Neurotoxicity?

"What is Neurotoxicity?

Neurotoxicity occurs when the exposure to natural or manmade toxic substances (neurotoxicants) alters the normal activity of the nervous system. This can eventually disrupt or even kill neurons, key cells that transmit and process signals in the brain and other parts of the nervous system. Neurotoxicity can result from exposure to substances used in chemotherapy, radiation treatment, drug therapies, and organ transplants, as well as exposure to heavy metals such as lead and mercury, certain foods and food additives, pesticides, industrial and/or cleaning solvents, cosmetics, and some naturally occurring substances. Symptoms may appear immediately after exposure or be delayed. They may include limb weakness or numbness; loss of memory, vision, and/or intellect; headache; cognitive and behavioral problems; and sexual dysfunction. Individuals with certain disorders may be especially vulnerable to neurotoxicants.

Is there any treatment?

Treatment involves eliminating or reducing exposure to the toxic substance, followed by symptomatic and supportive therapy.

What is the prognosis?

The prognosis depends upon the length and degree of exposure and the severity of neurological injury. In some instances, exposure to neurotoxicants can be fatal. In others, patients may survive but not fully recover. In other situations, many individuals recover completely after treatment.

What research is being done?

The NINDS supports research on disorders of the brain and nervous system such as neurotoxicity, aimed at learning more about these disorders and finding ways to prevent and treat them. Scientists are investigating the role occupational or environmental toxicants have on progressive neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, and dementia. Also being studied are the mechanisms that trigger neuroimmune responses in the central nervous system and the possibility that some brain disorders in children may occur when environmental triggers interact with genes.

NIH Patient Recruitment for Neurotoxicity Clinical Trials
At NIH Clinical Center
Throughout the U.S. and Worldwide
Organizations

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
National Institutes of Health, DHHS
111 T.W. Alexander Drive
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
webcenter@niehs.nih.gov
http://www.niehs.nih.gov
Tel: 919-541-3345

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
5600 Fishers Lane, CDER-HFD-240
Rockville, MD 20857
http://www.fda.gov
Tel: 301-827-4573 888-INFO-FDA (463-6332)


Prepared by:
Office of Communications and Public Liaison
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD 20892

NINDS health-related material is provided for information purposes only and does not necessarily represent endorsement by or an official position of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke or any other Federal agency. Advice on the treatment or care of an individual patient should be obtained through consultation with a physician who has examined that patient or is familiar with that patient's medical history. "

All NINDS-prepared information is in the public domain and may be freely copied. Credit to the NINDS or the NIH is appreciated.

NeuroProtect buy here

Professional Perspectives: Fluoride in Tap Water

Intimacy, intimacy, intimacy

If we are not invested in our partner on an emotional level, we are not making love. To make love is to be connected on these two levels – emotional and physical. Staying connected only on a single level is to just have sex. Sometimes couples do not even realize that this is causing a problem in their relationship. Partners just know that something does not feel right. A true partnership functions as a union. This means that when you partner is depressed, stressed and discontent with something in his or her life that you find the time to attend to his or her needs. You do not just go to bed, have sex and fall asleep and then wake up and go on with the next day. When your partner’s experiences become your own concern, you will know what a true partnership is. Only then, you will find true intimacy and a fulfilling relationship. Find time to help with chores around the house. Do not read your newspaper or watch TV during dinner. Do not answer phone calls during times when the two of you are spending quality time. Find time to compliment each other. Do not neglect your appearance just because you’ve already found someone to be with. Take risks and try out new things together. Start paying closer attention to your partner’s emotional state. Break the monotony of your relationship by breaking off from your usual routine. Do not plan on being physically intimate only on weekends when you’re off. Make your partner feel desired through the week. Sex does not per se equate intimacy. For example, you may want to take your partner out to dinner on Wednesday and perhaps on Friday share physical intimacy. Try to keep things like this in your relationship unpredictable. This will take the pressure from both of you. Your partner will feel attended to and you will have less pressure to perform. Do not set a routine because as you know routines become boring. Routines are also influenced by the events in our life and we do not always have control of the external situations in life.
Use the following activity to brain storm some ideas of how to enhance your intimacy.
1. How can I become more attentive to my partner on an emotional level?

2. What do I need to do to show my partner that I really care about their emotionality?
3. How can I show more emotional affection to my partner?

Excerpt from: Couple's Communiation Made Easy (audio book)

Dr. Oz Belly Fat

Detoxify Your Colon Naturally

Life style, diet and environmental toxins can cause illness and age the body faster. Here are few things you can do to cleanse your colon.

Instructions

Step 1 Limit your intake and exposure to environmental toxins and food additives. Try to buy organic, natural food. If you eat meat, be aware that animals are injected with pellets that release growth hormones over a period of time into their system and that processed meat is injected with carbon monoxide to keep its color looking "fresh". Wash all produce well and do not keep thinks in the refrigerator for an extensive period of time (label opened containers with the date you opened the seal on items such as pasta sauce, cream cheese, jams, butter, etc). Just because you do not see mold, it does not mean that the food is not being spoiled. Bottom line, try to eat fresh and healthy foods.

