Vitamin C Plays Important Role in Brain Function

This discovery is exciting and important to the DS community for several reasons — one, it reinforces how important common vitamins are, which supports the use of TNI (Targeted Nutrition Intervention) — two, it reminds us of the connection between eye dysfunction and brain dysfunction so we will recognize & treat it as a symptom of a brain disorder in the central nervous system and not just a sensory issue — three, it reminds us that brain receptors and cells can be protected from premature breakdown by antioxidants such as vitamin C and — four it offers us an additional way to treat GABA overexpression, which is a major problem with individuals with T21 (presently addressed with Ginkgo Biloba). My notes are in italics.

OHSU scientists discover new role for vitamin C in the eye — and the brain

07/14/11 Portland, OR

In a surprising finding, vitamin C is found to prolong proper function of retinal cells.

Nerve cells in the eye require vitamin C in order to function properly — a surprising discovery that may mean vitamin C is required elsewhere in the brain for its proper functioning, according to a study by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

“We found that cells in the retina need to be 'bathed' in relatively high doses of vitamin C, inside and out, to function properly,” said Henrique von Gersdorff, Ph.D., a senior scientist at OHSU's Vollum Institute and a co-author of the study. “Because the retina is part of the central nervous system, this suggests there's likely an important role for vitamin C throughout our brains, to a degree we had not realized before.”

The brain has special receptors, called GABA-type receptors, that help modulate the rapid communication between cells in the brain. GABA receptors in the brain act as an inhibitory “brake” on excitatory neurons in the brain. (These receptors do not work properly in people with Down syndrome.) The OHSU researchers found that these GABA-type receptors in the retinal cells stopped functioning properly when vitamin C was removed.

Because retinal cells are a kind of very accessible brain cell, it’s likely that GABA receptors elsewhere in the brain also require vitamin C to function properly, von Gersdorff said. And because vitamin C is a major natural antioxidant, it may be that it essentially ‘preserves’ the receptors and cells from premature breakdown, von Gersdorff said. (Premature breakdown of brain cells and receptors is also a concern for individuals with DS.)

The function of vitamin C in the brain is not well understood. In fact, when the human body is deprived of vitamin C, the vitamin stays in the brain longer than anyplace else in the body. “Perhaps the brain is the last place you want to lose vitamin C,” von Gersdorff said. The findings also may offer a clue as to why scurvy — which results from a severe lack of vitamin C — acts the way it does, von Gersdorff said. One of the common symptoms of scurvy is depression, and that may come from the lack of vitamin C in the brain. (Also interesting because Prozac, used to treat cognitive problems in DS, heals depression while regenerating neurons. If vitamin C relieves depression then it makes you wonder if it may effect neurogenesis as well.)

The findings could have implications for other diseases, like glaucoma and epilepsy. (In DS, the prevalence of patients with glaucoma was 11.5%, significantly higher [P = 0.014] than that in the Non-DS control group, 1.1%.) Both conditions are caused by the dysfunction of nerve cells in the retina and brain that become over excited in part because GABA receptors may not be functioning properly. (Jett had nystagmus which is an eye flutter. His TCM said that she was concerned about the possibility of seizures because of the presence of the nystagmus. Her concerns make much more sense to me now.)

“For example, maybe a vitamin C-rich diet could be neuroprotective for the retina — for people who are especially prone to glaucoma,” von Gersdorff said. “This is speculative and there is much to learn. But this research provides some important insights and will lead to the generation of new hypotheses and potential treatment strategies.”

Scientists and students in von Gerdorff's lab in OHSU's Vollum Institute are dedicated to basic neuroscience research. The vitamin C research work was done using goldfish retinas, which have the same overall biological structure as human retinas.

The retina research work was done by Ph.D. student Evan Vickers, working as part of the von Gersdorff lab. The work was in collaboration with Cecilia Calero in the lab of Dr. Daniel J. Calvo from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Gustavo Cid and Luis Aguayo from the University of Concepcion, Chile.

The work was funded by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnicas (Argentina), the Pew Foundation, the International Brain Research Organization and the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

The study was published online in the June 29 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, which is the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

About the Vollum Institute

The Vollum Institute is dedicated to basic research focusing on gene regulation, structural biology, cell signaling, molecular neuroscience and synaptic modulation with implications for human diseases ranging from autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders to Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, psychiatric diseases and mechanisms of drug addiction.

