Hi Quantum, I have followed a gluten free and MSG free diet for a few years now and it didn't make much impact at all on my POIS symptoms. The last six months I have also been eating only organic and has also hadn't had much effect on POIS. However I do agree it is important to avoid these things.
The most useful diet changes for me have been low GI carbs, low animal protein, low histamine, low fodmaps and avoiding high phenol foods.
I would also recommend this
https://www.holisticheal.com/zinc-lozenges.html to go a long with the nerve calm. I have tried many zinc and zinc+ copper supplements (zinc methonine) and they all did absolutely nothing for me, this lozenge one actually makes a big difference maybe because its a lozenge or because of the other things inside the lozenge, or because of the form of zinc.
Zinc helps to balance excess calcium and excess calcium can work with glutamate to over excite nerves to death. Zinc also balances copper and high levels of copper has been implicated in ADD. Copper is the cofactor that works with the enzymes MAO A and MAO B to break down dopamine and serotonin, so high copper may engender a higher degree of degradation of these two neurotransmitters.
I've attached the symptoms of low gaba and high glutamate below at the end of this post.
Copied from Amy Yasko feel good nutrigenomics companion guide pdf:
"One of the key starting points for anyone on this program, in parallel with the focus on the Methylation Cycle is the recognition of the role of glutamate and GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) in chronic neurological conditions. In many cases, especially when Dr. Amy’s focus was adults in her private practice, merely working to balance glutamate and GABA was sufficient for a return to health. Excess glutamate has been illustrated to be a factor in a number of neurological conditions including Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Huntington’s disease, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), fibromyalgia and CFS amongst others. Balancing glutamate and GABA is the first step of the program. A number of individuals find that glutamate/GABA balance is all that is needed to relieve a number of symptoms. To understand this concept it is important to realize that excess glutamate relative to GABA can over excite your nerves. Glutamate works with calcium to stimulate your nervous system. Some stimulation is a good thing, but too much stimulation can leave you feeling nervous, twitchy and unable to sleep. The goal is to keep glutamate in balance so that you gain the benefits from it without having so much that your system is unbalanced.
One way to visualize the impact of excess glutamate in the body is like a car whose gas pedal is stuck, pressed to the floor. Speeding through life, without the ability to put on the brakes virtually ensures that you will either experience a major crash due to excessive speed or eventually run out of gas. Think of glutamate as the gas and GABA as the brake pedal. While you need the gas pedal to move forward in life, you also require the ability to use the brake as needed to be certain that you’re able to moderate your speed.
Recognize that we do need glutamate as it helps us to think and process information. But too much glutamate will exhaust your nerves to the point of creating health issues. Glutamate is considered an “excitotoxin”. Excitotoxins are compounds that have the ability to overexcite nerves to death. Before you even start to work on your Methylation Cycle you can begin by working on your glutamate/GABA balance. Look to eliminate food and supplement sources from your diet that increase glutamate beyond a healthy level. Look to support with nutrients that help to calm the nervous system including GABA, BeCalm spray, Nerve Calm Nucleotide RNA, valerian root, pycnogenol, grape seed extract, resveratrol spray, CoQ10 spray, All in One general vitamin. For those that are COMT V158M -/- consider theanine.
As with glutamate, calcium is something your system needs. But too much calcium will work with glutamate to overexcite your nervous system. One way to look at the interaction between calcium and glutamate is that glutamate is the gun and calcium is the bullet. In experiments looking at the impact of minerals on excitotoxin death it was found that “Calcium, it appeared, was the culprit. Apparently glutamate opened a special channel designed to allow calcium to enter the neuron, and it was calcium that triggered the cell to die...It appeared that excitotoxins, including glutamate and aspartate work by opening calcium channels, at least on certain subtypes of receptors. When those neurotransmitters are allowed to come into contact with the receptor in too high a concentration or for too long a period of time, the calcium channel gets stuck in the open position allowing calcium to pour into the cell in large amounts” (Russell Blaylock, Excitotoxins the Taste that Kills). Thus, you want to strike a healthy balance in terms of the level of calcium support you are using. Look to support with magnesium, zinc and lithium, which may help to balance excess calcium in the system.
