I listened recently to an excellent presentation by neurosurgeon, Dr. Russell L. Blaylock on Excitotoxicity, Neurotoxins and Human Neurological disease. Dr. Blaylock discusses in detail the importance of identifying excitotoxicity in the brain and the immune response in the brain. He emphasizes that these two functions occur simultaneously and need to be addressed in order to stop the damage the neurons, synapses and dendrites. He identifies dozens of neurodegenerative diseases that are related to excitotoxicity including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, MS and seizures. Dr. Blaylock reports that anti-seizure medications often serve to suppress excitotoxicity (there is no mention of suppressing immune response in the brain). I refer to both the immune activation and excitotixicity, briefly, in my Ebook “Nutrition for Seizures”.
Dr. Blaylock refers to the young developing brain, citing that from intrauterine through 2 to 3 years of life, children are 4 times more hypersensitive to glutamate excitotoxicity than an adult. This could potentially be a contributing factor as to why some children “grow into” developing seizures.
Dr. Blaylock explains in detail the biochemical process that occur as a result of repeat exposure to excitotoxins and neurotoxins and emphasizes that immunoexcitotoxic process must be stopped to halt the damage.
What to do? Abstain from all excitotoxic foods. Processed, packaged foods can top the list but other real foods (such as parmesan cheese) can tip the list. Dr. Amy Yasko has an excellent list on neurotoxic foods to avoid. The list can be found here.
It’s also important to identify immune provoking foods, possible infections and reactions.
Be well,
Lynn
