Brain chemistry that affect

Treatment of aminoacidurias with a low-protein diet may influence brain chemistry. It should be emphasized that the treatment of the patient with an aminoaciduria may affect brain chemistry, perhaps in an adverse manner. Nearly all patients receive a low-protein diet. Indeed, undiagnosed patients sometimes avoid consumption of protein, which they feel intuitively can cause lethargy, headache, nausea and mental confusion. As dietary protein declines, the intake of carbohydrate frequently increases. The concomitant rise of endogenous insulin secretion favors an increase in the ratio of the concentration of blood tryptophan to that of other amino acids, thereby promoting the entry of tryptophan to the brain. The latter amino acid is precursor to brain serotonin, which tends to increase. This physiology is known to be operative in patients with urea cycle defects. 

My conversations also revealed that resistance to psychiatric medications is tied up in complex ways with people s feelings about altering their minds and brains. Although many classes of medication affect brain chemistry, there is something especially frightening about using drugs that mess around with my brain ... 

Drugs that affect the brain must act in complicated ways as well. These complications mean, at least in the author s opinion, that there will always be side effects that limit a drug s usefulness and effectiveness—including any present or future lifestyle drugs that supposedly alter personalities. Brain chemistry is a frontier of science in which... 

Some researchers believe the reason some abused children develop MPD may have a biological basis. Studies of how brain chemistry affects memory indicate that when an intensely traumatic experience occurs, the brain s neurochemicals may be released in such large amounts they influence the area of the brain responsible for memory to pigeonhole what is remembered into separate compartments. Depending on their individual brain chemistry, some human beings may be better able to disassociate than others. About a third of people with MPD have complex partial seizures of the right temporal lobe of the brain. Some researchers think this form of epilepsy might also affect memory and be yd another cause for the disorder. 

Illnesses and conditions that affect neurochemistry, but do not affect cognitive functioning. The latter two conditions include primary disorders of the nervous system (such as brain tumors and degenerative diseases) and a host of systemic illnesses that indirectly influence brain chemistry. 

Greater understanding of the use of these neurochemicals and the newer medications that enhance this response is helping to maximize what we know about the brain, thereby enabling the restoration of normal brain chemistry. When a neurotransmitter s level is too high or too low (by as little as 5 or 10%), it can affect the way other neurotransmitters work (Kotulak, 1997) and can trigger a major chemical chain reaction that affects or contributes to a range of mental health behaviors. 

Depression is a holistic illness that affects every aspect of who we are as human beings. It only makes sense to address it from every available angle, both with regard to our bodies and brain chemistry and vis-i-vis our psyches and spirits. So in this book, I offer you a revolutionary model for treating depression, one that integrates physical, mental, and spiritual approaches to help you discover the chemistry of joy —that mysterious mix of body, mind, and spirit that Thoreau called the condition of life. ... 

But beyond what we re bom with come the choices we make and the world we re surrounded by. The poor quality of food available to most of us—vegetables and fmits grown in mineral-depleted soil animal products laced with hormones processed foods laden with refined sugars and saturated in unhealthy fats industrial, agricultural, and environmental toxins—threatens our mental as well as our physical health. Our brain is literally affected by the poisons that surround us, which promote inflammation, impede adrenal gland function, and burden our brain chemistry in a thousand different ways. 

Since these first studies in 1983, many new radioactive tracers have been developed to study brain chemistry. They are used in the development of new drugs that affect mental activity. To visualize brain structure together with brain chemistry, we now fuse computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images with PET and SPECT images. CT and MRI provide exquisite structural detail, whereas PET and SPECT make it possible to measure molecular processes within well-defined structures. 

Many of the 80 million baby boomers born in the United States between 1946 and 1964 have had their lives affected by drugs, including Ritalin, Prozac, lipton, and Elvira. We need better understanding of the biochemistry of these drugs and their effects on behavior. Well-planned, ethical research relating brain chemistry and behavior can be carried out in the criminal justice system, although some daim that prisoners can never give truly informed consent to such research. 

Over a century before, Marie Curie had expressed her hope that scientific knowledge would someday result in a decrease in violence, war, and poverty. We do not need to know how the brain works to be able to learn how drugs affect brain chemistry. 

The chemistry of the brain and central nervous system is affected by a group of substances called neurotransmitters, substances that carry messages across a synapse from one neuron to another Several of these neurotransmitters arise from l tyrosine by structural modification and decarboxylation as outlined m Figure 27 5... 

Just how food and drugs affect the brain is the focus of this book, and in subsequent chapters we examine the details underlying the specific mechanisms involved in this process. But to ground that discussion, we need first to consider some very basic anatomy and chemistry involving the brain and to generally define the key mechanisms involved in brain—drug interactions. 

Strong et al. 1996). Studies in these animals indicate that exposure to aluminum can affect permeability of the blood-brain barrier, cholinergic activity, signal transduction pathways, lipid peroxidation, and glucose metabolism, as well as interfere with metabolism of essential trace elements (e.g., iron) because of similar coordination chemistries and consequent competitive interactions. Signal pathways are important in all cells and control differentiation and proliferation, neurotransmitter release,... 

---