Tag Archives: Glutamate Homeostasis

addiction treatment

Natural brain balance and addiction

May 18, 2017
Natural brain balance

Natural brain balance and addiction which is very significant in destroying life of drug users

Natural brain balance and addiction: Homeostasis

How does substance abuse affect the brain? This is very fundamental. There is no doubt that the natural brain balance is greatly affected by substance abuse. This change is scientifically known as homeostasis which is a biological process. All biological systems including the human body will attempt to maintain a “normal” balance, known as homeostasis. Doctor Akoury says that the brain functions as the administrator of this balance by making various adjustments where necessary to maintain a balanced, well-functioning, biological system. Each person’s “normal” balance is individually determined. Drugs abuse and activity addictions lead to changes in this normal balance.

Chronic over-stimulation of the brain interferes with the maintenance of the brain natural balance (homeostasis). When the brain has difficulty maintaining homeostatic balance, the wonderfully adaptive brain makes adjustments. It does this by creating a new balanced set-point. The creation of a new balance is called allostasis. This may not be very clear to many, but let me make it simpler by using a daily life illustration. Take for instance if you add more weight to 20 units, you will try fitting into your clothing’s despite the discomfort. But with time this will not be bearable and so you will have to adapt to the new body size by buying new clothes that will fit you well. Once this is done you will be more comfortable and at this point, you will get used to the fact that your clothes are now the large size and not medium or small sizes as it used to be and in the process your homeostasis balance changes from medium to large. And with this adjustment, you become comfortable again.

Take note that the reverse can also take place in the future where the added 20 units may be lost to keep healthy and when that happens you will be compelled to make further readjustment to your clothing size by buying smaller sizes. Therefore even though at this moment you will be healthy due to the loss, you will still need to make an unpleasant and costly adjustment by buying smaller clothes. This is very similar to the unpleasant adjustment the brain must go through when people try to give up their addiction. Although this is a positive change, we will be uncomfortable while the brain makes readjustments to suits the present circumstances.

Natural brain balance and addiction: The brain’s ability to cope

From the concept illustrated above, the brain’s wonderful ability to make the readjustments is worth noting. It’s these changes that account for many behaviors associated with addiction like:

  • The powerful and lustful need to obtain drugs or continue with the indulgence of harmful activities despite the harms to self or loved ones
  • The difficulty of quitting an addictive drug or activity
  • The obsessive, all-consuming nature of addictions such that little else in life matters

This is because addiction caused the natural brain balance to change and accommodate the addiction. Once changed, the brain requires the addictive substance or activity in order to maintain this new homeostatic balance. Drugs and alcohol are not helping us in any way. Instead of the poor health and social discrimination, we get from drugs, let’s seek for solution by scheduling an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury today for a one on one sharing of what you are going through and she will in the most professional way offer you lasting solutions to all your concerns.

Natural brain balance and addiction: Homeostasis

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painkiller abuse

Natural balance homeostasis of the brain

July 30, 2016
Natural balance homeostasis

Natural balance homeostasis of the brain can fall prey to substance abuse

Natural balance homeostasis of the brain: Drug addiction

One of the fundamentals in our response to the question of discussion “the natural balance homeostasis of the brain” is that addiction will always change the brain natural balance which is scientifically known as homeostasis. The truth is that addiction interferes with an important biological process called homeostasis. Scientifically the human body is considered as a biological system. All biological systems attempt to maintain a “normal” balance, known as homeostasis. Doctor Akoury says that the brain actually functions as the administrator of this balance by making various adjustments where is necessary to maintain a balanced, well-functioning, biological system. Each person’s “normal” balance is individually determined. Drugs of abuse and activity addictions lead to changes in this normal balance.

