Townsend, Alan

In late 2004 it was reported that more than 400 mg of vitamin E per day increased the death rate. This was, of course, contested, for instance, by Wayne Martin and by Alan R. Gaby, M.D., in the February/March 2005 issue of the Townsend Letter... 

Some of quercetin s potentially useful vs. potentially harmful properties have been reviewed by Alan Gaby, MD., in an editorial in the May 1998 issue of the Townsend Letter for Doctors Patients. It acts as an inhibitor for the enzyme phosphodiesterase, and hence may possibly act against asthma. Also, it may act against allergies by inhibiting the release of histamine. Quercetin is also an inhibitor for the enzyme aldose reductase, which is involved in diabetic complications. Perhaps most interestingly, it inhibits the enzyme reverse transcriptase (or RNA-directed DNA polymerase), involved in the action of retroviruses such as the AIDS virus or HIV (and retroviruses may also be involved in cancer formation). 

Digressing in another direction, an editorial by Alan R. Gaby, M.D., appears on page 126 of the July 2002 issue of the Townsend Letter for Doctors Patients. Titled Thoughts on Adaptation and Evolution, the subject of protein-deficient diets is addressed relative to native peoples with low-protein diets who are nevertheless healthy. Thus, the inhabitants of Australian New Guinea, who subsisted mainly on a sweet potato diet chronically low in protein, were obviously strong and healthy. 

M. Coleman III, Fawrence C. Cook, James T. Dobbins, Jr., Michael F. Dube, Curt R. Enzell, Charles R. Green, Dietrich Hoffmann, Paul Kotin, Brian M. Fawrence, Chin K. Fee, John C. Lefflngwell, Chuan Fiu, Robert A. Floyd, Jr., William C. Huffman, Dwo Lynm, C.D. McGee, Alan B. Norman, Charles W. Nystrom, Michael W. Ogden, John H. Reynolds IV, Charles H. Risner, Charles E. Rix, Joseph N. Schumacher, Stephen B. Sears, Jeffery I. Seeman, Carr J. Smith, Thomas W. Stamey, Jr., David E. Townsend, and Jack L. White. 

Cobum, S. P., Mahuren. J. D., Erbelding, W. F., Townsend, D. W., Hadtey, D. L., and Klein, P. D. (1984a). Measurement of vitamin B-6 kinetics in vivo uang chronic administration of labelled pyridoxine. In Chemical and Biological Aspects of Vitamin B-6 Catalysis (A. E. Evangelopoulos, ed.). Part A, pp. 43-54. Alan R. Liss, New York. 

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