Gingko Biloba, Your Dopaminergic Brain Viagra. Plant Extract Stimulates Sexual Arousal via the Paraventricular Nucleus and the Mesolimbic System.

Image 1: Gingko biloba
trees are one of a kind, with
no close living relatives
(image Schwabe Pharm.)

I bet you got one of those Viagra spam mails, today, as well, didn't you? Well, although I assume you would not need the small blue pills, anyway, you may be interest to read that researchers from the People's Republic of China may have found a viable Viagra alternative in a longstanding (pun intended ;-) ingredient of Traditional Chinese (and meanwhile also Western) Medicine: Gingko biloba.

In order to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of previously (Yeh. 2010) observed beneficial effects of Ginkgo biloba extract on noncontact erections in male rats, Yeh et al. (Yeh. 2011) recorded both copulation, as well as non-contact erections in a group of 20 male Long-Evans (telling name, isn't it?) rats, which had been randomly assigned to a treatment (50mg/kg body weight Gingko biloba extract [EGb 761 from Schwabe Pharmaceuticals], human equivalent 8mg/kg ~ 640mg for an 80kg man) or a control group. 14 days after initiation of treatment, there was "a significant increase in the number of NCEs [non contact erections]" in the 10 rats of the treatment group. Furthermore,

[...] the expression of catecholaminergic neurons in the PVN [paraventricular nucleus] and the VTA [ventral tegmental area] was seen [to be significantly increased ...] and tissue levels of dopamine and 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid in the NAc [nucleus accubens] were also markedly increased in the EGb 761-treated animals. However, the norepinephrine tissue levels in the PVN and the NAc in the EGb 761-treated group were not significantly different from those in the controls.

In other words, the increased number of catecholaminergic neurons did not, as one might have expected, increase the total amount of the stress-related neurotransmitter /hormone norepinephrine. In agreement with previous work by Mas et al., 1990; Pfaus et al., 1990; Pleim et al., 1990;Wenkstern et al., 1993; Tsai et al., 2006, it's dopaminergenic effects in the nuccleus accubens (dopamine levels in the increased by 66%), on the other hand, had profound effects on their sexual behavior (cf. figure 1).

Figure 1: Effect of Gingko biloba extract @ 50mg/kg on non-contact erection frequency in male Long-Evans rats before and after 14 day treatment (data adapted from Yeh. 2011)

In view of the effect, that the scientist do not want to "exclude that EGb 761 treatment may also influence dopaminergic activity in other brain areas", these results may be of interest even to those among you, who do not have any trouble "getting it up".

Note: The mechanism by which Gingko biloba increases sexual desire is different from the one of PDE-5 inhibitors such as avanafil, lodenafil, mirodenafil, sildenafil citrate, tadalafil and all the other "-afils". While the systemic effect on nitric oxide induced vasolidation of Viagra and Co. will help with erection quality and quantity, Gingko biloba probably won't help if blood flow restriction in your most valuable part is an issue. The different mechanisms of action, on the other hand, would suggest the two would make an interesting stack. And in fact back in 2010 Kim et al. found that "GBE [Gingko biloba extract] could increase the relaxant potency of mirodenafil even at a minimally effective dose" (Kim. 2010).

With dopamine playing an important role in behavior and cognition, voluntary movement, motivation, punishment and reward, inhibition of prolactin production (juicers did you read that?), sleep, mood, attention, working memory, and learning, the implications of this finding reach beyond sexual function alone. Even in the etiology of the dubious central fatique syndrome, every second visitor of one of the major internet health bulletin boards claims to experience, these days, may involve dopamine or rather a lack thereof (Caldizán Uzón. 2008). That being said, the group of patients who benefit from one of the readily available over-the-counter Gingko biloba supplements may soon expand from best agers, who are concerned about cognitive decline to (pre-)andropausal men who want to regain their interest in the fairer sex and, eventually, everyone who feels he/she would benefit from some additional dopaminergic drive.

