
Cinnamon can reverse changes in the brains of mice with Parkinsons - rodedwards
http://www.rush.edu/webapps/MEDREL/servlet/NewsRelease?id=1768
======
lvs
Because it's clear there isn't a lot of expertise in this thread, I'd like to
make clear that nobody should be doing the cinnamon challenge based on these
results, or the results of the authors' previous study on the topic. So far,
the authors have some interesting data from cell lines and now a mouse model
of PD. Specifically, the mouse model is generated by chemical intoxication
with a molecule called MPTP, which results in damage to dopaminergic cells in
the substantia nigra, the region of the brain whose degeneration is
predominantly implicated in the etiology of PD. There is good reason to be
skeptical about whether this animal model of the disease is clinically
relevant to sporadic PD seen in patients. Furthermore, dramatic results seen
in a very obscure journal (i.e. not a mainline journal for neurodegenerative
research) should generally result in knee-jerk skepticism until others repeat
the work and a more significant review process has taken place. It should go
without saying that there have been many compounds in the past two decades to
show some interesting results at a preclinical stage that have not passed
muster when moving to real patients.

~~~
autokad
i dont care what you say, i see this as a green light to eat more cinnabuns.

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fragsworth
It's sort of gimmicky to say that Cinnamon does this, because it's known to be
sodium benzoate that causes this effect.

In 2012 they discovered that sodium benzoate has an effect on Parkinson's
disease proteins:
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21701815](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21701815).

This new study is, at least, a confirmation of the older study, and is also an
attempt to use it to treat the disease.

~~~
nate
Interesting. I didn't realize cinnamon metabolized to sodium benzoate. I've
actually been trying to avoid sodium benzoate, especially in soft drinks
because of worry what that preservative could possibly be doing to us
(especially in the presence of vitamin c)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_benzoate](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_benzoate)
But I've been purposefully eating a bunch of Cinnamon.

It's hard to reconcile sometimes what might be good for me or if it's killing
me - Nicotine may have helped a young girl with epilepsy.
[http://www.clickorlando.com/news/central-florida-doctor-
find...](http://www.clickorlando.com/news/central-florida-doctor-finds-
uncommon-remedy-for-epilepsy/26761650)

~~~
hvs
Nicotine is sort of a mixed bag, but it isn't really the bad part of tobacco
products. Cigarettes are generally bad for you because of all of the other
things in them _besides_ nicotine. The bad part of nicotine is that it is so
highly addictive, but it's health benefits for things like ulcerative colitis
and other afflictions are becoming better studied.

~~~
matznerd
The ingredients in cigarettes are what actually make nicotine
addictive...alone, it can actually be beneficial to the brain

~~~
BugBrother
>> The ingredients in cigarettes are what actually make nicotine addictive

Uh, that sounds wrong.

"Snus" users get addicted. That _is_ tobacco, even if it isn't burned. But
afaik, users of e-cigarettes also get dependent -- that isn't tobacco.

~~~
ethagnawl
> But as laboratory scientists know, getting mice or other ani­mals hooked on
> nicotine all by its lonesome is dauntingly difficult. As a 2007 paper in the
> journal Neuropharmacology put it, “Tobacco use has one of the highest rates
> of addiction of any abused drug. Paradoxically, in animal models, nicotine
> appears to be a weak rein­forcer.”

[http://www.salon.com/2013/12/29/sciences_obsession_the_searc...](http://www.salon.com/2013/12/29/sciences_obsession_the_search_for_a_smart_pill/)

------
dnautics
For US HN'ers, "cinnamon" that is commonly used as a flavorant in the US is
Cassia; Ceylon cinnamon has a milder taste that is slightly different and may
be a little bit unusual for American tongues.

~~~
driverdan
If you want the really good stuff try Vietnamese cinnamon (also known as
Saigon). It has the highest essential oil content and is very aromatic.

------
realrocker
Naive comment: Indian food is loaded with cinnamon. Especially sweets. So why
is India host to second largest population of Parkinsons afflicted[1]? Or
maybe people are not served cinnamon rich food as they grow older because they
are also rich in fat and sugar? I guess orthogonal studies like these don't
have much value. There are obviously several other factors at work here.

1\. [http://www.epda.eu.com/en/parkinsons/life-with-
parkinsons/pa...](http://www.epda.eu.com/en/parkinsons/life-with-
parkinsons/part-3/the-number-of-people-with-parkinsons-in-the-most-populous-
nations-2005-through-2030/)

Edit: Explicit naivety Edit 2: Hold on. Just glossed over the fact that we
also have the second largest population on earth. In that case, there might be
a correlation after all.

~~~
SoftwareMaven
The real question is why is the US so high? Our rates are almost as high as
India's, with 1/3 the population. I have a feeling it is likely diet related,
and possibly due to either the "low fat" craze not providing building blocks
in the brain or the industrial fats (in particular trans fats but maybe the
massive quantities of n-6 fats) causing structures to be built incorrectly or
causing excess inflammation.

So, that's my hypothesis based on having done a lot of nutrition research but
no Parkinson's research. Does anybody have any real info about why the US
rates are so high?

