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Glutamate made simple?


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I often see Glutamate as an issue on this forum. Nancy, if you are out there - I think you know a lot about it? My son is doing very well and I want to do everything that I can to keep him that way! We try to eat dye free/artificial free/preservative free food, as well as organic milk. Kind os a relaxed Feingold diet. My son is a poor eater - loves junk and won't let a veggie cross his lips, but I plie him with fruit. Anyway, I would really appreciate learning about glutamate, but I find that I am overwhelmed by posts about it. Seems I get overloaded more easily these days with the added stress of PANDAS, and life in general. Can someone tell me in as simple terms as possible what the glutamate free diet accomplishes? Also, does this mean no wheat only or is glutamate found naturally in other whole foods? I remember when I was breast feeding, my son became allergic to my milk and I was put on a glutamate free diet that was extremely restrictive. I starved for a week! I am hoping that there are new tricks to make lots of variety of foods if we do this. In addition, are there choices out there that are not so expensive? PANDAS has torn a significant hole in our finances...Thank you!

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Nothing about glutamate is simple, I don't think. And the more reading I do on it, the more pieces seem to be contained within that particular puzzle.

 

I really don't know anything about a glutamate (or anti-glutamate) diet, and I think if you were to try and go that way, you'd eat nothing but Cream of Wheat! :P Honestly, in addition to all the foods that have been treated with monosodium glutamate (MSG) which are relatively easy to avoid (if you're not a junk food junkie or dining on fast food frequently), most "natural" foods contain some level of "free glutamate".

 

Glutamate in Food

 

Anyway, the jury is still out as to whether or not consumption of glutamate in any way increases glutamate levels in the brain. People report some atypical symptoms (headaches, etc.) after consumption of MSG, for instance, but they still haven't found the causal link. As we all know, of course, that doesn't mean it's not there. It may just mean they haven't yet looked hard enough or in the right place!

 

As PANDAS16 says, its about what excess glutamate can do to the NMDA receptors that's thought to be at issue. My whole interest in glutamate was "birthed" by some papers I read some time ago about how modulating its levels in the brain (via things like NAC, riluzole and/or beta-lactam antibiotics) led to behavioral improvements among people with everything from OCD to ASD to schizophrenia to MS. Combined with Dr. Rosenberg's brain imaging studies (Wayne State) that showed that the caudate nucleus of kids with OCD had higher concentrations of glutamate in them than did the "normal" control group and Swedo's observation that the caudate nucleus of PANDAS kids appears to be inflamed/enlarged, I couldn't get those things out of my head.

 

I'm happy to share the rheams of research papers I have gathered on the topic over the last two years; I have one in particular that explains the whole glutamate thing pretty well in the context of behavioral symptoms. Feel free to PM me if you'd like me to send them your way. Some of the original links, unfortunately, are no longer "live," so I can't very efficiently hunt them all down again for live linking here.

 

Happy hunting!

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