Cinnamon - more info
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Swarfmaker
Sep 17, 2010, 1:50:42 PM9/17/10
to Tauopathies
As I understand it, cassia cinnamon (a.k.a. Chinese cinnamon) does
contain a "mild toxin", which is an anticoagulant. It makes a good rat
poison, but for humans, low doses aren't a problem.
A few years ago, people with type II diabetes discovered that cinnamon
could help control blood sugar levels. In fact, if you buy a bottle of
cinnamon capsules, you will likely find a mention of this on the
label. The "toxins" present in ground cassia cinnamon are lipid
soluble. That is, they dissolve in oils. The components of the
cinnamon that helped with sugar metabolism are water-soluble. So, you
will find posts from a few years ago on diabetes discussion forums
mentioning that people were making a "cinnamon tea" so that they could
get more of what they needed from the cinnamon while avoiding the
"toxins".
Also, around that time, research into the idea that AD was a "type III
diabetes" was published, and the research into medium-chain
triglycerides (MCT) was underway. Some people have mentioned in recent
posts that they have known about using cinnamon to combat
neurodegenerative diseases, and also coconut oil, for several years
now. They have made mention of reading research papers "out of
Europe". In my searches of the Internet and discussion group forum
archives, the first reference for using these things to combat AD or
any other neurodegenerative disease was in late 2007 or later, so I
don't know what research papers these people were referring to.
I suspect that Dr. Graves and his colleagues such as Dr. Anderson of
the US Department of Agriculture decided to look into whether
cinnamon, which is known to help people with type II diabetes would
also help people with Alzheimer's disease, which, as I said, has been
described as a "type III diabetes". There is mention in one news
article from April of 2006 that they were going to be looking into the
biochemical effects of cinnamon on AD. Perhaps just as the discoverer
of Rember did with methylene blue, Graves, Anderson and company
accidentally found that there was a component of cinnamon that
directly attacked the corrupted tau protein problem.
I have tried taking cinnamon capsules (purchased at Walmart) for a
couple of months. Typically I took 2 500mg capsules at night. I didn't
notice any adverse effect. I tried 2 capsules 3x per day last summer
for a couple of weeks. I didn't notice any ill effects then either.
But then, I'm not on any other anticoagulant.
This is an interesting article. If you haven't read the whole thing, I
recommend you do.
"Cinnamon, Cloves Improve Insulin Function, Lower Risk Factors For
Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease"
Medical News Today April 9, 2006
[excerpt] "Earlier studies in the laboratory of one of the co-authors
of all these papers, Dr. Richard A. Anderson, Beltsville Human
Nutrition Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture,
had shown that the equivalent of a quarter to half a teaspoon of
cinnamon given to humans twice a day decreased risk factors for
diabetes and cardiovascular disease, including glucose, cholesterol
and triglycerides, by 10 to 30 percent. These new studies showing
cinnamon's ability to block inflammation extend our understanding of
the potential for the spice, says Dr. Anderson. As an anti-
inflammatory agent, cinnamon may be useful in preventing or mitigating
arthritis as well as cardiovascular disease. And as scientists
increasingly understand the relationship between inflammation and
insulin function in Alzheimer's (causing some to refer to the
neurodegenerative disease as "type 3 diabetes"), cinnamon's ability to
block inflammation and enhance insulin function may make it useful in
combating that disease as well."
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/41026.php
The work Dr. Graves did investigated a "water-soluble component" of
common cinnamon. Here is the 2008 "innovation" from the UCSB
Ibridgenetwork:
"Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara have
discovered an extract of common cinnamon that contains a class of
small organic molecules that inhibit several key processes in
Alzheimer’s disease. The cinnamon extract inhibits the aggregation
of tau and disassembles fibers that have already formed, suggesting
that neurofibrillary tangles can possibly be reversed by these
compounds. The extract exhibits potent inhibitory activity, is orally
available, water-soluble, non-toxic, and the bioactive molecules are
likely brain permeable. The extract is readily produced in large
quantities and can be encapsulated in powder form for oral
administration. These properties make the cinnamon extract a highly
favorable substance for development into an effective therapeutic to
slow or prevent Alzheimer’s disease."
http://www.ibridgenetwork.org/innovations/download_tech_brief/3417
I find it interesting that the following comes from the University of
California, Santa Barbara... where Dr. Donald Graves was working when
the discovery of the "water soluble component of common cinnamon" that
"disassembles [tau] fibers already formed" was announced.
