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Part 1: Surprising reasons for brain inflammation
Jo Knight • Aug 20, 2021
Part 1: Surprising reasons for brain inflammation
When someone is diagnosed with epilepsy the first thing they commonly want to know is “what caused this”.
The majority of epilepsy is actually idiopathic – of unknown cause. And this can be one of the hardest things to deal with emotionally when receiving an epilepsy diagnosis. As human beings we like logic and to understand the why of something, especially when it comes to our health.
But a neurologist will also look for causes of brain injury or inflammation. And even if we never know the specific cause of brain inflammation, it can be useful to think of seizures as being a sign of inflammation. Allowing us to take an approach to health focused around reducing inflammation and providing nutrients for brain healing and repairing.
One thing I have come to realise though is that the body is brilliant at disguising and coping with inflammation, especially if we have lived with it for a long time that it has become our norm. Below is Part 1 in our discussion of reasons for brain inflammation that may surprise you.
1: The role of the digestive system
With over 70% of our immune system in our digestive system, it is the most likely place for immune activation and inflammation to occur in the body.
Equally, the gut, and the bacteria that it contains, are directly able to communicate with our brain. So, if the immune system in the gut gets activated it starts to release inflammatory compounds that can directly affect the brain and our brain chemicals.
One way general immune activation directly affects the brain is in the production of serotonin, a calming happy brain chemical. Serotonin is produced from a type of protein called Tryptophan, but when inflammation occurs tryptophan is more likely to get converted to a chemical called Quinolinic Acid. This chemical is a neurotoxin used in animal studies to trigger seizures, and increases the effect of stimulating glutamate on the brain (low-glutamate diets to reduce seizures are currently being studied).
So, inflammation in the body results in less happy serotonin chemicals, and more seizure triggering toxins such as Quinolinic Acid, potentially increasing risk of seizures and depression.
Importantly, many people don’t realise they have digestive issues. 15 years ago I had no digestive pain, no perceivable changes in digestive function, but I started slowly losing weight because I wasn’t absorbing nutrients. It took 2-3 years before discovering why this was happening, and even at it’s worst I still had no digestive symptoms.
So, if you are experiencing health symptoms that relate to brain inflammation, don’t dismiss the role of your digestive system, even if you don’t experience digestive symptoms. Get checked out by a professional.
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The bacteria in the digestive system are known as the microbiome. This microbiome has been shown to produce bi-products (or metabolites) that can influence inflammatory pathways for good or for bad.
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