Science Round-Up Seconds: Does the Paleo Diet Ruin Your Lipid Profile? Plus: Liver Health & Hepatitis - Milk Thistle & Beyond. Libido Boosters & Real PDE-5 Inhibitors. "Fake" Cinnamon, Coumarin, Bloodthinning & Carcinogenic Cereals.

Is the Paleo Diet unhealthy for healthy individuals? A recent thesis would suggest just that. Learn more about and make up your mind based on the last installment of the Science Round-Up and today's Seconds (img informedhealth.com.au)

I hope you did not miss that the SuppVersity Science Round-Up will as of now always be starting early(-ier) at 12PM EST. If so, don't worry, you can still download the show and listen to Carl and me talking about the things you may be missing, the ones you get extra and those you would rather not have in your supplements and foods. Let's take silymarin, for example, as you have learned on the show, not all "liver assist", "liver clense" or "liver health" products are created equal. Most intriguingly, their ability to scavenge free radicals, as measured by the trolox assay, is not singularly dependent on the actual silymarin content, but will - as the data from the study Anthony et al. conducted (Anthony. 2013) - vary largely, depending on where the milk thistle was grown, how it was processed and thus what else, aside from the purportedly active ingredient is in it.

There is more to natural products than a single active ingredient

If you will, the "there is more to it" was a golden thread that ran through the whole show, but before we follow it up to the next topic, I want to provide you at least an excerpt from the actual data Anthony et al. produced.

Table 1: Selected products tested in the study ordered by their anti-oxidant activity in the TROLOX essay; products with highest TROLOX and anti hepatitis C viral activity highlighted in green and violet, respectively (Anthony. 2013)

As you can see my selection of the 45 products, the scientists bought and tested, reflects what you have already heard on the show: The silymarin content varies largely. In essence, the actual silymarin content may yet not even be that important. If you focus solely on their TROLOX equivalents (TROLOX is a vitamin E like antioxidant and it is used to quantify the anti-oxidant activity in a standardized way - more or less like the meter is used to quantify the length of an object or seconds are used as a standard timespans are expressed in).

More about Liv-52: Actually, the Himalaya(R) product is one of the few OTC supplements with not just one, but more than 20 studies to back its hepatoproctective and antioxidant effects. One thing to keep in min about the research is though that it was - despite being mostly published in peer-reviewed journal - in large parts conducted by scientists who work either for or with the company. As I've pointed out previously, this does not mean that the data is flawed, but it puts observations such as the improved glucose uptake (213%) , the 50% reduction in triglyceride content (anti-NAFLD effect), the 790% increase in glutathione, as well as the decreased TNF-α (-51%) and IL-8 (-550%) and concomitant -65% and -69% reductions of lipid oxidation and DNA fragmentation, respectively, Vidyashankar et al. observed in a recent in-vitro study somewhat into perspective (Vidyashankar. 2012).

If you are looking for the most potent among the readily available products in my selection the most potent "liver protectant" would actually be the PED user's first choice Liv-52, which does not even contain silymarin but is based on an undisclosed amount of  capers (Capparis spinosa), wild chicory (Cichorium intybus), arjuna (Terminalia arjuna), negro coffee (Cassia occidentalis), yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and tamarisk (Tamarixgallica). Bio Silymarin by Advanced Beta Glucon Therapy, on the other hand, is a close second with an almost identical TROLOX value (9.4 vs. 9.5 for Liv-52), is based on silymarin; plus, it exerts 77% more pronounced hepatitis C virus (HCV) antiviral activity than the Himalaya product which lists "viral hepatitis" as the #1 indication on the corresponding website.

As far as these anti-HCV effects, which were standardized against the results the scientists observed in cultures that were treated with 100 U/mL interferon-α, are concerned another Source Natural's Silymarin Plus, emerged as the most potent product. With the "plus" signaling the addition of choline, inositol, vitamin C+E, this observation confirms that antioxidant activity and anti-viral activity are two pairs of shoes - even when the active ingredient (silymarin) is the same.

