Topic: Faulty body clock and Bi-Polar disorder

[Nemesis]

Link to full article

Mice with a gene mutation that disrupts their sleep cycles show signs of hyperactivity and addictive tendencies, a new study reveals.

Researchers say that such "manic" behaviour displayed by the animals bolsters the theory that glitches in the body's internal clock can cause psychiatric illnesses such as bipolar disorder.

Mice that received injections of DNA to compensate for the mutated gene regained regular sleep cycles and showed normal behaviour. This type of gene therapy will not work to treat people with bipolar disorder anytime soon, researchers stress, but they believe genetic experiments in rodents will reveal the potential targets for psychiatric drug treatments.

[Electric Eye]

Link to full article

Mice with a gene mutation that disrupts their sleep cycles show signs of hyperactivity and addictive tendencies, a new study reveals.

Researchers say that such "manic" behaviour displayed by the animals bolsters the theory that glitches in the body's internal clock can cause psychiatric illnesses such as bipolar disorder.

Mice that received injections of DNA to compensate for the mutated gene regained regular sleep cycles and showed normal behaviour. This type of gene therapy will not work to treat people with bipolar disorder anytime soon, researchers stress, but they believe genetic experiments in rodents will reveal the potential targets for psychiatric drug treatments.

Funny you mention that Nem, and good post BTW. If I do not take "sleep" meds prescribed from VA (Heavy tranquilizers is more like it) then BAM, I'm in overdrive. It's already proven if you replace alcohol w/o gene therapy then usually the subjects go into another disorder, be it working day and night (Which causes a breakdown) or other extreme activities, such as going from one pack of ciggies a day to 3-4? Excercising so much that your body is not ready?

Rats already received the gene therapy for alcohol, and it was an 80% recovery rate, not even the infamous holier than thou AA can beat that. Their's is 30% success at best.

[Electric Eye]

Did you know Brian wilson suffered from that disorder? Hard to believe when the Beach Boys ruled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QCZ_bv9aLc

[Nemesis]

I knew that there was someone on the forums who had problems with bipolar disorder either personally or from a family member with it.  That made posting pretty much automatic once I saw the article. 

[Nemesis]

At first glance this may not seem like it is connected but keep reading.

Recently I have been trying to avoid caffeine as I suspected it was affecting my digestion.  I noticed a strange side effect a couple of days ago and have tested it.  My perfume allergy is either greatly reduced in effect or possibly gone.  It appears that the perfume combined with caffeine was the issue all these years    .  I will need some more time to find out if all the symptoms are gone or just the most obvious but it appears very promising.  I have even been able to walk through perfume departments without becoming nauseous or unable to concentrate.  That is something that should have made me sick for the next few days and has not.  I do have a slight headache which may or may not be related but in comparison with the normal perfume induced headache it is nothing.

This caused me to spend some time looking up caffeine and allergies on line where I found the following:

link to article

During the course of her research, she found other cases where people who had caffeine allergies were also misdiagnosed and treated for mental illness. It appears that caffeine allergy symptoms are often misdiagnosed as bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression, ADHD, OCD, schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. The symptoms of an allergy to caffeine are the same as the above mental illnesses.

I thought it possible that you had never heard of it and looked up the old topic to add this too it.

[FPF-Tobin Dax]

Possibly by avoiding caffeine, you are helping your immune system. Caffeine is not just a stimulant, it's a poison. You're cutting your system a break avoiding caffeine and maybe that helps it react better in the presence of the perfumes?

[Nemesis]

I don't really think so as for most of the last year I have rarely had more than one drink of Coke/Pepsi in the evening and none the rest of the day but the perfume tolerance didn't come until several days after the last coke.   That low level shouldn't have been enough to harm my immune system unless I'm especially sensitive to caffeine.  Perfumes contain many toxic chemicals but the levels alone don't seem to harm me now.

Growing up  I was a tea drinker (which also has caffeine) then as an adult I drank more coke instead.  I've also always been affected the same way by cigar and pipe smoke (and to a lesser degree by American cigarettes) and will be watching to see if that changes too.  It could be sometime to find out as pipe/cigar smokers are rare.  Hopefully it will.

Needless to say I'm going to be avoiding caffeine.  My mother is also affected the same way by perfumes, pipe and cigar smoke.  Hopefully I can persuade her to try avoiding caffeine and see if she becomes immune/resistant as well.  It would help her a lot.

[Javora]

I stopped drinking caffeine about two years ago because of problems with acid reflux.  When I did I noticed a whole lot of changes with myself.  I have a lot more energy then I used to have.  I don't need nearly as much sleep.  I'm more calm.  When I do sleep I sleep easier and don't wake up all the time during my sleep hours.  It's really been a big difference with me and I wish now that I never got hooked on the stuff.  I'm not allergic to anything so caffeine never could affect me that way but after seeing the difference in myself I'm not all that surprised.  I really think the government should clamp down on caffeine like they did with cigarettes, this stuff is really messing with peoples lives.