Headway In Understanding Alzheimer's Disease
ScienceDaily (Feb. 6, 2009)
"Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have discovered that a protein called
BAG2 is important for understanding Alzheimer's disease and may open
up new targets for drug discovery. They are ready to move from
studying these proteins in culture to finding out how they work with
mice. In a recently paper published in the Journal of Neuroscience,
the scientists describe important activities of BAG2 in cleaning up
brain cells. The protein tau is normally found in brain cells, but
scientists don't know why it clumps into tangles in people with
Alzheimer's disease..."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090205133823.htm
For those who doubted...
Title: PROANTHOCYANIDINS FROM CINNAMON AND ITS WATER SOLUBLE EXTRACT
INHIBIT TAU AGGREGATION
Abstract: Compositions comprising proanthocyanidin compositions (e.g.
those extracted from cinnamomum species) that are observed to bind tau
and inhibit its aggregation as well as methods for making and using
such compositions are disclosed. In certain embodiments of the
invention, the proanthocyanidins can be used as a probe to identify
and/or characterize tau isoforms in a variety of contexts. In other
embodiments of the invention, these compositions are used in methods
designed to treat neurological disorders associated with tau
aggregation (e.g. Alzheimer's disease).
http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?WO=2008121412
Pub. No.: WO/2008/121412 International Application No.:
PCT/US2008/004236
Publication Date: 09.10.2008 International Filing Date: 31.03.2008
IPC: A61K 36/54 (2006.01)
Applicants: THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA [US/US]; 1111
Franklin Street, 12th Floor, Oakland, CA 94607 (US) (All Except US).
LEW, John [CA/US]; (US) (US Only).
GRAVES, Donald, J. [US/US]; (US) (US Only).
Inventors: LEW, John; (US).
GRAVES, Donald, J.; (US).
On another Yahoo Group I belong to, there was a discussion about
cinnamon. (You will have to thank them for the free advertising!) I
have a diabetic friend who swears by cinnamon, saying it helps her
keep her blood glucose level down. So when they said that using
cinnamon for CBGD was a hoax, I had to look into it myself. I see that
you already know all about it. I found this article on PubMed
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19433898?dopt=Abstract
J Alzheimers Dis. 2009 May 11. [Epub ahead of print]
Cinnamon Extract Inhibits Tau Aggregation Associated with Alzheimer's
Disease In Vitro.
Peterson DW, George RC, Scaramozzino F, Lapointe NE, Anderson RA,
Graves DJ, Lew
J.
Thanks for the update on the research!
I'll bet that other Yahoo group was the CBGDsupport group. I saw it.
The resistance to any new idea which might help those poor people is
just breathtaking. I don't think it is all the members, just a few.
And one woman in particular. She is keeping them in the dark. It's
fine to be skeptical, but to not even let people know that there are
alternatives to try, that to me is cruel and selfish. It's a riddle.
Don't be at all surprised if the "moderator" deletes your account.
This question seems to keep coming up. Just how much coumarin is in
cassia cinnamon?
According to the German government, from "between approximately 2100
and approximately 4400 mg/kg cinnamon powder". I've found several
references on various web sites stating that cassia has a 5% courmarin
content. I think these folks must be mathematically challenged. There
are 1000 grams in a kilogram. There are 1000 milligrams in a gram.
So, if there are 4400 mg per kg, that is 4400mg per 1000x1000mg or
4400/1,000,000 or 0.44%. Maximum. So, if you take 1 gram of cassia
cinnamon, you get 4.4mg of coumarin. The recommended Tolerable Daily
Intake (TDI) established by the European Food Safety Authority is 0.1
milligram per kilogram (kg) of body weight. [What do they base this
recommendation on?] There are 2.2 pounds per kilogram. So, a 120 lb
woman would weight about 55 kg. She would have to eat 1250mg of cassia
cinnamon. If this is a problem, use the "aqueous extract".
The following is from a German government publication, "High daily
intakes of cinnamon: Health risk cannot be ruled out" BfR Health
Assessment No. 044/2006, 18 August 2006:
When it comes to individual ingredients the coumarin concentration in
cassia cinnamon is particularly problematic. The values measured in
cinnamon capsules (CVUA Stuttgart) confirm the high coumarin levels in
cassia cinnamon (between approximately 2100 and approximately 4400 mg/
kg cinnamon powder) as had also been previously measured by CVUA
(Münster, BfR 2006). By contrast, coumarin can only be found in traces
or below the measurement limit in Ceylon cinnamon.
