In the News

London Health Sciences Centre Announces Firsts in Treatment Option for Blood Circulation

Horphag Research Chosen as Sixth Recipient of American Botanical Council's Tyler Award

Douglas Laboratories Chosen As the #1 Healthcare Practitioner Brand

New Way to Image Brain Waste Removal Process

Mushroom-Supplemented Soybean Extract Shows Therapeutic Promise

Secrets of Human Speech Uncovered

Bracelet-Like Device Controls Chronic Acid Reflux

Third Rock Ventures Launches Jounce Therapeutics

Metagenics Launches FirstLine

Combination of Key Nutrients Reduces Stress and Emotional Problems

Dr. Lise Alschuler to Tour United States

London Health Sciences Centre Announces Firsts in Treatment Option for Blood Circulation

London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) continues its tradition of innovation as it is the first in North America to use a new blood circulation device and first in the world to use the device in cardiac surgery.

Since December, Dr. Bob Kiaii, cardiac surgeon, and the rest of the cardiac surgery team at LHSC, has been treating patients recovering from heart surgery with the new blood circulation device, named geko, to help manage swelling resulting from excess fluids following cardiac surgery, a condition known as post-operative edema.

"The device offers patients a drug-free treatment option for a common condition following cardiac surgery and simplifies current strategies to eliminate excess fluids," says Dr. Kiaii. "This is important because excess fluids impede oxygen delivery and wound healing, compromise pulmonary function, and delay resumption of bowel function."

The size of a wrist-watch and worn behind the knee, the self-contained geko™ device is designed to increase blood flow by activating the muscle pumps in the lower leg that return blood to the heart, emulating the blood flow rate normally achieved by walking (up to 70 per cent), without the patient having to move or exert energy. Patients can apply the battery powered device themselves and have the control to turn it off or on.

"Dr. Kiaii and his team continue to build upon London Health Sciences Centre's legacy of innovation," says Bonnie Adamson, President and CEO, LHSC. "This is another example of LHSC utilizing advanced technologies to improve outcomes for the patients we serve."

Dennis Findlay of London, Ontario was the first patient offered the new treatment by Dr. Kiaii immediately after his triple-bypass surgery in December. "I wore it every day while I was in hospital. It was painless and barely noticeable and I'm grateful it helped my recovery," describes Findlay.

Approximately 60 patients have benefited from the device as part of their treatment plan. "Early observational use of the geko device has shown promise and we are planning to conduct a controlled trial to further investigate its health benefits," continues Dr. Kiaii.

Bernard Ross, CEO Firstkind Ltd, device manufacturer, said: "Precise management of fluids and electrolytes is a fundamental part of a patient's overall surgical treatment. Through the unique differential of superior blood flow, we believe the geko device is well placed to deliver simplicity of patient care, enhanced patient mobility, better patient outcomes and substantial cost savings for health services globally through a reduced length of patient stay."

Horphag Research Chosen as Sixth Recipient of American Botanical Council's Tyler Award

The nonprofit American Botanical Council has announced Horphag Research as the recipient of its annual Varro E. Tyler Commercial Investment in Phytomedicinal Research Award. Horphag Research, based in Switzerland, is the producer of Pycnogenol French maritime pine bark (Pinus pinaster) extract, which is used in hundreds of brands and formulas of dietary supplements, as well as in cosmetics, functional foods, and beverages.

“Horphag Research and its entire team are, of course, very honored to receive this prestigious award,” said Victor Ferrari, CEO of Horphag Research. “It is an important recognition for the scientific work that has been established over so many years on one single and unique product – Pycnogenol.”

Horphag Research was founded in Berlin in 1925 as HormopharmaAG by Charles Haimoff. In the 1960s, Haimoff’s vision of “healthy aging” led to the development of the antioxidant French maritime pine bark extract, Pycnogenol. Research on the product began in 1965, and, just two years later, the first preparations were being sold in Europe. By 1987, Horphag was awarded its first US patent, and in 2003 Pycnogenol was self-affirmed to be GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) for use in food products. Sales of Pycnogenol products to consumers now exceed $500 million annually and are sold in more than 80 countries around the world.

“For 40 years, Horphag has invested in extensive research to ensure the safety and efficacy of Pycnogenol as a premium ingredient,” said Frank Schönlau, PhD, scientific director for Horphag Research. “For more than a decade, I have personally overseen much of the research as we have built upon that commitment. I am extremely proud to see the team recognized for its dedication to making Pycnogenol one of the most well-researched natural health supplements available today.”

