectual function initially interferes with daily life, and after a disease course that may last many years, eventually results in death. Death is usually due to factors such as compromised nutrition, complications of the immune system (pneumonia, sepsis, other infections), trauma, or aspiration.
Parkinson's disease is a serious brain condition that results from nerve damage in certain regions of the brain that regulate the body's voluntary muscles. Also referred to as "PD," Parkinson's disease is a movement disorder that causes muscle rigidity, shaking, and slow difficult walking. As the disease progresses, cognitive function often suffers, and some patients develop dementia. PD usually strikes in mid to late adult life, although 30 percent of people with the disease experience symptoms before age 50.
Enzymes are proteins that work to drive the chemical reaction required for a specific action or nutrient. Enzymes perform an all-encompassing function in the development and maintenance of the human body. Substrates are molecules at the beginning of an enzymatic reaction. Enzymes work on substrates in one of three ways: substrate orientation, physical stress, and changes in substrate reactivity. Substrates can be transformed to usable products at the rate of ten times per second. There are an estimated 75,000 different enzymes in the human body. The absence of enzymes is responsible for many diseases.
A study published in the journal Current Alzheimer Research explored to see whether enzyme or proteasome (large protein complexes) activity are affected in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and PD patients compared to healthy subjects. The researchers isolated the peripheral blood mononuclear cells from blood samples and were analyzed by using the Western Blot. Fluorogenic substrates were used to measure proteasome activity. The results were no changes were observed in MCI patients in enzyme or proteasome activity in comparison to healthy subjects. Enzyme E1 was increased but enzyme E2 was decreased in blood cells of AD patients in comparison to healthy subjects. Enzyme E2 levels and proteasome activity were significantly reduced in PD patients. The researchers reported that this study demonstrated the differences in enzyme and proteasome activity patterns among patients with AD and PD suggesting the importance of these differences in the progression of the diseases.
Sources:
Ullrich C, Mlekusch R, Kuschnig A, et al. Ubiquitin Enzymes, Ubiquitin and Proteasome Activity in Blood Mononuclear Cells of MCI, Alzheimer and Parkinson Patients. Curr Alzheimer Res. May 2010
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