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Huperzine A: A Natural Nootropic
Plus: how lidocaine (the numbing agent) may fight cancer
The 10almonds Team
November 28, 2023
Today’s almonds have been activated by:
❝You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream❞
⏰ IN A RUSH?
Today’s 30-Second Summary
If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:
Huperzine A is a plant-derived compound that can boost flagging acetylcholine levels in the brain. This means it can help improve memory and guard against dementia.
However, it is much better as a preventative than it is as a treatment, since the presence of amyloid-β plaques reduces its effectiveness.
Don’t want to cut out wheat, but do want the wheat products you consume to be healthier?
Today’s sponsor, Wildgrain, offers high-quality fresh bread, pastries, and pastas made with zero-bleach flour and no artificial additives
Read on to learn about these things and more…
👀 WATCH AND LEARN
Why Your Brain Is Keeping Your Hip Flexors Tight—And How To Fix It (8:24)
Hip-check menu:
Want to watch it, but not right now? Bookmark it for later 🔖
💊 MAIN FEATURE
Huperzine A: A Natural Nootropic
Huperzine A is a compound, specifically a naturally occurring sesquiterpene alkaloid, that functions as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. If that seems like a bunch of big words, don’t worry, we’ll translate in a moment.
First, a nod to its origins: it is found in certain kinds of firmoss, especially the “toothed clubmoss”, Huperzia serrata, which grows in many Asian countries.
What’s an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor?
Let’s do this step-by-step:
An acetylcholinesterase inhibitor is a compound that inhibits acetylcholinesterase.
Acetylcholinesterase is an enzyme that catalyzes (speeds up) the breakdown of acetylcholine.
Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter; it’s an ester of acetic acid and choline.
This is the main neurotransmitter of the parasympathetic nervous system, and is also heavily involved in cognitive functions including memory and creative thinking.
What this means: if you take an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor like huperzine A, it will inhibit acetylcholinesterase, meaning you will have more acetylcholine to work with. That’s good.
What can I expect from it?
Huperzine A has been well-studied for a while, mostly for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease:
However, research has suggested that huperzine A is much better as a prevention than a treatment:
❝A central event in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the accumulation of senile plaques composed of aggregated amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides.
Ex vivo electrophysiological experiments showed that 10 μM of Aβ1-40 significantly decreased the effect of the AChE inhibitor huperzine A on the synaptic potential parameters. ❞
In other words: the answer to the titular question is “Yes, yes it can”
And, to translate Dr. Zueva’s words into simple English:
People with Alzheimer’s have amyloid-β plaque in their brains
That plaque reduces the effectiveness of huperzine A
So, what if we take it in advance? That works much better:
❝Pre-treatment with [huperzine A] at concentrations of 50, 100, and 150 µg/mL completely inhibited the secretion of PGE2, TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β compared to post-treatment with [huperzine A].
This suggests that prophylactic treatment is better than post-inflammation treatment. ❞
As you may know, neuroinflammation is a big part of Alzheimer’s pathology, so we want to keep that down. The above research suggests we should do that sooner rather than later.
Aside from holding off dementia, can it improve memory now, too?
There’s been a lot less research done into this (medicine is generally more concerned with preventing/treating disease, than improving the health of healthy people), but there is some:
^This is a small (n=68) old (1999) study for which the full paper has mysteriously disappeared and we only get to see the abstract. It gave favorable results, though.
^This, like most non-dementia research into HupA, is an animal study. But we chose to spotlight this one because, unlike most of the studies, it did not chemically lobotomize the animals first; they were and remained healthy. That said, huperzine A improved the memory scores most for the monkeys that performed worst without it initially.
Where can I get it?
As ever, we don’t sell it, but here’s an example product on Amazon for your convenience 😎
Enjoy!
❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE
Wildgrain | Carbs, better.
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Wildgrain has you covered, with their "25 minutes or under" bake-from-frozen range. The fresh pasta can of course be boiled 😉
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🌏 AROUND THE WEB
What’s happening in the health world…
Exploring the intersection: cardiovascular mortality trends among Alzheimer’s patients in the US
Cheap over-the-counter nail drug found to work on crippling flesh-eating disease
Whole grain consumption associated with slower memory decline in Black people
Numbing agent lidocaine may have cancer-fighting properties
What is the winter forecast for COVID-19? And should we expect a "tripledemic" of COVID, flu and RSV?
A computer model of the ear may help to improve cochlear implants
What to know about norovirus
More to come tomorrow!
📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW
The Squat Bible: The Ultimate Guide to Mastering the Squat and Finding Your True Strength – by Dr. Aaron Horschig
You probably know the following three things about squats:
Squatting is great for the health in many ways
There are many different ways to squat
Not all of them are correct, and some may even do harm
Dr. Aaron Horschig makes the case for squats being a movement first, and an exercise second. To this end, he takes us on a joint-by-joint tour of the anatomy of squatting, so that we get it right from top to toe.
Or rather: from toe to top, since he starts with the best foundation.
What this means is that if you've struggled to squat because you find some discomfort in your ankles, or a weakness in the knees, or you can't get your back quite right, Dr. Horschig will have a fix for you. He also takes a realistic look about how people's anatomy varies from person to person, and what differences this makes to how we each should best squat.
The explanations are clear and so are the pictures—we recommend getting the color print edition (linked), as the image quality is better than the black and white and/or Kindle edition.
Bottom-line: squats are one of the single best exercises we can do for our health—but we can miss out on benefits (or even do ourselves harm) if we don't do them well. This book is a comprehensive reference resource for making sure we get the most out of our squatting ability.
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Wishing you the most well-informed start to the week,
The 10almonds Team