Depending on the dose recommendation the taking of capsules with
cinnamon powder can lead to an exceeding of the tolerable daily intake
of 0.1 milligram coumarin per kilogram body weight that can be
ingested daily over a lifetime without posing a risk to health
(Tolerable Daily Intake, TDI) established by the European Food Safety
Authority (EFSA).
The consumption of capsules containing cassia cinnamon powder is also
likely to lead to an exceeding of the above-mentioned TDI for
coumarin. Solely regarding this coumarin exposure, there are
theoretically two steps which could be taken to reduce it:
¤ the replacement of cassia cinnamon by Ceylon cinnamon (so far we do
not know whether it has a similar effect on the blood sugar level of
diabetics to that of cassia cinnamon; the recommendation of
replacement is subject to the assumption that the effects of cassia
cinnamon are confirmed by reliable studies),
¤ the use of aqueous extracts of cassia cinnamon which, according to
the CVUA analyses in Stuttgart, leads to far lower coumarin exposure
(exhaustion of the TDI only in the single-digit percentage range).
These extracts probably also have a far lower proportion of essential
oils (in particular cinnamaldehyde).
http://www.bfr.bund.de/cm/245/high_daily_intakes_of_cinnamon_health_risk_cannot_be_ruled_out.pdf
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology,
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
An aqueous extract of Ceylon cinnamon (C. zeylanicum) is found to
inhibit tau aggregation and filament formation, hallmarks of
Alzheimer's disease (AD). The extract can also promote complete
disassembly of recombinant tau filaments and cause substantial
alteration of the morphology of paired-helical filaments isolated from
AD brain. Cinnamon extract was not deleterious to the normal cellular
function of tau, namely the assembly of free tubulin into
microtubules. An A-linked proanthocyanidin trimer molecule was
purified from the extract and shown to contain a significant
proportion of the inhibitory activity. Treatment with
polyvinylpyrolidone effectively depleted all proanthocyanidins from
the extract solution and removed the majority, but not all, of the
inhibitory activity. The remainder inhibitory activity could be
attributed to cinnamaldehyde. This work shows that compounds
endogenous to cinnamon may be beneficial to AD themselves or may guide
the discovery of other potential therapeutics if their mechanisms of
action can be discerned.
PMID: 19433898 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
How can this be a hoax? Is the University of California in on the
hoax?
contain a "mild toxin", which is an anticoagulant. It makes a good rat
poison, but for humans, low doses aren't a problem.
A few years ago, people with type II diabetes discovered that cinnamon
could help control blood sugar levels. In fact, if you buy a bottle of
cinnamon capsules, you will likely find a mention of this on the
label. The "toxins" present in ground cassia cinnamon are lipid
soluble. That is, they dissolve in oils. The components of the
cinnamon that helped with sugar metabolism are water-soluble. So, you
will find posts from a few years ago on diabetes discussion forums
mentioning that people were making a "cinnamon tea" so that they could
get more of what they needed from the cinnamon while avoiding the
"toxins".
Also, around that time, research into the idea that AD was a "type III
diabetes" was published, and the research into medium-chain
triglycerides (MCT) was underway. Some people have mentioned in recent
posts that they have known about using cinnamon to combat
neurodegenerative diseases, and also coconut oil, for several years
now. They have made mention of reading research papers "out of
Europe". In my searches of the Internet and discussion group forum
archives, the first reference for using these things to combat AD or
any other neurodegenerative disease was in late 2007 or later, so I
don't know what research papers these people were referring to.
I suspect that Dr. Graves and his colleagues such as Dr. Anderson of
the US Department of Agriculture decided to look into whether
cinnamon, which is known to help people with type II diabetes would
also help people with Alzheimer's disease, which, as I said, has been
described as a "type III diabetes". There is mention in one news
article from April of 2006 that they were going to be looking into the
biochemical effects of cinnamon on AD. Perhaps just as the discoverer
of Rember did with methylene blue, Graves, Anderson and company
accidentally found that there was a component of cinnamon that
directly attacked the corrupted tau protein problem.
I have tried taking cinnamon capsules (purchased at Walmart) for a
couple of months. Typically I took 2 500mg capsules at night. I didn't
notice any adverse effect. I tried 2 capsules 3x per day last summer
for a couple of weeks. I didn't notice any ill effects then either.
But then, I'm not on any other anticoagulant.
This is an interesting article. If you haven't read the whole thing, I
recommend you do.
