Plasmalogens & Dr. Goodenowe
The more time I spend studying health ..which is really different from studying medicine these days..the more I appreciate that it all comes back to the health of the cell which means cellular biology. This means it’s all about the fuel. If the fuel is clean the cellular engines burn clean. If the fuel is dirty , the nozzles get clogged and havoc ensues. Hopefully you see that I am telling you that your cellular health depends on the quality of the food you eat. Most of us ( I’m no dietary angel) are eating terribly and our health suffers accordingly. Your illness (your particular clogged nozzle) depends on many factors including your genes but as far as I can tell from many different sources.. whether its headaches, digestive issues, chronic pain, high blood pressure, diabetes, almost certainly cancer and dementia….all of these improve when you improve the fundamentals and that really means the fuel…the food. I see proof of this every day in my medical practice.
Once again it was a patient who turned me on to someone new. Dr. Dayan Goodenowe is not a medical doctor, he is a biochemist. He has been devoted to the study of the composition of the various cell membranes for years and has patented technology to analyze the similarities and differences over thousands of specimens. He has shown how very different the cell membranes are in composition depending on the underlying needs of the cell. In any one cell there are innumerable membranes from the outer membrane which separates the cell from everything outside, to the nuclear membrane where the DNA is to the membranes of the mitochondria of which there can be hundreds or thousands in each cell. So membranes and their composition is a big biological deal. His research focuses on a group of molecules in the membrane called plasmalogens. As Wikipedia refers to them: “Plasmalogens are found in numerous human tissues, with particular enrichment in the nervous, immune, and cardiovascular systems. In human heart tissue, nearly 30–40% of choline glycerophospholipids are plasmalogens. Even more striking is the fact that 32% of the glycerophospholipids in the adult human heart and 20% in the brain and up to 70% of myelin sheath ethanolamine glycerophospholipids are plasmalogens.”
I have learned from Dr. Rogers and others the importance of the cell membrane and have reviewed what I knew of the membrane composition including the omega 3’s the omega 6’s, Co Q10, Vitamin E, tocotrienols, cholesterol etc and I knew there were other components but Dr. Goodenowe has greatly added to my understanding with these Plasmalogens. Studying thousands of samples and looking for patterns he has discovered that deviations in the components of the cell membrane are reliably associated with certain diseases including Alzheimer’s, Autism, Neuropathy and Parkinson’s disease.
Using Alzheimer’s as an example, if the cell membrane is correctly made and intact you don’t get the neurofibrillary tangles and plaque that are the hallmark of the disease. If the cell membranes are in some component including the plasmalogens the membrane is distorted and the plaque gets produced. The plaque is not the cause of the disease, it is a marker of cellular distress. This explains how the new dementia drugs which scrub the plaque from the scans do absolutely nothing to improve memory or brain function.
Dr. Goodenowe has linked the various patterns of the cell membranes to certain diseases as noted. Now the million dollar question is whether you can change the membrane and affect the disease state. After reviewing this literature for hours,reading, watching videos etc I think there is something here and I am going to start several patients on his supplements and see what happens. Dr. Goodenowe runs aclinic in Canada where he supervises the membrane repair treatment and I am sure it’s expensive and not practical for most people. Luckily, you can get a blood test called a Prodrome Scan and find out the status of your cell membranes. Once you know the composition of your membranes you can take the appropriate supplement to try to set things right. Dr. Goodenowe is so convinced that he is on the right track that he has offered his supplements to every autistic child in his hometown of Moosejaw completely free of charge ! This program just started so we should have some real data in just a few months as to how this works in the real world. Is this the action of some supplement hustler? I think not. Watch one of his many videos and judge for yourself. Go to drgoodenowe.com and check out the educational section. I think this is something real and look forward to trying the supplements out with my patients and seeing the results for ourselves. Stay tuned.
Until next month…get well and stay well.
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