Disclaimer: This post is not a recommendation or endorsement for the use of sunifiram. The FDA has not approved this drug for any specific medical or other use, and the available research on it is still in a very early stage, without adequate data to come to any conclusions about its general efficacy or safety in humans. We have written this post for informational purposes only, and our goal is solely to inform people about what science currently says about sunifiram’s mechanisms, potential effects, and possible side-effects.

What is Sunifiram?

Sunifiram, or “DM-235”, is an experimental drug that was originally developed with the goal of treating the symptoms of cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease patients [R].

However, research on sunifiram was eventually discontinued due to a lack of research funding, and its patent expired. Therefore, sunifiram has never been tested on humans, and its potential long-term toxicity and general safety in healthy human users remains unknown [R].

In addition, sunifiram hasn’t been officially approved by any country for any medical or other use. It is currently only sold online – by unverified vendors – as a so-called “smart drug”, or “nootropic” [R].

Mechanism of Action

Sunifiram is believed to be somewhat similar in molecular structure to piracetam, which has led some researchers to speculate that it may have somewhat similar effects throughout the body and the brain [R].

However, this belief is entirely speculative – and drugs that are chemically and molecularly similar can still have dramatically different effects.

Additionally, some early evidence suggests that sunifiram may be up to 1,000 times more potent than piracetam [R] – which, if true, raises additional doubts about just how similar sunifiram might actually be to these other drugs.

Therefore, the precise mechanisms involved in the actions of sunifiram remain unknown. However, some preliminary research suggests that it probably acts on a wide variety of different targets within the body and brain [R].

Some

The post All About Sunifiram: Purported Effects, Side-Effects, and More appeared first on SelfHacked.

What Is Quinoa?

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) has been cultivated for thousands of years in the Andes Mountains of South America, where it is a food staple for indigenous cultures. It’s only in recent years that is has attracted global attention [R].

Climate change and increasing global food demand have created a need for crops that thrive in suboptimal growing conditions and provide quality nutrition. Quinoa, a stress-tolerant crop with a better nutritional profile than many kinds of cereal like rice and corn, has attracted attention for this reason. It’s now grown in more than 70 countries [R, R].

Its potential to improve the health of undernourished people is supported by research. When 10 undernourished boys from poor Ecuadorian families between the ages of 4 and 5.5 years were fed a quinoa-based infant food twice a day for 15 days, growth hormone (somatomedin C) production increased compared to a control group [R].

Although it’s often referred to as a cereal, quinoa is actually a pseudocereal. Cereal grains like wheat, rice, and corn are grasses, and their nutritional value comes from the grass fruit. Quinoa is more closely related to spinach and chard and its nutritional value comes from the plant’s seed [R].

Although there are more than a hundred varieties of quinoa, only 3 are commonly available in grocery stores around the world: red, black, and white. It’s prepared like rice but, before boiling, all quinoa must first be soaked to remove the outer coating (pericarp), which contains bitter compounds (saponins) [R].

Components

Quinoa is rich in many important macronutrients, micronutrients, and other molecules (secondary metabolites) that can affect human health [R].

Although quinoa is more nutritious than most grains, it shows a lot of variability in its composition. The variety of quinoa and where it’s grown impact its nutritional profile. That means nutrients in the quinoa you eat may vary from the values reported here and elsewhere [R, R].

Protein

Relative to most grains, quinoa has a high protein content (12.9 to 16.5% protein). It has more protein than rice, corn, oats, and barley, and about the same amount as wheat (14.3

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What is Albumin?

Albumin Definition

Albumin is the most abundant protein in human blood, accounting for 50 to 60% of all the protein in the blood. It’s made by the liver, circulates throughout the body in blood, and a very small amount may pass through healthy kidneys into urine [R].

What Albumin Does and How It Functions

Albumin maintains the osmotic pressure that pulls water into the circulatory system. The pressure inside blood vessels exerted by pumping of the heart (hydrostatic pressure) creates a force to push fluids out of veins and arteries into the surrounding tissue. Albumin prevents this by drawing fluids in due to osmosis.

Albumin binds hormones, vitamins, drugs, fatty acids, minerals, and other substances in the blood, carries them throughout the body, and delivers them to body tissues. Albumin has many locations where substances can attach to.

Albumin is also the main antioxidant in blood. It works by binding with metals and reacting with free radicals, which prevents them from reacting with other parts of the body and causing damage [R].

Albumin Is Different Than Prealbumin

Despite the similarity in the names, prealbumin is not a precursor of albumin. Transthyretin is a more modern name for prealbumin. It’s a completely different protein that is found in human blood, spinal fluid, and inside the eyes. It occurs in lower concentrations in blood than albumin and is primarily responsible for moving thyroid hormones and vitamin A around the body.

Albumin Blood Test

An albumin blood test measures the amount of albumin in the blood. Low albumin is common in many health problems, so albumin levels are often checked in conjunction with other tests to help diagnose diseases, determine if other tests are needed, or to check if treatments for a condition are working. An albumin blood test is a standard part of the following sets of blood tests:

• Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP) for an overall picture of health
• Liver Function Panel to assess inflammation, infection, or liver damage and disease
• Total Protein to check nutrition, general health, or to diagnose liver and kidney diseases
• Renal Panel

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