“ABC congratulates Horphag Research for this most well-deserved and probably overdue honor,” said Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of ABC. “Horphag Research is the epitome of a research-based natural products company, investing millions of dollars in scores of clinical research trials on its key product, Pycnogenol.

“Professor Varro Tyler was one of my key mentors for about 20 years. He repeatedly emphasized his desire to see herb companies invest in scientific and clinical research on their herb and phytomedicinal products. I have no doubt that if he were alive today, he would fully endorse ABC’s choosing Horphag this year to receive his eponymous award,” continued Blumenthal.

The late Prof. Tyler — who has been described as one of the most respected men in late 20th century herbal medicine and pharmacognosy (the study of medicines of natural origin, usually from plants) — was an early trustee of ABC, dean of the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Purdue University, and vice-president of academic affairs at Purdue. He was the senior author of six editions of the leading textbook in the field, formerly used in every college of pharmacy in the United States.

Prof. Tyler urged his students and colleagues “not only to seek the truth but, after finding it, to discard any preconceived ideas which it may reveal as untrue.” He encouraged scientific and product integrity and envisioned a rational herbal healthcare sector that valued the proper evaluation of products’ quality, safety, and efficacy.

“Receiving the American Botanical Council’s Tyler Award provides not only credibility to our scientific work, but also a tremendous motivation to our team to continue providing scientific evidence on a multitude of health benefits of Pycnogenol,” said Ferrari. “We are not only blessed with one of the most versatile and well-documented products in this industry, but also with the most professional and dedicated team.”

According to Horphag, the extensive study of Pycnogenol has resulted in more than 100 published clinical studies and 300 scientific publications. Horphag Research’s bibliography includes studies on a diverse group of topics, including antioxidant properties, cardiovascular health, skincare, joint health, sports nutrition, and more. Recently published studies show the abilities of Pycnogenol to reduce perimenopausal symptoms, improve skin hydration and elasticity, reduce asthma symptoms, and improve endothelial function.

This proliferation of research and the popularity of Pycnogenol products are likely what caught the eye of celebrated surgeon and TV host Mehmet Oz, MD, who recently spent a segment of his “Dr. Oz” show discussing the benefits of Pycnogenol for younger-looking skin. The effects extolled by Oz are perfectly in line with the company’s motto of helping people “look, feel, and live better.”

Douglas Laboratories Chosen As the #1 Healthcare Practitioner Brand

Douglas Laboratories, the trusted choice of healthcare professionals for superior quality, science-based nutritional supplements for more than 50 years, has been named the #1 Healthcare Practitioner Brand in the United States for consumer satisfaction based on the 2013 ConsumerLab.com Survey of Vitamin & Supplement Users. A yearly survey completed by Consumer Lab’s e-newsletter subscribers determined the top-rated vitamin and supplement brands and supplement merchants for 2013 based on consumer satisfaction.

“The Douglas Labs team is thrilled to have been chosen as the top rated healthcare practitioner brand by customers who are benefiting from our products,” says Tim Monk, Douglas Labs Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing. “We will use this feedback as a way to connect and listen to our customers to continue to improve and grow the Douglas Labs brand.”

Each year, ConsumerLab.com surveys its free e-newsletter subscribers about the vitamins and supplements they use. Consumers’ answers help guide ConsumerLab.com’s choice of supplements to test and result in a comprehensive 130-page survey report. The survey was fielded in November 2012. Over 10,000 supplement users reported their satisfaction with 1,438 brands and 851 supplement merchants. In the report responses are analyzed by respondent age, gender and level of supplement use.

For more information about the survey got to consumerlab.com/survey2013. For further information on Douglas Laboratories visit douglaslabs.com.

New Way to Image Brain Waste Removal Process

A novel way to image the entire brain’s glymphatic pathway, a dynamic process that clears waste and solutes from the brain that otherwise might build-up and contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease, may provide the basis for a new strategy to evaluate disease susceptibility, according to a research paper published online in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. Through contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other tools, a Stony Brook University-led research team successfully mapped this brain-wide pathway and identified key anatomical clearance routes of brain waste.

