08/09/2025  Parkinson’s and dementia Drug- Ambroxol – High-risk GBA 1 gene Variant

Researchers at Lawson Research Institute, part of Saint Joseph’s Healthcare, London, have been investigating Ambroxol.  Now you may have never heard of it, but it’s like Guaifenesin, which is the expectorant that you can buy over the counter in the United States. (Think of Mucinex severe congestion).

Ambroxol was patented in 1966 and has been used in medical use since 1979 throughout Europe, India, and Mexico with different names.

Well, both are expectorants and are great at clearing phlegm from your throat and mucus.   To help you not cough up a lung.  Ambroxol has been approved as a safe and effective substance by the European Medicines Agency. Still, it has not been approved in the USA by the Food and Drug Administration, or Australia and Canada.  And to be honest, I can’t even figure out why it’s incredibly safe. And typically, the only side effects are the same for both an upset stomach.  Yet I’ve taken both of these and never had an upset stomach.

Just like My Brain Restore, which comes from a plant seed, both Ambroxol and Guaifenesin were originally plant-based. Ambroxol’s history goes back to Ayurvedic medicine in ancient India. The plant Adhatoda vasica has been used in India for similar throat issues for centuries. In Germany, this plant is still called ‘Indisches Lungenkraut’ (Indian lung weed).  Indian lung weed kind of sounds interesting.  Guaifenesin is derived from the guaiac tree, a plant native to the Caribbean and South America. 

While they are both similar and their function of cutting down on mucus and making it easier to swallow… yeah, that’s a little disgusting, but you don’t want it stuck in your throat, right?

The difference is that Ambroxol has a local anaesthetic effect, and Ambroxol is also anti-inflammatory, reducing redness in a sore throat. It reduces the release of inflammatory cytokines and histamines in cell cultures. It also acts as an antioxidant, scavenging free radicals and hypochloric acid generated by neutrophils.  Ambroxol has recently been shown to increase the activity of the lysosomal enzyme glucocerebrosidase. Because of this, it may be a helpful therapeutic agent for both Gaucher disease and Parkinson’s disease. 

Published in JAMA Neurology, they did a 12-month clinical trial with 55 participants with Parkinson’s disease and/or dementia.  One group got Ambroxol, and the other group got the placebo (sugar pills).  Now you know why I don’t want to be in a clinical trial, I’d rather get the stuff that works with my luck, I get the placebo, all the work for nothing, no direct benefit to me. 

As anticipated, the people who got the sugar pills, placebos, did not get any better; as a matter of fact, they got worse.   But the people who received Ambroxol showed improvement if they had the high-risk GBA 1 gene variant.   Other Parkinson’s people, it seems, stayed stable; in other words, they didn’t get any worse, but they didn’t get cured either.   This might be helpful for some if they use My Brain Restore as the heavy lifter, and then Ambroxol would help the mechanism in the brain that works like a dishwasher cleaning of the brain. 

It should be noted that a company called Herbs Forever (Amazon) processes a product called Vasaka, which is made from the leaves of the “Ambroxol” plant.   It comes from India, but is shipped here in the US. It contains Vasaka (Adhatoda Vasika) Leaves.  It requires a more complicated process to make it. It seems that it is pre-steamed before they grind it. To make it, you have to add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of powder to water on medium heat. Then, let the initial 120 milliliters of water condense right down to 20 to 30 milliliters. After that, it must be cooled and strained.   They stayed cautious, as it should not be used on pregnant or lactating women or children.    Their instructions are somewhat confusing, if not contradicting.  In a white box, “ the label says many plants and herbs may have volatile oils in their natural for,m which is an integral part of the plant that accounts for its efficiency and potency” Then if you cook it the boil away more than half its water doesn’t that get rid of the volatile oils that you want?   In my brain, we keep everything away from hot water. Even when we mill the My Brain Restore, we keep it as cold as possible, not cold milling, which is common, but Ultra Chill milling.  Well, in its natural form, this company seems to steam it first, which I’m sure kills any organisms because it’s a leaf, and then asks you to boil it further. It just seems counterproductive to their statements.