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1. Gerovital-H3
its regenerative effects
2. Gerovital-H3 anti-depressant
effects
3. Gerovital-H3
creator Ana Aslan's life
4. Gerovital-H3
treatment in osteoarthritis
5. Old age
humoral dismetabolism (GH-3)
6. Gerovital-H3
treatment in rheumatology
7. Gerovital-H3
- classic antiaging medicine
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The anti-depressant effects of Gerovital-H3
by Mircea Dumitru M.D. PhD.
to order
As people grow old, the brain undergoes macroscopic,
microscopic, biochemical and electrophisiological changes. The number of neurons (nervous
cells) decrease, dendridic changes occur (the link among cells), as well as neurofibrillas
and plates (described by Marinescu and Block) appear in the nervous cells.
Recent data shows that neuron losses do not occur in
all the brain’s area (for instance, the parietal area). There are markers which
confirm the aging process: ischemia, plates of lipofuscin, neurofibrillas (a net of
intraneuronal fibres very frequent in Alzheimer’s disease). The prefrontalis and
frontalis are the areas most altered by aging. Changes also occur within the cerebral
vascular system: haemorrhages, atheromatous plates and obstruction of some small vessels.
The cognitive changes are quite normal in the
elderly (the topic is still under discussion). Nevertheless, old age brings about changes
of the intellectual ability). The impairment of the cognitive functions begins about age
of 35-40, although being insignificant till the age of 60-65. The primary memory (sense
memory) and the long-term memory do not change. On the contrary, the short-term memory
(from 1 hour to 1 week) is altered. The elderly can hardly remember the names and the
events that happened and the things they read over this period. The use of calendar and
written notes help them most. It is very easy for the elderly to remember knowledge stored
in the past to which their lifetime experience is added.
Effects of Old Age
The decrease of the psychomotory activity is another
important feature of old age, which is obvious in everyday life (the subtle movements lose
their accuracy, the reaction speed lowers). With normal aging these changes do not
infringe upon the elderly’s independence and ability to meet their own needs.
The above mentioned changes are normal in the
elderly. Biochemical changes of the neurotransmitting systems (GABA, dopaminic,
cholinergic and serotoninic) and the influence of some exogenous factors bring forth the
metabolic changes which cause depression’s onset. In the presence of an old patient
with cognitive impairments and changes of behaviour, the geriatrician and the psychologist
should distinguish the trilogy:
•is it a normal change?
•are they the indices of a depression?
•is it an incipient Alzheimer’s disease?
In general, the patients suffering from depression
exaggerate their sufferings, while those with Alzheimer’s disease or with other
incipient dementias deny or minimise them.
Depression
Depression is one of the elderly’s major
diseases. It is also frequent in adults. Depression is a syndrome (a series of symptoms)
including physiological, emotional and cognitive symptoms. The criteria worked out by The
American Psychiatric Association in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders (3rd revised edition) include:
Change of appetite and weight;
•Sleep disorders;
•Inner strain or belated motory reactions;
•Lack of energy, fatigue;
•Nervousness;
•Concentration and memory disorders;
•Lack of pleasure and interest in almost any kind of activity;
•Tendencies of guilt;
•Thought or attempt of suicide.
The presence of 5 of these symptoms shows a major
depression fit. These symptoms are often assigned to normal age, both the physician and
the patient being mostly concerned with physical diseases and ignoring depression.
In the elderly, depression occurs within a complex
clinical and social context. The older patient may suffer from 2-3 or even more diseases,
some of them leading to infirmities, and the social relationships may be non-existent. The
diagnosis of depression should be preceded by a thorough analysis of the patient’s
present state and case history. The clinical history, physical examination and bilogical
check-up, as well as a study of the social background are current possibilities of
assessing the diagnosis of depression.
Some author consider that many elderly have a
depressive state. According to the National Health Institute of Bethesda, 30% of the
elderly (over 65) suffer from depression. Other researchers mention a higher rate - 50%
and even more in the elderly of the 8th, 9th and 10th age decades. This suffering often
remains hidden, unknown, being masked by physical diseases, and neither the patient nor
the care staff, homes for the aged, nursing homes for the elderly people recognise it.
Despite the great progress of diagnosis, treatment
and care of these patients, many aspects of depression are still unsettled. For the
readers of this article interested in the promotion of an active life, it is important to
know:
•The conditions and factors responsible for the
depressive states;
•The peculiarities of depression in the elderly, and
•The treatment.