In their article titled “Brain-wide pathway for waste clearance captured by contrast enhanced MRI,” Principal Investigator Helene Benveniste, MD, PhD, a Professor in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Radiology at Stony Brook University School of Medicine, and colleagues built upon a previous finding by Jeffrey Iliff, PhD, and Maiken Nedergaard, MD, PhD, from University of Rochester that initially discovered and defined the glymphatic pathway, where cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) filters through the brain and exchanges with interstitial fluid (ISF) to clear waste, similar to the way lymphatic vessels clear waste from other organs of the body. Despite the discovery of the glymphatic pathway, researchers could not visualize the brain wide flow of this pathway with previous imaging techniques.

“Our experiments showed proof of concept that the glymphatic pathway function can be measured using a simple and clinically relevant imaging technique,” said Dr. Benveniste. “This technique provides a three-dimensional view of the glymphatic pathway that captures movement of waste and solutes in real time. This will help us to define the role of the pathway in clearing matter such as amyloid beta and tau proteins, which affect brain processes if they build up.”

Dr. Benveniste said that the pathology of certain neurological conditions is associated with the accumulation of these proteins and other large extracellular aggregates. In particular, she explained that plaque deposits of these proteins are implicated in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as chronic traumatic encephalopathy that occurs after repetitive mild traumatic brain injuries.

The researchers used contrast agents and molecular tracers with MRI to develop the imaging tools. Using these tools, they imaged major regions within the brain such as the cerebellum, orbito-frontal cortex, pineal gland, olfactory bulb, and nasal cavity, to map the entire glymphatic pathway. The contrast-enhanced images reveal the CSF-ISF interchange throughout the whole brain, including pathways in parallel to major arteries that are also involved in the glymphatic waste clearing process.

The authors propose that this advanced imaging technique has the potential to be used as a way to monitor the human brain to map brain waste clearance and assess disease susceptibility. Dr. Benveniste pointed out that, theoretically, if clinicians were able to capture a defect in the glymphatic system where certain channels are malfunctioning, plaque formation would likely accelerate. This plaque buildup may be an early sign of disease susceptibility before evidence of any cognitive changes. Though there is no known way to repair malfunctions in the glymphatic system, the research team is investigating ways to repair or open malfunctioning channels.

Mushroom-Supplemented Soybean Extract Shows Therapeutic Promise

A natural, nontoxic product called genistein-combined polysaccharide, or GCP, which is commercially available in health stores, could help lengthen the life expectancy of certain prostate cancer patients, UC Davis researchers have found.

Men with prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, known as metastatic cancer, and who have had their testosterone lowered with drug therapy are most likely to benefit. The study, recently published in Endocrine-Related Cancer, was conducted in prostate cancer cells and in mice.

Lowering of testosterone, also known as androgen-deprivation therapy, has long been the standard of care for patients with metastatic prostate cancer, but life expectancies vary widely for those who undergo this treatment. Testosterone is an androgen, the generic term for any compound that stimulates or controls development and maintenance of male characteristics by binding to androgen receptors.

The current findings hold promise for GCP therapy as a way to extend life expectancy of patients with low response to androgen-deprivation therapy.

Paramita Ghosh, an associate professor in the UC Davis School of Medicine, led the pre-clinical study with a team that included UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center Director Ralph de Vere White, a UC Davis distinguished professor of urology. Ruth Vinall in the UC Davis Department of Urology and Clifford Tepper in the UC Davis Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine directed the studies in mice; Ghosh’s laboratory conducted the cell studies.

The research focused on GCP, a proprietary extract cultured from soybeans and shiitake mushrooms and marketed by Amino-Up of Sapporo, Japan. Researchers found that the combination of the compounds genistein and daidzein, both present in GCP, helps block a key mechanism used by prostate cancer cells to survive in the face of testosterone deprivation.

The research team had earlier shown that when a patient’s androgen level goes down, cancerous prostate cells kick out a protein known as filamin A, which is otherwise attached to the androgen receptor in the cell’s nucleus. The androgen receptor regulates growth of prostate cancer cells. Once filamin A leaves the cancerous cell’s nucleus, that cell no longer requires androgens to survive. Thus, loss of filamin A allows these cells to survive androgen deprivation, at and the cancer essentially becomes incurable.

