Why Isn't My Brain Working? A Revolutionary Understanding of Brain Decline

[Gaby]

Or in other words; Creating new and more effective pathways in the brain, through repeated action over a period of time, until long term potentiation is established.

I'm reading this book in conjunction with "The Brain that Changes Itself" and "The Brain's Way of Healing" by Norman Doidge and it is truly jaw dropping to realize what the brain can actually do.

Suddenly all those "miracle" cases of people who healed with meditation and discipline makes more sense. It is inspires oneself to be most disciplined!

There are a couple of articles on SOTT based on Norman Doidge's research, FWIW:

Neuroplasticity - Rewiring the Brain
https://www.sott.net/article/164857-Neuroplasticity-Rewiring-the-Brain

How your brain can heal itself
https://www.sott.net/article/320114-How-your-brain-can-heal-itself

Both articles contain excerpts from each book with illustrating cases.

 

[Cosmos]

[...]Suddenly all those "miracle" cases of people who healed with meditation and discipline makes more sense. It is inspires oneself to be most disciplined!
[...]

Exactly.

All that Information probably also explains partly why Gurdjieff emphasized that a person should divide his days in several activities (in three I think) that activate and train different parts of the physiology (and thus the brain).

As far as I know he talked about dividing a day into roughly three things that should be done:

-activating the thinking centre
-activating the emotional centre
-Activating the moving centre

Back in the days of Gurdjieff, it was also probably much easier to have such daily routines, compared to today. Also the enormous stress levels that people experience today, via almost every aspects of our culture, make it much harder to actually feed our brains, and physiology in general, what it actually needs to function properly.

The essentially most damaging thing to the brain and physiology people nowadays experience almost constatly, is stress, from all sorts of angles. And this already very high level of stress in our society, makes it even harder to engage and practise those pathways in the brain, since people are already so much under stress, that actually engaging in those activities can produce even more stress, compared to reducing it, which would be the normal and healthy way those exerxises do and should work.

In short: We are experiencing, and living in times, where everything is designed and pushed to make our brain and phyiology in general as bad as it can get.

We are living in total chaos and the overloards probably have a very big feast right now, collecting huge amounts of pain and suffering, that get created through this collective stress, on a daily basis globally.

A big mess all arround.

 

[Jacques]

Pashalis, thanks so much for bringing this to our attention. Nourishing the brain, has for some time, been lingering in the background of my mind as something I would like to do but other health related issues have been my focus. Plus, I haven't come across any good sources that are extensive as this seems to be, only the odd bit of info here and there. It ALL ties together however. The pieces of the puzzle come together one after another and here is another piece and likely more.

Looks fascinating and I look forward to checking it more closely. The gargling sounds impressive!

Thanks indeed Pashalis.

I'm reading it right now and it is a very fascinating book.

I really like the way that someone can test to see if he has a leaky brain. Just use Gaba and watch for any reaction. If you feel something after taking Gaba, you most certainly have a leaky brain.

 

[Mikey]

A little presentation from Kharrazian about “Functional Neurology” with interesting case examples:

Thanks for that, very very interesting!

 

[Jacques]

He warns us to be very cautious with heavy metals chelation.

From the book talking about chelation:

Why heavy-metal chelation can be dangerous if you have a leaky blood-brain barrier

In my thyroid book I discussed one reason doing chelation, a popular therapy that involves pulling heavy metals out of the body, can be dangerous. Some people may react to a heavy metal the way one reacts to peanuts or pollen, provoking an immune response. In other words, someone may have a “mercury immune sensitivity,” which is more common than people realize. When that’s the case, chelation triggers this sensitivity, which can be devastating to brain health. This sensitivity is common among children with autism and a reason why they may regress during chelation.

