Category: calcium

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Mitochondria, P53, cancer and magnesium deficiency

Addition, 7/21/16, there is more information about mitochondria and chronic illness at this link: https://www.sott.net/article/321987-Thanks-Big-Pharma-for-the-Mitochondrial-collateral-damage, the site also has a few other articles on the topic which I haven’t read yet and the topic of magnesium doesn’t come up until you reach the comment that I added. I will have to read more about this topic. Medications that cause an imbalance in calcium and magnesium could be causing stress to the mitochondria and lead to their death and to chronic illness.

  • This article is short introducing a long video. A quote from the short text does mention nutrient deficiencies can be involved, “Nutrient deficiencies are a contributing factor to mitochondrial dysfunction. ” https://www.sott.net/article/308212-Mitochondrial-dysfunction-GMOs-Glyphosate Glyphosate  Inhibition of vitamin D metabolism could lead to magnesium and  calcium imbalance which could be stressing mitochhondria and lead to chronic illness.
  • An abstract with a link to the full text: https://www.sott.net/article/264786-Oxidative-stress-mitochondrial-damage-and-neurodegenerative-diseases
  • https://www.sott.net/article/294075-Fibromyalgia-as-a-mitochondrial-disorder
  • I haven’t watched the video or read all of the articles yet but fibromyalgia is what I had symptoms of that were bad enough to lead to my giving up wheat and gluten products initially. It simply hurt too much when I ate them. And I got better without gluten. Maybe it was the gluten or maybe my genetics with errors in the vitamin D metabolism. I will have to get back to this topic but I share the information now because pain hurts and if even one person is helped then I would be glad. *And I was a professional gourmet baker, I know how to make from scratch croissant, and French baguettes and loaf breads of many types as well as cookies and quick breads. I love wheat products but they didn’t love my body.

A comment of mine that is awaiting moderation posted on another site:

Mitochondria need lots of magnesium (and magnesium is also necessary for white blood cells to be able to perform apoptosis.) “Additionally, exposure to low Mg upregulated plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) [24]. PAI-1 is considered not merely a marker of senescence, since it is both necessary and sufficient for the induction of replicative senescence downstream of p53 [27].” by D. Killilea and J. Maier, “A connection between magnesium deficiency and aging: new insights from cellular studies” Magnes Res. 2008 Jun; 21(2): 77–82. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2790427/.  Please U. of Penn. researchers, look into preventing cancer by providing mitochondria with a healthy diet instead of by providing them with some sort of pharmaceutical designed to manipulate P53 — just prevent P53 from being induced by providing adequate magnesium to the cells. Thanks.

The comment is in response to this article which is about recent animal based research that suggests that a cell’s mitochondria when under stress may produce a chemical (P53) that may lead to cancer: http://scienmag.com/penn-team-finds-mitochondrial-stress-induces-cancer-related-metabolic-shifts/#comment-7188

Now I know mitochondria need a lot of magnesium so one search led to the link in the comment and ~391,000 other links, https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=mitochondrial+stress+P53+calcium+magnesium, including this one:

by Giorgi C., et. al., “p53 at the endoplasmic reticulum regulates apoptosis in a Ca2+-dependent manner” PNAS, Feb. 10, 2015, vol. 112, no. 6, pp 1779–1784. http://www.pnas.org/content/112/6/1779.full.pdf

Apoptosis is the method by which white blood cells are able to kill infected or malfunctioning or old cells. Calcium and magnesium are both electrically active and can both act as signals to promote different types of cellular actions. Magnesium is most active within cellular fluid and calcium entry into cells is limited in part by ion channels that are powered by magnesium. So a magnesium deficient cell can allow too much calcium to enter the cell and within the cell calcium can cause a variety of actions and can even over activate the cell to the point of cell death. (155,000 search results for “excess calcium overworks mitochondria” :   https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=excess%20calcium%20overworks%20mitochondria  and which includes a link about the nerve degeneration disease ALS: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2933290/  so it looks like if I want to protect myself from cancer or ALS I should not stress out my mitochondria by maintaining a good intake and internal balance of both magnesium and calcium.)