The paper, titled “Enhancing the effectiveness of androgen deprivation in prostate cancer by inducing Filamin A nuclear localization,” shows for the first time that GCP keeps filamin A in the nucleus. As long as this protein remains attached to the androgen receptor, the cancerous cells need androgens to survive and grow. They die off when starved of androgens, thus prolonging the effects of androgen deprivation, which ultimately prolongs the patient’s life.

The team’s hypothesis is that metastatic prostate cancer patients with the weakest response to androgen-deprivation therapy could be given GCP concurrently with androgen deprivation therapy to retain Filamin A in the nucleus, thereby allowing cancer cells to die off.

De Vere White is now pursuing funding to begin GCP human clinical trials. Because GCP is a natural product rather than a drug, and requires fewer government approvals, it’s expected that these trials will proceed rapidly once funded.

“We should know within the first eight months or so of human clinical trials if GCP works to reduce PSA levels,” says de Vere White, referring to prostate-specific antigen levels, a tumor marker to detect cancer. “We want to see up to 75 percent of metastatic prostate cancer patients lower their PSA levels, and GCP holds promise of accomplishing this goal. If that happens, it would probably be a greater therapy than any drug today.”

Secrets of Human Speech Uncovered

A team of researchers at UC San Francisco has uncovered the neurological basis of speech motor control, the complex coordinated activity of tiny brain regions that controls our lips, jaw, tongue and larynx as we speak.

Described this week in the journal Nature, the work has potential implications for developing computer-brain interfaces for artificial speech communication and for the treatment of speech disorders. It also sheds light on an ability that is unique to humans among living creatures but poorly understood.

“Speaking is so fundamental to who we are as humans – nearly all of us learn to speak,” said senior author Edward Chang, MD, a neurosurgeon at the UCSF Epilepsy Center and a faculty member in the UCSF Center for Integrative Neuroscience. “But it’s probably the most complex motor activity we do.”

The complexity comes from the fact that spoken words require the coordinated efforts of numerous “articulators” in the vocal tract – the lips, tongue, jaw and larynx – but scientists have not understood how the movements of these distinct articulators are precisely coordinated in the brain.

To understand how speech articulation works, Chang and his colleagues recorded electrical activity directly from the brains of three people undergoing brain surgery at UCSF, and used this information to determine the spatial organization of the “speech sensorimotor cortex,” which controls the lips, tongue, jaw, larynx as a person speaks. This gave them a map of which parts of the brain control which parts of the vocal tract.

They then applied a sophisticated new method called “state-space” analysis to observe the complex spatial and temporal patterns of neural activity in the speech sensorimotor cortex that play out as someone speaks. This revealed a surprising sophistication in how the brain's speech sensorimotor cortex works.

They found that this cortical area has a hierarchical and cyclical structure that exerts a split-second, symphony-like control over the tongue, jaw, larynx and lips.

“These properties may reflect cortical strategies to greatly simplify the complex coordination of articulators in fluent speech,” said Kristofer Bouchard, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Chang lab who was the first author on the paper.

In the same way that a symphony relies upon all the players to coordinate their plucks, beats or blows to make music, speaking demands well-timed action of several various brain regions within the speech sensorimotor cortex.

Brain Mapping in Epilepsy Surgery?

The patients involved in the study were all at UCSF undergoing surgery for severe, untreatable epilepsy. Brain surgery is a powerful way to halt epilepsy in its tracks, potentially completely stopping seizures overnight, and its success is directly related to the accuracy with which a medical team can map the brain, identifying the exact pieces of tissue responsible for an individual's seizures and removing them.

The UCSF Comprehensive Epilepsy Center is a leader in the use of advanced intracranial monitoring to map out elusive seizure-causing brain regions. The mapping is done by surgically implanting an electrode array under the skull on the brain’s outer surface or cortex and recording the brain’s activity in order to pinpoint the parts of the brain responsible for disabling seizures. In a second surgery a few weeks later, the electrodes are removed and the unhealthy brain tissue that causes the seizures is removed.

This setting also permits a rare opportunity to ask basic questions about how the human brain works, such as how it controls speaking. The neurological basis of speech motor control has remained unknown until now because scientists cannot study speech mechanisms in animals and because non-invasive imaging methods lack the ability to resolve the very rapid time course of articulator movements, which change in hundredths of seconds.

But surgical brain mapping can record neural activity directly and faster than other noninvasive methods, showing changes in electrical activity on the order of a few milliseconds.