Chelation can also be dangerous in the event of a leaky blood-brain barrier. I would never expose a person to chelation if they failed the leaky-brain challenge. Chelation pulls toxic metals out of body tissues and into the bloodstream for removal. When the blood-brain barrier is compromised, these chelated toxic metals can move from the bloodstream into the brain. This sets off the microglia cells on their endless inflammatory rampage and accelerates brain degeneration.

There are exceptions: In some cases when a neurodegenerative disease is severe and progressed and one will obviously fail a GABA challenge, it is assumed these toxic metals have already reached the brain and removing them might be advantageous. However, for a relatively healthy person who isn’t suspected of having heavy metal toxicity in the brain yet who failed the GABA challenge, chelation can unnecessarily expose the brain to heavy metals.

And a little bit further:

Losing a tolerance to environmental chemicals

The loss of chemical tolerance is a phenomenon both researchers and clinicians have identified in more than a dozen countries and across diverse groups of people.10 These are the people who cannot tolerate common chemicals without symptoms. Gas fumes, scented body products, laundry detergents, fabric softeners, new carpeting, the new car smell, and so on trigger their symptoms. For others, like Jack in the opening story, although a heavy metal or chemical is triggering autoimmunity and inflammation, it’s not clear without testing or symptoms from chelation that one is reacting to a toxin.

For people with loss of chemical tolerance, trivial exposures can trigger a long list of conditions, including asthma, migraines, depression, fibromyalgia, fatigue, Gulf War syndrome, brain fog, memory loss, incontinence, neurological dysfunction, rashes, and so on. These people increasingly isolate themselves from the world and other people. They can’t tolerate many indoor places, other people’s scented body products, or clothes laundered in scented detergents. Even the smell of dryer sheets coming from a neighbor’s vent during a walk makes them sick. It’s common for them to feel increasingly angry at other people, and understandably so. When a scented product triggers a migraine, incontinence, or symptoms of multiple sclerosis, the person wearing it can seem cruel and selfish.

 

[RedFox]

He warns us to be very cautious with heavy metals chelation.

From the book talking about chelation:

Why heavy-metal chelation can be dangerous if you have a leaky blood-brain barrier
[..]
Chelation can also be dangerous in the event of a leaky blood-brain barrier. I would never expose a person to chelation if they failed the leaky-brain challenge. Chelation pulls toxic metals out of body tissues and into the bloodstream for removal. When the blood-brain barrier is compromised, these chelated toxic metals can move from the bloodstream into the brain. This sets off the microglia cells on their endless inflammatory rampage and accelerates brain degeneration.
[..]

[..]

I should think that iodine could cause similar problems, given it displaces heavy metals.

 

[RedFox]

I found a podcast from Chris Kresser on the same subjuct as this thread for those that want to read or listen:

https://chriskresser.com/the-healthy-skeptic-podcast-episode-9/

Studies demonstrating gut-brain dysfunction and its effects on health

There was one published last year in the National Review of Gastroenterology & Hepatology and I’ll quote from the conclusion. It said “IBS is thought to be the result of disturbed neural function along the gut-brain axis.” So that makes it pretty clear.

DANNY RODDY: That’s big news.

CHRIS KRESSER: Yeah, there’s an interesting thing here where for a lot of years doctors told people with IBS it was all in their head. And that’s really not a nice thing to say, but it’s true. The thing is it’s not true in the way that the doctors meant it. You know what I’m saying? They meant you just need to get over this, or you’re just imagining it is what they meant. But what is true is that it is in your head, cause that’s where your brain is. And if the gut is malfunctioning then the brain is involved, and vice-versa. So it is all in our head but not in the sense that we’re to blame for it or we’re just making it up.

Another study in 2005 found that IBS patients have increased activation of pain circuits and decreased activation of pain inhibition circuits. So this is interesting cause, I don’t know if you remember this but when we had Kurt Harris on we were talking about fructose malabsorption and the gas that produces, and the difference in the way that’s experienced with people with IBS and people without IBS. And they found in that study that people with IBS and without IBS had the same amount of gas produced with fructose malabsorption, but it didn’t even bother the people who didn’t have IBS. It only was painful and uncomfortable in people with IBS. And so that’s what this is about here, people with IBS have a decreased pain threshold, increased activation of pain circuits and then decreased ability to turn off the pain circuits.

