Prof. Garth Nicolson introduces his research:
We have been involved in research on the role of mitochondrial function in ME/CFS for some time and have found that restoring inner mitochondrial membrane (IMM) trans-membrane potential is essential. When mitochondrial membrane lipids are damaged, the IMM becomes leaky and the membrane potential cannot be sustained, which results in loss of ATP production and increases in fatigue.
Since 2003 we have published several scientific papers that show that ME/CFS and other chronic illness conditions, including chronic infections like Lyme disease, chronic Mycoplasma and other complex infections, cause IMM dysfunction that can be repaired by Membrane Lipid Replacement (MLR) with NTFactor Lipids, resulting in improvements in fatigue, cognition, short-term memory and mood
Membrane Lipid Replacement: clinical studies using a natural medicine approach to restoring membrane function and improving health by GL Nicholson in International Journal of Clinical Medicine, 2016; 7: 133-143.
NTFactor Lipids is an all-natural membrane glycerolphospholipid product (for example, Patented Energy,). This has been reviewed recently in our article in Discoveries 2016
Clinical uses of Membrane Lipid Replacement supplements in restoring membrane function and reducing fatigue in chronic diseases and cancer, by GL Nicholson et al in Discoveries 2016; 4(1): e54.
There are other potential useful benefits of MLR that we rarely discuss, such as the removal of excess, potentially toxic, cholesterol from cellular stores. (Presumedly similar mechanisms exist for removal of the damaged membrane glycerolphospholipids and their secretion and eventual excretion).
As quoted in an article just published in Lipid Insights by Thomas A. Lagace of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute,
“Phosphatidylcholine plays a critical role in cellular cholesterol sinks that buffer against cholesterol-induced ER stress and assist in the maintenance of cellular cholesterol gradients that drive interorganelle cholesterol transport.”
(Lagace, T.A. Phosphatidylcholine: greasing the cholesterol transport machinery. Lipid Insights 2015; 8(S1): 65-73. doi:10.4137/LPI.S31746).
Phosphatidylcholine is the most prevalent lipid in NTFactor Lipids, and it plays an
essential role in cholesterol transport and its removal at the cellular level and at the organ and systems levels. This may be due to a rather simple concentration gradient mechanism that sequesters cholesterol and oxidized glycerolphospholipids into Lipid Droplets for their eventual removal.
This could explain why our ME/CFS patients have better cholesterol, homocysteine and other blood tests after 6 months on MLR. (Blood homocysteine and fasting insulin levels are reduced and erythrocyte sedimentation rates are increased with a glycophospholipid-vitamin formulation: a retrospective study in older subjects, by Ellithorpe, R.R, Settineri R., Ellithorpe, T. and Nicolson, G.L. in Functional Foods in Health and Disease 2015; 5(4): 126-135.)
Eventually the use of MLR may enhance and hopefully replace costly cholesterol reducing
drugs (with side effects) that Big Pharma has been pushing for some time. For years ME/CFS patients have benefited from NTFactor lipid products without adverse reactions or events.
Prof. Emeritus Garth Nicolson, PhD, MD (H)
Department of Molecular Pathology, The Institute for Molecular Medicine
ME & mitochondrial functioning from ME Global Chronicle No. 17 June 2016 p54
