Posted by mistermindmasta on April 20, 2004, at 11:11:57
In reply to Re: Ultra rapid bipolar b/c of caffeine?, posted by Jackd on April 20, 2004, at 4:45:45
> Damn, I've noticed the same things as you in terms of caffeine and mood. I though I was super cycling until I realized it was just that I was drinking coca cola at random intervals in the day... and yep, the Lamictal sort of eliminated this to some extent. People that are "mood-reactive" are warned against drinking caffeine. I'm quite sensitive to the stuff myself.
Right on, that's interesting that your story jives so closely with mine.I wonder if the caffeine induced glutamate release causes excitotoxic damage. A new study just released shows that ppl with bipolar have unusually weak protection from excitotoxic factors. Possibly caffeine is one of these excitotoxic factors (but not in normal ppl), via glutamate release? This makes perfect sense that anything that inhibits that Ca (2+) flux from glutamate release [Lamactil, Carbamapazine (forget the spelling)] might inhibit this damage. Generally speaking, I would assume that people who are bipolar are sensitive to other dietary stressors that normal people with normal excitotoxic damage protection do not experience. Alcohol withdrawal causes neurodegeneration via upregulation of NMDA receptors, and this might be more pronounced in bipolars. I am extremely sensitive to alcohol, as well.
Bipolar ppl might have genetics that decrease glutamate uptake, thus allowing high concentrations of glutamate and higher probabilities of neuron damage.
I wonder how that one glutamate inhibitor (riluzole... spelling?) would affect people with bipolar.
poster:mistermindmasta
thread:337950
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040417/msgs/338065.html