DANNY RODDY: So they’re just in a hyper-sensitive state?

CHRIS KRESSER: Exactly. Yeah, so it’s not even necessarily the amount of gas that’s produced, it’s how they experience it. And again it’s not their fault, it’s not something that they are imagining it’s a real neuro-physiological pathway. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 2001, this is crazy, 50-90% of IBS patients seeking treatment have a psychiatric disorder. Woah. This includes panic disorder, anxiety, social phobia, PTSD or a major depressive disorder. I mean, if that doesn’t sum it all up, give you some strong evidence for an association between the gut-brain connection I don’t know what does.
[..]

We also know that depressed people secrete greater quantities of inflammatory cytokines than normal people and this has been extensively studied by… Dr. Michael Maes and his colleagues in Belgium, and they’ve published like 40 papers demonstrating that chronic immune activation and the associated increase in cytokine production is characteristic of depression. So you have all those different ways that the gut can affect the brain and particularly inflammation in the gut can cause inflammation in the brain. So the takeaway here is that anxiety and stress and IBS and IBD, the gut and the brain, they’re all part of the same axis, they always go together. Every stressful event that we experience in life increases the plasticity of stress pathways in the brain which means it makes the brain essentially more efficient at running stress pathways. And there’s a saying in functional medicine, fire in the gut, fire in the brain. Which sums it up pretty well. Digestive function will start to fail immediately after the brain starts to fail, and the inter intestinal gut mucosa in the brain themselves don’t have any pain fibers which is why brain-gut, you don’t see people coming into the clinic going my brain hurts. My brain feels really inflamed can you help me? They come in saying I can’t eat any foods, I’ve got gas and bloating, I can’t remember anything, I used to be able to concentrate for long periods and now I can’t, I’ve got cold hands and feet, and I’ve got this toenail fungus and it won’t go away, this is what people say when they’ve got a gut-brain issue. And as a patient or a clinician if you ignore the role of the brain in addressing gut issues, success is definitely gonna be limited. Probiotics, and HCL, and diet are all very important of course. But it’s possible to do all of that right and still have gut symptoms as I’ve experienced directly myself, and as a lot of my patient’s have experienced. So this is one of the reasons that I’m always harping on the importance of sleep, and stress management, and cultivating pleasure, because these are all things that we can do to help our brain function better.

 

[Cosmos]

He warns us to be very cautious with heavy metals chelation.

From the book talking about chelation:

Why heavy-metal chelation can be dangerous if you have a leaky blood-brain barrier
[..]
Chelation can also be dangerous in the event of a leaky blood-brain barrier. I would never expose a person to chelation if they failed the leaky-brain challenge. Chelation pulls toxic metals out of body tissues and into the bloodstream for removal. When the blood-brain barrier is compromised, these chelated toxic metals can move from the bloodstream into the brain. This sets off the microglia cells on their endless inflammatory rampage and accelerates brain degeneration.
[..]

[..]

I should think that iodine could cause similar problems, given it displaces heavy metals.

Yes that could be the case.

As I mentioned earlier:

[...] For example, he makes it very clear that chelation, especially of heavy metals, can be very dangerous for the brain and body when the blood brain barrier is not tight, which often seems to be the case even with people who have a good diet.[...]

He makes it very clear, not only in the book but in his other avenues, that chelation, especially of heavy metals, can do much harm to the body and brain.

Here are a couple of the rather serious statements he makes about it throughout the book:

If a patient has adverse reactions this is simply dismissed as a detox reaction. But the truth is chelating someone with neurological autoimmunity and loss of chemical tolerance can be devastating and permanently destroy brain and nerve tissue.

