Statins may be implicated in neurodegenerative diseases

This post includes a summary of a paper published in Neurobiology of Aging 2010 Sep;31(9):1543-53 and a recipe for slow-cooker pot roast beef.

Study title and authors:
Mevastatin accelerates loss of synaptic proteins and neurite degeneration in aging cortical neurons in a heme-independent manner.

Kannan M, Steinert JR, Forsythe ID, Smith AG, Chernova T.

Books:

MRC Toxicology Unit, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom.

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18951667

Kannan investigated the effectes of statins on cultured neurons.

The study found:
(a) Statins impaired synaptic proteins.
(b) Statins reduced N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor currents (N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor currents help in memory funcion).
(c) Statins accelerated neurodegeneration associated with aging.

To conclude: Statins exert a neurotoxic effect in cultured neurons and may be implicated in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Amyothrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Multiple Sclerosis and Huntington’s.

More information on this subject: Books : Scientific Studies : Other Websites : Videos : Food Mall

Recipe of the day

Slow-Cooker Pot Roast Beef

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

Food Mall: Beef Brisket

2lb beef brisket
2 onions

2 carrots
1 small swede or turnip
1-2 parsnips

Directions:
1.Start by preparing the vegetables. First peel the onions, cut the stalk ends off and then cut into quarters, leaving the root join on, to hold each quarter together (though trim off just enough to remove any actual roots). Discard the papery skin which you peeled off but retain the inside of the stalk ends.

2.Chop the ends off the carrots and parsnips and retain with the inside of the onion stalk end. Cut the carrots and parsnips into 2 inch long pieces and, where the pieces are very fat, cut these in half or (as if often needed with parsnips) quarters along their length.

3.Peel the swede and retain the peel with the carrot ends. Cut the swede into large chunks, about 1-2 inch cubed (to prevent it going too mushy). If your slow cooker is very small then you may want to consider holding back one of the carrots and parsnips and half the swede to make carrot, parsnip and swede mash instead.

4.In a large frying pan, heat a large knob of lard (or use olive oil if you don’t have any lard) and quickly brown the joint of meat all over, letting it stand in the pan on each side for a minute or so before turning to the next side.

5.Place the meat joint into the slow cooker pot.

6.Next, put the carrot, parsnip and swede pieces and the onion quarters into the pan (not the retained stalks and peel) and brown for a few minutes, moving them about every so often to ensure they are lightly browned all over.

7.Add the browned vegetables to the slow cooker pot, filling in the spaces with the retained peel and vegetable ends. Add a large handful of chopped fresh oregano or a couple of teaspoons of dried oregano to the pot.

8.Pour over boiling water until the meat is just covered.

9.Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4 hours. I tend to actually kick it off on high for an hour and then, when I’m going out, move it to low for the rest of the day, which can often be closer to 10 hours before we get round to eating, although in that situation I will drop it down to “keep warm” once I get home if we are past the 8 hour mark to prevent the vegetables turning to complete mush!

10.When you are ready to serve, remove the joint from the pot and stand on a plate in a warm place for 5-10 mins. Meanwhile extract the big vegetable chunks from the pot and put into a warm dish – these are for eating with your roast.

11.Strain the liquid (a tasty beef stock) into a large bowl or jug and pick any big chunks of vegetables out of the vegetable matter that is left which were missed when you were looking for them before. Discard the remaining vegetable mush of peel and stalks.

12.When serving, we just spoon some of this beef stock over the meat and vegetables – we don’t even try thickening it to gravy any more since it just adds the moisture and flavour that we would want from a gravy anyway.

13.After eating, pour the remaining beef stock into pots and store in the fridge (if you’re going to use it within the week) or the freezer.

Slow-Cooker Pot Roast Beef