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D-Ribose linked to Memory Loss, Anxiety, & Aβ-like deposits associated with Alzheimer’s in Mice

2Cor.12:19

Senior Member
Messages
280
Hello - Just wanted to pass this along. I've been taking 5gm of D-Ribose twice daily for 4 years and was recently diagnosed with mild memory loss and polyneuropathy. Albeit, there are a number of factors that could be causing this. Nevertheless, the risk of developing full on dementia, especially considering my brother has Alzheimer's and my mother died from dementia, far outweighs the benefit of the relatively small increase in energy it provides. And besides, D-Ribose is expensive.

"Intraperitoneal injection of D-Ribose causes memory loss and brain inflammation in mice. ... We found that long-term oral administration of D-Ribose impairs spatial learning and memory, accompanied by anxiety-like behavior. Tau was hyperphosphorylated at AT8, S396, S214 and T181 in the brain.Oct 7, 2015

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4741441/

https://www.nature.com/articles/cddis201489
 
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Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,820
I wonder why neither of these papers mention anything about the potential dangers of D-ribose supplementation? D-ribose in doses of 5 grams or so are used as a sports supplement, and it is also used as a sugar substitute. You would think that the studies would say something like "given these findings, use of D-ribose as a supplement should be questioned".

And I can find very little online about possible risks or side effects of D-ribose; though this site mentions the memory loss issue when this supplement is taken for a long time.



In terms of the doses used in the study: the paper says:
Mice treated with D-Ribose (3.75 g/kg·d) exhibited learning and memory decline and anxiety-like behavior, accompanied by Aβ-like deposition and Tau hyperphosphorylation in their brain, especially the hippocampus.

Converting the mouse 3.75 grams/kg daily dose to an equivalent human grams/kg dose is achieved by dividing by 12.3, to give a 0.3 grams/kg human dose.

So for an 80 kg human, that is a daily oral dose of 24 grams of D-ribose.

By comparison, when used as an ME/CFS PEM treatment, doses of 5 grams three times daily are typical.


It's worth noting though that on the Morris water maze test, there was also some reduction in ability when the mice were given glucose at 4.5 grams/kg (see 5th red bar in graph below), although the reduction in ability was worse with 3.75 grams/kg D-ribose (3rd red bar). The 1st red bar represents the control mice.


Morris water maze test for mice given D-ribose and glucose:
Morris Water Maze.png

Source: here
 
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Rufous McKinney

Senior Member
Messages
13,216
You would think that the studies would say something like "given these findings, use of D-ribose as a supplement should be questioned".

So many of the science papers now seem written in a manner that virtually no practical commentary is provided.
 

2Cor.12:19

Senior Member
Messages
280
@Hip - thanks for figuring out the equivalent - 24 gm really isn't all that much more by comparison since I was taking 10-15 gm a day. I had read the Pros and Cons article too but have no idea who mans that sight and where they got their info from. All that sciencey stuff is above my pay-grade. LOL!

@Rufous McKinney - I agree about the lacking practical commentary - I know this little study isn't much, but I guess you gotta start somewhere. But it was enough to make me toss it and save myself $20 a month. I've been without any D-Ribose for 4 days now and so far my fatigue isn't any worse.
 

godlovesatrier

Senior Member
Messages
2,536
Location
United Kingdom
Crikey. This comes up as the highest scoring item on microbiome precription to correct my brainfog. By increasing e.coli which it turns out is now at zero :(

Amongst other things. Well thankfully it only cost me £9