Step 2 You may want to start detoxifying with supplements. Some supplements for detoxification have blood purifying and antioxidant properties. Others, act as mild diuretics. Supplements can also cleanse the body off of parasites and worms. Amongst some of the herbs: are barberry, aloe vera, black walnut, wormwood, yellow dock, pau darco, uva ursi, yellow dock , etc. Other supplements include chlorophyll, garlic oil, golden seal, spirulina, bee pollen, and argeinine (amino acid) to name a few.

Step 3 Colonics and enemas, soaking in sea salt bath infused hot tub or sea weed bath is helpful to drain the body off of toxins as well as sauna therapy or just any other activity such as sun bathing that causes sweating may help over a period of time. Stay hydrated, avoid exposure to toxins in the environment as much as possible, do not smoke and do not use illegal drugs.

Pollution Exposure Linked to Lower IQ Scores in Children..

"Kids' lower IQ scores linked to prenatal pollution
Associated Press


AP – July 17, 2009, by the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental …

By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner, Ap Medical Writer – 2 hrs 7 mins ago
CHICAGO – Researchers for the first time have linked air pollution exposure before birth with lower IQ scores in childhood, bolstering evidence that smog may harm the developing brain.

The results are in a study of 249 children of New York City women who wore backpack air monitors for 48 hours during the last few months of pregnancy. They lived in mostly low-income neighborhoods in northern Manhattan and the South Bronx. They had varying levels of exposure to typical kinds of urban air pollution, mostly from car, bus and truck exhaust.

At age 5, before starting school, the children were given IQ tests. Those exposed to the most pollution before birth scored on average four to five points lower than children with less exposure.

That's a big enough difference that it could affect children's performance in school, said Frederica Perera, the study's lead author and director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health.

Dr. Michael Msall, a University of Chicago pediatrician not involved in the research, said the study doesn't mean that children living in congested cities "aren't going to learn to read and write and spell."

But it does suggest that you don't have to live right next door to a belching factory to face pollution health risks, and that there may be more dangers from typical urban air pollution than previously thought, he said.

"We are learning more and more about low-dose exposure and how things we take for granted may not be a free ride," he said.

While future research is needed to confirm the new results, the findings suggest exposure to air pollution before birth could have the same harmful effects on the developing brain as exposure to lead, said Patrick Breysse, an environmental health specialist at Johns Hopkins' school of public health.

And along with other environmental harms and disadvantages low-income children are exposed to, it could help explain why they often do worse academically than children from wealthier families, Breysse said.

"It's a profound observation," he said. "This paper is going to open a lot of eyes."

The study in the August edition of Pediatrics was released Monday.

In earlier research, involving some of the same children and others, Perera linked prenatal exposure to air pollution with genetic abnormalities at birth that could increase risks for cancer; smaller newborn head size and reduced birth weight. Her research team also has linked it with developmental delays at age 3 and with children's asthma.

The researchers studied pollutants that can cross the placenta and are known scientifically as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Main sources include vehicle exhaust and factory emissions. Tobacco smoke is another source, but mothers in the study were nonsmokers.

A total of 140 study children, 56 percent, were in the high exposure group. That means their mothers likely lived close to heavily congested streets, bus depots and other typical sources of city air pollution; the researchers are still examining data to confirm that, Perera said. The mothers were black or Dominican-American; the results likely apply to other groups, researchers said.

The researchers took into account other factors that could influence IQ, including secondhand smoke exposure, the home learning environment and air pollution exposure after birth, and still found a strong influence from prenatal exposure, Perera said.

Dr. Robert Geller, an Emory University pediatrician and toxicologist, said the study can't completely rule out that pollution exposure during early childhood might have contributed. He also noted fewer mothers in the high exposure group had graduated from high school. While that might also have contributed to the high-dose children's lower IQ scores, the study still provides compelling evidence implicating prenatal pollution exposure that should prompt additional studies, Geller said.

The researchers said they plan to continuing monitoring and testing the children to learn whether school performance is affected and if there are any additional long-term effects. "

Teaching Girls Morals and How to Be Strong

Join Curly as she learns about faith, strength, impermanence, imagination and more.

Intended for children ages 4+

Buy at Amazon (click on book cover)

Everyone Belongs

One day while Curly was on her way to the water spring and had just exchanged her usual greetings with Mister Donkey and the sheep, she met a little porcupine sitting all alone by the road. “What are you doing here little fella?” Curly asked him. He told her that he had gotten lost while sniffing the grass and had found himself in an unfamiliar place away from home. “Little prickly fella” Curly said, “would you let me help you? “Yes” he replied as a small tear rolled down his face.
Curly then took a large plant leaf and placed the little porcupine on it and gently carried him to her home. She called “Grandpa, grandpa, this little porcupine surely has a home and a family. He is lost. Let’s take him to his home”. “Yes!” grandpa said. “Everyone has a place where they come from”. He told her.
The next day, Curly and grandpa brought the porcupine into the woods where he last remembered being before finding himself at the road near the pasture. As he smelled the air, the little porcupine said that the air there smelled more like home and thanked them for carrying him there. After all, it would have taken him many days to walk there even if he knew the way. His little feet would have gotten very, very tired if they had not carried him along the way. He told them that his feet were too short and small and that he would have never been able to walk thus far so quickly had they not carried him. They waved good bye and each went their own way.
Grandpa explained to Curly that certain animals are not meant to be our pets and that they are happiest in their own homes, in the wild. He told her that not hurting these creatures was important because they, like people, deserve to be happy and free. Curly remembered this lesson and how important it is not to hurt anyone or anything in nature.