"Cinnamon, Cloves Improve Insulin Function, Lower Risk Factors For
Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease"
Medical News Today April 9, 2006
[excerpt] "Earlier studies in the laboratory of one of the co-authors
of all these papers, Dr. Richard A. Anderson, Beltsville Human
Nutrition Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture,
had shown that the equivalent of a quarter to half a teaspoon of
cinnamon given to humans twice a day decreased risk factors for
diabetes and cardiovascular disease, including glucose, cholesterol
and triglycerides, by 10 to 30 percent. These new studies showing
cinnamon's ability to block inflammation extend our understanding of
the potential for the spice, says Dr. Anderson. As an anti-
inflammatory agent, cinnamon may be useful in preventing or mitigating
arthritis as well as cardiovascular disease. And as scientists
increasingly understand the relationship between inflammation and
insulin function in Alzheimer's (causing some to refer to the
neurodegenerative disease as "type 3 diabetes"), cinnamon's ability to
block inflammation and enhance insulin function may make it useful in
combating that disease as well."
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/41026.php
The work Dr. Graves did investigated a "water-soluble component" of
common cinnamon. Here is the 2008 "innovation" from the UCSB
Ibridgenetwork:
"Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara have
discovered an extract of common cinnamon that contains a class of
small organic molecules that inhibit several key processes in
Alzheimer’s disease. The cinnamon extract inhibits the aggregation
of tau and disassembles fibers that have already formed, suggesting
that neurofibrillary tangles can possibly be reversed by these
compounds. The extract exhibits potent inhibitory activity, is orally
available, water-soluble, non-toxic, and the bioactive molecules are
likely brain permeable. The extract is readily produced in large
quantities and can be encapsulated in powder form for oral
administration. These properties make the cinnamon extract a highly
favorable substance for development into an effective therapeutic to
slow or prevent Alzheimer’s disease."
http://www.ibridgenetwork.org/innovations/download_tech_brief/3417
I find it interesting that the following comes from the University of
California, Santa Barbara... where Dr. Donald Graves was working when
the discovery of the "water soluble component of common cinnamon" that
"disassembles [tau] fibers already formed" was announced.
Headway In Understanding Alzheimer's Disease
ScienceDaily (Feb. 6, 2009)
"Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have discovered that a protein called
BAG2 is important for understanding Alzheimer's disease and may open
up new targets for drug discovery. They are ready to move from
studying these proteins in culture to finding out how they work with
mice. In a recently paper published in the Journal of Neuroscience,
the scientists describe important activities of BAG2 in cleaning up
brain cells. The protein tau is normally found in brain cells, but
scientists don't know why it clumps into tangles in people with
Alzheimer's disease..."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090205133823.htm
For those who doubted...
Title: PROANTHOCYANIDINS FROM CINNAMON AND ITS WATER SOLUBLE EXTRACT
INHIBIT TAU AGGREGATION
Abstract: Compositions comprising proanthocyanidin compositions (e.g.
those extracted from cinnamomum species) that are observed to bind tau
and inhibit its aggregation as well as methods for making and using
such compositions are disclosed. In certain embodiments of the
invention, the proanthocyanidins can be used as a probe to identify
and/or characterize tau isoforms in a variety of contexts. In other
embodiments of the invention, these compositions are used in methods
designed to treat neurological disorders associated with tau
aggregation (e.g. Alzheimer's disease).
http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?WO=2008121412
Pub. No.: WO/2008/121412 International Application No.:
PCT/US2008/004236
Publication Date: 09.10.2008 International Filing Date: 31.03.2008
IPC: A61K 36/54 (2006.01)
Applicants: THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA [US/US]; 1111
Franklin Street, 12th Floor, Oakland, CA 94607 (US) (All Except US).
LEW, John [CA/US]; (US) (US Only).
GRAVES, Donald, J. [US/US]; (US) (US Only).
Inventors: LEW, John; (US).
GRAVES, Donald, J.; (US).
On another Yahoo Group I belong to, there was a discussion about
cinnamon. (You will have to thank them for the free advertising!) I
have a diabetic friend who swears by cinnamon, saying it helps her
keep her blood glucose level down. So when they said that using
cinnamon for CBGD was a hoax, I had to look into it myself. I see that
you already know all about it. I found this article on PubMed
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19433898?dopt=Abstract
J Alzheimers Dis. 2009 May 11. [Epub ahead of print]
Cinnamon Extract Inhibits Tau Aggregation Associated with Alzheimer's
Disease In Vitro.
