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May
27
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Wayne L. Klein, PhD says:
May 27, 2015 at 8:37 am (UTC 0)
Prevagen works, but only when injected into brain, plus Dangerous side effects,
Quincy Bioscience Prevagen (30 caps)
Prevagen Apoaequorin, 30-Count Bottle
I took Prevagen for 60 days and my memory recall definitely seemed like what it had been when I was younger. When I ran out recall appeared worse, worse than it had been prior to my stint as a guinea pig. Given the absence of human safety studies, this apparent memory decline would raise alarms if the apoaequorin protein, which is the active ingredient in Prevagen, were able to not only survive the digestive system without being digested (which is iffy), but also cross the blood-brain barrier. I will return to its impact on my memory, and what I do suggest, but first, more basic information on Prevagen.
With regard to the effectiveness of Prevagen, size matters a lot. You have as much hope of catching a gorilla in a havahart trap as apoaequorin has as of crossing the blood-brain barrier. To cross the blood-brain barrier, one of the requirements a molecule must meet is to be smaller than the doorway, which is 400 Daltons, a unit of measurement for molecules. Apoaequorin is 22,885 Daltons, much too big to fit through a 400 Dalton size entranceway.
It is a terrible shame that apoaequorin can’t cross the blood-brain barrier because there is evidence that it is neuroprotective. When apoaequorin actually gets into the brain, it provides protection for neurons from neurotoxic levels of calcium released by overstimulated NMDA receptors. These finicky NMDA receptors are especially overstimulated by stress as well as when oxygen is restored after a period of lack of oxygen, as may occur in stroke, near downing or heart attack. In case you were wondering, this does Not mean that you should reduce your calcium intake. Calcium deficiency will not protect your memory, but calcium deficiency it will hurt your bones. What you should reduce is high stress, chronic stress, stroke and heart attack risk, which will likely help protect your brain and your memory through multiple mechanisms. While on the subject, high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels, excess alcohol and, as you might expect, head injuries also tend to rust even the best steel trap mind.
So how do we know that apoaequorin is neuroprotective when it can’t get into the brain? The short answer is that it is injected into the brain with a needle. In the June 11, 2010 U.S. patent “Method of treating ischemic injury with apoaequorin” obtained by Mark Underwood of Quincy Bioscience, apoaequorin was directly injected into the rats’ brains. To be more precise, the rodent scalps were excised and retracted – in laymen’s terms the rats were scalped. Then a stereotaxic device was used to screw a tiny steel tube into the skull and apoaequorin was injected directly into the hippocampus of the rat brain. As an aside, the hippocampus is a major component in your memory network and it has the distinction of responding to mental exercise by beefing up.
Studies on the Prevagen website describe the effectiveness of taking Prevagen as a pill. However, none of these studies were published in a peer reviewed scientific journal and there is no indication of any being in submission for publication. There was one presentation at a conference, but again, no evidence that it was submitted for publication. This seems fishy. Even if they had been published, science and common sense require that individuals without a financial interest replicate this work.
So, if Prevagen is a scam, then why did my memory improve? As a neuropsychologist who has administered thousands of memory tests, I can say that an important factor in whether someone remembers is how long they struggle with retrieval before giving up. While on this placebo, I worked longer and harder at pulling up the memory because I expected to find what I was looking for. Because I almost never gave up I eventually succeeded in remembering.
My advice is not – just try longer, but this is part of my advice. Although you can’t protect your neurons pharmacologically with apoaequorin after they come under attack, you can do something much better. You can take steps to prevent them from coming under attack in the first place.
Many studies have shown that humans and animals with elevated stress exhibit poorer memory and a higher rate of age related memory decline as well as a faster rate of brain atrophy. An important mechanism in causing this to occur is that psychological stress overstimulates the NMDA receptors. We also know that if you get optimal sleep, and few Americans do, then your memory will work better and you will be under less stress…
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Jason says:
May 27, 2015 at 9:10 am (UTC 0)
Won’t survive digestion…,
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Hope says:
May 27, 2015 at 10:02 am (UTC 0)
Review of Prevagen for memory loss,
There was no way to rate this item on your scale but from my review it should be obvious. I’m not sure why Amazon says I rate it a 2.
I hope either the product or my review helps someone else.
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