Why? Because research has clearly found that chelation pulls heavy metals out of body tissue and redistributes them so they make their way into the brain, promoting toxicity, inflammation, neurodegeneration, and sometimes serious side effects.17 18 19 In these cases chelation promotes immune activation from chemical intolerance—it’s like giving a person with celiac disease gluten. Studies since 1999 have repeatedly shown chelation pushes toxins into the brain, yet it continues as a popular practice.20

I learned about chelation the hard way before I knew any better, and these experiences almost drove me to quit. Twice I had referred patients with multiple sclerosis for chelation, worsening their symptoms in both cases. Unlike other cells in the body, your body doesn’t grow new nerve cells to replace destroyed ones, and neurological damage can be permanent. I am emphatic about the dangers of chelation because I want to spare other practitioners and patients from the same experiences.

When it’s safe and appropriate to chelate:

Does this mean I’m anti-chelation? No, I am not anti-chelation any more than I am anti iodine (which you know about if you read my thyroid book). Just as iodine is not safe for most people with Hashimoto’s because it stimulates autoimmunity, chelation is not safe for people with loss of chemical tolerance who have exaggerated immune responses to chemicals.

However, there are times when chelation is appropriate, such as in the case of an acute exposure to toxic chemicals or heavy toxicity. A serum heavy metal test, which most chelation enthusiasts disdain, can help determine toxicity levels in the case of acute exposure.

Also, in some cases when a neurodegenerative disease is severe and progressed, it is assumed these toxic metals have already reached the brain and removing them might be advantageous. However, for a relatively healthy person who isn’t suspected of having heavy metal toxicity in the brain, yet who fails the GABA challenge or shows intestinal permeability, chelation can unnecessarily expose the brain to heavy metals. But chelation must not be undertaken until the person demonstrates the immune barrier integrity and glutathione status is restored, which I will talk about more in this chapter.

A person needs to be healthy enough to tolerate the adverse reactions chelation may produce and always calculate the clinical risk-to-benefit ratio. Make no mistake, there are associated risks and reactions with chelation therapy, such as redistribution of the metals into the brain.

Note: You should never consider chelation therapy until the intestinal permeability test is normal.
Additionally, I use the GABA challenge to assess blood-brain barrier integrity.

Many practitioners default to a standard liver detox or heavy metal chelation when they see these patients, but as you now know, these approaches alone may be ineffective or, in the case with chelation, even contraindicated.

Do not chelate if you have loss of chemical tolerance:

Research has shown chelation pulls heavy metals out of body tissue and redistributes them so they make their way into the brain, promoting toxicity, inflammation, neurodegeneration, and sometimes serious side effects. Chelation must not be undertaken until a person demonstrates immune barrier integrity and glutathione status is restored.

It is quite disconcerting, to say the least...

I did the GABA challenge and I think I failed it, which means that any kind of chelation can be pretty dangerous for the body and especially the brain.

The interesting thing is, that I'm on a pretty strict keto/paleo diet for years now and I still have a leaky blood brain barrier!

Not only that though: I know at least from one other person who lives with me, and is also on a strict keto diet for years, that he has failed the GABA challenge as well, with rather serious symptoms. And another person who is also on the diet, probably had reactions to the GABA challenge as well.

So all the people I know personally, that are following a very strict keto/paleo diet, have failed the GABA challenge! So I assume that most people here still have at least a leaky blood brain barrier, which makes chelation rather dangerous.

It also reminds me of the latest statements Dr. Kharrazian has made, about their latest studies that seem to clearly indicate that people on strict peleo diets can and do still have quite some problems:

[...]

He has worked with very strict paleo diets with his patients for years now. He and his team are also constantly keeping up with the latest research in that department and the biochemistry of the brain and body in general. They also are constantly testing and publishing studies related to it. [...]

Naturally I'm wondering now if the rather heavy symptoms quite a number of people here have had using iodine, is directly realted to a leaky blood brain barrier that Dr. Kharrazian mentions.

In terms of the dangers of chelation he mentiones DMSA:

Glutathione is a safe chelator:

Glutathione doesn’t just protect cells by acting as an antioxidant. It is also a safe chelator in itself, meaning it can bind to environmental compounds and help remove them from the body. Nutrients that support glutathione levels and recycling (which I explain below) have been shown to chelate and excrete heavy metals from the body without displacing them into other tissues, such as the brain.34 Although glutathione does not have the same chelating and binding ability as commonly used chelating agents such as DMSA, DMPS, and EDTA, it is a very attractive form of therapy because it chelates without redistributing metals into other tissues.

Glutathione also binds to metals to form complex structures that are less toxic and immune reactive than unbound metals. These factors make glutathione a preferred source of support for those that have lost their chemical tolerance. Also, glutathione support is available as a dietary supplement over the counter, unlike DMSA, DMPS, and EDTA, which require a prescription.

Loss of chemical tolerance underlies many chronic illnesses today:

More and more people today are showing up in their practitioners’ offices with health problems triggered by environmental compounds. So what do many of these practitioners do? They test for heavy metals and environmental chemicals, which always come back positive, and then chelate the patient using chemicals such as DMSA, DMPS, or EDTA. Or they put the patient on an intense liver detoxification program. If a patient has adverse reactions this is simply dismissed as a detox reaction. But the truth is chelating someone with neurological autoimmunity and loss of chemical tolerance can be devastating and permanently destroy brain and nerve tissue.

 

[Jacques]

I did the GABA challenge and I think I failed it, which means that any kind of chelation can be pretty dangerous for the body and especially the brain.

The interesting thing is, that I'm on a pretty strict keto/paleo diet for years now and I still have a leaky blood brain barrier!

Not only that though: I know at least from one other person who lives with me, and is also on a strict keto diet for years, that he has failed the GABA challenge as well, with rather serious symptoms. And another person who is also on the diet, probably had reactions to the GABA challenge as well.

So all the people I know personally, that are following a very strict keto/paleo diet, have failed the GABA challenge! So I assume that most people here still have at least a leaky blood brain barrier, which makes chelation rather dangerous.

I did the GABA challenge a couple of days ago and I did not feel anything. However my wife did it and she failed it.

 

[Gaby]

I did the GABA challenge a couple of days ago and I did not feel anything. However my wife did it and she failed it.

I wouldn't put my faith in this test. I took GABA years ago when I was very ill and still eating gluten-like foods and other inflammatory foods and it didn't do absolutely anything to me. I know of other people who were very sick who had the same effect, that is, none.

 

[Altair]

I did the GABA challenge several months ago (750 mg) and had breathing trouble for a couple of minutes but no calming effect. Does it mean that GABA did passed the blood-brain barrier?

 

[SummerLite]

I haven't gotten to this material yet but I'm following the thread. I wanted to mention that according to a study I read years ago, speaking on a cell phone (with it close to your ear) for 2 to 3 minutes will start breaking down the blood brain barrier. I know someone that started taking GABA recently and had a noticeable, positive affect. They are also a heavy cell phone user.

 

[Gaby]

I did the GABA challenge several months ago (750 mg) and had breathing trouble for a couple of minutes but no calming effect. Does it mean that GABA did passed the blood-brain barrier?

Not necessarily. I think this test fails in that it doesn't take into account the activity of gut bacteria and the vagus nerve.

It is an interesting concept, but it ignores key aspects of our bodies. See for instance this SOTT article:

For the first time gut bacteria spotted eating brain chemicals
https://www.sott.net/article/321500-For-the-first-time-gut-bacteria-spotted-eating-brain-chemicals

An experiment in 2011 showed that a different type of gut bacteria, called Lactobacillus rhamnosus, can dramatically alter GABA activity in the brains of mice, as well as influencing how they respond to stress. In this study, the researchers found that this effect vanished when they surgically removed the vagus nerve - which links the gut to the brain - suggesting it somehow plays a role in the influence gut bacteria can have on the brain.