Peterson DW, George RC, Scaramozzino F, Lapointe NE, Anderson RA,
Graves DJ, Lew
J.
Thanks for the update on the research!
I'll bet that other Yahoo group was the CBGDsupport group. I saw it.
The resistance to any new idea which might help those poor people is
just breathtaking. I don't think it is all the members, just a few.
And one woman in particular. She is keeping them in the dark. It's
fine to be skeptical, but to not even let people know that there are
alternatives to try, that to me is cruel and selfish. It's a riddle.
Don't be at all surprised if the "moderator" deletes your account.
This question seems to keep coming up. Just how much coumarin is in
cassia cinnamon?
According to the German government, from "between approximately 2100
and approximately 4400 mg/kg cinnamon powder". I've found several
references on various web sites stating that cassia has a 5% courmarin
content. I think these folks must be mathematically challenged. There
are 1000 grams in a kilogram. There are 1000 milligrams in a gram.
So, if there are 4400 mg per kg, that is 4400mg per 1000x1000mg or
4400/1,000,000 or 0.44%. Maximum. So, if you take 1 gram of cassia
cinnamon, you get 4.4mg of coumarin. The recommended Tolerable Daily
Intake (TDI) established by the European Food Safety Authority is 0.1
milligram per kilogram (kg) of body weight. [What do they base this
recommendation on?] There are 2.2 pounds per kilogram. So, a 120 lb
woman would weight about 55 kg. She would have to eat 1250mg of cassia
cinnamon. If this is a problem, use the "aqueous extract".
The following is from a German government publication, "High daily
intakes of cinnamon: Health risk cannot be ruled out" BfR Health
Assessment No. 044/2006, 18 August 2006:
When it comes to individual ingredients the coumarin concentration in
cassia cinnamon is particularly problematic. The values measured in
cinnamon capsules (CVUA Stuttgart) confirm the high coumarin levels in
cassia cinnamon (between approximately 2100 and approximately 4400 mg/
kg cinnamon powder) as had also been previously measured by CVUA
(Münster, BfR 2006). By contrast, coumarin can only be found in traces
or below the measurement limit in Ceylon cinnamon.
Depending on the dose recommendation the taking of capsules with
cinnamon powder can lead to an exceeding of the tolerable daily intake
of 0.1 milligram coumarin per kilogram body weight that can be
ingested daily over a lifetime without posing a risk to health
(Tolerable Daily Intake, TDI) established by the European Food Safety
Authority (EFSA).
The consumption of capsules containing cassia cinnamon powder is also
likely to lead to an exceeding of the above-mentioned TDI for
coumarin. Solely regarding this coumarin exposure, there are
theoretically two steps which could be taken to reduce it:
¤ the replacement of cassia cinnamon by Ceylon cinnamon (so far we do
not know whether it has a similar effect on the blood sugar level of
diabetics to that of cassia cinnamon; the recommendation of
replacement is subject to the assumption that the effects of cassia
cinnamon are confirmed by reliable studies),
¤ the use of aqueous extracts of cassia cinnamon which, according to
the CVUA analyses in Stuttgart, leads to far lower coumarin exposure
(exhaustion of the TDI only in the single-digit percentage range).
These extracts probably also have a far lower proportion of essential
oils (in particular cinnamaldehyde).
http://www.bfr.bund.de/cm/245/high_daily_intakes_of_cinnamon_health_risk_cannot_be_ruled_out.pdf
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology,
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
An aqueous extract of Ceylon cinnamon (C. zeylanicum) is found to
inhibit tau aggregation and filament formation, hallmarks of
Alzheimer's disease (AD). The extract can also promote complete
disassembly of recombinant tau filaments and cause substantial
alteration of the morphology of paired-helical filaments isolated from
AD brain. Cinnamon extract was not deleterious to the normal cellular
function of tau, namely the assembly of free tubulin into
microtubules. An A-linked proanthocyanidin trimer molecule was
purified from the extract and shown to contain a significant
proportion of the inhibitory activity. Treatment with
polyvinylpyrolidone effectively depleted all proanthocyanidins from
the extract solution and removed the majority, but not all, of the
inhibitory activity. The remainder inhibitory activity could be
attributed to cinnamaldehyde. This work shows that compounds
endogenous to cinnamon may be beneficial to AD themselves or may guide
the discovery of other potential therapeutics if their mechanisms of
action can be discerned.
PMID: 19433898 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
How can this be a hoax? Is the University of California in on the
hoax?
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