In my last post I wrote and quoted about the gut and brain connection.  Having been diagnosed with Bipolar disorder and allergies to gluten, soy and dairy I started looking for more information that my allergic condition could relate directly to my diagnosis of Bipolar.  I haven’t had the biopsy of my intestine to show definitively that I have Celiac disease, but just assume that I can never have gluten again.  Even if you don’t have Celiac disease you should remove gluten from your diet because it affects your brain chemistry and has a narcotic affect on your brain.  Anything that affects the body and brain affects mental health.  People didn’t develop dietarily to encompass a diet that includes grains.  We were hunter gathers up until around 10,000 years ago and didn’t cultivate wheat, etc for consumption.

Below are some excerpts that link gluten/wheat to brain chemical imbalance.  I ordered a number of books that I found while researching and hope to post more about the connection of gluten to mental illness.  Whatever affects your gut, affects your brain.  Below it is mentioned that about 1 and 100 people have Celiac Disease (CD) and that at least 1 and 10 people have gluten intolerance.  I think it is higher and that all people should remove gluten from their diets.  Whether you have Bipolar or suffer from depression removing gluten from your diet can have a positive affect.

Here is some information about Celiac disease.

http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/41/1689/celiac-disease/

Per The Celiac Disease Foundation, celiac disease is defined as follows:
“A lifelong autoimmune intestinal disorder, found in individuals who are genetically susceptible. Damage to the mucosal surface of the small intestine is caused by an immunologically toxic reaction to the ingestion of gluten and interferes with the absorption of nutrients. Celiac Disease (CD) is unique in that a specific food component, gluten, has been identified as the trigger. Gluten is the common name for the offending proteins in specific cereal grains that are harmful to persons with CD. These proteins are found in all forms of wheat (including durum, semolina, spelt, kamut, einkorn, and faro), and related grains, rye, barley and triticale and must be eliminated.”

From Celiac.com comes an easy to read definition:
“Celiac disease, also known as gluten intolerance, is a genetic disorder that affects 1 in 133 Americans. Symptoms of celiac disease can range from the classic features, such as diarrhea, weight loss, and malnutrition, to latent symptoms such as isolated nutrient deficiencies but no gastrointestinal symptoms. The disease mostly affects people of European (especially Northern European) descent, but recent studies show that it also affects Hispanic, Black and Asian populations as well. Those affected suffer damage to the villi (shortening and villous flattening) in the lamina propria and crypt regions of their intestines when they eat specific food-grain antigens (toxic amino acid sequences) that are found in wheat, rye and barley.”

“There does seem to be a quantifiable link between celiac disease and certain mental conditions, primarily autism and schizophrenia, but bipolar disorder is also mentioned. Depending on the study you come away with a “chicken or egg” feeling. Is celiac disease caused by the mental condition, or is the mental condition caused by, or aggravated by, celiac disease? Or is it not a mental condition at all, but other problems caused by the intolerance of the body to the gluten?  It is certainly true that celiac disease causes vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and even neurologic problems. Because of the damage to the lining of the small intestine, the body may not able to absorb all it’s nutritional needs. This includes the absorption of certain medications, which for us can be a huge concern.”

 A very well written and researched piece about wheat/gluten and its affects (‘The Dark Side of Wheat - New Perspectives on Celiac Disease and Wheat Intolerance’)    http://www.sott.net/articles/show/205172 where we find that wheat actually has a narcotic affect on people:

“The Roman appreciation for wheat, like our own, may have had less to do with its nutritional value as "health food" than its ability to generate a unique narcotic reaction. It may fulfill our hunger while generating a repetitive, ceaseless cycle of craving more of the same, and by doing so, enabling the surreptitious control of human behavior. Other researchers have come to similar conclusions. According to the biologists Greg Wadley & Angus Martin:

"Cereals have important qualities that differentiate them from most other drugs. They are a food source as well as a drug, and can be stored and transported easily. They are ingested in frequent small doses (not occasional large ones), and do not impede work performance in most people. A desire for the drug, even cravings or withdrawal, can be confused with hunger. These features make cereals the ideal facilitator of civilization (and may also have contributed to the long delay in recognizing their pharmacological properties)."”

http://www.celiac.com/articles/1085/1/Gluten-Causes-Brain-Disease-By-Prof-Rodney-Ford-MB-BS-M D-FRACP/Page1.html

The brain/nerve hypothesis
“"The symptoms from gluten occur through its action on the nervous system".

