It's the neurotransmitter GABA, important for many brain functions. Says UCLA neuroscientist Barry Sterman, "Zinc is the building block for GABA, and GABA stops seizures."
As soon as kindling begins, he notes, the brain tries to head off seizure activity. It races to pull zinc out of the blood - and, when that supply's exhausted, out of tissues. It's a race the brain often loses.
But Sterman's cat studies suggest a zinc-rich diet may give potential epileptics the winning edge. When one group of cats, electrically primes to have epileptic seizures, was fed six times the normal amount of zinc, they used it all up to dampen the kindling.
GABA - It is generally known that neurotransmitters, chemical substances produced by the brain and acting as chemical messengers can have an excitatory and/or inhibitory effect on the central nervous system. Some of those neurotransmitters - for example, noradrenaline - may act on some synapses as excitatory neurotransmitters, and on other synapses as inhibitory neurotransmitter.
The common inhibitory neurotransmitter is GABA. GABA may be considered as a natural tranquilizer produced by our brains. It has been estimated that in normal individuals as many as one-third of the synapses in the brain may use GABA as an inhibitory neurotransmitter. GABA is formed directly from glutamic acid, a possible excitatory neurotransmitter.
GABA administration decreases hyperactivity, as well as the tendency to violence and antisocial behavior in juvenile delinquents. Apart from hyperactivity and behavior problems, many other disorders respond favorably to GABA administration, including: learning disabilities and mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and hypertension.
In Europe, GABA is used as a safe sleeping pill for pregnant women and old people. It is also used to treat children with behavior problems, many other disorders respond favorably to GABA administration, including: learning disabilities and mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and hypertension.
In Europe, GABA is used as a safe sleeping pill for pregnant women and old people. It is also used to treat children with behavior problems and learning disabilities. The human organism can tolerate dosages of GABA as high as 40 grams per day without any serious side effects reported.
Of the nonessential amino acids found in neural tissue, glutamic acid is the most significant from the standpoint of concentration and the inter-conversion to other important compounds. Among the latter are glutamine and alpha-ketoglutarate - which provides linkages with ammonia and carbohydrate metabolism, respectively -- and the inhibitory neurotransmitter substance, gamma-aminobutyrate (GABA). Together these members of the glutamate family constitute over half of the total brain amino acids. They are genrated in the nerve cells using the caron atoms provided from blood glucose and this accounts for about one tenth of the total carbohydrate utilization in the brain.
Concentrations of GABA in the brain are drastically depressed in states of vitamin B6 deficiency. Vitamin B6 is a cofactor for the enzyme that converts the amino acid glutamic acid into the neurotransmitter GABA.
As it is for many enzymes involved in amino-acid metabolism, notably the amino transferases and amino acid decarboxylases, vitamin B6 in teh form of the coenzyme, pyridoxal phosphate, is an essential cofactor for GABA synthesis in the brain. The apoenzyme of glutamate decarboxylase binds pyridoxal phosphate poorly, so that the activity of the enzyme and hence the concentrations of GABA in the brain, are drastically depressed in states of vitamin B6 deficiency.