My comment on NPR’s Article

NPR has been running a series about a case of severe depression that was “cured” with a powerful glutamate blocker. You can read it here:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/01/31/146096540/i-wanted-to-live-new-depression-drugs-offer-hope-for-toughest-cases

Several people have mentioned this article to me, so I thought I would post the same comment I posted on the article, here.

“Why must this issue be so polarized?

I have a son that struggled with severe mood changes. We’ve since found out he is extremely sensitive to ingested free glutamate. MSG now is only the “black sheep” form that everyone knows about–there are dozens of forms, in almost all processed food (http://truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html), even “natural”. Even a little and my son suffers greatly. He takes a partial glutamate blocker but it doesn’t work unless his diet is also severely limited.

What baffles me is that excess glutamate has been implicated in so many diseases–Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, ALS, MS, the list goes on, and NO-ONE (alright, very few) in the scientific community talks about addressing food sources.

I applaud the researchers for trying out treatments that work on the glutamate pathway, and the brave subject of this article who not only did everything he could to help science but opened himself up to vile comments when he was just trying to get his life back.

But I’d like to see a call for researchers to look at both dietary AND medical treatments, and see this issue de-polarized for our next generation’s mental health.”

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