Researchers report that the chemical sesaminol, naturally occurring in sesame seeds, protects against Parkinson's disease by preventing neuronal damage that decreases the production of dopamine. In vitro experiments show sesaminol handles oxidative stress in cells by regulating the production of reactive oxygen species and the movement of antioxidants. In vivo experiments reveal that dietary intake of sesaminol increases production of dopamine and significantly improves motor function in mice.
Sesame seed oil, used by many for its nutty aroma and high burn point, is made by extracting the fatty oils from sesame seeds, with the empty shells thrown out as waste. In a literal instantiation of the age-old adage "one man's trash is another man's treasure," researchers discovered that a chemical called sesaminol, abundant in this waste, has protective effects against Parkinson's disease.
"Currently, there is no preventive medicine for Parkinson's disease," states OCU Associate Professor Akiko Kojima-Yuasa, "We only have coping treatments." Associate Professor Kojima-Yuasa led her research group through a series of experiments to understand the effects of sesaminol on in vitro and in vivo Parkinson's disease models.
Parkinson's disease is caused when certain neurons in the brain involved with movement break down or die due in part to a situation called oxidative stress—neurons in the brain come under extreme pressure from an imbalance between antioxidants and reactive oxygen species (ROS). In cell-based in vitro experiments, the team found that sesaminol protected against neuronal damage by promoting the translocation of Nrf2, a protein involved in the response to oxidative stress, and by reducing the production of intracellular ROS.
In vivo experiments brought Associate Professor Kojima-Yuasa's team equally promising results. The impairment of movement due to Parkinson's disease is the result of damaged neurons producing less dopamine than is required. The team showed that mice with Parkinson's disease models show this lack of dopamine production. However, after feeding the mice a diet containing sesaminol for 36 days, the research team saw an increase in dopamine levels. Alongside this, a rotarod performance test revealed a significant increase in motor performance and intestinal motor function.
With the first-ever medicine for Parkinson's disease potentially being the naturally occurring food ingredient sesaminol, naturally occurring waste of the sesame seed industry, Associate Professor Kojima-Yuasa and her team are ready to take their work to the clinical trial phase and connect the consumption/production chain in a way that, as she puts it, "prevents diseases with natural foods to greatly promote societal health."
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John_morris71
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Sesame tahini mixed with a little bit of honey is one of my favorite snacks - reminds me of halvah. Now will have to try it with some cinnamon to make it even more PD fighting
Be sure to drink lots of water and possibly add a bit of calcium citrate - both sesame and cinnamon are high in oxalates so you might want to watch the quantity you consume. I just ate a spoonful of raw sesame seeds myself along with tocotrienols.
I put this comment here because it is the place where the most people commenting on this post would be notified of it.
This study assessed whether mice were protected against rotenone induced parkinsonism. Not a good test as to whether sesaminol promotes recovery from actual Parkinson's, especially since there are transgenic mice that produce defective alpha synuclein and actually get Parkinson's.
Also, producing the sesaminol requires a fermentation step:
"most sesaminol exists as a glycoside, and sesaminol remains in the form of glycoside in the defatted residue after the extraction of sesame oil. A recent method for purifying sesaminol from sesaminol glycoside was established,"
namely
"Preparation of sesaminol Paenibacillus sp. KB0549 strain was cultivated in a medium obtained by the addition of 1% tryptone, 0.5% yeast extract and 0.89% NaCl to a liquid extraction of sesame defatted debris with warm water. The obtained culture broth was added to heat-sterilized sesame defatted debris and fermented at 37C for 6 days using a solid fermenter under intermittent stirring and aeration conditions. The fermented sesame defatted debris was dried, 95% ethanol was added, and the mixture was stirred at 50C to extract sesaminol."
For starters, as I implied my previous comment, the actual healing effect of sesaminol is questionable because the animal model used to test it was not very good.
In reply to your question, sesame seed products are unlikely to contain sesaminol without fermentation or other special processing. As to the healing effect of what they do contain, no idea.