Another addition to look into more at some point – P53 and apoptosis has been found to be affected by treatment with a homeopathic preparation (which would be a completely non-toxic energy based treatment. http://www.jcimjournal.com/articles/publishArticles/pdf/S2095-4964(16)60230-3.pdf

/Disclaimer: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes./

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Self injurious behavior in autism patients with low calcium levels

Coping Ideas for Self Injury Urges, adapted from the book “Treating Self Injury, A Practical Guide,” by Barent W. Walsh, P.D., (2006).

Trigger warning for people with a history of trauma, self injury or other PTSD type issues: this post is about difficult topics and was difficult for me to write and to recover from writing. It may trigger uncomfortable feelings in readers but denial of issues doesn’t help anyone learn how to modify and control the issues for an improved quality of life and/or improved level of self control and safety from self injury. Sexual assault is also a difficult topic but self injury or the urge to self-injure can happen everyday.

“Interestingly, Coleman (1994) studied a group of autistic children who had low levels of calcium (i.e., hypocalcinuria). These individuals often exhibited eye-poking behavior. When given calcium supplements, the eye-poking decreased substantially. In addition, language functioning improved.” [http://www.autism.com/symptoms_self-injury]

— secondary hyperparathyroidism perhaps?

For me secondary hyperparathyroidism can cause significant mental illness symptoms including a feeling of jittery thoughts and a jittery body, with a pent up feeling of needing to pop the bubble – ‘stabby’ feelings with a desire to self injure by stabbing myself. It is extremely unpleasant feeling and at times included a feeling of wanting to pop the eyes – gouge them out. Very unpleasant is an understatement, very dangerous to self is more accurate.

See below for a list of ideas for activities to try to take your mind off the self harm urges, and book reference written for health professionals rather than for a patient or parent – but help is help which can be life saving when needed.

Secondary hyperparathyroidism can be caused by low vitamin D or low calcium. My endocrinologist was extremely insistent that I take both vitamin D and calcium but over the years I had learned, with lab test proof, that my hormone D tends to be in the elevated end of the normal range. Irritability to an excessive level can occur at the elevated end of the range of hormone D. Lab test ranges are just based on the averages that are seen by the lab — and lab tests are usually ordered for sick people not for healthy people, so those lab test ranges are really the range of values seen in sick people not a range based on the average values seen in only healthy people.

I didn’t comply with the endocrinologist’s recommendation and found that just increasing calcium intake stabilized my level of parathyroid hormone and took away the ‘stabby’ feelings.

It is common for corticosteroid balance to be different from normal in patients with autism. [see link below] Vitamin D and hormone D are actually seco-steroids and the active hormone D acts somewhat like steroids in the body. Autism patients may be like people with obesity and many other chronic illnesses, that have been associated with low vitamin D but supplements weren’t found to be helpful for the various conditions. The problem may be more like mine where I have too much hormone D which is converted from vitamin D, and which leads to low levels of vitamin D. [http://www.preventmiscarriage.com/documents/Immunological-Considerations.pdf]

Vitamin D is carried on a transport protein that acts to keep it inactive. When free within the body the vitamin form is quickly activated to the hormone form. There are many more Vitamin D receptors throughout the body than there is usually  enough hormone D to activate them all during states of normal health.

Autism and other chronic diseases that seem to associated with low lab test levels of vitamin D may actually be reflecting a problem or deficiency in the vitamin D carrier protein rather than representing an inadequate amount of vitamin D being supplied from the diet or an inadequate amount of time spent in direct sunshine. Vitamin D is based on cholesterol and is not actually an essential vitamin in the way that other vitamins are essential because our bodies can make vitamin D from cholesterol when we get about 15 to 30 minutes of sunshine per day on our face, throat, and bare arms.

Magnesium baths help circumvent the problem elevated hormone D causes within the gastrointestinal tract — calcium is absorbed preferentially and magnesium deficiency can result which also can be a cause of significant irritability.

Providing nutrition education and individualized nutrition care in the public health sector is where I have training and experience. — ie giving away free information. Making money is not where I’ve had experience. And traveling has proven to be difficult for me with my various autoimmune and food sensitivities, but I care a lot about pain and suffering and mental anguish, in myself and others.

