Exploring the Gut-Brain Connection and Photosensitivity

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I'm not sure how this study supports your claims. Have you read the original study? It gives you a more accurate idea of what is going on there. Essentially, they've not uncovered anything new. They've known all along that the vagus nerve communicates information to the brain. That was never in question (else why would the vagus nerve traverse so many organs? Why would it even exist?). This was an animal study, something extremely preliminary, and the results show that the vagus nerve might modulate fear and anxiety, and not, as the article says, 'convey gut feelings to the brain.' The study also explains the hypothesis behind the results, which don't fit in with the idea you're selling.

But let's just say that the study does say what you want it to say: that the vagus nerve has been absolutely proven to send emotions from the gut to the brain. You're still met with the correlation vs causation problem. That a lot of murderers ride buses doesn't prove that buses cause murders. If the vagus nerve had been proven to send emotions from the gut to the brain, it doesn't mean that the gut causes epilepsy.

And let's say that the study did show that a severed vagus nerve affected emotions. How would we know why, unless we understood the chemical and physiological make up of mice and all the things the vagus nerve does? What does a cut vagus nerve do to the chemical balance of the body and the functions of the parasympathetic system, given that it's an imperative part of that system? What happens when it doesn't traverse the heart, which it helps regulate? What happens when there is no fully functioning vagus nerve to govern reflexes, given that it's a part of those functions?
 
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The age old epilepsy remedy of fasting was a crucial part in halting my dog's horrific 3 day seizure clusters to one seizure.

Here's some new science about how the immune system is improved by fasting, though I also believe halting clusters via fasting is about resting inflamed intestine:
http://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-triggers-stem-cell-regeneration-of-damaged-old-immune-system/

This study is not even near completed yet. The results are, according to its own researchers, inconclusive. Also, the fasters had an immediate rebound after the fasting period.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7858000
 
How might microbial free fatty acids affect the endocrine system which regulates blood sugar? Do they run the show?

If you eat salt, aldosterone is inhibited which raises cortisol.
Anti-inflammatory cortisol stimulates the liver to make glucose using free fatty acids in gluconeogenesis, the byproduct of which is ketones.

Who's making your free fatty acids? Not just you. Microbial production of free fatty acids is underappreciated. They drive ketone production. In the case of microbial overgrowth, this may lead to diabetic ketoacidosis. There are ways to dampen free fatty acid production so that sugar is not turned to fat . . . as well as for the avoidance of hypoglycemic seizure.

So, does consuming salt actually raise blood sugar? How ironic!

Aldosterone is associated with salt. This study found "epilepsy cases with positive treatment effects, deviations from normal were seen only for aldosterone." Once when my dog was in the middle of a seizure cluster, I gave her a small amount of broth with a lot of sea salt. She all of a sudden became completely normal and played ball like a puppy in the backyard. It was absolutely like night and day. The effect was temporary, but from then on I began salting her food.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11055-013-9750-z

The question becomes, what regulates aldosterone? There are several scientific papers about free fatty acids (FFAs) regulating aldosterone. What's not generally recognized is that FFAs are products of microbes. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/095232789390008K
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4757-2582-7_6
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0952327895900136

So, is this how salt raises blood sugar, by raising cortisol via lowering aldosterone? Maybe salt before bed would be a good idea to avoid late night/early morning seizure due to hypoglycemia. This is just a patch in light of microbial free fatty acids (FFAs) regulating both aldosterone and cortisol. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3020116

These metabolic issues are serious business, matters of life and death.
1972, Serum Cortisol, Plasma Free Fatty Acids, and Urinary Catecholamines as Indicators of Complications in Acute Myocardial Infarction
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/45/4/736.full.pdf
"The results of the present study suggest that the generalized metabolic stress of acute myocardial infarction results in elevations of cortisol, FFA (free fatty acid)"

Heart problems long known associated with epilepsy, but the gut-heart connection is only beginning to be discovered:
http://archneur.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=773900
 
Can you tell us how you link heart attacks to perivascular and interstitial fibrosis? Heart failure, perhaps, but not acute myocardial infarction.
 
You've misunderstood my question. You link epilepsy with a trial related to heart attacks, so I'm wondering where you found the link between epilepsy and heart attacks.
 
