Acidity effects on brain

New way to look at brain function -- ScienceDaily

University of Iowa neuroscientist John Wemmie, M.D., Ph.D., is interested in the effect of acid in the brain. His studies suggest that increased acidity or low pH, in the brain is linked to panic disorders, anxiety, and depression. But his work also suggests that changes in acidity are important for normal brain activity too.

"We are interested in the idea that pH might be changing in the functional brain because we've been hot on the trail of receptors that are activated by low pH," says Wemmie, a UI associate professor of psychiatry. "The presence of these receptors implies the possibility that low pH might be playing a signaling role in normal brain function."

Wemmie's studies have shown that these acid-sensing proteins are required for normal fear responses and for learning and memory in mice. However, while you can buy a kit to measure the pH (acidity) of your garden soil, there currently is no easy way to measure pH changes in the brain.

Wemmie teamed up with Vincent Magnotta, Ph.D., UI associate professor of radiology, psychiatry, and biomedical engineering, and using Magnotta's expertise in developing MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)-based brain imaging techniques, the researchers developed and tested a new, non-invasive method to detect and monitor pH changes in living brains.

According to Wemmie, the new imaging technique provides the best evidence so far that pH changes do occur with normal function in the intact human brain. The findings were published May 7 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Early Edition.

Specifically, the study showed the MRI-based method was able to detect global changes in brain pH in mice. Breathing carbon dioxide, which lowers pH (makes the brain more acidic), increased the signal, while bicarbonate injections, which increases brain pH, decreased the MRI signal. The relationship between the signal and the pH was linear over the range that was tested.

Importantly, the method also seems able to detect localized brain activity. When human volunteers viewed a flashing checkerboard -- a classic experiment that activates a particular brain region involved in vision -- the MRI method detected a drop in pH in that region. The team also confirmed the pH drop using other methods.

"Our study tells us, first, we have a technique that we believe can measure pH changes in the brain, and second, this MRI-based technique suggests that pH changes do occur with brain function," Magnotta says.

"The results support our original idea that brain activity can change local pH in human brains during normal activity, meaning that pH change in conjunction with the pH-sensitive receptors could be part of a signaling system that affects brain activity and cognitive function," Wemmie adds

A new way to view brain activity

Importantly, this technique may also provide a new way to image the brain

Currently, functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting a signal that's due to oxygen levels in the blood flowing to active brain regions. The UI team showed that their method responds to pH changes but is not influenced by changes in blood oxygenation. Conversely, fMRI does not respond to changes in pH.

"What we show is our method of detecting brain activity probably depends on pH changes and, more than that, it is distinct from the signal that fMRI measures," says Wemmie. "This gives us another tool to study brain activity."

pH and brain function

Wemmie's previous studies have suggested a role for pH changes in certain psychiatric diseases, including anxiety and depression. With the new method, he and his colleagues hope to explore how pH is involved in these conditions.

"Brain activity is likely different in people with brain disorders, such as bipolar or depression and that might be reflected in this measure," Wemmie says. "And perhaps most important, at the end of the day; could this signal be abnormal or perturbed in human psychiatric disease? And if so, it might be a target for manipulation and treatment?"

Acid in the brain | Iowa Now

Acid in the brain

UI team develops new way to look at brain function

By: Jennifer Brown | 2012. 05.18 | 09:55 am

University of Iowa neuroscientist John Wemmie is interested in the effect of acid in the brain (not that kind of acid!). His studies suggest that increased acidity—or low pH—in the brain is linked to panic disorders, anxiety, and depression. But his work also indicates that changes in acidity are important for normal brain activity too.

“We are interested in the idea that pH might be changing in the functional brain because we’ve been hot on the trail of receptors that are activated by low pH,” says Wemmie, associate professor of psychiatry in the UI Carver College of Medicine. “The presence of these receptors implies the possibility that low pH might be playing a signaling role in normal brain function.”

Wemmie’s studies have shown that these acid-sensing proteins are required for normal fear responses and for learning and memory in mice. However, while you can buy a kit to measure the acidity of your garden soil, there currently is no easy way to measure pH changes in the brain.

Vincent Magnotta (left) and John Wemmie. Photo by Susan McClellen.

Wemmie teamed up with Vincent Magnotta, UI associate professor of radiology, psychiatry, and biomedical engineering. Using Magnotta’s expertise in developing MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)-based brain imaging techniques, the researchers developed and tested a new, noninvasive method to detect and monitor pH changes in living brains.

