One of the worst toxins and one of the biggest migraine triggers is an excitotoxin.
Damage prevention is possible, but only if you know where excitotoxins are hiding in the food you eat.
What Is An Excitotoxin? An excitotoxin is a substance that literally stimulates or excites a nerve cell (neuron) until it is damaged or dies.
They are usually amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) and one of the biggest excitotoxins is glutamate (one form of glutamate that is well known is MSG.
) Why Not Avoid Glutamate? You cannot live without it.
Glutamate is the primary messenger between neurons in the brain.
It is necessary for thinking, memory, movement, and our senses (particularly taste, sight, and hearing.
) What Makes Glutamate an Excitotoxin? Two things: the Type of glutamate and the Amount of glutamate.
Type: Not all glutamates are the same.
All glutamate found in the human body, and in all unprocessed food (both before and after you digest it) is exclusively L-glutamate.
This is the form that the body has developed enzymes for, in order to metabolize it.
However, when glutamate is produced by processing a protein source with heat, acid, etc.
, a mix is produced.
This mix consists of L-glutamate, D-glutamate, and some other chemicals.
This mix is typical of MSG and MSG-like additives.
Since D-glutamate is foreign to the body, it is not recognized by the enzymes that work on the L-glutamate.
It may be largely ignored; even bypassing the liver after it is consumed and going straight into body tissues.
(Note: L-glutamate and D-glutamate molecules are mirror images of each other, like your two hands.
The two forms are identical, except that they cannot be superimposed.
However, inside a human body, their actions are very different.
) Amount: Tiny amounts of L-glutamate help neurons communicate with each other; large amounts kill neurons.
However, even tiny amounts of D-glutamate are damaging to the body.
What Does This Mean for Your Migraines? Eating protein does not cause the death of neurons or adverse reactions in your body.
However, ingesting the processed glutamate found in MSG-type substances does cause nerve death and adverse reactions -- like migraines.
So Why Are MSG-type Additives Put In Food? These additives are flavor enhancers.
They stimulate the taste buds, so that the brain thinks your food tastes better than it actually does.
They are also addictive, so that you want to eat more and more of the foods that contain them.
What If MSG-type Additives Do Not Bother You? Excitotoxins hurt everyone.
The damage done by them is not optional.
They hurt and kill neurons.
They have also been lined to degenerative nerve diseases, like Alzheimer's.
(A neurosurgeon, Dr.
Russell Blaylock, wrote a book detailing how excitotoxins kill neurons and are linked to disease.
) What Can You Do? Avoid processed foods that contain MSG and MSG-type additives.
These additives are allowed to go by a number of benign-sounding names in the list of ingredients inyour processed foods.
These names include: 'flavorings,' 'spices,' 'broth,' 'hydrolyzed vegetable protein.
' A simple rule, if you cannot remember all of these names: If a manufacturer will not tell you specifically what an ingredient is, do not eat it.
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