Part 4 Neurotransmitters: Glutamate and Histamine

This is the end of the series on neurotransmitters. Again, there are over 100 identified neurotransmitters.  These are just a few that are important to our upcoming discussion on specific mental illnesses.

Glutamate

We talked about GABA last time.  Glutamate is it’s opposite.  GABA inhibits and glutamate excites neurotransmission.  In other words, glutamate increases the firing of a neuron.  It is found in at least 50% of all the synapses in the brain, making it the most common neurotransmitter in the body!  Remember that the synapse is the space between two neurons. Here’s a link back to the information about neurons if you need a review.

Glutamate has many important roles including cognition.  Cognition refers to the process of how you learn something by thinking about it, experience it, and how your senses process it. Glutamate is also really important in brain development and it helps in the process of forming memories. So, as you can imagine, if there is a problem with glutamate, you might experience memory loss or difficulty learning.

Too much glutamate contributes to damage of the neurons including stroke, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), and epilepsy. When there is too much glutamate, the neurons commit suicide so to speak. Too little glutamate contributes to psychosis such as schizophrenia, concentration problems, insomnia, and mental exhaustion which is found in diseases such as fibromyalgia. In other words, it is imperative that you have the right amount of glutamate as an imbalance either way can cause a lot of damage.

Glutamate also plays a role in the immune system, supports muscle function, increases appetite and how fast you become full.  It supports gastrointestinal function as it is needed in order to make a healthy lining in your gastrointestinal system.

There is glutamate in breast milk which helps the formation of the baby’s brain.  Beside breast milk, foods which help to provide appropriate balance of glutamate include meats, poultry, eggs, tomatoes, cheese, mushrooms, and soy. (Hey that almost sounds like pizza!)

Histamine

Histamine is a neurotransmitter that is related to the immune response. When you live in a green valley with lots of trees and grass, you may be affected by histamine.  Your eyes may become itchy and water and your nose runs. You get a stuffy nose and you sneeze.  You reach into your medicine cabinet and you take out an antihistamine!  The antihistamine has the opposite effect. It dries up the snot and hopefully those itchy, watery eyes so you can function. Unfortunately, that Benadryl you just took, will make you sleepy. Next time, you’ll use a second generation antihistamine like Claritin, Allegra, or Zyrtec.  Beside allergies and asthma, too much histamine is found in neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and Schizophrenia.

We have completed our discussion on neurotransmitters.  Referring back to our first post about neurons, these neurotransmitters are released by neurons and sent to the next neuron.  If you want to review that concept click here!

Before we get to the parts of the brain and how the spinal cord plays a role in mental and neurological disease, I will be posting about two very important hormones next time.  I can’t wait for us to finish the basic understanding of neurobiology so that we can talk about the different mental illnesses.  I hope to have interviews, videos, and writings about people’s various experiences as well as scripture and science and how they are not mutually exclusive!

Peace,

~Lisa