How Nutriiveda, apraxia, autism and the mind may work. Ideas that may help.

[Guest guest]

The ideas below may explain something about how Nutriiveda, apraxia, autism

and the mind work.

Nutriiveda might help because of least three factors. First is the

fish-in-a-barrel, buckshot aspect. Apraxia and autism seem to develop from a

slew of chemical shortages, and Nutriiveda gives lots of the right things to

repair lots of kinds of damage at once. Second, Nutriiveda's ingredients may

include something science hasn't come across or explored deeply, such as

combinations of ingredients that enhance each other's actions in overlooked,

especially relevant ways. Absorption of Curcumin, for example, which

Wikipedia says has a positive effect on neurogenesis and neuron survival, is

increased 2000% around piperine; Nutriiveda combines Curcumin with Amalaki,

which in Ayurvedic tradition enhances both. Amalaki is also believed to give

energy, which can help a person learn more (the Japanese value energetic,

" bright " children).

Third, the whey protein isolate beefs up alpha-lactoalbumin which in turn

beefs up the supply of tryptophan which in ITS turn should beef up the

brain's supply of serotonin, a shortage of which, in ITS turn also, is

suggested as a key factor in ASD problems (1). Serotonin is perhaps the

brain's master integrator (2), a primitive mind before mind. It seems to

enable our attending to the body's immediate concerns, turning down

competing signals. Ideas that follow from these: if serotonin is low the

mind can't focus on focusing, can't learn to " control attention " . If

serotonin is low basic movement patterns, which should have been integrated

into larger ones, appear separately as stimming. Since serotonin regulates

its own production, through feedback, damage to the feedback might lead to

imbalance through excess serotonin.

Serotonin shortages have also been associated with epilepsy, and increasing

tryptophan amount and ratio through alpha-lactoalbumin has been used to

reduce seizures (3). A feature of the cortex and hippocampus seems to be a

balancing of excitation and inhibition, of glutamate and GABA (4). Together

these ideas suggest that an epileptic seizure can occur when one general

kind of signal, e.g. excitation, dominates and nerves start a self-iterative

circle of re-firing. Consciousness is in a way the opposite: the absence of

repetitive excitation. Concepts, one can speculate, also begin as

imbalances of excitation and inhibition, tiny ones, in different parts of

the brain. Imbalances lead, via mRNAs, via early and late LTP/LTD, to the

building of unique signal-paths and nerve networks which underpin

cognition. When large epileptic waves take over, the small paths of

concepts get flooded and the mind blacks out. The large Delta waves of deep

sleep similarly " replace consciousness " . One aspect of autism looks like the

developmental counterpart of epilepsy: if there’s too little or too much

serotonin subtle imbalances between excitation and inhibition may be

overwhelmed, paths can't grow, and mind doesn’t build; an apraxic child

can't catch and bring into sequence tiny details of speech control.

Upsetting the fine balance of signals disrupts both the conscious mind and

the growing mind. Whey and tryptophan may restore the balance.

(1) serotonin:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2730007/pdf/CN-7-150.pdf, esp. p153-4.

(2) Basic Neurochemistry, 7th edition, Siegel Albers Brady Price eds., p239.

(3) tryptophan: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17826001. P Mainardi; the

summary.

(4) The Autistic Neuron: Troubled Translation? R Kelleher, M Bear, Cell 135

10/31/08 p401-6. Also, rapamycin rescuing L-LTP: Reversal of learning

deficits in a Tsc2+/- mouse model of tuberous sclerosis, D Ehninger et al.,

Nature Medicine v14 n8 August 2008, p843-8.

Whey protein isolate supplies all the amino acids. In contrast to milk,

it's made of short proteins that are ordinarily almost completely digested.

Once in the bloodstream tryptophan can get into the brain better if one eats

carbohydrates at the same time -- the carbs kick up insulin which routes

away the other amino acids but lets tryptophan free to get through the

blood-brain barrier. Casein-Free and Specific Carbohydrate Diets, if not

managed well, might at times lead to inappropriate nutrition. co's

alpha-lactoalbumin provides a high amount of tryptophan relative to other

amino acids.

From the tryptophan paper it seems possible Nutriiveda like other

tryptophan-raising products could help reduce seizures. It may alleviate

depression. Perhaps it could ease some seniors' cognition problems.

Serotonin helps control appetite, sleep, anxiety and more, so Nutriiveda's

ingredients could help health management generally.

Caveats to keep in mind:

-- Serotonin doesn't itself make memories so much as facilitate the nerves

that do. If the ideas above are in the right ballpark, serotonin just turns

on the lights and makes sure the teams come to the game. This could mean, if

the brain finally achieves a balance of chemicals that makes partially

recorded memories accessible, that ability seems to surge -- perhaps because

the ability to recall, itself partially a memory, becomes stable enough for

the mind to use. Learning, learning ability, and attitude toward learning

could all improve.

-- There might be as many initial causes of apraxia and autism as there are

chemicals in the brain. It's too much to hope that getting serotonin or

excitation-inhibition in balance will help everyone.

-- Whatever originally disrupted a person's neural signals, the survival of

neurons, the production of serotonin or the supply of tryptophan or other

nutrients will probably continue to be a problem. Leaky gut, yeast,

metabolic upsets, immune problems, toxins, genetic and epigenetic factors

almost certainly need separate work. Will there be regressions? Side

effects? Is the brain working perfectly? Good monitoring, testing, training

and chemical questioning could be important for a long time.

Good luck -

Tim Stearns