I propose that gluten-sensitivity is a brain condition. Each and every organ in your body has some form of brain/nerve control. I propose that gluten can injure the delicate nervous networks that control your guts functions. A malfunction will subsequently lead to all of the gut symptoms that have so well been described. In addition, gluten can also directly affect brain function, which leads to the primary neurological symptoms that are so commonly seen with gluten-sensitivity.[…]

I propose that gluten-sensitivity is a nerve disease. There is a gigantic network of nerves that controls every function that your gut is programmed to do. There are as many nerve cells in your gut as there are in your head! (about 25 billion nerve cells). I call it your tummy brain (or gut brain). Your tummy brain can be directly damaged by gluten reactions. This is the cause of so many sore tummies and bowel troubles.[…]

Reactions to gluten have recently been documented to be extremely common. About one-in-ten people (as ascertained by blood donor studies) have high levels of gluten antibodies in their blood. My clinical studies have arrived at this same high number of gluten-sensitive people. Others have data to show that it is even more prevalent.”

http://www.glutenfreedietbook.com/articles/index.php?article=21

“But CD has other symptoms apart from wind, stomach pains and constipation or diarrhea. Other signs can include depression and other psychological problems. CD sufferers also report sensations ranging from "brain fog" to extreme depression, paranoia and even hallucinations in extreme cases, occurring when they have been exposed to gluten (even in extremely small quantities). […]

Both clinical depression and the even more devastating bipolar disorder (aka manic depression) have also been linked with a similar reaction between areas of the brain called, appropriately, gliads and gliadin or its peptides in the bloodstream. As previously mentioned, CD itself is often associated with neurological disorders. In fact, the Department of Neurology, Tampere University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland reported that as many as 7% of CD patients in their care were detected because of neurological symptoms, most commonly neuropathy, memory impairment and cerebellar ataxia. "In these patient groups screening for coeliac disease with serological antibody tests helps to find patients who may suffer from this disease," they state.”

http://www.celiac.com/articles/21758/1/Gluten-Sensitivity-and-Depression/Page1.html

“After the digestive tract, the most commonly affected system to be affected by gluten is the nervous system. It is thought that depression can be caused by gluten in one of two ways.  

The first area addresses the inflammatory changes gluten can cause. A gluten sensitive individual’s immune system responds to the protein gliadin.  Unfortunately, that protein is similar in structure to other proteins present in the body, including those of the brain and nerve cells. A cross reactivity can occur whereby the immune system “confuses” proteins in the body for the protein gliadin.  This is called cellular mimicry and the result is the body attacking it’s own tissues with inflammation resulting. When inflammation happens in the brain and nervous system, a variety of symptoms can occur, including depression. Research shows us that patients with symptoms involving the nervous system suffer from digestive problems only 13% of the time.  This is significant because mainstream medicine equates gluten sensitivity almost exclusively with digestive complaints.”

http://www.restorativeremedies.com/GlutenIntolerance.aspx

“The vicious cycle of gluten intolerance is not limited to immunological and inflammatory disturbances, it also has a profound effect on various metabolic pathways and intestinal ecology.

The majority of individuals with gluten intolerance have problems with absorption of vitamins and minerals even in the absence of clinically visible inflammation in the intestinal wall. The most common problems include iron deficiency, zinc and copper deficiency, malabsorption of vitamins D and A as well as folic acid deficiency.

Changes in intestinal microflora associated with gluten intolerance result in disbacteriosis and candida (yeast) overgrowth.” […]

“Gluten intolerance can also affect cognitive processes. It has been demonstrated that gluten-derived peptides (gluteomorphin or gliadomorphin) specifically interact with certain brain cell nuclei. Furthermore, consumption of gluten can affect blood flow in the brain's frontal lobe.