It is unpleasant to have to feel an urge to hurt oneself, and it is hard to control an internal explosive feeling that has nothing to do with how your childhood went — talk therapy is not much help if the problem is actually hyperparathyroidism. Multiply that internal jitteriness and explosive feeling by days, months, or years, and it is really much better to take calcium supplements and magnesium baths then to talk to a therapist about your childhood — while trying to control the urge to poke yourself in the eyes. (They don’t understand, and the endocrinologist didn’t either. Lab tests are just lab tests and mood symptoms are referred to a psychiatrist for mood stabilizing medications – in my (bad) experience.)

  • Autistic kids wash up happier in an Epsom salt bath, .
  • I describe my current Epsom salt bath routine towards the end of this post: Substance P, neuropathic pain, migraines, and the cannabinoid system,
    .

The way “fair use for educational purposes” works is that the information is provided not for profit. I share information, which may contain excerpts from copy-righted works, in the hopes that some individuals or clinicians will find some of the information helpful, and to keep within the guidelines for fair use I don’t ask for donations or charge money for the information.

(Brief excerpts fit the guidelines better, the Autistic kids wash up happier post was a post from years ago, before I had learned more about fair use guideline. It contains an extensive excerpt from a much longer article, but it is very helpful information regarding some special dietary needs that are common among children with autism and which I also found helpful for improving my own diet. I have recently found that I have several genetic defects that are also commonly found in children with autism. One of them affects two important amino acids so that might be a problem that could affect my ability to make the vitamin D carrier protein – but I haven’t looked into that metabolic pathway yet.)

Ideas for activities to substitute if feeling an urge to self harm; from the book “Treating Self Injury, A Practical Guide,” by Barent W. Walsh, Ph.D. (2006) written for mental health counselors or psychologists:

https://www.guilford.com/books/Treating-Self-Injury/Barent-Walsh/9781462518876

  1. Negative Replacement Behaviors – a preliminary step, a substitution behavior that represents the typical method used – if actual self injury is already a problem. For example drawing a red mark instead of cutting, pounding a pillow or something else instead of hitting oneself.
  2. Mindful Breathing Skills – we tend to hold our breath in stressful situations and lack of oxygen makes rational thinking and self control more difficult.
  3. Visualization Techniques- visualize a happy place or memory or some other practiced calming scenario.
  4. Physical Exercise – use up the pent up energy in real exercise instead of mental or physical pain.
  5. Writing – journaling about things you are grateful for can help sometimes to see that life is worth it even though difficult too. Journaling about worries sometimes can help work through to solutions.
  6. Artistic Expression – art in many forms can help work out unspoken memories or feelings.
  7. Playing or Listening to Music – frequencies and rhythms can be healing or unsettling .
  8. Communicating with Others – phone a friend, counselor, or hotline or make a private audio journal.
  9. Diversion Techniques – escapist type behaviors to fend off or delay self injurious behaviors rather than try to feel that they must be confronted or solved immediately – just don’t want to deal with a band-aid right now so will draw a picture or go for a walk or call a friend – sometimes pausing is enough to let the urge fade.

* The capitalized techniques are from the book, the longer explanation is my interpretation or paraphrase of the book’s discussion of the topic. These notes are from notes I copied down years ago when I was having symptoms and hadn’t yet learned of the hyperparathyroidism condition.

“Treating Self Injury, A Practical Guide,” by Barent W. Walsh, Ph.D. (2006): https://www.guilford.com/books/Treating-Self-Injury/Barent-Walsh/9781462518876

The website provides a pdf link for a 25 page practical guide with Reproducible Materials for treating self injury. It includes client screening forms, safety contract, and an extensive section on breathing techniques for self calming. https://www.guilford.com/add/forms/walsh5.pdf

/Disclosure: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes./

*update 8/13/2022

 

For updating –

https://twitter.com/deNutrients/status/1101527023661522945

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And what do osmomechanical stress, changes of temperature, chili powder, curry powder, ginger, Benicar, hormone D, steroids, and cannabinoids have in common?

// 7/1/16 addition: This post is for people suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) which is not well understood, easy to diagnose or treat, and can be life threatening when more severe symptoms continue long term. The condition can continue for years or be a life long issue that flairs up at times and is less severe at other times.

Dietary tips can be helpful but why some foods seem to trigger symptoms while others don’s has not been well understood either. The common factor underlying why some foods seem to be triggers for many people may be the TRP channels that are found in cells throughout the intestines and actually in most cells of most life forms. //

So what do osmo-mechanical stress, changes of temperature, chili powder, curry powder, ginger, Benicar, hormone D, steroids, and cannabinoids all have in common?

