THAT’S THE WAY THE COOKIE CRUMBLES (12 page)

The gentleman in the front row was waving his hand energetically. He obviously had something to contribute to the discussion. I had just finished a public lecture on dietary supplements, and I threw the floor open for questions, anticipating the usual queries about glucosamine, calcium, vitamins, and the myriad herbal concoctions that have recently flooded the marketplace. But the waving man, who was looking pretty spry for his age, didn’t have a question. He had a story to tell. A dietary supplement had changed his life.

Until a few weeks earlier, he had been in a pretty sad state. Diabetes and a heart condition had robbed him of his vigor, making him practically immobile. Then he heard about a pill that could work wonders. I asked him to tell us what this magical pill was, expecting him to name one of the numerous multilevel-marketed “natural products” that, their makers claim, relieve every ailment known to humankind. Such panaceas are not recognized by the scientific establishment, the story usually goes, because if they were then prescription drug sales would suffer. When you’re in the business of delivering public lectures, you often hear such accounts. They come complete with testimonials about miraculous recoveries and heightened feelings of well-being. Much of this we can ascribe to the power of suggestion and people’s unfamiliarity with the nature of disease. Many conditions would resolve themselves without intervention, but if some intervention has been made, it gets the credit.

I was therefore fully prepared to hear about super blue-green algae, shark cartilage, Rubyasia from the Peruvian rain forest, “natural clay” tablets, or magnetized-urine capsules. Unfortunately, though, the gentleman could not remember what miraculous substance he had taken to turn his life around, other than that it was in the form of a little yellow pill. He offered to go to a nearby pharmacy and return with the information. Thinking that this was the end of this little escapade, I went on to answer the usual questions about vitamin E, ginkgo biloba, and milk thistle. And then suddenly the gentleman was back. He had scampered off to the pharmacy and returned, all with impressive speed, clutching a piece of paper with “coenzyme Q10” written on it. That sure got my attention.

This substance had long intrigued me, and I’d always wondered why the medical establishment had not paid more attention to it. It’s not your usual quack supplement; it has some pretty solid research behind it. In 1957, Dr. Frederick Crane at the University of Wisconsin became interested in how the energy needed to power the heart was produced. Using a beef heart as a model, he managed to isolate a substance that seemed critical to this process. Specifically, coenzyme Q10 is involved in the complex series of reactions by which carbon and hydrogen atoms from food combine with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and water, releasing energy. The body exploits this energy to synthesize a marvelous molecule called ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which then stores the energy. When the body needs to move a muscle, heat itself, or power the heart, ATP undergoes a chemical reaction that liberates the required energy.

Such chemical reactions involve the reorganization of the electrons that glue atoms together to form molecules. This reorganization, in turn, involves a type of electron transport system in which the needed electrons are passed from one molecule to another until they arrive at their destination. Coenzyme Q10 is a critical molecule in this transport system. Without it, the body could not produce ATP and supply energy. Crane’s discovery generated a great deal of interest, because its potential application was pretty obvious. If we could increase coenzyme Q10 levels in cells, then ATP synthesis would be enhanced and energy production increased. It took no more than a year for Karl Folkers at the University of Texas to determine the molecular structure of CoQ10, synthesize it, and begin studying its properties.

On top of its electron-transport ability, CoQ10 turned out to be a potent antioxidant, protecting cell membranes from being destroyed by oxygen. This was enough to inspire supplement manufacturers to put the cart before the horse, and they started hyping CoQ10 as a miracle drug. They claimed that their product could provide relief from heart disease, cancer, aging, immune problems, and poor exercise tolerance. This is just the kind of activity that sours the scientific community — researchers were quite aware that studies had not corroborated such outlandish claims. As a result, many scientists tossed CoQ10 on that great junk heap of supplements that fail to live up to their promise.