Thank you kirsten, you makes most relevant points. I especially worry now about how we are quite brain washed by corporations with cookies and now even worse 'scripts' on line that track where you go and send you what they think you should here in your next search. And anyone can write anything they want on line and call it truth.
 
Actually, kirsten, you're missing my point. What I'm linking is epilepsy with microbial imbalance, specifically high microbial free fatty acids which are also associated with heart problems.

Thanks for making the distinctions about what types of heart problems are actually associated with epilepsy, deserving of much more research on my part.
 
Janus, this discussion about gut flora, heart health and epilepsy relates to what we discussed in April. You talked about lecithin as seizure trigger.

Janus, here's another connection to lecithin as seizure trigger I'm just now learning about: cortisol receptors. Have you ever heard of the supplement Phosphatidylserine?

By far, the highest amount of phosphatidylserine in food is soy lecithin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphatidylserine

Phosphatidylserine is said to repair cortisol receptors in the hypothalamus. But there are also intracellular cortisol receptors in all cells, it seems.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...2012118790043X
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...06899312003927

People are using phosphatidylserine to lower cortisol, but it also apparently applies to people with already low cortisol. I wonder if this would be a good thing for you given your sensitivity to lecithin.

Note: what causes high cortisol? Bacterial toxins are known to stimulate cortisol secretion. LPS stimulates cortisol release:
http://press.endocrine.org/doi/abs/10.1210/en.2004-0882

So, here's this relationship between lecithin and cortisol which controls blood sugar.

But there's also the fairly recent discovery about how gut flora metabolize lecithin into things like betaine related to seizure and heart health:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110406131814.htm
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v472/n7341/full/nature09922.html
http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2011/04/cleveland_clinic_researchers_f_2.html
 
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Janus, I was doing some reading today and the thought crossed my mind: how much revenue does big pharma bring in annually, and how much revenue does the alternative health industry bring in annually. We're often told to trust the alternative sector because big pharma is profit hungry, and I wondered how profit hungry the alternative sector is. I see that the supplement industry brings in $2 million annually, but I don't have the reference to check whether that's in the U.S. or worldwide. But I'm very interested in this question, so I'm going to look into it when I have time next week.
 
Janus, I was doing some reading today and the thought crossed my mind: how much revenue does big pharma bring in annually, and how much revenue does the alternative health industry bring in annually. We're often told to trust the alternative sector because big pharma is profit hungry, and I wondered how profit hungry the alternative sector is. I see that the supplement industry brings in $2 million annually, but I don't have the reference to check whether that's in the U.S. or worldwide. But I'm very interested in this question, so I'm going to look into it when I have time next week.

Actually I think that's understated. I think the number was 2 Billion dollars. The supplement company Shredz has already topped 2.7 million as of March this year by itself.

Start with the fact that SHREDZ, founded by current CEO Arvin Lal, earned $90,000 in 2012 (the first year of its operation), $5 million gross revenue in 2013 and already topped $2.7 million through the middle of March in 2014
Instagram Marketing Helped Make This Multi-Million Dollar Nutritional Supplement Company

As of 2000 the industry was worth 17.1 Billion according to the FDA & I'm sure it has since risen dramatically.
Dietary supplement sales are reported to have reached $17.1 billion in 2000
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Testimony/ucm115229.htm
 
Actually, kirsten, you're missing my point. What I'm linking is epilepsy with microbial imbalance, specifically high microbial free fatty acids which are also associated with heart problems.

Thanks for making the distinctions about what types of heart problems are actually associated with epilepsy, deserving of much more research on my part.

I'm not missing the point you're trying to make. I'm pointing out a leap in your argument that appears to be an assumption. We can't say that anything is associated with 'heart problems' until we have data that proves that that something is linked with every etiology of every heart problem. For instance, a floppy heart valve is a heart problem, but it is a structural abnormality. It can't be linked to any dietary influences. So in the following quote, you've gone from pointing to heart attacks being linked to metabolic issues, and from there, you've assumed that that means all heart problems, and thus SUDEP, which is, in fact, not linked to heart attacks at all and drawn the assumption that epilepsy and metabolic issues go together. You also seem to be thinking that the etiology of epilepsy is the same as the etiology of SUDEP, which is not the case.