[FPF-Tobin Dax]

My 1st born is allergic to caffeine as well as being dairy and gluten intolerant.  Embracing his diet needs as a family has been a big help with the problems I had post stomach ulcer.

[Electric Eye]

I stopped drinking caffeine about two years ago because of problems with acid reflux.  When I did I noticed a whole lot of changes with myself.  I have a lot more energy then I used to have.  I don't need nearly as much sleep.  I'm more calm.  When I do sleep I sleep easier and don't wake up all the time during my sleep hours.  It's really been a big difference with me and I wish now that I never got hooked on the stuff.  I'm not allergic to anything so caffeine never could affect me that way but after seeing the difference in myself I'm not all that surprised.  I really think the government should clamp down on caffeine like they did with cigarettes, this stuff is really messing with peoples lives.

If the govt. did that, the makers of Lunesta and Ambien would have a fit, and pharma companies have BIG bucks for lobbying!  Also, that Kennedy fellow would not have an excuse if he runs into a barricade in front of the Capitol at 3 a.m. again. 

On that subject, here in Texas it doesn't matter if you are drunk or FUBAR only off meds, driving under the influence of alcohol and/or meds is the same thing in their book. 

[Dash Jones]

Live without any caffeine...that's like asking me to live without alcohol...

Hmm, actually some of you might think that's a good idea too...

That's like asking me to live without sleep!!!

Or the ability to concentrate in the morning!!!

[Nemesis]

Live without any caffeine...that's like asking me to live without alcohol...

As a non drinker who has also given up caffeine I don't see the problem in living without alcohol?  Alcohol was never a temptation to me.

[Electric Eye]

It's weird how we each have something thatcan become an addiction, I've met many people at the veteran's affairs (patientwise, not staffwise, though a GS-12 did get busted when crystalmeth fell out of her purse during a staff meeting, of course the newspapers were not notified that VA employees were on meth). Many of them try other in addition to alcohol and get addicted to them, but I've tried MDMA once when it was a legal anti-depressant and it did not make me run out to buy more, same with marijuana and cocaine, both of which are freely available in Mexico. Now that I've been doing an outpatient program and staying sober, I find that maybe it wasn't an addiction per se but I wanted something to slow my CNS down, something many combat vets and especially Gulf War combat vets have in common. I guess the Sarin, pesticides, anthrax vaccine that was rushed through by the wonderful FDA and is now BANNED and the oil well fires in combination might have some effect on a body's nervous system. They have already identified Khamisaya area veterans as having a 30% increase in brain cancers, as well as developing MS, and many veterans have never had a disorder like that in their family history. 

One drug I have tried that I will admit is pschologically addictive is the benzodiazapines, it's hard to compete with a drug like that, you are fully aware of your thinking and senses, yet it keeps you as calm as can be.

You know what the latest riot is? The VA and other research centers in the nation got permission from the FDA to use MDMA (Ecstacy) with intensive pscological care for treating PTSD (Post traumatic stress disorder). I want to volunteer! 

[Javora]

On that subject, here in Texas it doesn't matter if you are drunk or FUBAR only off meds, driving under the influence of alcohol and/or meds is the same thing in their book. 

In my state (Michigan) you can be pulled over and charged for being too asleep to drive.  It's basically the same charge and penalty as DUI.  Needless to say I was shocked to read about it in the newspaper.

[Electric Eye]

Well, for big-rig truckers that was the rule for a long time. Federal guidelines and regs make them have proof that they got 8 hours rest. Of course people cheated on their logbooks, but they know better and if they fell asleep or were tired and caused an accident then it sucks to be them.

Now you know why you see troopers stopping big-rigs randomly, it's a safety check most of the time, like logbook entries, and preventive maintenance checks of the rig and trailers.

[Nemesis]

Growing up  I was a tea drinker (which also has caffeine) then as an adult I drank more coke instead.  I've also always been affected the same way by cigar and pipe smoke (and to a lesser degree by American cigarettes) and will be watching to see if that changes too.  It could be sometime to find out as pipe/cigar smokers are rare.  Hopefully it will.

Needless to say I'm going to be avoiding caffeine.  My mother is also affected the same way by perfumes, pipe and cigar smoke.  Hopefully I can persuade her to try avoiding caffeine and see if she becomes immune/resistant as well.  It would help her a lot.

Its been a long time but an update:

I no longer react to cigar or pipe smoke or American cigarettes.

I also can go out into direct sunlight for hours without blistering when it used to take 15 to 20 minutes.  Tanning is now possible.