"In sesame oil, the sesamin and sesamolin contents ranged from 4112.3 to 7523.2 mg/kg (average 5786.8 ± 1029.3 mg/kg) and from 1818.0 to 4071.5 mg/kg (average 2614.3 ± 633.8 mg/kg), respectively. The sesamol and sesaminol contents were in the ranges 9.8−108.7 mg/kg (average 61.6 ± 19.8 mg/kg) and 8.8−62.7 mg/kg (average 37.8 ± 15.4 mg/kg). The total lignans in sesame oil ranged from 6059.9 to 11479.9 mg/kg, with an average content of 8500.5 ± 1564.7 mg/kg. "
I've posted earlier below -
"Whether the refined sesaminol's noticed benefit is solely attributed to being an Nrf2 promotor will remain to be seen. In the meanwhile, we have sulforaphane for that readily available through broccoli sprouts."
The third reference was to show that fermentation refinement is not necessary to reap the benefit from sesaminol along with other lignans that are known for numerous health benefits, especially in Asia.
"Analysis of 65 different samples of sesame seeds indicated that the content of sesaminol triglucoside ranged from 36 to 1560 mg/100 g of seed (mean 637 ± 312) and that of sesaminol diglucoside ranged from 0 to 493 mg/100 g of seed (mean 75 ± 95)."
"The content of sesaminol triglucoside in 100 g seeds ranged from 14.1 to 91.3 mg with an average value of 68.4 mg; that of sesaminol diglucoside from 8.2 to 18.3 mg with an average value of 11.6 mg; and that of sesaminol monoglucoside from 5.4 to 19.5 mg with an average value of 8.3 mg. The total content of sesaminol glucoside was 88.3 mg in 100 g of sesame seeds. "
"most sesaminol exists as a glycoside, and sesaminol remains in the form of glycoside in the defatted residue after the extraction of sesame oil. A recent method for purifying sesaminol from sesaminol glycoside was established,"
Implying that the glycoside form is not effective and that the glucose moieties must first be removed to activate the molecule.
They specifically turned the glycoside version into unadorned sesamol and then showed that was effective. (Effective under their way of testing.) They would not have bothered with that step had the glycoside version been effective.
It seems they chose to test with the purified sesaminol to improve the efficiency and utilization of the triglucoside of sesaminol resistant to the action of β-glucosidases.
This does not tell me that ingested glycosides are not beneficial especially when aided by human intestinal microbiota as posted earlier.
"In the digestive track of animals, intestinal bacteria remove glucose from lignan glucosides [133,134] and transform lignan aglycons into metabolites designated enterolignans [40,146]. "
I think they might have gone through all these steps to get pure Sesaminol just so they could know exactly what it was they were testing. So maybe once you know Sesaminol is what is doing the magic it does not matter what else is in the mix?
In this case "purifying" refers to removing the attached glycoside:
"most sesaminol exists as a glycoside, and sesaminol remains in the form of glycoside in the defatted residue after the extraction of sesame oil. A recent method for purifying sesaminol from sesaminol glycoside was established,"
The implication being the unmodified natural glycoside form will not be effective.
No. In my opinion adequate evidence for this intervention is lacking. It will not do a person any harm, but there is only so much time and attention in a day. I choose to put my attention toward better options.
hi PARK WELL I have stated the Hdt protocol and there is one thing that is bothering me....do you think that I should be taking Carbidopa levodopa as well?Cause it seems that the basis for the hit is that a person who was taking the Cdopa and the Ldopa and
they dont have a favorable result so then they try the
HDT protocol and its the combined effect of it all that produces the results w=everyone is parading around.....am I right or wrong bout this?
Im having the time of it trying to figure out whether I have everything associated with the broccolli tea protocol so I received the seeds and I ground them up to make a cup of tea. Is that all there is.?
