Foods and Dietary Supplements in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease in Older Adults

Ronald Ross Watson, Ronald Ross Watson

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780124186866
• Topic: Medicina
• Subtopic: Geriatría

Foods and Dietary Supplements in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease in Older Adults focuses on the ways in which food and dietary supplements affect the major health problems of aging adults. Researchers in nutrition, diet, epidemiology, and aging studies, as well as healthcare providers who work with elderly patients will use this comprehensive resource as a tool in their long-term goal of preventing and treating chronic disease within the elderly.

This book brings together a broad range of experts working on the different aspects of foods and dietary supplements (vitamins, herbs, plant extracts, etc.) in health promotion and disease prevention. They have contributed chapters which define a range of ways in which foods, nutriceuticals, and dietary supplements prevent disease and promote health in older adults. They begin by reviewing the medicinal role of foods, herbal, and dietary supplements in health promotion in older adults, as well as some of the most commonly used supplements in elder "self-medication." They review the most recent studies of how foods, herbal, and dietary supplements are effective in the prevention and treatment of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other obesity associated diseases in older adults. Then they consider alcohol, other drugs, and plant based drugs of abuse which can adversely affect the health of older adults. Lastly, they consider foods and dietary supplements in gene regulation in older adults.

• Investigates the important nutritional requirements of the aging population in health and in relation to various acute and chronic diseases
• Explores the nutritional effects of botanical extracts and components that can have important health promotion benefits, and risks, to ensure safe consumption
• Reviews studies of common diseases within the aging population including cancer, cardiovascular, metabolic, and infectious diseases that can alter the intake of foods, supplements, and/or requirements for various nutrients
• Investigates the mechanisms of action of components of foods and dietary supplements, in particular gene activation and epigenetics

Part I

Non-Nutritional Components in Diet and Supplements, Nutraceuticals and their Role in Health Promotion in the Mature Adult

Outline

Chapter 1 A Traditional Elder’s Anti-Aging Cornucopia of North American Plants

Chapter 2 Alzheimer’s Disease: Current Perspectives – Animal Models, Drugs Under Development, and Potential Nutritional Intervention

Chapter 3 Amla in the Prevention of Aging: Scientific Validation of the Ethnomedicinal Claims

Chapter 4 Sarcopenia – Potential Beneficial Effects of Creatine Supplementation

Chapter 5 Dietary Spices in the Prevention of Rheumatoid Arthritis: Past, Present, and Future

Chapter 6 Medicinal Benefits of Ginger in Various Gastrointestinal Ailments: Use in Geriatric Conditions

Chapter 7 Foods and Dietary Supplements in the Prevention and Treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases in Older Adults

Chapter 1

A Traditional Elder’s Anti-Aging Cornucopia of North American Plants

Maria Pontes Ferreira¹, Jaclyn Palmer¹, Elder Betty McKenna² and Fidji Gendron², ¹Department of Nutrition & Food Science, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA, ²First Nations University of Canada, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

All major biomes are represented in the expansive North American continent. The continent has a rich and under-appreciated tradition of indigenous uses of foods and medicines derived from the native plants. This chapter features a discussion regarding the following cornucopia of plants, selected by a Native American/Aboriginal Elder: Indian breadroot (Pediomelum esculentum (Pursh) Rydb.), gumweed (Grindelia squarrosa (Pursh) Dunal), Labrador tea (Ledum spp.), and blueberry (Vaccinium spp.). These plants are selected for discussion due to their use or promise in the prevention/treatment of ailments commonly experienced with aging, and may benefit older adults when consumed. They are presented in a way to illustrate both the traditional uses of the plants (indigenous science) and the evidence in support of their bioactive properties (Western science). This approach to the presentation of these plants will allow readers a greater appreciation of Native North American Traditional Medicine.

Keywords

Indian breadroot (Pediomelum esculentum (Pursh) Rydb.); gumweed (Grindelia squarrosa (Pursh) Dunal); Labrador tea (Ledum spp.); blueberry (Vaccinium spp.); Native/Aboriginal

1.1 Introduction

Phytotherapy is a common form of medicine for many North American Aboriginal people, and a wide variety of plants are used as food and medicine to maintain health. Plants are a rich source of natural compounds whose various biological activities have provided medicinal value to traditional healers for centuries. About 80% of the world’s population still relies on traditional medicines for their primary health care [1]. Despite their cultural value, only 6% of the plants have been studied for their biological activity [2]. Although some pharmaceutical agents developed in labs are synthetic, many drugs originate from natural products such as those found in fungi, bacteria, animals, protists, and plants. Plant extracts and their derivatives have received considerable attention as therapeutic agents for preventing and treating health problems. Since the 1940s, for example, most molecules involved in cancer treatment have been of natural source, with almost half being either natural products or their transformed products [3]. The promising biological activities of these molecules warrant more research. Newman and Cragg strongly recommend continued exploration of these natural products to find much needed novel medicines [3].

