Monday, March 29, 2010

phosphatidylserine, cortisol and dopamine

More kewl stuff on PS!

This morning I ggogled:

Phosphatidylserine dopamine site:*.gov

You might try googling:

Phosphatidylserine dopamine site:*.edu

Using the "site:*.edu" returns only educational sites and the site:*.gov returns only government sites.

You can even use Phosphatidylserine dopamine site:*.nih.gov which is the National Institutes of Health.

There is some interesting information coming out on how dopamine, food, exercise and PS interact. The papers make really dry reading, but, it looks like PS has an effect on the way dopamine is handled by the body as well as effecting things like cortisol.

We know PS effects Cortisol levels, in one paper (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503954/) the researcher discovered that "Mean peak cortisol concentrations and area under the curve (AUC) were lower following PS (39 ± 1% and 35 ± 0%, respectively) when compared to placebo (p < 0.05). PS increased AUC for testosterone to cortisol ratio (184 ± 5%) when compared to placebo (p < 0.05). PS and placebo supplementation had no effect on lactate or growth hormone levels."

In another paper ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2170852 ) the researcher found, "The activity of brain cortex-derived phosphatidylserine (BC-PS) on the neuroendocrine and neurovegetative responses to physical stress was tested in 8 healthy men who underwent three experiments with a bicycle ergometer. According to a double-blind design, before starting the exercise, each subject received intravenously, within 10 min, 50 or 75 mg of BC-PS or a volume-matched placebo diluted in 100 ml of saline. Blood samples were collected before and after the exercise for plasma epinephrine (E), norepinephrine (NE), dopamine (DA), adrenocorticotropin (ACTH), cortisol, growth hormone (GH), prolactin (PRL) and glucose determinations. Blood pressure and heart rate were also recorded. Physical stress induced a clear-cut increase in plasma E, NE, ACTH, cortisol, GH and PRL, whereas no significant change was observed in plasma DA and glucose. Pretreatment with both 50 and 75 mg BC-PS significantly blunted the ACTH and cortisol responses to physical stress."

It appears that exercise developed dopamine levels were not affected by PS. If we review another study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17507552) we find "Our findings suggest that the benefits of treadmill exercise on motor performance may be accompanied by changes in dopaminergic neurotransmission that are different in the injured (MPTP-lesioned) compared with the noninjured (saline) nigrostriatal system."

So, essentially, when our nervous systems become "injured" dopamine is less likely to be produced by exercise (and probably by eating) which causes people to eat more to gain the same satisfaction levels. It appears that in addition to influencing cortisol levels PS may also help repair damage done to nervous systems which cause the reduced dopamine levels and increased desire for food.

Here is the crux of it all.

There are going to be people (like me) who suffer from mildly high cortisol levels and may have immediate effects from taking PS. Losing 30 pounds in a couple of weeks for example.

There are going to be other people who are over eating because of damaged nervous systems and reduced dopamine output, these people may benefit over time from taking PS.

There is still nothing definite, my suggestion is:

If you are over eating try PS for a year and see if it reduces your desire for food.

If you can't lose weight and you are not over eating, try PS and see if your weight drops immediately.

I plan on ordering from:
http://www.herbs-wholesale.com/PhosphatidylSerine-23926.html

But look around constantly for new sources, and watch out for what comes in PS bottles, you want to be careful of overdosing or interactions that can be caused by taking a PS "complex" or "Matrix". Try and find just PS.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

John Ayer's "rules" for wine and life in general because they really are the same thing.

1: learn as much about wine as you want to know, no less and no more.

2: A wine glass is anything clean and handy, including the bottle.

3: Wine tastings are good places to meet people and lousy places to enjoy wine.

4: Wine can enhance and/or ruin the taste of food. Food can enhance or destroy the taste of wine. Decide if you like the combination, AND, do not decide you hate either the food or wine based on the combination. Taste them each by themselves at a time when neither can influence the other before you make a decision.

5: Advice is useful and usually reasonable it does not hurt you to try different things, even if they taste bad or you dislike them. People have different tastes and something that others enjoy you may dislike, somethings that others dislike you may enjoy. The only way you know is to try different things. You may surprise yourself.

6: Ignore anyone who tries to humiliate or ridicule your decisions or your opinion about wine. Only a base, ignorant piece of crap (or someone going through a really bad time) will ridicule you or try to humiliate you.

7: Don't waste your time regretting things you have tried and decided were not good, no matter how much they cost you or the people around you. Life is a learning experience. Dumb people refuse to learn from their mistakes, smart people make mistakes and learn from them and don't repeat them, brilliant people learn from the mistakes of others BUT people are different and sometimes we have to try things for ourselves no matter how smart we are.

8: Only robots always obey the “rules”, including these.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Crushing Competition is the worst thing you can do in business.

The anthropological concept of evolution is that competition between organisms for available resources causes the stronger to survive. Stability is always opposed by competition. When a business achieves stability it will begin to stagnate. If a business crushes the competition it will become stable, stagnate and eventually die. For continuous growth businesses must encourage competition, even when that competition will slow growth or when that competition causes growth that exceeds comfort levels.

Monday, March 08, 2010

Gay Politicians, propaganda and bigotry

I'm not Gay and I don't believe in homosexuality as a life style. I think there must be something wrong with someone who decides, in opposition to cultural bias, to exclude a particular sex from their lives. Personally I think it is a form of bigotry. I also think it is a typically harmless bigotry.

How often am I going to be discriminated against because I do not belong to a sex that someone else wants to have sex with?

The gay people I know don't discriminate against heterosexuals as far as I know, they just choose to have sex with a particular type of person. They are kind of like the guy who only dates women with big boobs, or the woman who only dates guys who are taller than she is.

Now if someone is gay and discriminates against heterosexuals that would have nothing to do with being gay, that has to do with being an asshole. I don’t discriminate against gay people any more than I discriminate against guys who only date women with big boobs.

So why would I care if Roy Ashburn is gay or if he supports gay legislation? Why would I care if Eric Massa walked in on a guy at an in-opportune moment?

Gay politicians double the opportunity for changes of sexual harassment against them. Every scum bag and his kid brother wants control over someone else and using sexual or racist accusations it becomes easy. Plus there are a lot of jerks who hate gay people. Why would I expect anyone to advertise it? I personally don’t care if someone is gay, if they admit it or not.

We need to quit reading or listening to every accusation against someone in the public eye, especially the sex related issues.

A politician is accused of homosexuality because they put a suitcase in front of the door of their stall in the airport bathroom and I am supposed to vote or not vote for them based on that?

So what if there is a homosexual who does not support gay marriage? That does not make him a hypocrite unless he promises to vote for gay marriage and then votes against it, even then it may be a particular bill with particular revisions and not the primary purpose of the bill that the congressperson votes against.

I hate propagandists. I hate people who take advantage of a person’s sexuality to attack them on some moral ground. Morons who write crap expecting me to judge a person’s political viewpoint based on who they have sex with offend me and I believe they should offend everyone else.

Oh, and movies like “Bruno” really suck. They do for the Gay community what Al Jolson and Black Face comedy did for the African American community. I believe those kinds of movies should offend everyone too.