Apropos active ingredient

You are yet by no means at the mercy of milk thistle and silymarin, when you want to protect your liver from harm. Spices like

• Tumeric (curcumin)
• Coriander

• Garlic
• Red chili
• Black pepper

bust also coffee and green tea, and fruits and vegetables such as

• carrots
• ivy guard
• sweet corn
• soy (for the glycine in it)

• grapes
• custard apples
• Indian gooseberries
• pomegrenade
• sea buckthorn

have potent anti-oxidant and antiproliferative activities (Shukla. 2013)

OTC libido boosters - more than just an alternative

Now that we are talking about alternatives, let's get straight to the next one: The "alternative" to viagra, cialis & co. Honestly, I would hope that you will never have to use one of these (I suggest you take a peak at yesterday's post "The '20 / 30 Principle' Sheds 15% Body Fat in 6 Months, Boosts Testosterone & Sexual Performance in Overweight Men. Plus: Six Signs You're Doing Too Much, Already."; read more), but in the unfortunate case you do, you may be surprised how effective the majority of them actually is.

Figure 1: Categorial breakdown of the adulterated majority of the 91 products from the Campbell study (Campbell. 2013)

A brief glance at the data in figure 2 does yet suffice to see that this is not another case of the "nature knows best principle", but simply a consequence of the fact that the majority of these products do contain either sildenafil and/or taldalfil or some sort of molecular cousin ("analogs" in figure 2). Moreover, in 18 out of these products the dosage was >110% of what would be legit on a per serving base for the prescription varieties (I suspect this is 20mg).

Also mentioned in this context: Saw palmetto is a PDE-5 inhibitor (cf. Yang. 2013). Although the evidence is from a rabbit study, it's pretty likely that there will be at least some discernible effects of saw palmetto on PDE-5 activity an iNOS activity in the human corpus cavernosum, as well.

Coumarin: Carcinogenic & blood thinning cereals

Table 2: Coumarin content in mg/100g of the samples from the Wang study

As unfortunate as it may seem, the chance that the cinnamon you consume with pre-packaged food is "real" (=verum) and from the inner bark of Cinnamomum verum are close to zero. Since this is however the only variety, where you can be almost 100% sure that you don't consume blood thinning and pro-carcinogenic coumarin, it does actually not come as a surprise that cinnamon apple sauce or a cinammon roll bought from the local supermarket contain 0.64 and 2.1mg of this agent on a per serving basis.

If you take a closer look at the rest of the data Wang et al. collected for their latest study (Table 2; cf. Wang. 2013), you may be surprised to see that regular bread, generally unsuspicious oats and purportedly healthy granola bars contain coumarin in amounts that will have you easily surpass the daily uptake limit of 0.1 mg/kg body weight, which was established by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) right after it became clear that coumarin is a potential carcinogen... *yamyoll*

Nedless to say that the consumption of respective supplements, which are currently heavily marketed as healthy anti-diabesity agents, could do more harm then good, when the producers play it cheap and put the next best "Cinnamomum XY" they can get their hands on into the caps.

Neither viagra nor cinnamon caps are "paleo", yet still...

E. Trexler titled his recently published thesis "Paleolithic Diet is Associated With Unfavorable Changes to Blood Lipids in Healthy Subjects", which would suggest that the paleo diet is similarly unhealthy as the consumption of "fake", coumarin-loaden cinnamon or high amounts of isolated cholorogenic acid (story is discussed in detail in the podcast; cf. Mubarak. 2013).

Figure 2: Lipid profile (left; values expressed in % of reference levels), fitness and body fat level (right) before and after the Paleo + Crossfit interention (calculated based on Traxel. 2013)

If you take a closer look at the abstract and the actual "side effects" (figure 2), the 10-weeks of paleo dieting + CrossFit-based, high-intensity circuit training exercise program had on the body composition and fitness levels, I personally cannot but ask the following question:

 "What is the significance of the elevations in LDL and minor reductions in HDL in a scenario that produces exactly what has just been shown to be at the heart of the 'Obesity Paradox' and lipid values that are still within the ever-narrowing 'normal' or 'optimal' range?"