They all may be able to overstimulate Transient Receptor Potential channels (TRP channels) within the gastrointestinal system and cause severe diarrhea in susceptible individuals.

“In many cases, the activation mechanism of TRP channels is unclear (Figure 1), but known activators include specific agonists such as mustard oil (TRPA1) and capsaicin (TRPV1), an increase in intracellular Ca2+ (TRPM4, 5), temperature (heat: TRPV1, 2, 3, 4, TRPM4, 5; cold: TRPM8, TRPA1), mechanical or osmotic stress (TRPV4, TRPCs?) and phospholipase C (PLC) activation. TRP channel activity can be further modulated by intracellular phosphatidylinositol phosphates, such as PI(4,5)P2 and membrane potential, but also by inflammatory mediators, cannabinoids and steroids (Nilius, 2007; Rohacs, 2007; Nilius and Voets, 2008).” [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3012403/]

The TRP channels are a large group found in many species of life from yeast, to worms, fish and mammels. The agonists/activating chemicals for many of the types of TRP channels have not all been identified as of yet.

One type of TRP channels were formerly called Vanilloid Receptors, and are now called TRPV channels. Vanilloid Receptors were known to be activated by capsaicin found in hot peppers and chili powder. And more recent or less well known research has also found that they can be activated by cannabinoids and steroids, (see the link from the excerpt above), and osmomechanical stress.

Osmo-mechanical stress might be a precursor to edema, excess fluid in the extracellular space; if an organ or cell over fills with fluid it would mechanically be adding physical pressure to the organ or cell — and instead of popping like an overfull water balloon the TRP channels open in response to the physical pressure and let the excess fluid leak out into the extracellular space or into the area surrounding the heart for example. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92821/] Fibrotic heart disease would be adding mechanical stretching stress within the heart. TRP channels are being studied for possible use in preventing fibrotic heart disease. From that research article, we are told that changes in temperature may also activate them:

“The activation mechanisms of TRP channel are highly diversified. Some TRP channels appear to be constitutively active, whereas others are activated by Gq-linked receptor activation, oxidative stress, changes of temperature, or an elevation of intracellular Ca2+ [126–128]. All the TRP channels appear to be regulated by PIP2 [134–137] .” [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3874073/]

  • PIP2 = phosphoinositides = phosphatidylinositol phosphates (PIPs) = phosphorylated deriviatives of phosphatidylinositol (PI) [http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.cellbio.21.021704.102317]
  • PIP2 = phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate and PI, and phospholipase C (PLC) from the first excerpt, are involved in cannabinoid metabolism within plasma membranes: [page 9 Kendall et. al., Behavioral Neurobiology of the Endocannabinoid System (Springer, 2009, New York)]

Steroids and hormone D function similarly. And Benicar and curcumin can function similarly to hormone D. And curcumin is a medically active extract from turmeric, a powdered spice that is a main ingredient in curry powder. Turmeric is made from the root of a plant that is biologically very similar to ginger,  which is also a root that is used as a dried spice or  may be used as a chopped vegetable in stir-fry dishes and other foods. Ginger has over 400 active phytochemicals, and one of them might be acting similarly to the curcumin — but that is speculation based on the similarity of symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome that both ginger and curry powder stimulate.

Because — what else do osmomechanical stress, changes of temperature, chili powder, curry powder, ginger, Benicar, hormone D, steroids, and cannabinoids all have in common? — They all may irritate Irritable Bowel Syndrome, (IBS), for some people, along with emotional stress and other things like eating fructose in much quantity (example: from a piece of fruit or fruit juice) or gassy vegetables like cabbage and cruciferous vegetables and beans (gas would be adding mechanical pressure to those TRP channels which might be an over-active culprit in IBS patients).

  • The book, “Tell Me What to Eat If I Have Irritable Bowel Syndrome; Nutrition You Can Live With; Including Dozens of Healthful Mouth-Watering Recipes,” by Elaine Mager, M.P.H., R.D., includes dietary advice and other information about Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). (Warning – most of the recipes contain gluten
  • Re corticosteroids and hormone D:  http://www.oapublishinglondon.com/article/1471

Other diseases that are not well understood but which involve edema and excess fluid entering the area between cells include Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Congestive Heart Failure (CHF).