Natural balance homeostasis of the brain: The brains over-stimulation

Chronic over-stimulation of the brain (like that which occurs in addiction) interferes with the maintenance of this natural balance homeostasis. When the brain has difficulty maintaining homeostatic balance, the wonderfully adaptive brain makes adjustments. It does this by creating a new balanced set-point. The creation of a new balance is called allostasis. This may not be very clear to many, but let me make it simpler by using a daily life illustration. Take for instance if you add more weight by 20 units, you will try fitting into your clothing’s despite the discomfort. But with time this will not be bearable and so you will have to adapt to the new body size by buying new clothes that will fit you well. Once this is done you will be more comfortable and at this point you will get used to the fact that your cloths are now large size and not medium or small sizes as it used to be.

That is how the process your natural balance homeostasis changes from medium to large. And with this adjustment you become comfortable again. Nonetheless the reverse can also take place in the future where the added 20 units may be lost to keep healthy and when that happens you will be compelled to make further readjustment to your clothing size by buying smaller sizes. Therefore even though at this moment you will be healthy due to the loss, you will still need to make an unpleasant and costly adjustment by buying smaller clothes. This is very similar to the unpleasant adjustment the brain must go through when people try to give up their addiction. Although this is a positive change, we will be uncomfortable while the brain makes readjustments to suits the present circumstances.

Natural balance homeostasis of the brain: The brains coping strategies

I hope that the concept is coming out clearly from the above illustration. But nonetheless even with the brain’s wonderful ability to make the readjustments, these changes are still causing significant changes to the brain’s functioning. And in fact it is these changes that account for many behaviors associated with addiction such as:

  • The powerful and lustful need to obtain drugs or continue with the indulgence of harmful activities despite the harm to self or loved ones
  • The difficulty of quitting an addictive drug or activity, and
  • The obsessive, all-consuming nature of addictions such that little else in life matters

This happens because addiction caused the brain’s balance to change to accommodate the addiction. Once changed, the brain requires the addictive substance or activity in order to maintain this new homeostatic balance. Finally it is important to appreciate that we all have a duty to keep our health above board and the brain is playing a key role in ensuring that this dream is realized. Therefore anything that makes the brain to function improperly must be the biggest enemy to us. That is to say that if you or anyone you know is struggling with any form of addiction you may want to consider scheduling for an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury today for the commencement of your healing recovery program.

Natural balance homeostasis of the brain: Drug addiction

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Glutamate-Homeostasis-Hypothesis-Addiction

Glutamate Homeostasis Hypothesis Of Addiction

February 26, 2016

Understanding Glutamate Homeostasis Hypothesis Of Addiction

It is harder for a drug addict to recover from an addiction simply because he isn’t in control. Addictive behaviours are highly dependent on several neurotransmitter reactions such as glutamate homeostasis that takes place in the body making it harder to deal with drug addiction complications such as relapse. Studies show that drug abuse disorders are dependent on glutamate levels that are also determined by the degree of cellular development. This assumption became obvious in the 1990s where biologists discovered non-synaptic extracellular glutamate has a significant influence on the release of synaptic glutamate as well as signalling through its receptors. It was also realized that lack or lower levels of glutamate in the synaptic cleft critical prevented the receptor from desensitization as well as excitotoxicity and also, created high chances of postsynaptic responsiveness and synaptic release.

Defining Glutamet Homeostasis

Glutamate Homeostasis can be defined as a range of synaptic glutamate concentrations that are highly controlled in the nucleus accumbens vital for maintaining synapses of glutamatergic. According to studies, reactions revolving around glutamate homeostasis has shown to impact directly the possible chances of drug addiction. This is because continuous use of drugs influences neuroadaptations that in turn affect reactions involving glutamate homeostasis. As a result, the synaptic plasticity gets impaired in a way that it ends up encouraging drug addiction behaviours such as relapse.

Some of the vital triggers of addictive behaviours especially for the recovering addicts are high-risk factors, cues and most importantly stress. According to studies, effects of relapse triggers varies depending on the levels of glutamate in the body. Here is a brief overview of the relationship between glutamate homeostasis and drug abuse.