I'll leave it up to you to answer this question and decide whether it can really be so bad to rid yourself of all modern, processed foods including any form of processed sugar, soft drinks, and coffees, while fueling your life and workout related energy by increasing your consumption of lean meat, fish, eggs, nuts, fruit, and vegetables. Have a nice weekend!

References:

• Anthony K, Subramanya G, Uprichard S, Hammouda F, Saleh M. Antioxidant and Anti-Hepatitis C Viral Activities of Commercial Milk Thistle Food Supplements. Antioxidants. 2013; 2(1):23-36.
• Campbell N, Clark JP, Stecher VJ, Thomas JW, Callanan AC, Donnelly BF, Goldstein I, Kaminetsky JC. Adulteration of Purported Herbal and Natural Sexual Performance Enhancement Dietary Supplements with Synthetic Phosphodiesterase Type 5 Inhibitors. J Sex Med. 2013 May 1. 
• Mubarak A, Hodgson JM, Considine MJ, Croft KD, Matthews VB. Supplementation of a high-fat diet with chlorogenic Acid is associated with insulin resistance and hepatic lipid accumulation in mice. J Agric Food Chem. 2013 May 8;61(18):4371-8. 
• Shukla SK, Kumar V. Bioactive Foods and Supplements for Protection against Liver Disease. In: Bioactive Food as Dietary Interventions for Liver and Gastrointestinal Disease. Elsevier. 2013. 
• Trexler, E. Paleolithic Diet is Associated With Unfavorable Changes to Blood Lipids in Healthy Subjects Honors Research Thesis. Ohio State Univeristy. May 2013.
• Vidyashankar S, Sharath Kumar LM, Barooah V, Sandeep Varma R, Nandakumar KS, Patki PS. Liv.52 up-regulates cellular antioxidants and increase glucose uptake to circumvent oleic acid induced hepatic steatosis in HepG2 cells. Phytomedicine. 2012 Oct 15;19(13):1156-65.
• Yang S, Chen C, Li Y, Ren Z, Zhang Y, Wu G, Wang H, Hu Z, Yao M. Saw Palmetto Extract Enhances Erectile Responses by Inhibition of Phosphodiesterase 5 Activity and Increase in Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase Messenger Ribonucleic Acid Expression in Rat and Rabbit Corpus Cavernosum. Urology. 2013 Apr 23. doi:pii: S0090-4295(13)00169-6.

Science Round-Up Seconds: Cytokine Modulating Power Cakes, Endurance & Resistance for Maximal Cardiovascular Benefit, Gluten Degrading Bacteria and Cancer Fighting Green Tea + Levitra Combo. Plus: Sirt-3 & Protein Blends

Not sure if the "Power Cakes" in the Kerasioti study looked like these, but it would sure have been appropriate, after all the poor study participants had to cycle for 3h (in total) - makes you wonder if they are WADA approved, doesn't it?

Today's installment of the SuppVersity Science Round-Up Seconds has some delicious stuff for you in stock. We will start out with an interleukin 6 & 10 modulating CRP reducing cake from Greece as an appetizer, or pre-workout, whatever you like better. When we have finished that one, the table or gym talk will center around debunking the myth that only aerobic training was good for your cardiovascular system. When even the last i**** has gotten that, it's about time to devour the delicious anti-carcinogenic and gluten destroying bacteria stew with green tea and Levitra(R), I've been cooking for ya ;-)

Before you go for the cake, however, I want to apologize that I was somewhat out of it on yesterday's show (click here to listen to the podcast). As a compensation today's Seconds have - as you can see - become pretty "nutritious" at least on a quantitative level ;-)

Looking for the perfect peri-workout meal? What about some cake?

(Kerasioti. 2013) -- It may not really sound like "high performance fuel", but in fact the protein cake a group of Greek scientists fed to their nine physically active and pretty well-conditioned male subjects (age, 28 ± 2 yr; height, 184 ± 3 cm; body fat, 11 ± 2%; body mass index, 23 ± 1 kg/m²) turned out to be much more than just performance fuel after the 2 h of continuous cycling on cycle ergometer at an intensity corresponding to 60-65% of the subjects established VO2max.