MRI detects pH changes

Specifically, the study showed the MRI-based method was able to detect global changes in brain pH in mice. Breathing carbon dioxide, which lowers pH and makes the brain more acidic, increased the signal, while bicarbonate injections, which increases brain pH, decreased the MRI signal. The relationship between the signal and the pH was linear over the range tested.

MRI brain scans of human subject breathing air (left) or air containing 7.5 percent carbon dioxide (middle). The difference between the two scans (shown right) shows increased brain acidity in red caused by carbon dioxide inhalation as measured by the new MRI-based strategy.

Importantly, the method also seems able to detect localized brain activity. When human volunteers viewed a flashing checkerboard—a classic experiment that activates a particular brain region involved in vision—the MRI method detected a drop in pH in that region. The team also confirmed the pH drop using other methods.

“Our study tells us, first, we have a technique that we believe can measure pH changes in the brain, and second, this MRI-based technique suggests that pH changes do occur with brain function,” Magnotta says.

“The results support our original idea that brain activity can change local pH in human brains during normal activity, meaning that pH change in conjunction with the pH-sensitive receptors could be part of a signaling system that affects brain activity and cognitive function,” Wemmie adds.

A new way to view brain activity

Importantly, this technique may also provide a new way to image the brain.

Currently, functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting a signal that’s due to oxygen levels in the blood flowing to active brain regions. The UI team showed that their method responds to pH changes but is not influenced by changes in blood oxygenation. Conversely, fMRI does not respond to changes in pH.

“What we show is our method of detecting brain activity probably depends on pH changes and, more than that, it is distinct from the signal that fMRI measures,” says Wemmie. “This gives us another tool to study brain activity.”

pH and brain function

Wemmie’s previous studies have suggested a role for pH changes in certain psychiatric diseases, including anxiety and depression. With the new method, he and his colleagues hope to explore how pH is involved in these conditions.

“Brain activity is likely different in people with brain disorders such as bipolar or depression, and that might be reflected in this measure,” Wemmie says. “And perhaps most important, at the end of the day: Could this signal be abnormal or perturbed in human psychiatric disease? And if so, might it be a target for manipulation and treatment?”

In addition to Wemmie and Magnotta, the UI team included Hye-Young Heo, Brian Dlouhy, Nader Dahdaleh, Robin Follmer, Daniel Thedens, and Michael Welsh.

The work was supported by the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience, the Dana Foundation, and a UI Clinical and Translational Science Award.

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Mental disorders may be associated with the pH value of the brain

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A group of scientists led by Tsuyoshi Miyakawa (Tsuyoshi Miyakawa), a neurologist from the Fujita Health University, Japan, wondered the purpose of testing all the main hypotheses about the presence and nature of the relationship between brain acidity and mental disorders. Them the results combined were the most compelling to date evidence of the reality of the relationship between increased acidity brain and mental disorders. Details about your work the authors told in an article published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology .

Tsuyoshi Miyakawa's group analyzed 10 available datasets post-mortem brain studies of more than 400 patients suffering from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. First they excluded factors that can affect the accuracy of the data, taking into account attention to the history of taking antipsychotics and the age of the patient on moment of death. As they expected, pH levels in schizophrenics and of those with bipolar disorder were lower than those of healthy of people.

In addition, the group conducted a study of five types of model mice with gene mutations associated with similar disorders, and got similar results: brain pH levels of two dozen mice not taking medication were systematically lower than in healthy animals, and lactate levels are more high.

The acidity of the human brain often fluctuates, at times experiencing bursts. One of the main reasons for these surges is carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ), continuously highlighted in the brain breaks down sugar for energy. However the general chemistry of a healthy brain remains almost neutral because other processes contribute to maintaining the status quo, for example, respiration, which removes CO ₂ from the body. AT as a result of this, short-term fluctuations in the acid-base balances usually go unnoticed.

However, a growing body of research suggests that in some people, even small changes in this balance can be associated with panic disorder and other psychiatric violations. Recent discoveries have confirmed the existence of this connections and gave reason to believe that it could play a role in schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder - studies with by direct measurement of the pH at post-mortem brain autopsies showed that people with schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder, the pH value was lower (i. e. acidity was higher) than in mentally normal people.