The role of gluten intolerance has been hypothesized in the following cognitive and mental disorders:

• Autism
• Bipolar disorder
• Attention Deficit Disorder
• "Brain Fog"
• Schizophrenia”

 http://ehealthforum.com/health/topic25636.html  From a person that posted:

“there is a connection here. i am on a total gluten-free diet, in addition to soy and dairy. i notice that when i eat gluten, in about half a day for the next 2-3 days, my moods are unpredictable and extreme. soy brings out my irritability. as soy metabolizes, it mimics estrogen, which messes up your whole hormone process. as lithium had killed my thyroid, soy was just the poison icing on the cake. dairy makes me sluggish.

i went from on meds for close to 6 years to not having a one by changing my diet. doesn't mean it will work for you. there is a connection. maybe not for everyone.

maybe, just MAYBE bipolar is a series of symptoms brought out be (1) genetic material leading to neurochemical imbalance (2) and extreme and socially-unaccepted allergic reaction or (3) a combination thereof.

i went from close to 10 antipsychotics, antidepressents, mood stabilizers a day to maintaining my mood with this diet modification. i have never been healthier. it's been about 2 years now. maybe the reason the drugs never worked for me was because the bipolar i had stemmed more from the diet side, and if i watch the diet, then all is well.

my GP wrote me off as complaining about too many side effects. after shopping around for a new MD who didn't subscribe to the, 'mental health patients need to suck it up and stop whining so much' school, i found out i was clinically anemic, B-vitamin deficient, D-vitamin deficient, poor liver function, and low in a few other minerals/vitamins as well. after letting my digestive tract heal with avoiding gluten, i have been able to absorb nutrients from food again, and the deficiencies have cleared up. my lithium haze has lifted, the extra antidepressant weight is slowing peeling off.”

Tags: Gluten Bipolar Depression Wheat

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From all the reading I’ve done over the past couple of years with trying to help myself I’ve found that mental health involves full body health – physically, emotionally and intellectually.  This is the first post (hopefully of many) that talks about what I have learned.  It has mostly quotes that show that the gut and brain are connected and that the gut really is a second brain.

When reading the book 'Detoxification and Healing' by Dr. Sydney Baker the sentence below struck me as relevant and started me thinking.  I know from reading that the gut is important to proper health, but gut health and brain health (mental health) are interrelated and need to be looked at closely together if a person has mental problems and trying to overcome difficulties, especially if a person doesn’t want to take prescription medication or come off of them properly.  I think it is one way to mental health that involves a different approach that is more holistic.  A personal example is that I found out that I have hook worm in my gut and bad bugs that really upset my system.  My Functional Medicine provider sent my lab results to an expert and I’m going to be taking prescription medication to help start the healing of my gut by killing the bad stuff.  I’m also going to commit again to changing my diet to eliminate soy, dairy and gluten (all of which I found I have allergies to – see last blog post).

'Detoxification and Healing' pg 31:

“The place in the body where germs are least accessible to control by our various immune mechanisms is the intestinal tract, where parasites and the outgrowth of yeasts are the most common provokers of a hypervigilant immune system."

What is interesting is that the intestinal tract has been described as a major component of the immune system and connected to brain by Dr. Sherry Rogers and Dr. Mark Hyman.  Seems to be that if the gut is bad off and not functioning properly, it sets the tone for a lot of things - not taking in nutrients, proper immune function and maybe a lot more involving mental health.  I think of the Intestinal Tract as the lungs of the immune system: detoxification - riding of toxins etc (breathing out) and taking in nutrients etc (breathing in). Also it seems that the intestinal track is a major weak spot in our system or a potential weak spot because of what parasites and bad bugs can do to our whole body system.

Dr. Mark Hyman in 'The UltraMind Solution' describes the gut as having a 'mind of its own' and connected and communicating with the brain.

pg 194

“We all have had gut feelings. And we know what it is to feel something in our gut. In Japan, the gut is viewed as the seat of the mind and soul. A Japanese business mogul was once asked how he knew whether to do a deal, and he replied, "I swallow it, and if it feels good in my belly, I do it."