Prior to this work, the majority of what scientists knew about this brain region was based on studies from the 1940’s, which used electrical stimulation of single spots on the brain, causing a twitch in muscles of the face or throat. This approach using focal stimulation, however, could never evoke a meaningful speech sound.

Chang and colleagues used an entirely different approach to studying the brain activity during natural speaking brain using the implanted electrodes arrays. The patients read from a list of English syllables – like bah, dee, goo. The researchers recorded the electrical activity within their speech-motor cortex and showed how distinct brain patterning accounts for different vowels and consonants in our speech.

“Even though we used English, we found the key patterns observed were ones that linguists have observed in languages around the world – perhaps suggesting universal principles for speaking across all cultures,” said Chang.

Bracelet-Like Device Controls Chronic Acid Reflux

A bracelet-like device with magnetic beads can control the chronic digestive disorder gastroesophageal reflux disease, according to a study published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The device encircles the valve at the junction of the esophagus and stomach and helps it stay closed when a person is not eating or drinking. It eased symptoms in 92 of 100 patients with chronic acid reflux and allowed 87 percent of patients to stop using acid-suppressing drugs, third-year results from the five-year study showed. Ninety four percent of patients were satisfied with the treatment.

The advance is significant, says study co-author C. Daniel Smith, MD, chair of the Surgery Department at Mayo Clinic in Florida and a specialist in treating reflux disease. Mayo Clinic is the only medical center in Florida and one of two in the Southeast to help study the device. Mayo Clinic in Arizona also offers treatment with the device.

“This is the first new, safe and effective treatment we have to treat reflux disease in 20 years,” Dr. Smith says. “The device is simple, elegant and functional, and it provides an opportunity to help a very large number of patients. The only treatment options in the past have been acid-suppressing agents or surgery. Acid-suppressing agents don’t directly address the underlying ineffective valve, leaving patients with persistent symptoms; surgery can lead to distressing side effects of bloating and inability to vomit in 20 percent of patients. These side effects occurred rarely with this new device.”

Roughly one in three people in the United States have the chronic condition, the American Gastroenterological Association estimates. It can lead to serious health problems.

Acid reflux stems from a deficient or incompetent sphincter valve located at the bottom of the esophagus and the top of the stomach. The sphincter, a ring of muscle, normally stays constricted when a person is not eating; that prevents acid and other digestive juice from leaving the stomach and entering the esophagus.

If the muscle is too weak or relaxes inappropriately, stomach acid can work its way into the lining of the esophagus causing pain and burning — commonly known as heartburn — and regurgitation. These episodes can happen at any time, and in people of all ages.

Excessive acid can damage the esophagus and lead to a precancerous condition known as Barrett’s esophagus and to esophageal cancer, which is rising rapidly in the US, Dr. Smith says. The epidemic of chronic acid reflux may explain the increase in cancer, he says. Dr. Smith has been offering the device to patients who qualify since March 2012, when the Food and Drug Administration approved it for use. He performs about 200 acid reflux-related surgeries a year.

Installation of the device is minimally invasive and takes one to two hours. After the procedure, patients stay overnight in the hospital.

Patients who may be helped by the device are those whose acid reflux is chronic with symptoms incompletely controlled by acid-suppressing drugs, Dr. Smith says.

Not all patients in the study fared well with the device. Serious adverse events occurred in six patients, and the device was removed in 4 patients without any significant long-term consequences. Dysphagia — difficulty swallowing — occurred in 68 percent of patients following installation of the device, but this side effect tapered off over time.

Third Rock Ventures Launches Jounce Therapeutics

Third Rock Ventures, LLC today announced the formation of Jounce Therapeutics, Inc. with a $47 million Series A financing of the company. Jounce is focused on the discovery and development of first-in-class cancer immunotherapies designed to harness the patient’s immune system to seek out and attack cancerous cells and tumors. This transformational approach, as compared to more traditional approaches of targeting the tumor directly, has the potential to drive durable responses to treatment, extending and improving patients’ quality of life for years.

Jounce was founded by world leaders in the fields of immunobiology, cancer biology and clinical and translational medicine – James P. Allison, PhD, chair, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology, whose research led to the clinical development of ipilimumab; Padmanee (Pam) Sharma, MD, PhD, associate professor, department of genitourinary medical oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center; Thomas F. Gajewski, MD, PhD, professor, departments of pathology and medicine, University of Chicago; Drew Pardoll, MD, PhD, professor and co-director, cancer immunology and hematopoiesis program, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University; and Louis M. Weiner, MD, director, Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, professor and chair, department of oncology, Georgetown University Medical Center. Additionally, Robert Schreiber, PhD, alumni endowed professor of pathology and immunology and professor of molecular microbiology at the Washington University School of Medicine, is serving as a special adviser to the company.

