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How to detect blood brain barrier leak?

R

ramkishore

Messages
43
Hi

How can i find if I have BBB leakage? doctor said he cannot determine it. I was stunned.

I am asking because I always feel something is happening in the center of brian?

Any functional testing to find it? It shall be of immense help to me.

Warm regards
 
PeterPositive

PeterPositive

Senior Member
Messages
1,426
Hi,
I have read theories in this board about GABA and how it should not be able to pass the BBB, therefore if taking a dose of GABA makes you feel definitely more relaxed you may have that problem.

If that's the case then I can join the Leaky-BBB club :) But it should be taken with one or two grain of salts. If you go to the comment section of Amazon or iHerb and read the posts on GABA supplement you'll find most people get a positive effect... do they have all have a leaky BBB? Or maybe we don't understand how GABA works exactly? Plus there's some placebo hidden in there too.

I am not aware of any available test, sorry. Anyways it seems there's people at work on it:
http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/131101/srep03117/full/srep03117.html
 
X

xchocoholic

Senior Member
Messages
2,947
Location
Florida
Hi. I don't have time to fully research but I found 1 article by Dr Perlmutter, renegade neurologist, in a webmd blog where he referred to Dr Fasano as having info on the bbb.

I was looking for symptoms of a leaky blood brain barrier.

I just googled perlmutter blood brain barrier. It was about the 5th one down. You'll see webmd in the web address.

Tc .. x
 
R

ramkishore

Messages
43
PeterPositive said:
Hi,
I have read theories in this board about GABA and how it should not be able to pass the BBB, therefore if taking a dose of GABA makes you feel definitely more relaxed you may have that problem.

If that's the case then I can join the Leaky-BBB club :) But it should be taken with one or two grain of salts. If you go to the comment section of Amazon or iHerb and read the posts on GABA supplement you'll find most people get a positive effect... do they have all have a leaky BBB? Or maybe we don't understand how GABA works exactly? Plus there's some placebo hidden in there too.

I am not aware of any available test, sorry. Anyways it seems there's people at work on it:
http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/131101/srep03117/full/srep03117.html
Click to expand...


@PeterPositive

many thanks for replies.
I will surely test GABA and inform you.

where is Leaky-BBB club? Could not find it.

I am absolutely allergic against gluten. If I eat any wheat I become too autistic that day. Just stopped it. Same is the case with dairy products. Does this mean Leaky BBB?

Oh my God....

I had cold fever at night and today i cannot go to office.Extreme headaches. Oh my God...

Vitamin B1 and B7contains sulphur and the benfo I took is fat soluble and took in > 50 mg. As I am intolerant to sulphur some reaction must have happened in the brian. if I have leaky BBB then this reaction could have happened? any thoughts on this ...

Warm Regards
 
P

Phred

Senior Member
Messages
141
@ramkishore I can't have gluten or dairy either. I've heard quite a bit of anecdotal evidence that dairy causes ataxia which would indicate a BBB issue. Dairy certainly causes ataxia in me.

Dr. Fasano, as mentioned earlier in the thread, is THE Celiac doctor. I don't know how much work he's doing with BBB and gluten, but he's looking into a protein called zonulin that maybe responsible or gut permeability.

If you google gluten ataxia you'll find a wealth of information about gluten passing the BBB. Googling casein (the protein in dairy) ataxia doesn't show as much and leads to many of the gluten ataxia information. They do tend to go hand in hand.

@dbkita used to post here. He's the first one I saw mentioning GABA to test for leaky BBB. Here's how he said to test it:

GABA is only useful if you have a leaky blood brain barrier. To test this take 500 mg of pharmaceutical grade GABA (only) in the middle of the day and see what happens. Do it a second day and see what happens. On day three take 2x500 mg. If the first two days you feel more calm or relaxed or even a bit tired, then you have a leaky BBB, otherwise the GABA will do virtually nada. If you have a leaky BBB then on Day 3 the 2x500 mg is going to probably kick you *bleep* and you will want to sleep or feel drowsy. If it doesn't then you probably have only limited problems with the BBB.
Click to expand...
 
X

xchocoholic

Senior Member
Messages
2,947
Location
Florida
Dr Hadjivassilou probably has info on bbb too. Dr p referred to dr f but i don't have time to google it.