There is a lot of more recent research into SUDEP than the raw data you've pulled up here. But it might be useful to get to know all the different types of epilepsy first, and their etiologies, and why their treatments have, generally, a 70% success rate. Earlier on, you pulled up a study proving that GABA was instrumental in seizure control. If you had the background knowledge about epilepsy, you'd know that most AEDs work by changing GABA levels. It's incredibly difficult to try to understand the cure for an illness when you don't understand the illness. And with epilepsy, there are quite a number of different causes. Earlier, you showed us that you thought all epilepsy was idiopathic. This creates a challenge when you're trying to prove failings in the fields you don't understand.

These metabolic issues are serious business, matters of life and death.
1972, Serum Cortisol, Plasma Free Fatty Acids, and Urinary Catecholamines as Indicators of Complications in Acute Myocardial Infarction
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/45/4/736.full.pdf
"The results of the present study suggest that the generalized metabolic stress of acute myocardial infarction results in elevations of cortisol, FFA (free fatty acid)"

Heart problems long known associated with epilepsy, but the gut-heart connection is only beginning to be discovered:
http://archneur.jamanetwork.com/arti...ticleid=773900
 
Actually I think that's understated. I think the number was 2 Billion dollars. The supplement company Shredz has already topped 2.7 million as of March this year by itself.
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Testimony/ucm115229.htm

Thanks for that. I knew I was swimming in murky water without the material in front of me. I'm glad that we do have access to all these figures. I'm very interested in drawing a direct comparison if it's at all possible.
 
Thanks for that. I knew I was swimming in murky water without the material in front of me. I'm glad that we do have access to all these figures. I'm very interested in drawing a direct comparison if it's at all possible.

More recent figures:
American adults; consumers spent $26.7 billion on supplements in 2009
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/04/what-s-behind-our-dietary-supplements-coverage/index.htm

Just remember that is for adults in the US alone.
 
kirsten, I believe you may be skipping over my links while putting words in my mouth. Apparently, I need to be more clear. I never stated all heart problems are metabolic, not do I believe all epilepsy is, but have you heard the recent trend in thought that cancer is a metabolic disease and can be managed as such?

I'd like to know where you learned 70% of epilepsy treatment is successful and how this success is defined. Is it simply masking the problem with drugs that inhibit enzymes as the top ten pharmaceutical drugs do? What are current intractable epilepsy rates? I think we can agree the problem is huge and treated largely from the neck up, missing the target in my opinion.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3001022/

But back to the heart for the moment and I do know this is sensitive subject matter for everyone here, perhaps especially you, kirsten, as you've talked a few times about your mother's condition. I hope she's doing OK.

Re-posting the following link because what I tried to convey was that free fatty acids are implicated in interstitial fibrosis which is associated with SUDEP:
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/434218
 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7603228
We enrolled 1091 patients with newly diagnosed or suspected epilepsy who attended one of 275 general practices throughout the UK between 1984 and 1987. Remission was analysed in those patients who were classified after 6 months as having definite epilepsy (n = 564) or possible epilepsy (n = 228). After 9 years from the index seizure, 86% (95% CI 81-90) of patients with definite epilepsy had achieved a remission of 3 years and 68% (61-75) a remission of 5 years.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs999/en/
and another example: http://epilepsy.med.nyu.edu/epilepsy-surgery/surgery-treatment-options/temporal-lobe-resections

I'm curious as to why you keep on choosing raw data to illustrate your points? These sorts of trials are useful for pointing out what might be worthwhile studying properly in the future, but they, alone, aren't in any way conclusive. Why are you not choosing actual large scale human trials? If you are, as you say, here to 'explore' rather than convince, wouldn't it make more sense to run all this stuff by in a forum where doctors and scientists hang out? JREF, for example?

The statistics associated with intractable epilepsy are complex, and have been carefully defined according to seizure type, frequency, focus, age of diagnosis and so forth. There are large trials and meta analyses illustrating these issues.