Figure 1: Interleukin 6, interleukin 10 and c-reactive protein (CRP) levels before and after the first 2h exercise bout with experimental (EXP) and placebo (PLA) cake; data expressed relative to baseline (Kerasioti. 2013).

As the data in figure 1 goes to show you, the cakes which contained a combination of 0.9g/kg carbohyrates and 0.26g/kg protein did in fact have surprisingly more beneficial effects on the rise and fall of the pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-10 (IL = interleukin) during the two counterbalanced trials, than the placebo, an identical cake with a different macro-nutrient ratio of 1.1g carbs and 0.1g protein per kg body weight.

Training twice a day? No problem with the power cake ;-)
 
Only four hours later the scientists shooed their subjects onto the bike again for another hour of medium intensity exercise and a 95% VO2max time-trial sprint at the end, "to determine if the cake administration affects performance" (Kerasioti. 2013). Sounds logical, right? What's confusing, though is that Kerasioti et al. don't even mention the performance effects they did or didn't observe in the second bout in the discussion of their results - so I suspect that (a) there were no differences or (b) Kerasioti et al. regard the cytokine response to the second trial as a "performance" marker and stick to that as their "effect on performance" (I don't know about you, bun in my humble opinion the latter would be an even greater flaw than leaving the non-significant information out).

Figure 2: IL-6, IL-10 and CRP response over the whole study period; expressed relative to baseline (Kerasioti. 2013)

If you add the cytokine expression in the steady state 2h trial from figure 1 to the data that was recorded after the completion of the 1h steady state + time trial cycling session four hours later and the 48h post levels of the inflammatory markers, the resulting graph exposes a very neat symmetry with an almost identical rise and fall in the expression of the short-lived cytokines and an eye-catching difference in the intermediate inflammatory response evidenced by the increase in CRP in the recovery phase of the placebo trial (just as a reminder: C-reactive protein aka CRP is the same stuff you will also see chronically elevated in diabesity and all sorts of inflammatory diseases).

A propos protein: We also talked about the benefits of protein blends with fast and slow proteins.Here is the SuppVersity article about the human study on the casein + whey combination I mentioned.

Bottom line: Compared to carbohydrates alone the combination of carbs + whey does not only offer a muscle building, but also an inflammatory edge, especially endurance athletes and anyone with a high training density will benefit from -- just like the 3g glutamine (1.5g pre, 1.5g post workout), Carl and I talked about during yesterday's installment of the SuppVersity Science Round-Up, by the way, with the only difference being that the effects of whey protein are probably mediated by it's glutathione (the master oxidant) repleting glutamylcysteine groups (Bounous. 1991), beta-lactoglobulin, lactoferrin and other anti-inflammatory compounds in whey proteins (Peng. 2009).

Cardio and weights: Your cardiovascular system loves both

(Spence. 2013) -- There is this longstanding and die hard myth that only aerobic training would be good for the heart. With the publication of a recent paper by a group of scientists from the University of Western Australia and the Liverpool John Moores University, you do now finally have something to print out, and tack it to every idiots forehead who still insists that only half-marathon running, but not resistance training could save you from cardiovascular infarction ;-)

For their 6-months experiment, the scientists recruited 23 27±5 year-old healthy male subjects who were then randomized to either either endurance (ET, n=10) or resistance training (RT, n=13) in order to evaluate the long-term effects of these training modalities on brachial, femoral and carotid artery diameter and wall thickness (IMT), as well as femoral and brachial flow-mediated (FMD) and glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) mediated dilation. Ha? Well, let's say they wanted to know how the different exercise protocols, the scientists desribe as follows,

For those of you who want to add something to their regimen that boosts the longevity sirtuin, sirt-3 Carl and I have talked about during yesterday's show, here is the HMB + Leucine study I mentioned.