Painful migraines GONE! About once a year I get "optical effects" like an arc of crystal in my vision which is visible even with my eyes closed, always at work.  I'm told this is a form of migraine but painless.  I used to get the migraines about an hour after exposure to perfume.  I also gave up Tylenol that never seemed to help me as much.  Why?  It contains caffeine so if I took it to reduce my perfume allergy induced migraine the acetaminophen might help but the caffeine would boost the migraine   

My mother has been caffeineless for days at a time but doesn't seem to lose the allergy to perfume.  Her symptoms were always different from mine (and she always tanned never burned let alone blistered from the sun).  So no effect on her.  My allergies and hers must have different causes and may not be related at all other than the direct trigger being reacted to.

So life without caffeine - better than life with it.  I can go out into crowds without getting sick, no migraines, no sunlight caused blisters.  However due to decades of conditioning that I WOULD get sick crowds still are uncomfortable for me.  So I still avoid them.

 

[Panzergranate]

I have to avoid caffeine, because of my Parkinson's disease. Stimulants amplify tremors.

As for sunburn, you do realise that the Solar scientists have recorded that the Sun's UV levels have been increasing at a exponential rate of 0.28% per 11 year cycle, since 1970.

That's why sunscreen factors have been gradually increasing, to counter it.

[Nemesis]

In my case with sunburn my burning dramatically decreased with the cessation of caffeine consumption and has remained decreased since 2007 whereas before that blistering occurred if I were not careful.  Yesterday I spent most of the day walking in shorts and a t-shirt (no sun screen), no burning let alone blistering which with caffeine would have occurred in less than 1/2 and hour.  This is now typical.  So more UV but LESS burning.   

[Panzergranate]

I was lucky,, when allergies were being handed out, being allergic to chlorophyll (all green plant leaf matter) from a very early age. I lack the enzyme to deal with the toxin. The result off ingesting even then tiniest amount is a hangover grade headache, likened to a Frenchman living inside my head. Oddly enough, I've never had a booze related hangover headache.

As such, I've grown up big & strong without actually having to suffer the childhood misery & cruelty of being forced to eat greens.

Yes, your parents lied to you about the need to eat your greens!!

[Nemesis]

Since I had a quack for a doctor every time the school sent me home as being too sick to be in school he told my parents I had "bronchitis" and to keep me home for a few days and send me back.  He didn't explain that it is a symptom not an illness itself.  If he had been a competent doctor they might have figured out it was my teachers perfume that was causing the problem combined with the schools system of assigning seats that left me always sitting right by the teachers desk.  If they had moved me away from the teacher I would have been alright.  I'd slowly get sicker over a few weeks, stay home for a week and back to school to start the cycle again. 

We moved when I was in grade 5 and the problems declined.  The new school had rotation, some male teachers (and back then the male teachers didn't wear scents to work) AND let the kids pick where they set (in the middle of the class).  I wasn't sick nearly as often after that. 

Only in one high school class did I have trouble and then because it was strange that I was barely making it in math they changed me to another class.  The poor teacher in that class couldn't figure me out.  He was teaching a different part of the course from my other teacher and I missed the first part, 3 days into his class we had a test and half way through the class I called him about the last question.  The  question was wrong.  I had two different solutions not counting just telling everyone that the sign would be reversed from what was expected.  When he told the class about the error I turned my test over in the corner of my desk and read a book.  He then asked me the wrong question namely "wasn't I going to check my work?".  Since I already had TWICE I told him no.  The look I got told me that he understood why I was just scraping by.  Another 3 days later I found out that he had the habit of announcing who had the highest mark on tests that time my perfect paper was it.  He gave me a very confused look.  He kept giving me confused looks after every test as if I didn't have the sole highest mark I was always tied.  He never did ask me to explain what the heck happened.  Which was fine as I didn't yet know that subliminal perfume levels could drag me down even though I'd finally figured out that perfume was an issue with my ability to concentrate. I hadn't yet connected it with the migraines as they happened 45 minutes to an hour after exposure.

No doctor ever figured any of it out.  Each step I had to figure it out myself.  I've searched the internet and never found anyone else with the same caffeine troubles I have.  I appear to be unique in my reactions to caffeine.  I have read of people who can go off anti-psychotic meds if they drop their coffee consumption to zero.

Another strange one.  A couple of years ago I was feeling run down as a result of months of running my ass off at work doing 2 peoples work while they tried to find someone to help me.  I started taking some multi vitamins and for 2 weeks barely slept.  Co-workers and one my sisters (she resents that she believes our parents think I'm perfect and really wanted it to be true that I was having a break down) all thought that I needed psychological help for stress.  On the 2nd Friday I thought about it and realized it began with the vitamins and stopped them.  The issue went away.  Turns out that some vitamins if you over dose can cause insomnia.  At least 3 in the multi-vitamins could do it (I stopped checking after the 3rd).  No psychological problems to my sisters dismay.