So a lack of adequate potassium or magnesium might be involved in allowing too much calcium to enter the interior of cells where it can act as a trigger to increase the flow across the TRP channels even more.

A summary:

/Disclaimer: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes./

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Newborn screening for autism – 3 sets of 5 potential biomarkers

I bought the research study regarding newborn screening for autism and it is exciting but was based on a small number of patients with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (n=16, control group n=32).

  1. Newborn screening for autism: in search of candidate biomarkers. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23547820 ]

The research study evaluated the newborn umbilical cord blood for 90 biomarkers (various types of lab tests), 76 biomarkers were found to have consistant data available for all study subjects,  and three sets of five biomarkers were found to be consistently increased or decreased in the infants who were diagnosed with autism later in life compared to the infants in the control group (the research study only used patients with an autism diagnosis who had been screened and diagnosed by the same physician in order to reduce risk of inconsistent diagnostic standards in the experimental group (n=16).

The three sets of five biomarkers need to be tested with a larger group of children with autism diagnoses to see if the results can be repeated. Feasibly to save money on lab tests all newborns might be screened with the set of five most predictive lab tests and the infants who are positive for those five might then be screened for the second set of five tests or all ten of the other biomarkers. The fifteen biomarkers include calcitonin (increased) and Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH, decreased). Low TSH levels can cause increased calcitonin levels which causes reduced blood calcium levels. Elevated blood levels of calcium may cause an increase in calcitonin and having adequate levels of hormone 1, 25 D may be necessary for keeping calcitonin levels within a normal range. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC442503/]

Vitamin D was not one of the 90 lab tests that were included in this research study, however the sibling study performed in Sweden suggested that low vitamin D at birth is involved but that other factors are also involved because all of the children born to Somalian refugees were found to have low vitamin D so that lab value would not be helpful as a screening test. 2) Swedish Study Suggests Low Vitamin D at Birth May Increase Autism Risk [https://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/swedish-study-suggests-low-vitamin-d-birth-may-increase-autism-risk]

Alpha feto-protein (AFP) is one of the fifteen biomarkers found to be predictive for autism later in life. Levels of AFP have been found to be increased in both the mothers of infants who develop autism later in life and in the infants who develop autism later in life. Buy the research study to find out the other twelve – feasibly a concerned parent (with money and a cooperative physician) might be able to have their newborn’s blood screened for the fifteen biomarkers on their own initiative, right away, rather than waiting for the mainstream medical industry to do further research studies.

— The fact that autism was unknown in Somalia suggests that it is unlikely to be a naturally occurring condition and that it is unlikely to be caused by a lack of anti-autism medicine or by the lack of an anti-autism vaccination, so waiting for the for-profit medical industry to devise a for-profit strategy to prevent autism seems like it might take awhile. Concerned parents should have a right to seek effective care for their children and for themselves.

Autism seems to be a condition that occurs prenatally which leaves the newborn infant with metabolic differences but who otherwise appears normal and then, depending on nutritional and environmental conditions, at around age two to four the child’s development shifts towards symptoms of autism. The goal of newborn screening would be to identify which infants are most at risk for that later shift towards autism so that they might be able to be given additional care in order to prevent the damaging autoimmune like changes to the child’s brain. A few different genetic defects that affect nutrient needs may be involved so a newborn who is identified as high risk for developing autism symptoms later in life might then benefit from being screened for genetic defects in the methylation cycle, or with the vitamin D binding protein, or with hemoglobin metabolism. Infants identified as more at risk for autism later in life may also benefit from being screened for hypothyroidism, iodine deficiency, or an excess of bromide, chloride and fluoride.

In summary, for now, this is complicated but very exciting — we have the information we need in order to help women prevent autism before conception and to help identify which newborns may be more at risk for developing autism symptoms later in life so that we can help give the infants the additional nutritional and environmental support that might help them prevent the longterm autoimmune like brain damage from ever occurring.

Older individuals who already have autism diagnoses may also be helped by additional nutritional and environmental support (reduce their exposure to pollutants and foods or foods additives that their unique metabolism can’t digest as well as average) but a “cure” for the changes that already occurred in the brain may not be possible for children and adults who have already been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Individualized nutritional support might help reduce negative symptoms and improve quality of life for patients who already have an autism diagnosis.

/Disclosure: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes./