From: login23x@gmail.com   
      
   Two Foods That May Sabotage Your Brain   
   By Kelly Brogan, MD   
      
   Could there be a food-based cure for schizophrenia, bipolar, and depressive   
   disorders?    
      
   It is my firm conviction that diet – both what it may be deficient in as   
   well as its potential toxicity – can cause what we label as mental illness.   
   In medical school, we learn about the mental repercussions of nutrient   
   deficiencies such as Beriberi (   
   thiamin), Pellagra (niacin), and B12-deficiency induced dementia. We know that   
   minerals such as magnesium and zinc are critical cofactors for basic   
   functions, and that fatty acids are essential in the support of cell membrane   
   health.   
      
   I believe in a partnership with my patients; however, my most paternalistic   
   mandate, as a psychiatrist, is that of a gluten and casein free dietary trial.   
      
   What’s that? they often ask.   
      
   Gluten, from the Latin, “glue” is a composite of proteins comprised of   
   gliadin and glutenin, found in wheat, with similar ‘glutinous’ proteins   
   known as prolamines found in related grains such as rye (secalin), corn   
   (zein), and barley (horedin),    
   and casein is the name for a family of proteins in mammalian milk.  How does   
   this relate to the average patient scheduling an appointment with a   
   psychiatrist? Is it possible that our modern, post-industrial foods – sugar,   
   gluten, processed dairy, and    
   genetically modified soy and corn are conspiring with nutrient deficiencies in   
   an incendiary collaboration that will give rise to gut/brain pathology?   
      
   Gut-Brain Axis   
      
   If we accept an inflammatory model of mental illness as having the strongest   
   prospects for guiding preventive medicine interventions and non-toxic,   
   reparative treatment approaches, then we must look at underlying drivers of   
   inflammation.   
      
   Immune activating and inflammatory proteins, such as those found in wheat and   
   dairy products, may be critical triggers to consider. One of the mostly highly   
   processed foods in our diet –  wheat – is almost exclusively rendered as   
   high-glycemic flour,    
   prepared with sugar, and often genetically modified vegetable oils which are   
   oxidized (rancid). Dairy is homogenized and pasteurized, creating a dead,   
   high-sugar liquid with distorted fats, denatured proteins and unabsorbable or   
   thoroughly destroyed    
   vitamins.   
      
   Cross-reactivity and stimulation of antibody response by foods like dairy,   
   oats, corn, millet was examined in this study, suggesting that there is   
   important overlap between grains and dairy. Why and how would these foods   
   cause the problems that they do?    
   There are a number of identified reasons for the disturbances caused by   
   America’s darling duo, cheese and bread:   
      
   Fire in the Hole   
      
   Lectins in grains and nightshade plants, and proteins in dairy and gluten –   
   namely casein, gliadin and glutenin – can trigger intestinal changes, local,   
   and systemic inflammation. Only recently have we begun to understand how and   
   why. In the case of    
   gluten, zonulin-mediated permeability affords gut contents, including   
   bacterial toxins, access to the bloodstream, where they can play a significant   
   role in driving inflammation and associated psychiatric symptoms, as discussed   
   here.   
      
   Bugging the Bugs   
      
   It turns out that diet can be a major determinant of what bugs are most active   
   in our guts, and that the bacteria in our guts may also determine the degree   
   to which we are sensitive to local inflammatory effects of gluten. Gut   
   bacteria are the    
   gatekeepers sounding the alarm by sending inflammatory messages to the rest of   
   the body including the brain.   
      
   Molecular mimicry   
      
   When the immune system reacts to a perceived threat such as a food protein,   
   antibodies formed in response may also bind to tissue in glands and organs   
   that share overlapping amino acid sequences. Antibodies can be formed against   
   brain cells, specifically,   
    at times with permanent resultant damage. A study of 400 volunteers found   
   that half of those who reacted to wheat also reacted to brain-based peptides,   
   and the same was found in the subgroup reacting to dairy, suggesting a   
   clustering of reactivity to    
   both brain tissue and these foods.   
      
   The Pleasure of Pizza   
      
   Digested proteins from cow dairy and gluten, termed exorphins, interact with   
   opiate receptors in the brain, which accounts for the potentially addictive   
   quality of these foods, and the associated withdrawal when they are taken off   
   the menu.   
      
   What does the evidence suggest?   
      
   Research into the etiology or cause of syndromes centers around two primary   
   outcomes of interest – associative data that suggests a relationship between   
   an exposure and a cluster of symptoms (% of people with gluten sensitivity who   
   have psychiatric    
   problems), and treatment data that suggests a causative role for that exposure   
   based on the therapeutic effects of its removal (cutting out dairy leads to   
   treatment of depression).   
      
   Suspect # 1: Gluten   
      
   Assessment of psychiatric pathology in celiac patients has supported a   
   statistically significant incidence of anxiety (panic), depression (21% in   
   this study), bipolar patients, and schizophrenia (27% in this study).[1] When   
   we consider the available    
   evidence base, we have to zoom out to appreciate its inherent limitations –   
   antibody-mediated immune response is just one mechanism by which the body can   
   be alerted to a perceived threat. If you ask to be screened for gluten   
   intolerance, that screening    
   will typically include antibodies to only alpha gliadin, endomesial antibody,   
   and one type of tissue transglutaminase. This testing neglects the role of the   
   innate immune system in non-celiac gluten enteropathy, an inflammatory   
   disorder that often has    
   extra-intestinal manifestations. According to gluten-researcher, Dr.   
   Hadjivassiliou, “gluten sensitivity can be primarily, and at times,   
   exclusively, a neurological disease”.   
      
   Since 1953, there have been observations linking schizophrenia and Celiac   
   disease, suggesting that the role of the immune system plays prominently in   
   this poorly understood disorder.   
      
   A recent study contributes to the literature suggesting a bidrectional   
   relationship between schizophrenia and autoimmune diseases. In this Danish   
   cohort, individuals with schizophrenia and infectious exposures    
   hospitalization), the incidence of    
   autoimmune disease was almost 3x as frequent.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)