Protein Diseases

In the popular imagination, proteins are the safe and desirable components of food. Food products are often promoted by boasting of high protein content and protein is connected falsely with increased energy. In body-building fantasies increased protein turns into bulky muscles. Standard nutritional recommendations in Canada and the USA promoted meat, milk and egg consumption as protein sources.  RDA levels for protein intakes tend to be excessive. The idea that proteins are agents of disease is foreign to popular nutrition.  Protein diseases can be divided into six categories:

1 Immune mediated disease, proteins act as antigens

2. Protein excess disease from impaired ammonia processing.

3. Peptide-related dysfunction and disease

4. Metabolic errors in amino acid metabolism

5. Non-nutrient amino acid disease

6. Prion diseases, proteins acting as infectious agents.

The brain-food-protein connections are a complex web of interactions that probably help to decide the mental status of each person on a daily basis. We know enough to be concerned about protein contributions to neurological diseases of unknown origin. I champion the theory, for example, that food proteins enter the body and brain and cause immune mediated disease. I refer to immune-mediated disease triggered by food proteins as “food allergy.” The theory of food allergy affecting the brain begins with five observations:

1) The digestive tract wall is permeable to proteins.

2) Food antigens enter the body, are distributed to all tissues and excite immune responses.

3) Immune activity in the body releases molecular signals that affect the brain.

4) The blood brain barrier is sometimes permeable and allows food antigens and immune complexes to enter and excite immune attacks.

 5) Antibodies generated by food antigens may cross-react with brain antigens and can do damage resulting in neurological disease.

The prototype of food allergic disease is celiac disease caused by allergy to the proteins in cereal grains. The presentation of celiac disease is often ambiguous for many years and is rarely diagnosed promptly and treated effectively. Patients with this disease are often treated as psychiatric patients and often think of themselves as stressed, emotionally unstable or even mentally ill. Some develop specific neurological disease such as neuropathy or cerebellar ataxia.

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The Human Brain in Health and Disease, 2011, is a Persona Digital Book. We encourage readers to quote and paraphrase topics from the book published online and expect  citations to accompany all derivative writings. The author is Stephen Gislason and the publisher is Persona Digital Books. The current date of publication is 2011. The URL to the book description is Human Brain