Dosage

How much vitamin C should our loved ones get and in what form?

Too much vitamin C may cause deficiencies in other areas and people with T21 have different make up than a typical person. So use with caution. You will need to observe your child and go very slowly, especially if using the powerful Liposomal Vitamin C mentioned below. Using muscle testing might be an easy and effective way to find out how your child may be effected by using larger doses of vitamin C.

A recommended dose of vitamin C is 250-2000 mg (not the US government's recommendation) for adults. So, 150 lbs = 250-2000 mg; 75 lbs = 125-1000 mg; 37 lbs = 62-500 mg; 19 lbs = 31-250 mg; 9 lbs = 15-125 mg etc.

For Jett, I'm going with the Nature's Way Alive Vitamin C to see how it works for him. Later, when he's much bigger, I may try the liposomal vitamin C, to maximize my dollar. It's very strong stuff, so if you use it, use very little and slowly work your way up to the maximum dose.

Nature's Way Alive Vitamin C is easily absorbed, gentle on the stomach, non-GMO and free of common food allergens. No synthesizing. No culturing. No added ascorbic acid. Just pure vitamin C complex from four 100% organic fruit sources: acerola, goji, amla (amalaki) and kiwi. You can get it in vegetarian capsules or in powder form. Since Jett's weighs 17lbs, I'm getting the capsule form since it's easier to dose until he's able to tolerate a 1/4 tsp or 1/2 tsp. One capsule is 125 mg, so I'm going to give him a fourth of a capsule a day and see how that goes for a week. Then I will increase it to 1/2 a capsule for a week, etc. until I get to two full capsules a day which equals 250mg. He does have a bit of a lazy eye, so I'm hoping this will help.

Lypo Spheric Liposomal Vitamin C provides maximum assimilation and bio-availability because there are no binders. fillers, gelatins, capsule materials, dyes, sweeteners or flavorings common with tablet and capsule supplements. Plus, if you take more than 2 to 3 grams of traditional Vitamin C, the ascorbic acid in the intestines can cause gastric distress -- gas, cramps, and diarrhea. Often Vitamin C will be eliminated via your very loose stool. By using this brand, you can avoid the degradation and discomfort associated with traditional forms of Vitamin C and protect your lower G.I. Tract - hence, no gastric upset, no diarrheal flushing effect. Lastly, the liposomes quickly journey to the bloodstream and are circulated throughout the body and "grabbed" by the damaged cells that need it.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=lypo+spheric+vitamin+c&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=6340275787&ref=pd_sl_79vyvtto3p_b

For really young ones, you may want to try http://www.vitacost.com/Hylands-Vitamin-C-Tablets.

Vitamin C Overdose

As it is a water soluble vitamin, there isn't a high level of risks associated with its overdose. The excess amount that the body does not needs gets excreted out through urine and hence does not cause much of a problem. However, it does not mean that one can keep on having foods or supplements that are rich sources of this particular nutrient in excess if overdose symptoms appear.

Someone who has taken too much vitamin c may start to show signs that confirm their vitamin c overdose. Minor symptoms include a strong smell during urination, bloating or gas, nausea and an upset stomach. One might also experience sores on the inside of their mouth. Diarrhea could also occur, but it’s harder to use this as a symptom of vitamin overdose as diarrhea can be caused by so many other foods or issues. It was once believed to cause kidney stones, but experts now say there is no solid evidence of dangerous side effects from vitamin C.

In a more severe case of overdose one might notice the following symptoms: a greater need for oxygen, and deficiencies in B vitamins as well as copper. These symptoms usually only show up in more severe cases in which at least 6,000mg of vitamin c has been consumed, or when someone takes a large amount of vitamin c and other vitamins or minerals. If you have any of these symptoms and believe that the cause may be a severe overconsumption of vitamin c, speak to your doctor about ways to safely reduce your vitamin c intake, as well as how to treat your existing symptoms.