------
alexholehouse
Original article
[http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11481-014-9552-2](http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11481-014-9552-2)
(paywalled)

~~~
Scitr
[http://scitr.com/a14](http://scitr.com/a14)

------
f4stjack
Dammit, I first understood this as the Desktop Manager and awkwardly asked
"How can a software change the... oh!"

Need to take a vacation it seems XD

------
AnonymousGriper
To get a better perspective here, I wish there was discussion around ... I
dunno ... the full text of the actual study discussing dosage levels, etc.
Also some knowledge of gram-per-gram conversion of cinnamon to sodium benzoate
through its hepatic metabolism might be informative. But, sigh, let's just
rant and call each other names.

------
jzymbaluk
My mom was kind of a health nut when we were a kid, she was getting organic
food way before it was in vogue to do so, and I remember when she got us
Cinnamon capsules to take in the morning with our other vitamins. I always
thought it was silly to take a caplet full of cinammon, but I guess maybe
there was something to it

~~~
Someone1234
Are you seriously suggesting that people should go buy a bunch of junk from
the organic food shops just in case one of them turns out to be good for you
in the future?

Adversely, what happens if one of them turns out to be a carcinogen or
otherwise something that adversely affects health?

Your mom isn't wise, she just threw enough unproven stuff down her kid's
throats so that it was inevitable that one of them one day might prove useful.
I wonder how many damaging things (or potentially damaging) you also consumed?

~~~
matznerd
This is a really offensive comment... Plants create compounds to battle pests
and radiation from the sun. A lot of these compounds such as anthocyanins and
phenols are extremely beneficial to healthy humans. Definitive science is
actually still catching up.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthocyanin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthocyanin)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenol](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenol)

~~~
DiabloD3
What he said isn't offensive at all. The mothers that make their kids eat all
sorts of unproven remedies, trying to stay ahead of proven science, are just
as bad as the ones that refuse injections, trying to stay behind proven
science.

Down vote me all you want, but there is a reason why science exists and has
rigorous testing methodologies.

------
caycep
Once they figure out the dosing, etc, it'd be amusing if the effect size of
the human trial is better than Azilect, which gets trumpeted a lot by
marketing, but doesn't do that much and has a $400-$700/month copay for
patients...

------
return0
Mice don't even get Parkinson's. The misleading title is not even in the
university's press release of the mouse model study: "Cinnamon May Be Used to
Halt the Progression of Parkinson’s disease"

------
dheer01
You can read up all of this science and keep adjusting your diet - or you can
just shift to Indian food - recent medical research is ceiling its place as
the healthiest diets on plant earth.

------
lazyant
Reminds me of
[http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?n=1174](http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?n=1174)

------
mrfusion
I've read cinnamon might help with diabetes too? Would that be the same
mechanism?

~~~
rosser
The mechanism here appears to be the metabolism of compounds in cinnamon into
sodium benzoate, which we already knew was helpful with Parkinson's.

The mechanism behind cinnamon's effects on blood glucose, OTOH, seems not to
be terribly well-studied, given a few minutes' searching. One paper I found
says, "cinnamon enhances glucose uptake by activating the insulin receptor
kinase activity, auto-phosphorylation of the insulin receptor, and glycogen
synthase activity." [1] Otherwise, the literature seems all to be, "We
observed this effect..."

EDIT: Pointers to better sources welcome.

[1]
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3326760/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3326760/)

------
bagrow
Good grief, maybe I'm getting old, but is up with that font size?

~~~
bignaj
I'm 23 and I agree, it's tiny.

------
batmansbelt
Cinnamon can also reverse changes in the brains of people with Unity.

------
wilhil
Glozell is never getting Parkinsons!

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyk7utV_D2I](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyk7utV_D2I)

------
Havoc
I'm starting to think I should munch a mix of powders every morning. Cinnamon,
tummeric, garlic etc.

~~~
tachyonbeam
The bioavailability of curcumin (found in turmeric) is much better when taken
along with piperine (found in black pepper).

Also, welcome to the club:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/supplements](http://www.reddit.com/r/supplements)

~~~
mark_l_watson
I was just going to comment on this, then saw your post.

When we cook, our muscle memory is to add black ground pepper when adding
turmeric.

We also favor cinnamon because it is anecdotally supposed to be a good anti-
inflammatory agent - if this is not true, at least it tastes good with many
foods.

------
hajderr
Natural products rules!

------
lsiebert
best window manager ever ;-)

~~~
blisterpeanuts
Cool, I wonder if I can try it on OpenSuSE (although I'm pretty well married
to KDE).

Who knew that an article on Parkinson's would lead to learning about another
window manager!

------
mendoncakr
YOLO

~~~
mendoncakr
haters gon' hate

------
concernedctzn
The spice must flow

~~~
enraged_camel
Downvotes make me sad. HN has no sense of humor.

~~~
ignostic
Sure we do. Plenty of top comments are funny, but they're just topical,
relevant, and - most importantly - include some actual original thought.
Posting the same old tired references just isn't funny to this crowd.

~~~
46PxlpKu53k
HN comments include tons of interesting, original thoughts; However in all the
time I have been lurking here, there has been no top comment that has elicited
nary a chortle from me.

------
JetSpiegel
I knew that using Linux Mint was good for my health!