There are numerous articles on SOTT on this subject (microbiome + vagus nerve and the effect on the brain). I remember reading at least a dozen or more on this subject.

More info:

Your Gut Can Influence How You Feel: It All Starts with GABA and Serotonin
_http://bodyecology.com/articles/your-gut-can-influence-how-you-feel-it-all-starts-with-serotonin

Gut bacteria have also been found to play a significant role in the communication that goes on between the brain and the gut.

When most people talk about gut bacteria, they are referring to the friendly and beneficial microorganisms housed in the digestive tract. These microorganisms come together and form a community, or what is otherwise known as a microbiome. A microbiome is strong in both numbers and in structure. Gut bacteria and other organisms, whether beneficial or not, adhere together and coat themselves with a protective film.

Within your gut is a large, bustling community of mostly beneficial microorganisms. These microorganisms have evolved with us over the centuries. This is one of the reasons why they have turned out to be so helpful, furnishing our bodies with certain vitamins and supporting our digestive function.

Because the tissue in the gastrointestinal tract is largely nerve tissue, it follows that the friendly microorganisms in the gut would not only benefit the digestive system but also the nervous system.
Just recently scientists have discovered that certain bacteria have the special ability to generate that “feel good” mood.

Some beneficial bacteria that have taken up residence in the gut will actually increase GABA receptors in the brain. When there are more GABA receptors in the brain, more GABA is being put to good use. This is a good thing, especially since a decrease in GABA receptors has been associated with mood disorders, like chronic depression.

In short, it doesn't take into account the brain effect of neurotransmitters in your gut + gut bacteria via the vagus nerve. If anything, I would think that my lack of effect with GABA was a clue about my state of gut health. I had pretty bad SIBO back then.

 

[Altair]

Thank you, Gaby! It doesn't seem to be so simple and has many variables, indeed.

 

[hiker]

Thanks for sharing this information, very interesting and important.

An observation about his mention regarding nerve cells:

I learned about chelation the hard way before I knew any better, and these experiences almost drove me to quit. Twice I had referred patients with multiple sclerosis for chelation, worsening their symptoms in both cases. Unlike other cells in the body, your body doesn’t grow new nerve cells to replace destroyed ones, and neurological damage can be permanent. I am emphatic about the dangers of chelation because I want to spare other practitioners and patients from the same experiences.

I was under the impression that brain/ nerve cells actually do regenerate to some degree:

Brain Fact: The brain can repair or compensate for certain losses, and even generate new cells.

It used to be believed that each person was born with a finite number of brain cells, so if you damaged any of them you operated on a deficit for the rest of your life. Less than 20 years ago, even major players in the neuroscience community believed that the brain could not generate new cells. Similarly, many scientists believed that the brain was unalterable; once it was "broken," it could not be fixed. But recent discoveries have convinced most scientists to think differently. Evidence now shows that the brain remains "plastic" throughout life: it can rewire or change itself in response to new learning. Under certain circumstances, the brain can even create new cells through a process called neurogenesis.

To show brain cell regeneration, in 1998 scientists placed a substance that identifies dividing cells in a group of terminal cancer patients. Postmortem examinations found that the substance was attached to new cells in the hippocampus. This discovery not only refutes the "we are born with a finite number of brain cells" myth, but it also raises hope for victims with brain injury caused from either diseases or trauma.

_http://www.brainhq.com/brain-resources/brain-facts-myths/brain-mythology/brain-myth-brain-damage-permanent

Until recently, conventional medical wisdom held that we are born with all the brain cells, or neurons, that we'll ever have and when they're gone, they're gone for good. Over the last few years, though, researchers have shown that in at least one area of the brain, a region known as the hippocampus, there is continual turnover of cells throughout most of our lives.

_http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20000306/get-smart-brain-cells-do-regrow-study-confirms