RE: GABA for the aging brain?

From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon May 05 2003 - 16:38:19 MDT

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    Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:

    > The idea of selective GABA enhancement is interesting,
    > however. Glutamate antagonists do have some neuroprotective
    > effects, so it's conceivable that pushing the GABA/glutamate
    > balance towards GABA with some selective GABA agonists could
    > help. Definitely worth investigating.

    I addressed this topic indirectly in one of the diet threads a few weeks
    ago. I had remarked that ketogenic (Atkins-style) diets starve the brain of
    its much loved glucose. Anders remarked that glucose is helpful for memory
    and wondered about the effects of ketones on brain function. I then posted
    an abstract of a study showing that ketones up-regulate GABA and
    downregulate aspartate. I mentioned that GABA tends to dull the mind, but
    that on the upside, aspartate is an NMDA receptor agonist (in essentially
    the same way as is glutamate), so if upregulation of GABA from ketones leads
    to downregulation of aspartate then it could have neuroprotective
    properties.

    As the brain ages, glial cells become less efficient in protecting neurons
    from injury from excitatory amino acids like glutamate and aspartate. Back
    in '99 I wrote a fairly in-depth article about this subject as it pertains
    to the dubious practice of ingesting daily megadoses of glutamate's
    immediate precursor glutamine. The article stirred up quite a controversy,
    and even set me at heated public odds with LEF, which sells glutamine as a
    life-extension supplement and whose primary spokesman at the time was a
    proponent of megadoses of glutamine for purposes of stimulating release of
    growth hormone from the pituitary. That article of mine is still posted at
    www.optexinc.com/glutaminerisks.htm. I would be interested in your opinions,
    Rafal.

    -gts



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