Re: Bilirubin associated with better health

[Guest guest]

Dear Sir

My wife had the MGB several years ago by you. Worked wonderful, but she is

having a problem with alcohol now, I know the lager intestion can handle

the alcohol better that the little intestion, I have done some reading.

what can I do before she kills he self with alcohol.

Thanks

TL Stanbro

[Guest guest]

Hello,

My name is Debbie and I am the nurse for CLOS and I would be glad to

talk to you about your wifes problem.Please call me so we can talk.

Debbie Pennell,RN CLOS

Office 704-871-0031

Cell 704-682-2145

TL STANBRO wrote:

>

>Dear Sir

>My wife had the MGB several years ago by you. Worked wonderful, but she is

>having a problem with alcohol now, I know the lager intestion can handle

>the alcohol better that the little intestion, I have done some reading.

>what can I do before she kills he self with alcohol.

>

>Thanks

>TL Stanbro

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

>From: " TL STANBRO " <tstanbro@...>

>Reply-

>

>Subject: RE: Bilirubin associated with better health

>Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 07:33:41 +0000

>

>

>

>Dear Sir

>My wife had the MGB several years ago by you. Worked wonderful, but she

>is

>having a problem with alcohol now, I know the lager intestion can handle

>the alcohol better that the little intestion, I have done some reading.

>what can I do before she kills he self with alcohol.

>

>Thanks

>TL Stanbro

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Dr, Rutledge,

Thank you for this information. How does this relate to our MGB's?

Holly

318/173

5'10 " /Size 8

March 11, 2003

Dr. R (my hero!)

In a message dated 11/16/2004 10:30:35 PM Eastern Standard Time, Dr Rutledge

<Dr_Rutledge@...> writes:

>

>*Little Yellow Molecule Comes Up Big*

>/Hopkins Scientists Solve Paradox of Bilirubin, Identify it as Cells'

>Major Antioxidant/

>

>Bilirubin has been a mystery of a molecule, associated with better

>health if there's just a little more than normal, but best known for

>being at the root of the yellow color in jaundice and, at high levels,

>for causing brain damage in newborns. s Hopkins scientists have now

>solved the enigma of how this toxic molecule can also be beneficial.

>

>In the current online edition of the/ Proceedings of the National

>Academy of Sciences,/ the research team reports that bilirubin and the

>enzyme that makes it appear to be the body's most potent protection

>against oxidative damage. The finding may one day help improve treatment

>of stroke, heart attack and even cognitive decline following heart

>bypass surgery.

>

> " So potent an anti-oxidant is bilirubin that it displaces glutathione,

>the molecule believed for 80 years to be the most important cellular

>anti-oxidant, " says Snyder, M.D., director of neuroscience at

>the s Hopkins School of Medicine.

>

> " There are some very elegant studies in the literature that tie slightly

>elevated bilirubin levels to better alertness in newborns, a lower risk

>of coronary artery disease and cancer in adults, and less damage from

>stroke in animal models. But these findings went against what people

>thought they knew about bilirubin, and the results were largely shrugged

>off, " adds Snyder. " Now they make sense. "

>

>Known as the toxic yellow molecule at the end of the biologic

>degradation of hemoglobin, the " red " in red blood cells, bilirubin also

>has long been known to react with the highly reactive forms of oxygen

>responsible for practically all cellular damage. However, there's so

>little bilirubin in cells -- roughly a thousand times less than the

>amount of oxidants -- that it wasn't thought to actually contribute to

>cells' protection.

>

>To test their idea that these tiny amounts of bilirubin had a big job,

>the scientists used a research tool called RNA interference to " zip up "

>the RNA for biliverdin reductase, the enzyme that makes bilirubin.

>Because the cell then can't use the RNA's instructions to make a

>protein, the result is the laboratory-dish equivalent of " knocking out "

>a gene.

>

>Led by M.D./Ph.D. candidate Barañano, the research team

>demonstrated that, without biliverdin reductase, human cancer cells and

>brain cells from rats experienced much more damage and cell death in

>response to small amounts of hydrogen peroxide, an oxidant, than cells

>with the enzyme intact.

>

>Amazingly, the damage from knocking out the enzyme, and hence bilirubin,

>was even greater than knocking out the previously known cellular

>anti-oxidant, glutathione. While it takes one glutathione molecule to

>consume an oxidant, a single bilirubin molecule can take care of 10,000

>oxidant molecules, the scientists found.

>

>The key is that bilirubin is part of a cycle, so a single molecule can

>be used over and over again to scavenge highly reactive oxygen (free

>radicals) that otherwise would damage cells' membranes and their DNA

>beyond repair, the researchers say.

>

> " An oxidant reacts with bilirubin to make biliverdin, which is then

>converted back into bilirubin by biliverdin reductase, " says Snyder, who

>suggests bilirubin may protect cell membranes while glutathione may

>protect items inside cells. " One oxidant down, ten thousand to go. "

>

>The findings also settle a long-standing paradox -- why bilirubin is

>made at all. If the degradation of hemoglobin stopped one step earlier,

>with a greenish, soluble molecule called biliverdin, the waste could be

>easily excreted without the threat of damaging build-up, notes Snyder.

>But instead of stopping at biliverdin, most animal cells (except birds)

>continue on to make bilirubin using biliverdin reductase.

>

> " If all bilirubin does is become toxic in high amounts, it doesn't make

>sense that animals would have developed its production at all,

>especially for a process as routine as degrading hemoglobin, " says

>Snyder. " But oxidative stress is behind almost all cellular damage and

>death, from inflammation to heart attack and stroke. As a very elegant

>and potent way to protect cells from this stress, bilirubin is likely an

>important evolutionary development. "

>

>To reap the benefits of bilirubin's power to protect cells, researchers

>could develop agents that stimulate its release from blood cells, that

>temporarily prevent its clearance from the body, or that otherwise

>elevate the amount of bilirubin in the body. However, whether the

>approach would reduce cellular damage from heart attack or stroke, for

>example, remains to be seen.

>

>Authors on the study are Barañano, Snyder and Mahil Rao of the s

>Hopkins School of Medicine; and Ferris, formerly of Hopkins

>and now at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. The studies were

>funded by the U.S. Public Health Service.

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