No. There is a lot more to it. You can end up with adverse reactions by doing it incorrectly. You need to wait for wriga to post his updated protocol. I see you are already aware of that based on your comment at the bottom of this page:
I've never tried halva so I ordered the brand you suggested but the organic one with honey (I don't like Stevia). I'm so hungry right now (fasting today) I've ordered a bunch of stuff on Amazon. Not good - shopping while hungry. 😱
For me, I order this: Husband eats the organic one with Stevia. Of course, I don't eat a lot of it as it contains sugar, just a little to satisfy my sweet tooth once in a while.
As long as you're drinking lots of water and not have kidney issues, you might be ok. It would be even better if you get some raw organic almonds to soak and sprout the almonds for better nutrition.
Unfortunately organic is too expensive for the amount I eat. I buy a big bag of raw almonds from Costco (I know, not the best quality, but good value for money)
Thank you Rescuema for good advice, I am aware of oxalates in many products but didn't know calcium citrate can reduce oxalate absorption. How about tocotrienols - do they also affect oxalates ?
Calcium citrate can help bind the oxalates present in the foods when eaten together. I use this trick whenever I make a green smoothie or eating foods high in oxalates.
Tocotrienols have a potent synergistic anti-cancer effect with sesamin.
Whether the refined sesaminol's noticed benefit is solely attributed to being an Nrf2 promotor will remain to be seen. In the meanwhile, we have sulforaphane for that readily available through broccoli sprouts.
Sesame seeds contain 4 commonly known beneficial lignans - sesamin, sesamol, sesaminol and sesamolin with very high antioxidant activities. These lignans are oil soluble and even present in the extracted sesame oil in some amounts, so using the oil can also be beneficial although you need to balance out for high omega 6. I like eating whole sesame seeds (raw or sprouted), and we can leave it up to our gut microbiome to ferment the lignan glycoside in our digestive tract. The only thing you should be mindful of is that you need to thoroughly chew/grind the seeds or they'll come straight out through #2.
I use calcium citrate powder and you should mix it in with food to bind it. Taking potassium citrate separately can also help prevent renal issues.
The intake depends on your calcium requirement and food intake, but I typically use about 1/2 tsp or up to 500mg calcium around a tsp or so per serving.
It all depends how much you would want to consume (also taking caloric and oxalate factor into consideration). Last night I've had about 1/4 cup of tahini left in a jar. So I mixed in about 1/4 to 1//2 teaspoon of honey and a little bit of cinnamon - none of the ingredients were measured, so that was the 'concoction'.
Today I got a new 14 oz jar of tahini, mixed in about 1 tablespoon of honey, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract - turned out even better!
And then I thought - may be I should check out vanilla extract for PD... and couldn't believe my eyes when I came across the following study which states:
The capacity of vanillin and vanillic acid to influence neurodegenerative processes such as Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease, and Huntington's disease was evaluated in several animal models. In a model, rats were induced with rotenone to produce PD-like symptoms and treated with vanillin (5, 10, 20 mg/kg, p.o.; 40 days). Compared with controls, vanillin diminished behavioral and cognitive impairments and counteracted the rotenone-induced striatal depletion of dopamine.71 In a rat model in which symptoms of PD were produced by intranigral injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), vanillin administration (5, 10, 20 mg/kg, i.p.; 24 days) improved motor dysfunction, enhanced the survival rate of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN), and suppressed LPS-induced activation of microglia in the SN.72 In the PD model, the beneficial actions of vanillin were associated with increases in glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) activities in brain tissue and in the level of glutathione (GSH) in the SN.
So, the remedies are getting better and better, just make sure to follow Rescuema's advice to drink plenty of water and have some calcium citrate to prevent oxalates absorption.
Maybe you can try substituting the honey with mannitol? ...Though high in sugar, I suppose 1/4 honey wouldn't hurt and it is a source of trehalose (similar to mannitol).
Unfortunately, I have nothing to report - after finishing the tahini jar, it took me a few weeks to get another one and now I am back on consuming this good stuff again, which has been for about 2 weeks but hadn't noticed any changes. I definitely need to be more consistent and since I order tahini online, should probably order couple of jars at a time.