“This is an exciting time as the promise of cancer immunotherapy is beginning to be realized. With key recent advances in cancer immunotherapy, we have gained invaluable insights into how the immune system recognizes tumors and a better understanding of effective cancer immunotherapy discovery and development,” said Dr. Allison. “Jounce has brought together an expert team and powerful capabilities to discover and develop novel treatments that harness the power of the immune system, marking a significant step forward in the way we treat cancer.”

Jounce’s proprietary product engine enables the exploration of multiple mechanisms of action and a broad spectrum of targets. The company’s capabilities and expertise include tumor immunobiology, antibody discovery and optimization and integrated translational science capabilities, including novel in vivo tumor model systems and other clinically-based approaches. Jounce is leveraging these capabilities to build a robust pipeline of first-in-class biologic product candidates. The Series A financing enables the company to build its product engine and rapidly advance its lead programs to the clinic.

“Our goal at Third Rock Ventures is to launch and build companies that dramatically impact and improve patients’ lives. Cancer immunotherapies have shown the potential to not just incrementally enhance patients’ quality of life, but to significantly improve their long-term survival,” said Cary Pfeffer, MD, interim chief executive officer of Jounce and partner at Third Rock Ventures. “Jounce has assembled a world-leading team that is at the forefront of the new understanding of the power and potential of cancer immunotherapies. We are uniquely positioned to rapidly develop our pipeline and, ultimately, deliver on our goal of improving patients’ lives.”

Metagenics Launches FirstLine

Today, Metagenics, Inc., a nutrigenomics and lifestyle medicine company focused on improving health, introduced the FirstLine Therapy Healthy Transformation™ Weight Loss Program, a 12-week nutritional and lifestyle program to help patients improve their lives. This program was modeled after a recent clinical study in which patients lost weight and showed significant improvements in established markers of cardiometabolic health. Designed for easy clinical implementation and monitoring, the program includes simple recommendations for diet, exercise, and nutritional supplementation—along with comprehensive program support materials and resources for both patients and health care providers.

“With rates of obesity and related diseases continuing to climb, it is clear that losing weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is a challenge for many people,” said Samantha K. Eagle, ND, MS, who has implemented the program with her patients at Biologic Integrative Healthcare, LLC in Brattleboro, Vt. “The Healthy Transformation Weight Loss Program is grounded in science. In addition to aiding effective weight loss, it helps improve body composition and overall wellness.”

Professional supervision is a strong motivator for patient success, but implementing a weight loss program in a medical practice can be impractical, time consuming, and costly—and still fail to achieve desired results. The Healthy Transformation Weight Loss Program was created to help solve many common challenges with the following components:

• High protein, phytonutrient-dense food plan designed to support fat loss and retain lean muscle
• Basic exercise recommendations
• Conveniently packaged nutritional support for weight loss and overall health
• Patient tools for monitoring and tracking progress, including online resources and patient guide with food lists, recipes, menus, and daily diaries for food intake and activity
• Practitioner tools for implementing and recommending the program, including patient education brochures, practitioner guide, group session curriculum, and additional online resources

Dr. Eagle adds, “The numerous resources the program offers makes it easier for doctors to recommend and patients to follow. And the suggested combination of alternating weekly visits for individual counseling and group sessions are critical to supporting successful outcomes.”

The Healthy Transformation Weight Loss Program modeled after a 12-week clinical study with 130 subjects (100 completing) conducted at the Functional Medicine Research Center, the clinical research arm of Metagenics, Inc. The group of subjects showed an average weight reduction of 11.2 percent (2.1 pounds per week) and a significant reduction in mean weight loss of 23.9 pounds, with 92 of the 100 subjects achieving their goal of =7.5 percent weight reduction. Participants showed significant improvements in lipid parameters, including fasting serum cholesterol, triglycerides, cholesterol/HDL ratio, triglyceride/HDL ratio, hemoglobin A1c and insulin, as well as a significant reduction in the Homeostasis Model Assessment (HOMA), which estimates steady-state beta-cell function and insulin function. Participants also reported increased energy and vitality, and there were no reported serious adverse effects.

