NADPH Oxidase

[Tim`D]

Hello,
First I’d like to say thank you to Dr. Diana because ultimately this site has saved me. I’m a classic example of Dr. Diana’s description of this disease, particularly with the very large head as a toddler and the neurological problems centered in the hippocampus (memory and spatial learning). Plus I’ve been diagnosed by a geneticist with hypermobility EDS. The Diamox works well, but since I couldn’t get it from a doctor and a neurologist appointment was months out, I ordered some from China by way of an Indian company. While waiting I remembered back to a time when I took dextromethorphan (Robitussin) and experienced amazing relief and felt smarter. The side effects were amazing as well and I had to stop. I looked up its mechanisms of action and one was as an NADPH oxidase inhibitor. A little more reading and I found that spirulina actually functioned very well in this manner. I got some, took maybe 6 pills and in four hours found great relief. The head pressure feeling was gone, the paresthesia in my joints improved, and my thinking cleared up considerably. Reading further I found out why, and the links are posted below. I did suffer a massive brain injury as a child, but I don’t think that explains the positive effect since that was 27 years ago. Also, I’m only 41 and have had these symptoms since a bad illness when I was 18, so it is probably not Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s either. The best part is that if it doesn’t work, it’s cheap and very healthy anyway.
Best of luck.
Tim

There’s actually very many peer-reviewed articles on how NADPH oxidase and microglia affect the brain, but I included these because the one specifically studied spirulina and the other mentions brain injury, which I figure the Chiari I like Malformation basically is.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19576698
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2015/370312/

[Dr. Diana]

Thank you for your kind words and your insight, Tim. We should absolutely look into this. I have Spirulina in the office because it can be great for younger people with anemia and other deficiencies because it is a decent source of iron (and other ingredients like magnesium) that some patients seem to tolerate better than iron tablets. We must consider if some of your positive effect is from other mechanisms, too… Interesting… I would caution for others reading this that for many of us, iron is NOT good for us, so Spirulina must be taken with care. Thank you again, and I remain incredibly impressed with the level of intelligence among the folks here. 😉

[Author]

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