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Autism Treatment – MAO-A Activity Benefits and Autism, Part 2 of 2

Posted on 10 January 2011 by admin

This is the 2nd part in this autism treatment series of videos on Respen-A and MAO-A activity. So some of the side effects that have actually been observed and I have seen them in my practice, not common but I have seen that where kids are not getting enough protein, is they can become more emotionally, they can have start to have these meltdowns, they become more attached. They may have difficulty in transitioning and this usually sometimes manifests as problem where their serotonin levels are becoming depleted and what we need to do is either give things like 5-HTP and in some cases give tryptophan to try and bolster the serotonin levels up. But this is very rare. I always caution my parents before implementing this in autism treatment we need to make sure the child is eating protein, eating some meat in their diet and that usually is enough. But on the rare occasion there have been a few kids that were so picky and so limited in their diets that we’ve had to supplement with 5-HTP or even tryptophan occasionally just to make sure their serotonin levels don’t become depleted.

Effects of MAO-A in Autism Treatment

Now MAO-A can be inhibited from a number of things. We know that through the use of pitocin as an agent to help with delivery can have an effect on this system. We know that excess estrogen can have an adverse effect on this system. Lipid peroxides and oxidative stress, certainly heavy metals like mercury and cadmium and arsenic can have a detrimental effect on this system as well. So there are a number of things that are common in the Autism Treatment community that we are commonly treating, heavy metals for example or oxidative stress for example. There’s other factors too.

There’s nothing in the traditional biomedical community or treatment or approach that is any different than how we might approach this particular system, its just another system that’s being negatively impacted in Autism. There’s also another monomine oxidase that is called monomine oxidase B (MAO-B) and that primarily has an impact on dopamine. And what can happen is, if MAO-B activity is too high it can tend to have a suppressive effect on MAO-A. So it is the balance between MAO-A and MAO-B that is important in autism treatment and when we have a deficit in this MAO-A activity this is really where something like Respen-A would be very helpful.

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Autism Treatment – MAO-A Activity, and Its Benefits As an Autism Treatment, Part 1 of 2

Posted on 09 January 2011 by admin

This is part 1 of a 2 part series on the MAO-A activity of Respen-A in autism treatment but I wanted just to clarify real quickly, I think I misspoke on the previous recording. The name of that journal which was published in 1957 is The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease by Dr. Lehman and others so if you want to reference that it is The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease by Dr. Lehman in 1957. This is the study that was using 3 – 7 mg dosages of Reserpine in Autistic children with many of the improvements that I mentioned before. The nonverbal communication, the eye contact, the less self stimulatory behavior, the increased socialization, etc.

MAO-A Activity with Autism Treatment

Let me talk a little bit about what Reserpine does. There is an enzyme called Monoamine Oxidase A (MAO-A). This is an enzyme found within the cells that is important to help metabolize 3 primary neurotransmitters, histamine, serotonin and nor epinephrine. Reserpine is a known MAO-A agonist. Now there have been a lot of people who have commented in autism treatment that Respen will deplete MAO-A or inhibit MAO-A activity. Respen, and Reserpine, is not an MAO-A inhibitor. There are medications that inhibit MAO-A activity and they are used many times for depression but Reserpine is not one of them. It actually augments the metabolic capacity or the enzyme capacity of MAO-A activity.

And in doing so what it does is it turns serotonin over into what’s called its active aldehyde form. So that active aldehyde form, the 5 hydroxyindole acetaldehyde then complexes that post synaptic receptor to have the physiological effect on that post synaptic neuron. Now in doing so, you can lead to a problem of depleting serotonin over time by using either high doses of Reserpine in autism treatment or even the Respen-A which is at a very low dose if protein or if serotonin is not being replenished.

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