“Science has played a key role in the development of the Healthy Transformation Weight Loss Program, and the results of this clinical research demonstrate the success of our approach,” said Joseph Lamb, MD, Director of Intramural Clinical Research at Metagenics. “We believe this program offers a clear advantage for patients who may have tried other programs and failed to achieve desired results.”

For more information on the FirstLine Therapy Healthy Transformation Weight Loss Program, visit metagenics.com/healthytransformation or call 800-692-9400 (US).

Combination of Key Nutrients Reduces Stress and Emotional Problems

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects approximately two million American children, and this condition has grown to become the most commonly diagnosed behavioral disorder of childhood. The cause of ADHD is generally acknowledged to be multifactorial, involving both biological and environmental influence.

Nutritional deficiencies, including deficiencies in fatty acids (EPA, DHA), the amino acid methionine, and the trace minerals zinc and selenium, have been shown to influence neuronal function and produce defects in neuronal plasticity, as well as impact behavior in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. These nutritional disturbances or variations from reference values have been associated with behavior typical of ADHD.

The investigation was undertaken to determine the reference values of specific biochemical markers that have been associated with behavior typical of ADHD in a group of patients before and after metabolic correction.

The study was based on data extracted from the Riordan Clinic's patient history database covering a period of over ten years. Researchers performed laboratory tests in 116 patients 2.7-25 years old with a diagnosis of ADHD, and compared the distributions of fatty acids, essential metals, and the levels of metabolic stress factors with established reference ranges before and after interventions. In addition, the association between toxic metal concentrations and the levels of essential metals in these patients was analyzed.

Treatment of ADHD patients was performed according to principles of integrative management of this condition, and patients were treated by essential fatty acids, amino acids, minerals, probiotics and vitamins.

"According to our data, the metabolic correction of ADHD by supplementation can ameliorate ADHD symptoms. Eighty percent (80 percent) of children who were treated from several weeks to one to two years, demonstrated improvement of metabolic stress level, measured by pyrrole test. For these patients, the levels of EPA were increased and the omega-6/omega-3 ratio was improved," states Dr. Nina Mikirova, Director of Research at the Riordan Clinic.

Putting all data together, it was demonstrated that after consumption of a combination of fatty acids as well as magnesium and zinc, amino acids, vitamins and probiotics, most subjects had a considerable reduction in markers of metabolic stress and reported less emotional problems.

Further studies need to be conducted with integrative metabolic correction therapy to determine its value in the management of ADHD.

Dr. Lise Alschuler to Tour United States

Integrative Therapeutics is pleased to announce the addition of Lise Alschuler, ND to their Medical Advisory Board and is sponsoring her on a nationwide seminar tour: Uprooting Anxiety: Removing an Obstacle to Sustainable Wellness. This practitioner-exclusive dinner seminar series includes a nine-city tour starting on March 5th in Scottsdale, AZ.

At least one out of every five Americans struggles with anxiety. Left unaddressed, it can impact future health conditions, thwart self-healing mechanisms and accelerate aging.

Join Dr. Lise Alschuler as she explains the effects anxiety can have on even the most well-constructed therapeutic plans. Dr. Alschuler will review the physiology of anxiety and its counterpart, resilience. She will share some of the best-studied and clinically useful biological therapies, strategies on transitioning patients to natural therapies, methods to optimize circadian health and strategies to address the physiological sequelae. "If left unheeded, anxiety will rattle loose the core health of our patients," said Dr. Alschuler. "Providing effective anxiety relief to our patients unleashes the potential of all of our therapies and restores vitality and wellness to the lives of our patients."

"We're very excited to have Dr. Alschuler, a renowned expert in naturopathic medicine, present on one of the most important health topics in today's culture," said Mandy Kraynik, Vice President, Integrative Therapeutics. "Anxiety affects nearly everyone; however it is difficult to identify as an underlying cause as well as to know what strategy to take to appropriately address it. Dr. Alschuler's presentation is both insightful and timely."

Visit DrLise.Integrativeinc.com to view the tour schedule. Naturopathic, Pharmacy and Chiropractic Continuing Education Credits applied for. Seating is limited and registration is required. For interested individuals who can't make any of the scheduled dates, a free live webinar will be offered on July 25th.