"[...] the ET intervention consisted of a progressivelyoverloaded programme of walking, jogging and running, inclusive of specified training phases over the 24week period. The focus of the periodized RT programme was Olympic weightlifting with incorporated supplemental exercises (e.g. dead-lift, back squat, front squat, bench press and overhead press) to develop overall strength and technique. Relative intensities for the ET and RT interventions were monitored throughout the sessions, individualized and progressed to ensure that subjects were exercising at prescribed percentages of VO2peak and 1RM, respectively" (Spence. 2013)

would effects the structure and performance of the hearts of their subjects, who completed three 1h training sessions of the respective exercise type per week.

As even resistance training enthusiasts should have expected, the RT group did not see significant improvements in O2Peak (ET yielded +5% increase in this indicator of cardiovascular fitness). On the other hand, the endurance training had no effect on upper body strength, which increased by statistically highly significant +21% in the resistance training group. Both these improvements are yet not really newsworthy and the whole study would not have made it to the SuppVersity Science Round-Up, respectively the Seconds, if it had not been for the high-resolution ultrasound images of the heart, which revealed:

Figure 3: Changes in body composition
relative to pre values (Spence. 2013)

• Resistance training affects the brachial artery, increases brachial artery resting (+8%, P<0.05), peak FMD  and GTN-mediated (P<0.01) diameters
• Endurance training affects the femoral artery, increases resting (+3%, P<0.05), peak FMD femoral artery diameters, and improvements in the femoral FMD-to-GTN% ratio 
• Both forms of training had similar beneficial effects the carotid artery wall thickness

In summary: Despite the fact that the two training forms will have differential effects on your overall conditioning and strength, they both increase lean mass (see figure 3) and decrease the artery wall thickness of the artery which supplies your brain with oxygen (the carotid artery). And with their unique effects on the brachial artery in the upper arm (RT) and the femoral artery in the tigh (ET), they make a perfect team to protect you from cardiovascular disease and stroke.

"I'd like a Levitra(R) enhanced green tea with probiotics..." What?

The last two items from yesterday's list that did not make it into the show are actually not brand new studies. One is a comment from the Journal of Clinical Investigation and the other one is a study that has been around since 2011, already. I picked them up in the course of the week and found them news-worthy, although it is not really sure, a combination of green tea, viagra and rothia bacteria is going to prevent cancer and solve your problems with gluten or whether one or the other or a combination of all is going to kill you ;-) Anyways, here are the details:

• 

  Rothia has hitherto rather been known as a bad guy, which can, if it gets into the wrong places cause endocarditis (heart), meningitis (brain), peritonitis (an inflammation of the peritoneum, the thin tissue that lines the inner wall of the abdomen and covers most of the abdominal organs) and other infections (Photo by Nathan Reading)

  Rothia bacteria in the upper gastrointestinal tract degrade gluten (Zamakharchi. 2011) -- Back in 2011 already a group of researchers from the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine published a paper in which they describe the astonishing ability of a common gram positive bacteria called Rothia, which is also present in the oral cavity could degrade 50% of the glyiadin peptides the scientists had added to the petri dish before the they were incubated for 30min.
  
  In view of the fact that the immunogenic parts of the peptides, that cannot be cleaved by our natural digestive enzymes, it does appear like a too happy coincidence that our microbial subtenants from the oral and upper gastrointestinal tract possess the enzymatic machinery to degrade the harmful gluten peptides for us - don't you think so?
  
  One thing is for sure, the presence of a bacteria that deals with the stuff, we cannot deal with on our own in our oral cavity certainly does support what I said in the context of the "bulimia apparatus" - the digestive process with all it's downstream effects on your metabolism starts in the mouth:
  

  "During mastication (chewing) foods are mixed with whole saliva helping to accelerate the break-down by digestive enzymes during the residency time in the oral cavity. Oral microorganisms in the swallowed food bolus may or may not survive and/or continue to exert proteolytic activities during or after gastric passage. Our in vitro data with R. aeria show that its enzymes are not abolished at acidic pH values, and are optimally active under more basic pH conditions. In vivo, this could mean that during gastric passage the enzymes will neither be active nor destroyed, and that enzymatic reactivation would occur upon transfer to the duodenum." (Zamakharchi. 2011)

  Aside from the fact that they could make it into the large intestine, previous studies have already confirmed that R. mucilaginosa can even gain a foothold there (Ou. 2009), so that probiotic supplementation with Rothia mucilaginosa could in fact turn out to be a viable treatment / prevention strategy for celiac disease and other gluten related health problems.

