Posted by SLS on June 25, 2005, at 14:24:16 [reposted on June 28, 2005, at 12:35:15 | original URL]
In reply to High Levels Of Calcium In Drinking Water and AD's, posted by NARCOLEPTIC on June 25, 2005, at 13:47:14
Hi.
Calcium supplements exacerbate my depression within an hour of ingestion. Magnesium supplements do not. They just make me sleepy.
> Any research done on this? Isn't there a correlation between Mg and Ca [homeostatic
inverse balancing system]Yes. I believe much of it is presynaptic.
> Interestingly neurotransmitter release is caused/ regulation to a degree by Ca influx. Could a dysregulation of this sytem cause a global malfunction?This occurs at the nerve terminals.
> Far fetched maybe but worth asking.Again, my doctor at the NIH did not think it too far fetched to make it a pet theory of his. I don't know if he would say the same thing today, though. As one of the early leaders in PET imaging in the field of psychiatry, and having been exposed to the work of Husseine Manji, he probably appreciates more the brain's complexity and the multifactorial nature of depressive phenotypes.
> Additionally Mg affects NMDA receptors and is supposedly being tried in some ADHD patients to prevent tolerance?
That's interesting. Perhaps they should give memantine a try, then.
> The whole process has something to do with Ca ions, which, also, and VERY interestingly too is antagonized by most anti-epileptics which brings me to the whole new topic of calcium channel antagonists like Nimodipine and verapamil being used off-label in some affective diosrders.
> Any comments?You posted some real good stuff here. Thanks.
Nimodipine was tried as monotherapy at the NIH in 1992-1994. It was a big of a flop. I guess they also tried it drug combinations. You don't hear much about nimodipine because it probably doesn't work. Of course, it is prohibitively expensive. Another L-type Ca2 channel blocker in that series would be almodipine. I never heard of its successful use in affective disorders. Verapamil has been used for years off label for bipolar disorder with some success. It is real good as a prophylactic against migraine as well.
Right now, I doubt that anomolies in magnesium/calcium activity can explain globally the etiology of affective disorders.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:520547
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/health/20050411/msgs/520548.html