Glutamate & AEDs

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy Forums

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy forums - a peer support community for folks dealing (directly or indirectly) with seizure disorders. You can visit the forum page to see the list of forum nodes (categories/rooms) for topics.

Please have a look around and if you like what you see, please consider registering an account and joining the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no ads, access to members only (ie. private) forum nodes and more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

Zoe

Alternative Research Encyclopedia
Moderator
Messages
664
Reaction score
1
Points
0
This quote turned up in a search today:Glutamine

Possible Harmful Interaction

The amino acid glutamine is converted to glutamate in the body. Glutamate is thought to act as a neurotransmitter (chemical that enables nerve transmission). Because anticonvulsants work (at least in part) by blocking glutamate pathways in the brain, high dosages of the amino acid glutamine might theoretically diminish an anticonvulsant's effect and increase the risk of seizures.[end quote]
http://www.jigsawhealth.com/nat.aspx?&chunkiid=21526

If blocking glutamate improves seizure control, why not more emphasis on getting the glutamate out, gluten free diet, GARD diet, MSG, for starters. Duh, why wasn't this obvious to me ten years ago?
:mrt:
 

Thanks for the links Andrew. All the more reason to look at diet when seizures develop. Diet might be an effective, and safer means to reduce excess glutamate than drugs.
If a toxic reaction to gluten, so common in our diets, leads to excess glutamate release in the brain, wouldn't a diet change be an obvious first choice when one shows signs of having seizures?
Here's another link to check out.
http://www.celiac.com/articles/1085...By-Prof-Rodney-Ford-MB-BS-MD-FRACP/Page1.html
And it isn't only the glutens found in wheat, barley and rye, but other foods contain high levels of glutamate which may be a problem for folks who develop seizures. In this respect, DogtorJ may be picking up where the gluten free diet leaves off.
Something that really needs consideration in this topic is that gluten intolerance is a well recognized cause of seizures. It may be for many that seizures are the symptom of gluten toxicity and removing the gluten should be the first choice.
 
Last edited:
If blocking glutamate improves seizure control, why not more emphasis on getting the glutamate out, gluten free diet, GARD diet, MSG, for starters. Duh, why wasn't this obvious to me ten years ago?
:mrt:

I'm all for having my daughter try a gluten free diet and eliminating excitotoxins (we already try to avoid them), but if glutamate also comes from legumes like lentils and beans I don't see how she could possibly go without eating them. She's a vegetarian and lives on lentils and beans.
 
I am a vegan and I also eat beans and lentils throughout the week which has been working fine for me. I will say this about "glutamate"I experimented with the supplement prior to lifting (weights) because at the time I had read good things about it for weight lifters. After the workout I felt my aura which gave me enough time to lay myself down because I knew what was coming. Glutamate is not something I will ever experiment with again! This may not be the case for every other person who takes glutamate but this has been my experience with the supplemental form.

ST
 
Just heard a fantastic talk on youtube by a neurosurgeon called Dr Russell Blaylock about glutamate and msg and the effect on the brain. For those of you with TLE, he said that the temporal lobe is one of the most sensitive areas of the brain to glutamate. His book/ talk is called excitotoxins the taste that kills. Very informative.
 
Back
Top Bottom