A handful of researchers, however, struggled on with CoQ10 studies. They were impressed by the fact that blood levels decline with age, and that the heart has the highest concentration of CoQ10 in the body. They organized trials with patients suffering from various heart ailments, particularly congestive heart disease. (Of course, the subjects continued to receive traditional treatment as well.) Indeed, nine placebo-controlled trials have confirmed the effectiveness of CoQ10 in reducing shortness of breath, hypertension, palpitations, and chest pain. Echocardiographic measurements have shown improved heart function. And, perhaps most important, no study has brought to light any detrimental effects, even at a few hundred milligrams a day. Strangely, the medical community remains largely unaware of the CoQ10 research, but perhaps it’s because the pharmaceutical companies have not promoted it. The substance cannot be patented, so no one has subjected it to a marketing push, in spite of the fact that CoQ10 may reduce insulin requirements in diabetics, help heal gum tissue in gingivitis sufferers, and even, in the form of a cream, improve skin condition. Another interesting observation is that CoQ10 levels are lower in people taking the statin drugs to reduce cholesterol. Perhaps we will eventually see a recommendation that patients taking these drugs also take a CoQ10 supplement.

Certainly, not every CoQ10 study has demonstrated the substance’s benefits, but enough have to justify further investigation. I’m not ready to dismiss as placebo effects the benefits experienced by the gentleman who didn’t even remember the name of CoQ10. It may not improve memory, but CoQ10 is worth remembering.

Some things just stick in your memory. When I was in elementary school, a teacher attempted to dissuade us from chewing gum in class with the following ditty: “The gum-chewing student and the cud-chewing cow are different somehow / I think the difference is the intelligent look on the face of the cow!” The message was an effective one, because it did deter me from exercising my jaw in that particular fashion. To this day, whenever I’m offered a stick of gum, the image of the cow springs to my mind, and I usually politely decline. I cannot remember the name of the teacher who was responsible for this life-changing recitation. That bothers me, so I’ve decided to do something about it. I’ve decided to take up gum chewing. But not ordinary gum — Brain Gum.

I came across this product when I was doing some research into the chemistry of memory. It all started one morning when a fly decided to investigate the cornflakes in my cereal bowl. I shooed him away, but he soon returned. Once more, I evicted him, but after buzzing around a little he again landed on the rim of the bowl. Our fly-and-man game went through another four or five cycles before something remarkable happened. The fly transferred his attention to another cereal bowl on the table. He landed, took off, landed, took off, but he never came back to my bowl again. The insect had apparently learned that my bowl presented dangers that the other one did not. I had never considered the possibility that flies could be trained. Had I discovered something here? Alas, as it turns out, no. A search of the literature revealed that others have indeed investigated fly training.

Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island found that they could condition fruit flies. Flies placed in a licorice-scented container where they received an electric shock learned to avoid the scent of licorice. But not all flies learned the same way. Some needed to be zapped ten times before they avoided the licorice scent, and some never learned. The researchers then bred the smart and the dull flies separately, creating two genetically altered strains. The offspring of the smart fruit flies showed remarkable memory. Many learned to avoid licorice scent after being zapped just once.

What was going on here? When the researchers studied the flies’ brains, they discovered major differences. They found more connections between the nerve cells of the smart flies than between those of the dim-witted ones. I’m not sure how one actually investigates the neurology of fly brains, but I assume that if we can go to the moon and invent Twinkies, then we can do it — in a pretty detailed fashion. Apparently, the formation of the links between nerve cells is controlled by a protein that turns on the genes that send out the message “Make connections to other nerve cells.” The flies that never learned their lesson had very low levels of this protein, while the quick learners were rich in it. And guess what. The researchers now say they have hit upon chemicals that can stimulate production of the “smart” protein. Sounds good, but does the world really need superflies who may remember who tried to swat them and then use the information to plot revenge? No. But the interesting thing is that human memory seems to depend on the same kind of connections between brain cells.