For women who lead a life of deprivation i.e.,
widows stressed and lacking a moral and economic support - often suffer from depression.
After the age of 65, chronic diseases such as cancer, stroke, diabetes, mellitus,
deforming and painful arthritis, by their nature multiply the implications and induce a
depressive state. Half of the patients suffering from depression have several episodes
during their lifespan. Suicide and suicidal tendencies are frequent after the age of 80.
Polymorbidity
Depression in the elderly is not quite different
from the adult’s depression. After the age of 65, polymorbidity (association of
several diseases in the same patient) is very frequent. The somatic disorders -
cardiovascular, digestive, respiratory, loss of weight - raise several questions as
concerns the positive and differential diagnosis. 20-30% of the patients have a depression
which is mostly masked by an organic symptomatology. The visceral symptomatology is
expressed subjectively only under the form of cenestopathic symptoms of a hypochondriac
type. These symptoms mostly occur in adult women. Certain disorders which point out
"de facto" a visceral suffering may be wrongly assigned to a depressive state.
The phenomenologic analysis of depression’s symptomatology will reveal the circadian
variation, much more obviously in the morning when the incidence of suicide is at its
greatest.
Therapy
Any depressive symptom may impair life’s
quality, so a therapy is absolutely necessary. The treatment may be medical and
psycho-social. To be effective, the treatment should be administered over a period of time
and in optimum doses.
Since 1945, Prof. Aslan had been injecting procaine
into patients with painful arthritis in order to relieve their joint pains. Many of her
patients noted an improving memory, less depression, more energy and a generalised feeling
of well-being. These results encouraged her to carry out additional studies to test the
effects of procaine on thousands of patients. She found that by adding an antioxidant, the
procaine molecule was stabilized and the effects were more than with procaine alone. She
called her improved form, Gerovital-H3.
Aslan said that "due to the effects of its main
active elements, the procaine and procaine’s metabolites - paraaminobenzoic acid
(PABA) and diethylaminoethanol (DEAE) -, Gerovital-H3 belongs to Pregeriatric and
Geriatric drugs having an eutrophic effect on the organism". Starting from 1949, she
noticed an obvious improvement of the physical state in old people. Gerovital-H3 acts upon
the human body participating in the regulation of the intermediary metabolism,
acetylcholine synthesis and inhibits the monoamineoxidase (MAO). MAO is an enzyme that
catalyses the breakdown of monoamines (dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine) which
play a transmitter role between nervous cells. A MAO inhibitor blocks a breakdown of
certain monoamine neurotransmitters and that can used to treat depression. Robinson and
his colleague, in the ‘Lancet’ magazine, Feb.,1972 (1), showed that starting
around the age of 40, the level of MAO increase is directly related to the aging process
and depression phenomena.
Gerovital-H3 has a certified antidepressive effect,
especially in light and moderate depressive syndrome, thanks to its MAO-inhibitory effect.
The antidepressive effect of Gerovital-H3 as well as the lack of any side effects can be
accounted on the fact that it is a reversible and competitive-MAO inhibitor.
Paul Luth (2) mentioned that "procaine
influence on the patient’s psychic condition was signalled for the first time in the
medical literature by Aslan". Subsequent to Aslan’s investigations on the
psychic effect of procaine (3), Pfeiffer (4) carried out pharmacological studies on
demethylaminoethanol (DMAE) action and noticed a mental stimulation. This study placed
emphasis on the relations existing between DMAE and acetylcholine. DMAE breaks through the
blood-brain barrier taking part in the metabolic process of the nervous cells fixing their
proteic and lipid fractions and changes into choline and acetylcholine.
Hrachovec, from Los Angeles University, published in
1972 the results of a comparative study showing that Gerovital-H3 has an inhibitory effect
upon the MAO-brain, liver and the heart of the rabbit (5).
Gerovital-H3 Mechanisms
Yau made a pharmacological study upon Gerovital-H3
and summarised as such its basic mechanisms (6):
•it competitively and reversibly inhibits the
MAO;
•it acts as an antidepressive through the
modification of the monoamine level in the brain and it is very selective in the oxidative
desamination inhibition;
•the oxidative desamination of monoamines is
done in such a way as to eliminate the hyper-blood-pressure peaks so typical after
administering other MAO inhibitors.
