Announcing two NEW nutritional resources from Physician Nutrition:
this E-Source newsletter, covering our recommendations for specific concerns,
and our new Ask the Dr. knowledge base—quickly look up supplements and care!

We can learn much from the field of neurology and what they have ascertained about helping stroke victims minimize the damage of their stroke. When a stroke happens, the neurons and glial cells die (neuroglial cells provide support and nutrition in the nervous system, as well as helping with signal transmission), and immediately release their content of glutamate. Glutamate is the brain’s (and retina’s) main excitatory neurotransmitter, meaning the substance that is released into the synapse to excite the next neuron. Without glutamate, neuronal transmission would cease. Because of its excitatory nature, glutamate must be handled very carefully. Any excess glutamate released from a synaptic transmission is quickly taken up by neighboring glial cells and stored, ready to be passed on to the nerve cells when needed. In other words, glutamate is handled very carefully, much like dynamite.

If you take a Petri dish of cultured neuronal cells and add glutamate, the cells quickly die. If you take a second dish of cells and add a much weaker concentration of glutamate, the cells begin to fire excitedly for an hour, and then die. If you add an even weaker solution of glutamate to a third dish, the cells survive, but most of the synaptic buttons are lost. None of these are good consequences.

Going back to my earlier comment that strokes cause a release of glutamate, it follows that if we have something to mitigate the damage of glutamate, we could possibly minimize the damage glaucoma inflicts. A neuron dies by calcium rushing into the cell, causing its death. Neurons have calcium channels on surface which allow for the depolarization of the cell, thus causing it to send off its excitation to the next cell. Too much calcium however causes the death of the cell. This calcium channel also allows magnesium to pass. Thus, if magnesium is present, it acts as a natural calcium channel blocker. Having adequate levels of magnesium in your system will act to minimize the damage of glutamate. My recommendation is that we all take a magnesium capsule daily, especially so if glaucoma is present.

Magnesium Citrate is the most easily absorbed form of magnesium. If you polled nutritionists across the country about what American diets lack the most, magnesium would top most lists. Glaucoma is a disease where retinal ganglion cells are killed off gradually, presumably due to elevated intraocular pressures. We do have a subset of patients where ocular pressures are never elevated, yet for all the world, look like glaucoma patients. Our role as Ophthalmologists is to correctly diagnose glaucoma, and treat the elevated pressures, usually with eye drops, although laser treatments and filtering surgery are sometimes utilized in difficult cases. Adding nutritional support to our medical treatment just makes sense to me. Why not utilize every tool in our armamentarium?

In addition to taking magnesium daily, avoiding excess glutamate in the diet is a good thing. I strongly advise avoiding MSG in all its forms. A list of synonyms can be found at msgtruth.org. Go to the link that says “Where glutamate is hidden”. Avoiding glutamate is also extremely important for stroke victims, post-polio victims, MS patients, and anyone who has ever had meningitis.

Jim McNabb, M.D. Eye Physicians of Austin