It is important to appreciate and understand the knowledge possessed by traditional healers and Elders from North America, a vast continent with many biomes and many indigenous people. Many ethnomedicine research projects originate from collaboration of Western scientists with Aboriginal communities, to enhance appreciation regarding indigenous science. For example, several plant species used by traditional healers in the boreal regions of Canada have been examined for antioxidant activity and treatment of the symptoms of diabetes [4]. Findings from such studies corroborate the traditional land and plant knowledge of Aboriginal plant gatherers to effectively select plants with specific medicinal value. In the Native culture, traditional foods are seen as sacred and may have spiritual and medicinal value above provision of food energy. Traditional foods are rich in bioactive molecules that may have medicinal value. It is important to recognize that many plants utilized in Native North American culture fall on the continuum of foods and medicines.

Turner points out that a description of traditional plants in the Aboriginal culture is not complete without talking about the tools used to harvest, process, and prepare them (such as digging sticks), their names in different languages, and their connection to the land [5]. This information is conveyed by oral traditions, such as when younger generations spend time on the land with their families, especially the Elders. Unfortunately, the younger generation today spends less time with Elders. There is a need to find new ways to share traditional knowledge about plants with the Aboriginal and scientific communities, and to explore their documented biochemical properties.

In this chapter, we collaborate with a female Elder (Betty McKenna) to explore how specific plants can be used for the health of older adults. Elder Betty is an Anishinabe First Nation woman who has been teaching and practicing traditional knowledge for the past 45 years. We are interested in knowing more about selected plants she uses with older adults, and the cultural teachings centered on these plants. Plants presented in this chapter are Indian breadroot (Pediomelum esculentum (Pursh) Rydb.), gumweed (Grindelia squarrosa (Pursh) Dunal), Labrador tea (Ledum spp.), and blueberry (Vaccinium spp.). For each plant, both traditional knowledge and Western-based scientific knowledge are examined through meetings with Elder Betty, and review of the peer-reviewed published literature.

1.2 Indian Breadroot (Pediomelum esculentum (Pursh) Rydb. formerly Psoralea esculenta Pursh)

(Anishinabe name for Indian breadroot: pahkwe sikun ocheh pic)

Elder Betty:

We harvest both Indian breadroot (P. esculentum) and silverleaf root (P. argophyllum). The whole plant is picked and cut at the base of the stem. The root is chopped and used as flour in meals. The top part of the plant with the leaves, stems, and flowers are laid out on a cloth in my kitchen to dry. Once dried, I chop them with a knife or I use a coffee bean grinder to chop them finer. I harvest enough plants to keep me for the full year. I make a tea with the top part. The tea has a hearty taste. The tea is good for women going through menopause. At menopause, the hair, the nails and the skin get drier and lose their elasticity. The tea helps slow down this effect. It also serves to smooth the skin. The tea prevents bone fractures. My grandmother used to say that it is like “glue for your bones.” When I grew up, I did not drink milk after I was breastfed so we ate bone marrow as our source of calcium. The bone marrow is not good enough for women going through menopause so we drink the tea which would hold the bones stronger. The tea also helps to reset sleep patterns and reduces night terrors and panic attacks in menopause. Women go through stages in their life and one of them is when we go from life-giver to grandmother. The tea helps with a smooth transition from Mother Earth to Grandmother Moon. Women in their menopause could not afford to have their sleep disturbed because they have to be spiritually well to receive the message from the ancestors and Grandmother Moon. This is why it is important to have a natural dream–wake cycle that is not disturbed and the tea helps with that. It also helps balance the spiritual and mental health, especially in winter when a lot of older people might fall in depression. I drank this tea three times a week.

Pediomelum esculentum is a low, bushy herb of the Fabaceae (Leguminosae; pea or bean) family, with a strong fleshy taproot, often greatly enlarged as a bulbous tuber-like structure. Its stem is covered with bristly hairs, and its hairy leaves are palmately compound with five gray-green pubescent leaflets. The flowers are formed in a spike of bluish-purple flowers with five petals and five sepals in typical legume arrangement. After flowering the flowers rapidly wither and become brittle, causing them to detach and blow away in the wind. It is then much more difficult to locate the underground taproot. For this reason, the root is usually harvested from May to July across the prairies [6]. In Saskatchewan, roots are dug up between the middle of June and the middle of July. If left too long the root increases in size and the interior becomes woody, with lignified and inedible tissue [7,8]. It is native to central Canada and the USA [9], and is found in prairie grassland. The Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804–1806 collected specimens that were identified botanically, but it was Frederick Pursh who first published its description in 1814 [10].

Indian breadroot was known as pomme blanche (“white potato”) by the French Canadian voyagers, and as prairie potato by the early American settlers. Pediomelum esculentum has long been a reliable and plentiful staple of the Plains Aboriginals’ diet during spring and early summer [6]. In fact, it might hav...