For those of us who suffer multiple sensitivity, chronic pain, chronic fatigue and the like, I am always keeping my eye out for articles on central sensitivity syndrome, as I believe that is at the heart of why many of us suffer. If you don’t know what central sensitivity syndrome is, see here and here where I’ve explained a lot about it.
In effect, our amygdala dial and pain processes are set too high so we get affected more easily by stuff that non CSS sufferers would bat off without blinking an eyelid.
So, I was interested to see this week’s Tuesday Minute video, which is based on the work of Dr Mark Force, who specialises in central sensitivity syndrome. I would need to look into his recommendations more, but it seems he uses the usual approaches we talk about to lower the amygdala response (meditation, breathwork etc), but he also uses a biochemical approach designed to switch excess stimulatory glutamine to the relaxing GABA, which we suspect has an effect on CSS people.
In fact, I have deliberately listed the NeuroAdvanced Test so we can see exactly what patterns, including the glutamine/GABA one we have so we can take steps to correct it. Read the Overview there. And, I’ve written about what to look for and what those patterns might mean in the Healing Plan for you.
Anyway, Dr Force uses a combination of zinc, butyric acid (of leaky gut healing fame, this cannot be a coincidence!) and lithium therapy, as I understand it. This is a nutritional form of lithium, not the same as people are given by mental health professionals for forms of anxiety and depression, note. This struck me as interesting because I often see lithium very low on hair mineral tests and have so far dismissed it as an anomaly, being trained in the fact that lithium is used only as a medicine as above. But, according to Dr Force, we could be missing a trick here.
For example, he explains:
Lithium lowers cortisol. When someone
doesn’t have enough lithium they tend to be
overstimulated. Like a bare wire, every nerve
in their body is firing due to overstimulation.
A common element in this pattern is nervous
exhaustion. Often patients are diagnosed
with chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia
because they are overstimulated and exhausted
and..
The combination of Li-Zyme Forte and Zn-Zyme
Forte with Butyric-Cal-Mag (a form of
butyric acid) creates a strategy to control a
receptor called the NMDA receptor and promotes
the conversion of glutamate, the
highly excitable neurotransmitter, to GABA,
the brains natural tranquilizer.
That’s interesting. I can’t comment on it as I have no experience with using it, but I am certainly going to keep my eye on it for us. I’ve linked to the products anyway at ND as usual) so you can see which they are, but please be led by your practitioner, of course. Listen to the Tuesday Minute video here and see the transcript. Then, read Dr Force’s paper here:
The Autonomic Nervous System: What Is It? Why Should I
Care?
by Mark Force, DC
Hope that helps,
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Thanks, Micki. Very important info. I have been using a few drops of lithium in my drinking water and feel it does help. Dr Jonathon Wright advocates dietary supplementation of lithium for almost everyone and has good info on his website. He has found most people are deficient and that people who live in areas where soils are poor in lithium are less healthy than areas where it is adequate. . . . I tried the zinc taste test a few years ago and felt i was okay for zinc based on that. But then subsequently found out through lab tests that i have pyrrole disorder and was severely deficient in zinc. Much better to get the inexpensive zinc and copper plasma lab tests done to see where you stand on those minerals and your zinc:copper ratio. I have those tests done once a year now to make sure i’m not getting too far out of balance with those very important minerals.
Yes good point, thanks Terry. I shall look up Dr Wright’s stuff on lithium then. I also prefer the copper and zinc tests done as you say and have them on my shop for that reason. There is also a pyrrole test for anyone who needs that – I am finding it is pretty common in multiple sensitivity people.
I think a lot of people with chronic and autoimmune disease have undiagnosed pyrrole disorder. Finding out about that piece was a huge step up for me.