McFarlane proved the increasingly inhibitory action
of Gerovital-H3 upon MAO from 17.8% to 87.7% depending on the dose administered (7).
McFarlane appreciated Robinson’s important contribution to the understanding of a
biochemical modification connected with the ageing process. He noticed that Gerovital-H3
induces a stronger MAO inhibition than the normal procaine hydroclorate and its action is
reversible and competitive (8).
Depression Treatment
William Zung from Duke University, North Carolina,
applied Gerovital-H3 treatment for 28 days, using the double-blind method, on three groups
of patients who suffered from depression (9). One group of patients aged 60 were submitted
- before, during and after the treatment - to a battery of psychological tests (Zung is
the author of a well-known scale of psychological tests) which proved the Gerovital-H3
efficiency in the treatment of depression.
In a double-blind study (10) conducted on depressive
patients, the antidepressive effect of Gerovital-H3 was evaluated by means of psychiatric
and psychological investigations. The tests on depression showed a higher percentage of
improvement for Gerovital-H3 treated patients. The following items were alleviated:
depressed mood, sociability and fatigue-70%, agitation-60%, anxiousness and
hypochondriasis-45%.
Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw noted in their book,
"Life Extension" (a national best-seller): "here is how you might be able
to better handle depression... MAO increases in activity with age, thus resulting in
lowered levels of these signal-transmitting brain chemicals. Procaine - or the procaine
compound Gerovital-H3 (GH3) developed by Dr. Ana Aslan of Romania, is a mild reversible
MAO inhibitor. When using most MAO inhibitors, it is necessary to avoid excessive dietary
intake of monoamine precursors such as the amino acids tyrosine and phenylalanine to avoid
too high levels of the monoamines, which can lead to higher blood pressure. Procaine - or
GH3 - does not interfere".
Recently, I did a double-blind study (unpublished)
on 50 patients with low, moderate and severe depression. After two series of treatments,
the difference was statistically significant between the patients with Gerovital-H3 and
placebo. The Hamilton score was constantly positive and the medium reduction was
significant (p=0.0001) much more so for Gerovital-H3 than for the placebo. All the
statistics were proved with the technique of Covariance analysis.
REFERENCES
1. Robinson D.S.et al.: Aging. Monoamine and
Monoamineoxidase Levels. Lancet, 1972, p.290.
2. Luth P.: Uber die Allgemeinwirkung des Procains
in ihren Zusammenhang mit Gehirnstoffwechsel. Arztl. Forsch. 1959, 4, p.177-186.
3. Aslan Ana: Novokain als Eutrophischer Faktor und
die Moglichkeit einer Verlangerung der Lebensdauer. Therapeutische Umschau, 1956, 9,
p.165-172.
4. Pfeiffer C.C. and al.: Stimulant Effect of
2-Diethylaminoethanol a Possible Precursor of Brain Acethylcholin. Science, 1957, 3274,
p.610.
5. Hrachovec D.J.: Inhibitory Effect of Gerovital-H3
on MAO of Rat Brain, Liver and Heart. The Physiologist, 1972, 15, p.3-20.
6. Yau T.M.: Gerovital-H3, MAO and Brain Monoamines.
Symp. on Theoretic Aspects of Ageing. Florida, Miami, Febr. 1974.
7. McFarlane M.D.: Procaine (Gerovital-H3) Therapy:
Mechanism of Inhibition of MAO. J. of Amer. Geriatrics Soc. 1974, XXII/8, p.365-371.
8. McFarlane M.D.: Aging, Monoamine and MAO
Blood-levels. Lancet, 1972,II, 7772, p.337.
9. Zung W.W. et al.: Pharmacology of Depression in
the Aged: Evaluation of Gerovital-H3 as an Antidepressant Drug. Psychosomatics, 1974, 15,
p.127-131.
10. Balaceanu C.S. et al.: Double blind Study
Concerning the Antidepressive Effects and the Clinical Tolerance of Gerovital-H3. Romanian
J. of G. & Geriatrics, 1996, Tome 1-2, Vol. 17, p.46-61.
11. Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw: "Life
Extension", 1983, Printed in the USA, A Time Warner Company.
ALL INFORMATION IS EDUCATIONAL AND
SHOULD NOT REPLACE THE ADVICE OF
YOUR PHYSICIAN.
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