• EGCG + PDE-5 = cancer killer (Yang. 2013) -- Cancer is like the Learnean Hydra from ancient Greek mythology (see image on the right). Whenever you cut off one of its heads it'll grow two new ones... well, i must admit the analogy isn't perfect, but it's still useful to understand why the PDE-5 inhibitor vardenafil worked wonders when it was co-administered with the green tea catechin EGCG.
  
  

  

  You really have to wonder why these ancient heroes who had the cunning to kill the Hydra did not even wear a pair of speedos, when they entered into it's watery realms ;-)

  Just like the many Greek warriors who died in their battle with the Hydra before it was finally slain by Heracles, EGCG is well capable of doing major harm to the cancer cells. Just like the snake-like beast the cancer cells have yet found a way to resist the onslaught. Obviously not by growing new heads, though, but rather by over-expressing PDE-5 in order to repress the EGCG increased cGMP activity that would otherwise initiate apoptosis, i.e. the natural self-destruction mechanism of a cell.
  
  So what could be more straight forward than using a PDE-5 inhibitor just like Iolaus, Heracles cousin, used a firebrand to scorch the neck stumps of the Hydra after each decapitation. Clever and effective, don't you think so?
  
  Well, there still is one downside: Just like the story about the Hydra is nothing but a myth, the studies Yang and Wang reference in their commentary in the latest edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation are only in-vitro studies and whether drinking green tea and popping one of Bayer's Levitra(R) pills after the other, is going to prevent, let alone kill existing cancer, will still have to be elucidated.

That's if for today! And since I am a bit in a hurry, I will leave it up to you to check out the latest really short news on the SuppVersity Facebook wall. Contrary to the green tea + Levitra treated cancer cells, the facebook news are guaranteed to proliferate even before the official Saturday installment of On Short Notice is going to be posted in ~24h (in fact, it will first have to researched and written ;-)

References:

• Bounous G, Gold P. The biological activity of undenatured dietary whey proteins: role of glutathione. Clin Invest Med. 1991 Aug;14(4):296-309.
• Kerasioti E, Stagos D, Jamurtas A, Kiskini A, Koutedakis Y, Goutzourelas N, Pournaras S, Tsatsakis AM, Kouretas D. Anti-inflammatory effects of a special carbohydrate-whey protein cake after exhaustive cycling in humans. Food Chem Toxicol. 2013 Jan 26.  [epub ahead of print] 
• Ou G, Hedberg M, Horstedt P, Baranov V, Forsberg G, et al. Proximal small intestinal microbiota and identification of rod-shaped bacteria associated with childhood celiac disease. Am J Gastroenterol. 2009;104:3058–3067.
• Peng X, Xiong YL, Kong B. Antioxidant activity of peptide fractions from whey protein hydrolysates as measured by electron spin resonance. Food Chemistry. 2009; 113(1):196–201. 
• Spence AL, Carter HH, Naylor LH, Green D. A prospective randomised longitudinal study involving 6-months of endurance or resistance exercise on conduit artery adaptation in humans. J Physiol. 2013 Jan 28. [Epub ahead of print] 
• Yang CS, Wang H. Cancer therapy combination: green tea and a phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitor? J Clin Invest. 2013 Jan 25:1-3. [Epub ahead of print]
• Zamakhchari M, Wei G, Dewhirst F, Lee J, Schuppan D, Oppenheim FG, Helmerhorst EJ. Identification of Rothia bacteria as gluten-degrading natural colonizers of the upper gastro-intestinal tract. PLoS One. 2011;6(9):e24455.