Sources

http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/about/news_events/news/2011/07-14-ohsu-scientists-discover.cfm
http://www.springerlink.com/content/47335275002817q2/
http://goldentigerlipids.com/lyvic.html
http://www.the-natural-path.com/vitamin-requirement.html
http://www.overdosesymptoms.com/vitamin_c_overdose/vitamin_c_overdose.html
http://www.vitamincoverdose.org/
http://chemo.net/newpage35.htm

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Prozac Cures Lazy Eye!

Scroll to bolded text.



By Jonah Lehrer

July 6, 2008



PROZAC IS ONE of the most successful drugs of all time. Since its introduction as an antidepressant more than 20 years ago, Prozac has been prescribed to more than 54 million people around the world, and prevented untold amounts of suffering.

But the success of Prozac hasn't simply transformed the treatment of depression: it has also transformed the science of depression. For decades, researchers struggled to identify the underlying cause of depression, and patients were forced to endure a series of ineffective treatments. But then came Prozac. Like many other antidepressants, Prozac increases the brain's supply of serotonin, a neurotransmitter. The drug's effectiveness inspired an elegant theory, known as the chemical hypothesis: Sadness is simply a lack of chemical happiness. The little blue pills cheer us up because they give the brain what it has been missing.



There's only one problem with this theory of depression: it's almost certainly wrong, or at the very least woefully incomplete. Experiments have since shown that lowering people's serotonin levels does not make them depressed, nor does it worsen their symptoms if they are already depressed.



In recent years, scientists have developed a novel theory of what falters in the depressed brain. Instead of seeing the disease as the result of a chemical imbalance, these researchers argue that the brain's cells are shrinking and dying. This theory has gained momentum in the past few months, with the publication of several high profile scientific papers. The effectiveness of Prozac, these scientists say, has little to do with the amount of serotonin in the brain. Rather, the drug works because it helps heal our neurons, allowing them to grow and thrive again.



In this sense, Prozac is simply a bottled version of other activities that have a similar effect, such as physical exercise. They aren't happy pills, but healing pills.



These discoveries are causing scientists to fundamentally reimagine depression. While the mental illness is often defined in terms of its emotional symptoms - this led a generation of researchers to search for the chemicals, like serotonin, that might trigger such distorted moods - researchers are now focusing on more systematic changes in the depressed brain.



"The best way to think about depression is as a mild neurodegenerative disorder," says Ronald Duman, a professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at Yale. "Your brain cells atrophy, just like in other diseases [such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's]. The only difference with depression is that it's reversible. The brain can recover."



Given the prevalence of depression - more than 16 percent of people will suffer from a major depressive episode at some point in their lives - a more accurate scientific understanding of the disease is of immense value. In fact, this research is already being used to develop more effective treatments for the mental illness, some of which are currently in clinical trials.



Page 2 of 3 --

The progress exemplifies an important feature of modern medicine, which is the transition from a symptom-based understanding of a disease - depression is an illness of unrelenting sadness - to a more detailed biological understanding, in which the disease is categorized and treated based on its specific anatomical underpinnings.



In the 19th century, the "fever" was a common medical illness. Of course, doctors now realize that a fever is merely a common symptom of many different diseases, from the flu to leukemia.

Likewise, when Richard Nixon declared a "War on Cancer" in 1971, scientists largely defined cancer in terms of its most tangible characteristic: uncontrolled growth leading to a tumor. As a result, every cancer was treated with the same blunt tools. Over time, of course, scientists have discovered that cancer is not a single disease with a single biological cause. Breast cancer, for instance, can be triggered by a wide variety of genes and environmental risk factors. Because doctors can look beyond the superficial similarities of the symptoms - all tumors are not created equal - they are able to tailor their treatments to the specific disease.



Neuroscience is only beginning to catch up. Thanks to a variety of new experimental tools, such as brain scanners and DNA microarrays, researchers are now refining their understanding of mental illness. In many instances, this means recategorizing disorders, (like DS as a neurobiological disorder) so that patients are no longer diagnosed solely in terms of their most obvious symptoms.

"We used to think there was only one kind of anemia," says Arturas Petronis, a scientist at the University of Toronto who investigates the underlying causes of schizophrenia. "But now we know there are at least 15 different kinds. We'll likely learn the same thing about many mental illnesses."