Your gut is has a mind of its own...

The "mind" of the gut talks to your brain every day. We are familiar with signals for hunger, or elimination. But a new conversation is being discovered between the gut and the brain, a biodirectional conversation in which the brain speaks to the gut and the gut speaks to the brain.”

pg 198

“The gut has to be completely in balance for your brain to be in balance. The brain experiences everything that happens in your gut directly through nervous system feedback, immune activity, cytokines, and other assorted mischievous molecules made in your gut.”

pg 199

“Dr. Michael Gershon, of Columbia University, has called the gut the "second brain." In fact, your gut has a mind of its own, literally. While it is connected to the brain through an extensive network of wiring and communication systems, it is also the only "organ" besides the brain that has its own nervous system.

We call it the ENS, or enteric (or gut) nervous system, as opposed to the CNS, or central nervous system. The small intestine alone has as many neurons as the spinal cord. Ninety-five percent of the body's serotonin (remember, that's the happy mood chemical) is produced by the gut nerve cells, and every class of neurotransmitters found in the brain is also found in the gut.

The question is how does this nervous system below interact with the one above?

The gut brain actually comes from the same embryonic tissue as the "brain" brain. And it is still connected via the autonomic nervous system-the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves.

Acting completely independently, it has a number of important jobs: it keeps everything moving in the right direction from the top down by coordinating of muscle cells; it triggers the gut hormones and enzymes to be released from cells to promote digestion; it helps keep the blood flowing so that when you absorb your food it can get to where it needs to go, and it controls the immune and inflammatory cells in the gut.

All that happens in the background and is communicated back up to your brain via the autonomic nervous system. Think of it as two independent, but interdependent, businesses that must coordinate and communicate but can act independently.”

pg 201

“The gut immune system "speaks" to the brain, sending messages of inflammation, which increases levels of CRF (corticotropin releasing factor) in the hypothalamus (which, in turn, increases stress hormones like cortisol), and changes neurotransmitter levels.

Your gut is talking to your brain. And when these bacteria are involved, the communication isn't good.”

From 'Detoxify or Die' by Dr. Sherry Rogers where she mentions at least twice that the gut makes up half the immune system, but couldn't find a more complete explanation of the immune system.

pg 80

“If you remember nothing else about the gut, remember this: The intestinal lining houses not only half of the immune system for the whole body, but also half of the detoxification system.”

“But most folks have a hazy concept of what the immune system involves because we cannot see it, we can't operate on it or cut it out or transplant it. But we also cannot live without it, for it is our police force that protects us from invading bugs, cancer cells and toxins. If it fails, we have infection. [...] All disease have aspects of immune dysfunction. Furthermore, half of the immune system for the entire body lies inside the gut lining, which is why gut health is so important to recovery from anything.”

In 'Detoxification and Healing' by Dr. Sydney Baker he talks about the immune system, which I take to equate in large part to the gut or intestinal tract from what Rogers' says, but I haven't tracked down more information.

pg 5

“When our immune system detects something, the process is very much like such an unconscious effect of an odor. It all happens, so to speak, beneath the radar of your central nervous system, but it is still a kind of perception that sets your chemistry in motion. So far I have made the point that memory resides in the central nervous and immune systems, which are the home of the body's permanent cells. Now I am saying that the brain and immune system share another function: perceiving the world.”

pg 6

“Immune function and central nervous function are identical. Each perceives and each remembers. We use the word recognition with equal comfort in describing activities (perception and memory) shared by the brain and immune system. The only difference, except for anatomy, is the size of the objects we perceive and remember.”

pg 8

“A "new discipline" of psychoneuroimmunology has grown up around observations linking the function of the brain and psyche with that of the immune system, which had been considered on anatomical grounds to be quite separate. For example, many individuals who have suffered the loss of a loved one undergo a period of immune suppression during the time of their most intense grief. As startling as the connections between the brain and immune system may be for those of us who have based our thinking on anatomy, we should not be surprised to recognize the immune system and brain as a unit if we base our thinking on function.”