 

Glutamate homeostasis

Glutamate Homeostasis Hypothesis Of Addiction eradication success

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GLUTAMATE LEVELS AND ADDICTIVE BEHAVIORS

Effects of drug abuse to learning are highly determined by dopaminergic signalling. It has been realized that prolonged drug use results in increased transmission of dopamine that takes place in the ventral tegmental into the structures that exist within the brain’s mesolimbic circuitry such as prefrontal cortex, amygdala and NAc. There is an assumption that projection of glutamatergic from the Prefrontal cortex is among the major causes of drug use or relapse as a result of stress and drug cues making circuitry one of the important factors to consider when dealing with addictive behaviour.

It is also evident that dopaminergic stimulates the patient’s desire to start using drugs. This is made clear in the study that showed that corticostriatal glutamatergic neurotransmission disruptions are partly responsible for chronic drug addiction behaviours that result from several disruptions in the brain caused by glutamate homeostasis dysregulation. Concentrations of extracellular glutamate are regulated to preserve plasticity and synaptic function’s integrity. Other signs that glutamate plays a major role in determining chances of drug addiction exists in the studies that involve, Glutamate-Cystine exchange, Glutamate transporters, mGluR2/3/5, and more.

As we can see above, glutamate homeostasis directly impacts drug seeking behaviours in several ways. As a result, biologists came to a conclusion that restoration of glutamate homeostasis by focussing on its components is one of the effective ways of dealing with drug addiction behaviours, drug cues, high-risk situations as well as relapse. Other studies have also shown that continuous drug use affects the levels of extrasynaptic glutamate. However, some cases contradict the findings of the study. For example, some studies show that alcohol increases the levels of glutamate while on the other hand, cocaine that has almost the same effects as alcohol, reduces the levels.

Glutamine Supplements And Their Benefits To Addiction

It has been realized that apart from determining the chances of drug addiction, Glutamine also plays a significant role in preventing relapse and continuous use of a drug. This remains a fact since almost all studies revolving around glutamine supplements such as L-glutamine has proved that glutamine is one of the vital amino acids required by the body. It has also shown that glutamine plays an important role in brain health, physical performance and high blood sugar that are also considered as relapse triggers. Adequate glutamine in the body ensures that the body functions as expected by reducing stress, discomfort, restlessness and more. As a result, glutamine supplements are now in the market targeting drug users and those who are too cautious of their brain health. Here are some of the glutamine supplement’s proven drug addiction benefits.

Glutamate

  • Glutamine improves focus: One of the most triggers of relapse is the lack of concentration especially when under stress. For drug addicts who are recovering this is the worst thing that can happen especially during their first stages of recovery. Being an essential neurotransmitter, glutamine ensures that you remain focused despite the situation you are in.
  • Improves physical performance: Another relapse trigger common with recovering drug addicts, is the feeling of exhaustion especially when they are not using the drug. As a result, they end up using the drug with an aim of dealing with the situation. Glutamine has proven to promote physical performance as well as recovery after hard work hence eliminates the need of a drug as a booster.
  • Glutamine reduces cravings for alcohol: It is quite clear that alcohol users who have decided to stop drinking can cope with the situation since are not able to control their cravings. The bad news is, cravings are natural and out of human control. If your body needs it then any chance you get, you’ll end up using it again. Glutamine ensures that this doesn’t happen by helping you to effectively control your alcohol cravings hence vital to preventing relapse.

In summary, drug abuse, addiction, drug cues and relapse are all dependent on glutamine levels, making it harder for drug addicts to survive the recovery period. According to studies, lower levels of glutamine encourages addictive behaviours such as relapse, continuous drug use and more. The most disturbing fact is that you have no control of the glutamine levels in your body unless you decide to use supplements such as L-glutamine. It occurs naturally, meaning that if you are an addict, you’ll have a hard time recovering from the problem.

If you are a drug user seeking relief or you have a friend who is an addict and you are looking for a better solution, you are highly invited to Integrated Addiction Conference. The conference will cover topics that relate to drug addiction such as preventing relapse, identifying and managing drug cues and high-risk situations and more. You’ll also get a chance to meet and interact with recovered as well as recovering drug addicts around the world to share your experiences. For more information, follow the link below.

http://regenerativepotential.com/integrativeaddictionconference/

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