In an atmosphere with a high concentration of CO ₂, which can bind with water in the body, forming carbonic acid, people with bipolar affective disorder are more likely to panic attacks than healthy people. Other studies have shown that the brains of people with this disorder produce excess lactate - an acidic energy source, continuously produced and consumed by the energy-hungry brain.

But the question remained - is acidity really related to mental disorders or due to other reasons, such as taking antipsychotics or a physical condition person just before death. For example, if a person dies slowly, he stays longer in a state where it is more likely lack of oxygen, and this leads to a change in the entire metabolism generally. In this situation, the body and brain turn to ways energy production that does not depend on oxygen, which can lead to an increase in lactate levels and, consequently, a decrease in pH.

Either way, it has become clearer lately that brain acidity may be a key characteristic of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. At the same time, it is unclear whether she is the reason for these disorders or their consequences. One of the hypotheses is that increased acidity is the result of increased activity neurons in these patients, the other is that hyperacidity may be a consequence of a malfunction of mitochondria, and these two hypotheses may not be mutually exclusive.

The next important point of research is to clarify the role of low the pH level in the brain in a chain of cause and effect relationships, for example, whether it can cause changes in consciousness and behaviors associated with the diseases in question.

bipolar disorder high acidity human brain acidity schizophrenia

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Is there an acidification of the body and what you need to know about the alkaline diet

In theory, it works like this: people measure the acidity level of their body (urine pH) and, based on the result, choose a diet - refuse products that “acidify” the body. There is no scientific evidence for the effectiveness of such a diet, but it is possible to achieve weight loss because people refuse processed foods and alcohol. Debunking the myths about acidification of the body.

WHY PEOPLE WANT TO REDUCE ACID IN THE BODY: DIET

A fairly popular diet involves the rejection of foods that "acidify" our body. They allegedly cause a decrease in pH (hydrogen index), resulting in an acidic environment that is harmful to us. This, according to adherents of the theory of acidification, contributes to weight gain, damages bones and negatively affects the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. To prevent this from happening, it is recommended to adhere to an alkaline diet. It involves reducing the consumption of "acidic" foods - meat, eggs, wheat and other grains, sugar, dairy products, caffeine, alcohol and processed foods in favor of "alkaline", that is, those that reduce the level of acidity in the body.

HOW ACIDITY IS MEASURED AND WHY IT IS INEFFICIENT

Proponents of the acidity theory believe that it is possible to measure the acidity of the whole body by measuring the pH of the urine. If it is elevated, the products mentioned above are blamed and advised to refuse them. Should we focus on pH when choosing a diet? Definitely - no.

This indicator reflects the concentration of hydrogen ions, that is, protons in a certain solution, so we can talk about the pH of water, blood or saliva, but not the whole organism. There is no single indicator of body acidity.

Test systems that measure urine pH cannot provide information about the pH level of the body. Food and drink affect the acidity or alkalinity of urine, but this is the only liquid that is affected. The excretion of acid in the urine is one of the main ways of regulating the pH balance in the body.

Blood acidity is one of the most stable indicators, it ranges from 7.35 to 7.45. The constant acidity of the blood is supported by a number of systems - the kidneys, lungs, biochemical buffer systems of the blood.

Even chronic diseases do not affect the acidity of the blood. This indicator can change slightly only in the case of pathological conditions, such as acidosis, due to metabolism, kidney dysfunction or excessive muscle strain and loss of ions. Subsequently, the pH of the blood returns to normal. But this is not due to nutrition - no products can change this.

The environment in the stomach will always be acidic, in the duodenum - alkaline. It does not depend on certain products.

TRUTH AND MYTHS ABOUT ACIDIDATION OF THE BODY

One of the popular myths is that acidification of the body is bad for us because it causes osteoporosis. Allegedly, to neutralize excess acid, the body "pulls" calcium from the bones. Studies have not confirmed this link, and the effectiveness of an alkaline diet for bone health has not been proven.

Some adherents of this diet consider it an effective way to prevent cancer. Their argument is that cancer cells live in an acidic environment, and therefore, alkaline foods in this case can be a “medicine”. This is not true. Tumor growth is caused by various factors: carcinogens, genetic predisposition, radioactive radiation, immunodeficiency states, hormonal disorders, diet, but not acidity! After all, the enzymes of tumor cells are the same as those of healthy ones. They need the same acidity of the environment. The changes concern the regulation of cell division, but not the numerous enzymes of the "household" of the cell.

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