And so I’ve come to the hypothesis that a person who has mental issues really needs to consider diet and intestinal tract proper function because it really does impact mental health as well as physical health because all parts and systems of the body are interrelated.

Also, I remembered the book 'Blink' by Malcolm Gladwell that I read awhile ago and found an interesting quote:

pg 11

“The part of the brain that leaps to conclusions like this is called the adaptive unconscious, and the study of this kind of decision making is one of the most important new fields in psychology. [...]

This new notion of the adaptive unconscious is thought of, instead, as a kind of giant computer that quickly and quietly processes a lot of the data we need in order to keep functioning as human beings. When you walk out into the street and suddenly realize that a truck is bearing down on you, do you have time to think through all your options? Of course no. The only way that human beings could ever have survived as a species for as long as we have is that we've developed another kind of decision-making apparatus that's capable of making very quick judgements based on very little information.”

So finally, I look at the gut as part of or a major component of the “adaptive unconscious” and that a person needs the gut (second brain) to be functioning properly to be able to make proper quick decisions.  The more I read about the digestive system the more I think that most people who have mental problems would be helped if they fixed their gut.

I found this to be an exceptional read about the colon - clear and concise.  It's long, but worth reading to have idea about the digestive system in reference to the above material.

Journey to the Center of Your Colon

http://www.thedoctorwithin.com/colon/journey-to-the-center-of-your-colon/

Tags: Brain Intestinal Tract Diet Health

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I suffer from a mood disorder that was diagnosed as Bi Polar disorder, but feel that I suffer from PTSD from my time in the Navy and severe brain chemical imbalance resulting in erratic behavior and depression because of my time in the Navy (extreme stress and poor sleeping habits) and poor diet.  I'm labelled as Bi Polar by the Veteran Affairs (not trying to knock them, they try the best they can for veterans).  I find that when I exercise, eat right, do yoga, and seeded meditation my brain and body function properly.  A good book to read about broken brains, as the author puts it, is 'The Ultra Mind Solution' by Mark Hyman.  I've also found that diet and exercise aren't enough for me so I'm finally content with staying on medicines that don't make me feel terrible. 

I've been on a number of anti-psychotics and they made me feel suicidal and generally weird.  Recently I completed my sixth stay in a closed mental ward at the VA in the last three years and now I'm finally back on Lithium and a new medication to me called Geodon.  Both mood stabilizers or one of them, not sure since I've been taking them together, help a lot and I'm finally feeling better.  My plan is to be well so that I never have to go back.  Once I start exercising and change my diet etc again I'm sure I'll feel even better.  I took Lithium before but the side affects of constant urination and very loose stool affected my work, at the time, so I had to switch to something else.

About my diet.  Unless I went to a Functional Medicine provider I wouldn't know that I'm allergic to soy, gluten, and dairy.  All or just one of them can affect body and brain function.  I had blood, urine, stool, and saliva done to see what was going on with my body.  I also found out I have hook worm and another bad bacteria in my digestive track.  The provider sent away my lab results to an expert to figure out what medicines to give to me to rid me of the parasites and bad bugs in my gut.  Now I have to clear the medicines with my Psychiatrist to be sure that they don't interact with my other medications.  The gut is very important and in some circles is known as the second brain - more on that in another post.  I think everyone with mental issues should see a functional medicine provider in addition to whatever treatment they are seeking.

The real reason I wanted to blog today, but needed to do a short introduction, is that the VA found that I had a severe deficiency of Vitamin D.  Makes sense since prior to the diagnosis I was sleeping about 12 hours a day.  So once I started taking both vitamin D2 and D3 and then more sun, once summer came around, the depression and severe need for sleep went away.

I continue to try to be well and I'm glad I found NKMT today from reading Joe Pantoliano's wikipedia page.  It's nice to spend 30 minutes or so getting what's on my mind out there.  Thank you for the opportunity.  I'll try to write more, because I've read a lot of books and read a lot of information on the internet.

Tags: VitaminD Diet Lithium Geodon Exercise

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