The prevailing view used to be that as we age, our brain cells die, and we cannot replace them. Recent research, however, shows that the brain continually rewires itself as new cells are spawned and go on to make connections with others. Somehow, the mysteries of memory are locked up in these intercellular connections. The first evidence we had of this came from mice. Test mice that had running wheels in their cages learned to navigate mazes more quickly. Researchers found that their brains possessed more newly formed nerve cells. Most of us wouldn’t consider running on a wheel intellectually demanding, but it’s evidently challenging enough for mice to improve their brain functions. Mice only have to run mazes, but London taxi drivers have to navigate the most complex network of streets in existence. It’s a mind-boggling challenge. What is happening inside their brains as they learn to whisk their customers efficiently from one point to another? Believe it or not, their brains are expanding — at least, the part of the brain responsible for storing and retrieving memories is expanding. Magnetic resonance imaging (mri) scans of London taxi drivers in training have shown that their hippocampus grew during the two years they spent learning their way around the city.

Most of us would like to improve our brain functions, but not necessarily by driving a taxi around London. What are we to do? Getting an education seems to help. The more we use our brains, the more connections are forged between our brain cells. Some studies have even suggested that people with less education have a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Intellectual activities — such as solving puzzles, playing chess, and trying to figure out how Brain Gum can improve memory — are particularly good for the brain.

So we are back to the Brain Gum. Another silly marketing gimmick designed to capitalize on people’s fear of intellectual inadequacy? Maybe not. Brain Gum contains phosphatidylserine (PS), a compound that improved cognitive function in mature adults in double-blind studies. PS occurs naturally in the brain, and it is located in the membranes that surround every cell. It plays a mysterious but important role in allowing those all-important connections to be forged between brain cells, and it also makes cells more responsive to the neurotransmitter chemicals that brain cells require to communicate with each other.

A typical double-blind trial involved over four hundred elderly people with memory problems who were given three hundred milligrams of PS daily over six months. They showed significant memory improvement when researchers assessed them using several tests. The dose they took was roughly the dose one would get from chewing the recommended amount of Brain Gum. PS is derived from soybeans and is also available in pill form. Maybe it is through PS that those genes turned on by the protein in the fruit fly experiments carry out their work. Some brainy scientist who has plenty of PS in his cell membranes will figure it out one day.

Memory is a complex business, and no single supplement will work magic. Increased intake of B vitamins has been linked with memory improvement, as have antioxidants such as vitamins E and C. We also know that estrogen supplements in women foster nerve cell growth, increase branching of nerve cells, and help repair damaged cells. Physicians have noted that patients on estrogen experience improvements in memory and concentration. In the U.S., health food stores sell huperzine A (Cerebra), which is extracted from a Chinese moss, as a memory enhancer. It inhibits an enzyme, cholinesterase, which breaks down acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter involved in memory. Huperzine has not undergone proper clinical trials as yet, but early studies give us reason to be optimistic. Researchers have not yet evaluated its side effects. It may turn out to be more effective than the herbal extract ginkgo biloba, which, in spite of the hype, has little clinical evidence to support its use. Research has demonstrated, however, that physical exercise retards brain deterioration.

And what is the simplest way to improve memory in aging adults? Well, it just may be eating mashed potatoes or barley. University of Toronto researchers found that the memories of a group of elderly people who ate a serving of potatoes or barley — as compared with others who consumed a beverage containing no calories — improved for about an hour. The improvement was certainly more modest than that claimed by the makers of Brain Gum, who insist that Brain Gum chewers will experience improvement in name recall, improvement in remembering information, and improvement in finding misplaced objects. But leave it to scientists to throw cold water on a hot idea. The memory improvement may have nothing to do with PS — it may be initiated by chewing any old gum.

A joint study conducted by researchers at the University of Northumbria and the Cognitive Research Unit in Reading, England, found that people recalled more words and performed better in tests on working memory after chewing gum. The study’s authors suggested that gum chewing delivers more oxygen to the brain. Hard to see how that would happen. Still, I decided that if I was to give gum chewing a try in an effort to improve my memory, I might as well try Brain Gum. So I purchased a pack, in spite of its hefty price. The trouble is I can’t remember where I put it. Maybe I should go and make myself some mashed potatoes.