Are you saying trehalose comes from honey? I order from trehalose.co.uk I thought I read somewhere that it was derived from seaweed or plants guess I was wrong
Are you recommending tahini? If so, how much? What concoction is faridaro referring to? I know we are all interested in learning about anything that might help. Sometimes, though, I feel like I missed part of a discussion.
My understanding (from John_morris' post) is that sesame oil contains sesaminol which has positive effect on dopamine production. However, according to Park Bear "producing the sesaminol requires a fermentation step" so I am not sure how much sesaminol is in tahini but since I enjoy it sometimes as a snack, I came up with this 'concoction' - see my response to Kerrington.
So just to clarify - Calcium carbonate has the most calcium per pill (40 percent), therefore fewer pills are needed. Some find calcium carbonate constipating. Calcium citrate is well absorbed on an empty stomach and does not constipate. The downside is that it has less calcium per pill (20 percent).
My question if you are taking a calcium carbonate of 600mg daily you wouldn't need to supplement Calicum Citrate for your concoction?
Using calcium citrate is to bind the oxalates here, but it is also a source of elemental calcium (1 tsp/2300mg = around 500mg calcium, check your SF). If you take calcium separated from meals, you can actually increase the risk of stone formation. Calcium citrate reduces oxalate absorption in the gastrointestinal tract by binding and dissolving oxalates for excretion. Citrate helps prevent kidney stones from developing, but you can also use calcium carbonate with meals if preferred although less ideal.
I believed Calcium is bad for PwP. I don't remember exactly when I read it and details. That is the reason husband doesn't take any calcium. However, we eat sesame seed bars, tahini and halva as they are high in calcium. Am I wrong?
You read my post in relevance to vitamin D overdose and hypercalcemia and its role in glutamate firing. Excess calcium is bad, but calcium is essential for health and electrolyte balance, so you don't want deficiency either.
Thanks! Would you recommend Calcium Citrate 500mg a day? I am taking Calcium Carbonate 500mg/day, (if I eat calcium rich foods, I don't take the supplement, as too much calcium is bad for the arteries). Would Calcium Carbonate be OK for my husband, too?
If you're eating calcium-rich foods, you shouldn't need to supplement calcium unless you're trying to address a known deficiency under Dr's order. When eating oxalate-rich foods (such as in sesame, kale, spinach, etc), it's a good idea to bind the oxalates using calcium citrate.
Well, I do have osteoposoris, however because of life-long exercising, the outer part of my bones is dense, the interior of the bones isn't. Something like that according to the doctor.
Sesame oil mitigates memory impairment, oxidative stress, and neurodegeneration in a rat model of Alzheimer's disease. A pivotal role of NF-κB/p38MAPK/BDNF/PPAR-γ pathways: ..In conclusion, the neuroprotective effect of SO involved the modulation of different mechanisms targeting oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and cognitive functions. SO may modulate different molecular targets involved in AD pathogenesis by alterations of NF-κB/p38MAPK/BDNF/PPAR-γ signalling and this may be attributed to the synergistic effect of their active components.
Dietary supplementation with peptides from sesame cake alleviates Parkinson’s associated pathologies in Caenorhabditis elegans:...The results point toward regulation of Nrf-2/SKN-1 as a potential avenue for the prevention or improvement of PD.
Sesamin imparts neuroprotection against intrastriatal 6-hydroxydopamine toxicity by inhibition of astroglial activation, apoptosis, and oxidative stress: ...These findings reveal the reversal effect of sesamin in 6-OHDA model of PD via attenuation of apoptosis, astrogliosis, oxidative stress, and down-regulation of α-synuclein.
I wouldn't worry about isolating peptides through buffer extraction used to experiment on tiny nematodes with a very short lifespan while we can simply eat the whole sesame seeds containing the antiparkinsonian peptides. It is interesting that induction of autophagy and attenuation of α-syn aggregation was involved as well as upregulation of NRF2 similar to what the sesaminol OP study is stating on human nerve cells.
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