. . .

One of the first cracks in the chemical hypothesis of depression came from a phenomenon known as the "Prozac lag." Antidepressants increase the amount of serotonin in the brain within hours, but the beneficial effects are not usually felt for weeks.



This led neuroscientists to wonder if something besides serotonin might be responsible. Duman, for instance, began to study a class of proteins known as trophic factors, which help neurons grow and survive. Trophe is Greek for nourishment; what sunlight and water do for trees, trophic factors do for brain cells. Numerous studies had shown that chronic stress damages the brain by suppressing the release of trophic factors. In a series of influential papers published earlier this decade, Duman demonstrated that the same destructive hallmark is seen in depression, so that our neurons are deprived of what they need.



"The mental illness occurs when these stress mechanisms in the brain spiral out of control," he says.



Once that happens, the brain begins to shut itself down, suppressing all but the most essential upkeep. Not only do neurons stop growing, but the brain seems to stop creating new cells. A 2003 study, led by Columbia University neuroscientist Rene Hen, found that when the birth of new brain cells was blocked with low doses of radiation in "depressed" rats, antidepressants stopped working.



A recent study by Italian researchers, published in the journal Science, helps to reveal another mechanism by which antidepressants reverse the damage of depression. The scientists were interested in seeing if fluoxetine, the active ingredient of Prozac, could increase the potential of brain cells in the adult rat. They studied animals with severe cases of "lazy eye," a condition characterized by poor vision in one eye due to underdevelopment of the visual cortex. The scientists showed that fluoxetine gave brain cells the ability to take on new roles and form new connections, which erased the symptoms of the disorder. (Jett had nystagmus, which is an eye flutter and occasional eye crossing. Although western medicine says that nystagmus is incurable, his nystagmus is gone [maybe from acupressure and Traditional Chinese Medicine?]. He also had occasional eye crossing which rarely occurs now on Prozac.)



"The drug appears to make brain cells quite young," says Jose Vettencourt, a lead author. The scientists are currently repeating the experiment with humans, raising the possibility that fluoxetine will soon be used to treat lazy eye and related conditions.



"Even five years ago, this would have seemed like a very strange idea," Vettencourt says.

Duman's lab has demonstrated, in a paper published earlier this year, that physical exercise seems to stimulate the same regenerative pathways. Mice given access to running wheels not only showed reduced anxiety and stress, but also increased levels of the same trophic factors activated by antidepressants. When the activity of these trophic factors was blocked, the benefits of exercise disappeared. The mice stayed stressed, even when they were allowed to run on their wheel.



It is jarring to think of depression in terms of atrophied brain cells, rather than an altered emotional state. It is called "depression," after all. Yet these scientists argue that the name conceals the fundamental nature of the illness, in which the building blocks of the brain - neurons - start to crumble. This leads, over time, to the shrinking of certain brain structures, like the hippocampus, which the brain needs to function normally.



In fact, many scientists are now paying increased attention to the frequently neglected symptoms of people suffering from depression, which include problems with learning and memory and sensory deficits for smell and taste. (Common problems in autism and DS. Young autistic children are often treated with SSRI's to reestablish these pathways). Other researchers are studying the ways in which depression interferes with basic bodily processes, such as sleeping, sex drive, and weight control. Like the paralyzing sadness, which remains the most obvious manifestation of the mental illness, these symptoms are also byproducts of a brain that's literally withering away.

"Depression is caused by problems with the most fundamental thing the brain does, which is process information," says Eero Castren, a neuroscientist at the University of Helsinki. "It's much more than just an inability to experience pleasure."



This new scientific understanding of depression also offers a new way to think about the role of drugs in recovery. While antidepressants help brain cells recover their vigor and form new connections, Castren says that patients must still work to cement these connections in place, perhaps with therapy. He compares antidepressants with anabolic steroids, which increase muscle mass only when subjects also go to the gym.

"If you just sit on your couch, then steroids aren't going to be very effective," he says. "Antidepressants are the same way: if you want the drug to work for you, then you have to work for the drug."

Jonah Lehrer is an editor at large at Seed magazine and the author of "Proust Was a Neuroscientist." He is a regular contributor to Ideas.

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.



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