If cancer is a metabolic disease that should be managed as such, can you explain why my mother's five years of chelation therapy, detox diets, and naturopathic treatments only masked the fact that she had fourth stage cancer and is now dying? She's not doing okay at all. But had she continued with her naturopath and homeopath, with her cancer growing at the same rate as it was under their care, she would have died 18 months ago. Because she chose to do chemotherapy ( which really is toxic) and radiation, she is alive two years later. She will die soon, and she is in agony, and part of her body is lame, but if she'd sought allopathic treatment earlier, she'd not have reached fourth stage and she'd more than likely be in remission today. Please don't be under any misconception: this situation that my mother is in today is the very situation that you are selling.

We can agree that the problem of epilepsy is huge, and that it is treated largely from the neck up, and that that misses the target 'in your opinion' doesn't really do enough to topple the hard facts that neuroscience has collected over the last century. For instance, when a neurosurgeon opens up a brain and cuts out a perfectly visible tumour or a perfectly visible malformation, you're going to need some extraordinary expertise to prove that what they're seeing just ain't so.
 
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kirsten, I believe you may be skipping over my links while putting words in my mouth. Apparently, I need to be more clear.

I haven't been skipping over your links at all. I've been reading the studies in great depth. Nor am I putting words in your mouth (unless you aren't reading the studies you're linking to, in which case it would seem as though I was putting words in your mouth.)

Below, you mention how serious metabolic issues are, that they result in heart problems, and you follow by saying that heart problems are associated with epilepsy. Do you see why those two seem to be trying to link to one another? If they weren't intended to link to one another, why did you toss an irrelevant study about heart attacks into 400 posts about epilepsy? I'm pointing out that the first study has no bearing on epilepsy at all, because it's about heart attacks. Putting words into someone's mouth means telling them that they said something that they did not say. I am pointing out that your two studies don't link to one another, which is quite a different thing.

These metabolic issues are serious business, matters of life and death.
1972, Serum Cortisol, Plasma Free Fatty Acids, and Urinary Catecholamines as Indicators of Complications in Acute Myocardial Infarction
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/45/4/736.full.pdf
"The results of the present study suggest that the generalized metabolic stress of acute myocardial infarction results in elevations of cortisol, FFA (free fatty acid)"

Heart problems long known associated with epilepsy, but the gut-heart connection is only beginning to be discovered:
http://archneur.jamanetwork.com/arti...ticleid=773900
 
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This is putting words in my mouth:
you've assumed that that means all heart problems, and thus SUDEP, which is, in fact, not linked to heart attacks at all and drawn the assumption that epilepsy and metabolic issues go together. You also seem to be thinking that the etiology of epilepsy is the same as the etiology of SUDEP, which is not the case.

You've yet to acknowledge the study posted twice about high free fatty acids in interstitial fibrosis which is associated with SUDEP.

What I'm "selling" here and elsewhere, including to scientists who may actually be reading these posts, inspiring research, is to pay some attention to the gut and not just the brain in epilepsy. People, perhaps including yourself, have resigned themselves to apathetic treatment of only anticonvulsant therapy. In your own treatment, kirsten, do you pay attention to your gut? In all of our communication, you've yet to budge one inch and give an ounce of credit to any of these thoughts or add anything much more than negativity and tangents to the conversation. And I can do without the personal attacks.

There's plenty of hard evidence the gut affects brain development and behavior, including the same infection found in both gut and brain. I believe these things begin in the womb, a matter of microbial predisposition passed from mother to fetus via placental transmission.
http://www.pnas.org/content/108/7/3047.long
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/05/placenta-harbors-bacteria-may-impact-fetal-health

Very sorry to learn about your mom's condition. Please don't associate my cause with her treatment or illness. They are two different things. And I don't represent the supplement industry, but have you heard niacinamide is antimicrobial and acts on benzodiazepine receptors to raise GABA? Niacinamide raises NAD to fuel cellular metabolism including the Krebs cycle and is a natural component of the body. It's also known to be anticancer. The question to me is, what intracellular microbes are hindering metabolism, doing the backstroke in cytosol of cells? And how might the products of these microbes cause seizure and/or damage the brain including brain development?

What's hopeful about these questions is that through manipulation of gut microbiota via diet and pertinent supplements, it's possible to end seizure disorders and promote healing via brain plasticity. But the ketogenic diet industry has yet to focus on flora balance. By the way, the ketogenic diet is being used in cancer treatment.
 
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