I reacted badly, heart racing, to a small dose of gaba once so I never tried it again. That was 8-9 years ago so maybe I'll try it again.

I had a bad reaction to 5htp too tho but since i wasn't sleeping I just reduced the dose and tried it again. At one point I was taking a total of 300 mg at bedtime if I was wide awake. I still take 10-25 mg for sleep every nite.

I had ataxia that most likely from gluten since I have the dq2 gene. Dr H explains this.

It took a solid year for my ataxia to resolve so hang in there. My white lesions vanished too. I still wobble at times tho.

Tc ... x
 
PeterPositive

PeterPositive

Senior Member
Messages
1,426
ramkishore said:
@Phred

@dbkita

@acrosstheveil

I read the following info :

GABA can cross the blood-brain-barrier, helping to support mood and anxiety.

Source: www.iherb.com/Metabolic-Maintenance-GABA-750-750-mg-60-Capsules/44716#p=1&oos=1&disc=0&lc=en-US&w=Blood brain barrier&rc=313&sr=null&ic=5


When GABA itself can cross the BBB then how can you use it to test Leaky BBB?
Click to expand...

The only fact that it is written on the page of a supplement store doesn't make it true :) Sorry, no offense, I think the current science is not complete about GABA, and I suspect that it can really be active in the brain, but the current evidence says the contrary.

GABA does not penetrate the blood–brain barrier; it is synthesized in the brain. It is synthesized from glutamate using theenzymeL-glutamic acid decarboxylase and pyridoxal phosphate (which is the active form of vitamin B6) as a cofactor. GABA is converted back to glutamate by a metabolic pathway called the GABA shunt. This process converts glutamate, the principalexcitatory neurotransmitter, into the principal inhibitory neurotransmitter (GABA).[34][35]​

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-Aminobutyric_acid

Let's just keep in mind that science is not The Truth. It's what we know and can measure as of now.

As I have mentioned in a previous post, the number of people reporting positive effects using GABA seems pretty high indicating that something is going on, beyond the placebo effect. I might be wrong. Who knows... :)
 
Violeta

Violeta

Senior Member
Messages
2,938
That's interesting that it uses B6! My husband was doing very well on a brand that included B6, but then I bought a more economical powdered form with no b6, and he doesn't seem to be having the same results.
 
SickOfSickness

SickOfSickness

Messages
2,566
Location
US
I assumed leaky BBB in myself. Because of the effects I got from a few supplements and meds that say they don't cross BBB.

Sorry I don't remember which supplements and meds. Googled and found this, I am sure you can find more. "Perhaps you’ve been told that herbal remedies such as teasel, cat's claw, or samento, where good for Lyme.While some people have found them symptomatically helpful, their molecules cannot cross the blood-brain-barrier either."
 
R

ramkishore

Messages
43
SickOfSickness said:
I assumed leaky BBB in myself. Because of the effects I got from a few supplements and meds that say they don't cross BBB.

Sorry I don't remember which supplements and meds. Googled and found this, I am sure you can find more. "Perhaps you’ve been told that herbal remedies such as teasel, cat's claw, or samento, where good for Lyme.While some people have found them symptomatically helpful, their molecules cannot cross the blood-brain-barrier either."
Click to expand...
Thanks.That was helpful.
 
SueJohnPat

SueJohnPat

Sue
Messages
236
Location
Medford NJ
PeterPositive said:
Hi,
I have read theories in this board about GABA and how it should not be able to pass the BBB, therefore if taking a dose of GABA makes you feel definitely more relaxed you may have that problem.

If that's the case then I can join the Leaky-BBB club :) But it should be taken with one or two grain of salts. If you go to the comment section of Amazon or iHerb and read the posts on GABA supplement you'll find most people get a positive effect... do they have all have a leaky BBB? Or maybe we don't understand how GABA works exactly? Plus there's some placebo hidden in there too.

I am not aware of any available test, sorry. Anyways it seems there's people at work on it:
http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/131101/srep03117/full/srep03117.html
Click to expand...
I guess I have a leaky blood brain barrier- totally incapacitated by depression/anxiety took gaba - totally fine in 2 hours. Husband left a hysterical (dr Hyde) wife and came home to me. Just started getting this fun symptoms a few months ago getting a gaba supplement tomorrow .
 
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