According to Dr. Russell Blaylock, we are often unaware of the issues of excess glutamate until more than 80% of our neurons have been impaired. “What is so unusual about these diseases is that most of the people who are affected by them have lived perfectly healthy lives up until the time the disease strikes, which is usually later in life. The puzzle of what causes these particular neurons to start dying after decades of normal function has intrigued neuroscientists for many years...evidence began to appear indicating that even though the symptoms do not appear until the later years the pathological destruction of neurons begins much earlier, even decades earlier...the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease do not manifest themselves until over 80 to 90% of the neurons in the involved nuclei have died. The neurons didn’t all suddenly die at the same time but rather they slowly and silently deteriorated over many years. The same is true for Alzheimer’s disease. This is why prevention is so important.”
Addressing imbalances in the glutamate/GABA ratio as well as the calcium to magnesium ratio is what I consider the starting point, or Step One of this program. Even in the absence of nutrigenomic SNP information you can begin to work on addressing excitotoxicity in your system. This is a critical ongoing way of life, to keep glutamate and calcium in balance as you move forward to work on the other aspects of multiifactorial health conditions. Excitotoxins will continue to damage more nerves and
wreak more havoc in the body if they are not addressed. Therefore, the excitotoxin imbalance is the best place to start to put the pieces back together. Once excitotoxins are under control, it is easier to balance the rest of the body.
Key Definitions:
o Excitotoxin: A toxic molecule that stimulates nerve cells so much that they are damaged or killed. o GABA: A calming neurotransmitter that is essential for speech.
o Glutamate: The main excitatory neurotransmitter in the body, that is essential for learning and
for both short-term and long-term memory. o GFCF: Gluten free and casein free diet
Printed resources relating to excitotoxins:
• Dr. Amy‘s paper ?The Role of Excitotoxins in Autistic Type Behavior
https://www.scribd.com/document/279780608/The-Role-of-Excitotoxins-in-Autistic-Type-Behavior which explains in detail the damage that excess excitotoxins can have on the body and how it relates to our behavior and health. Learning the importance of balancing GABA and glutamate and limiting calcium is essential to beginning the healing process.
DIET/GABA/GLUTAMATE
Removing excitotoxin triggers from the diet, simply involves reading labels and closely monitoring food and supplement intake to avoid excitotoxins. Some choose to follow a more restrictive diet eliminating Casein and Gluten.
While you may already be on the GF/CF diet (Gluten Free/Casein Free diet which Dr. Amy recommends), and limiting many excitotoxins in the diet there is an additional step to the diet that needs to be made in order for the inflammatory process to abate and the recovery process to begin. This additional dietary step/intervention is to remove/reduce excitotoxins from the diet and from supplements as well. Excitotoxins are: Glutamate, Glutamic Acid, MSG, Glutamine (which converts to glutamate), Aspartate, Aspartame, NutraSweet, and Cysteine. Foods that are especially high in glutamate are: soy, peas, mushrooms, tomatoes, parmesan cheese, yeast, milk, and wheat. A diet high in fermented foods and/or high protein may also contribute to this issue. It is important to be conscious of the total load of glutamate and to think of your ability to tolerate more glutamate, as if your cup is already full to the brim and about ready to overflow.
“In terms of diet, while diet is an important piece, in most cases no diet is perfect and no diet is ever
going to be enough for recovery and every diet has certain aspects that are counter to the program. Basically, fermented foods are naturally high in glutamate that is why they taste good and people want to eat them. The glutamate in fermented food is enough to actually cause allergic reactions is some cases. The normal bacteria associated with fermented foods can actually produce higher levels of glutamate. Where this program begins at Step One with the glutamate/GABA balance, the bottom line is a low protein, medium carbohydrate diet, and in general lower end fat, plus special digestive enzymes to process those fats. I also prefer low doses of specific sulfur donors (broccoli, garlic, wasabi etc.) and limit glutamate, adjusted based on biochemical levels.”
https://fdocuments.net/document/companion-guide-feel-good-nutrigenomics.html full PDF if people were interested.
