Protect your Shikimate pathway - eat organic, take probiotics

This is huge, and it is where I've come to focus with ALS and the microbiome shift that the leaky gut study found, and then finding other ALS studies about amino acids as biomarkers for ALS.

"A third very serious consequence of this kind of microbiome shift is reduced nutrition. Instead of having microbes that give nutrients to the body, there are microbes that compete with the body for nutrients. ALS patients have an amino acid profile that has shifted to the point that it has been considered as a biomarker. The amino acid shift suggests the gut microbiota have a compromised shikimate pathway. Humans do not have this pathway, however, we depend on this pathway in our gut. The essential amino acids tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine come from the shikimate pathway and then methionine production is also compromised. Without sufficient nutrients from this pathway, serotonin, melatonin, melanin, epinephrine, dopamine, thyroid hormone, folate, coenzyme Q10, vitamin K and vitamin E are insufficient."

So, then I've been looking at lactobacillus rhamnosus and these are all of the things that it helps with:

-respiratory infections
-candida
-urinary track infections
-reduces intestinal permeability (found to be a problem prior to ALS symptoms in ALS mouse model and continuous leaky gut has huge health consequences as well)
-secretion of biosurfactants which prevents pathogenic microbial adhesion to intestinal walls
-improves GABA

Because these are all problems I see ALS patients utterly suffering with, it looks to me that a probiotic with this species would be helpful, however, there is a precaution with a weakened immune system.

The implications of this kind of nutrition problem is enormous. It means that where ever you have a genetic weakness, this disease is going to hit and complicate what is happening and we are all genetically different, so, researchers are going to be going in many directions.

Lactobacillus species are manganese oxidizing and my research kept pointing to a problem with manganese and I knew that mitochondria, lyme, and cyanobacteria are all manganese oxidizing, and all seem to have some kind of association with ALS. So I was researching manganese oxidizing microbes trying to find a link. Then a conversation I had with an independent health researcher went like this:

"Manganese builds up to toxic levels in the liver and then in the brain stem via transport along the vagus nerve, following an inability for the liver to ship the manganese out via the bile acids."

I ask a few more questions and an hour later I get a reply:

"J Neurol Sci. 1983 Oct;61(2):283-93.
Increased manganese level in spinal cords of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis determined by radiochemical neutron activation analysis.
Miyata S, Nakamura S, Nagata H, Kameyama M.
Abstract

The manganese distribution in the cross-section of the cervical, thoracic and lumbar portion of the spinal cords from 7 autopsied cases with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and 6 control subjects were determined by radiochemical neutron activation analysis. It was possible to determine 1 ng levels of manganese content accurately in the small tissues about 1 mg of dried weight using wet ashing and chemical separation after neutron activation. The dried weight of spinal cord was about 1/3 of the wet weight. Manganese concentration in the wet tissue was calculated from the ratio of dried to wet weight. In the anterior horn of the cervical cords of ALS, manganese concentration was the highest; 1.75 +/- 0.39 ng/mg of dried weight and 0.59 +/- 0.09 ng/mg of wet weight, respectively. These were significantly higher (P less than 0.01) compared to those in controls; 1.02 +/- 0.12 ng/mg of dried weight and 0.35 +/- 0.04 ng/mg of wet weight, respectively. The elevation of manganese level in the spinal cords of ALS was more prominent in the anterior horn and lateral column than in the posterior column both in dried and wet tissues. Since manganese inhibits neuronal transmission, it is likely that neurological degenerative changes occur as a result of local disturbances of manganese metabolism in the spinal cord of ALS.

PMID:
6644329"

So to me this sounds like a potential mechanism of disease that contributes to ALS. It also helps to explain to me why chelating and supplementing minerals seems to help, or at least some people swear it helps and I know that my cousins that had serious neurological issues found a doctor experienced in how to chelate early and they've been stable and healthy for 5 years now, yet prior to finding this doctor they were declining.

Another mechanism mentioned was about sulphate transfer and when that is impaired, things get "thick" and don't flow properly. I haven't researched this area to reasonably understanding it at this point, but my understand is that it would affect bile and lymphatic flow, so that would be a mechanical crippling of distribution of some nutrients, as with the manganese to the microbes in the gut that need, but also detoxification as the lymphatic system delivers toxins for disposal.

So, I am sharing this with people to share with their doctors and neurologist and for preventative reasons for the families of ALS patients.

One other point, glyphosate kills weeds by making them prone to disease by interfering with the shikimate pathway. It chelates minerals from the plants, and GMO plants have been modified to survive with reduced minerals and the amino acid deficiencies, so these foods do not help with the ALS nutritional problems. The amino acid deficiency of these plants match the amino acid deficiencies found in ALS patients. The paper for ALS is "Amino Acids as biomarkers in the SOD1G93A mouse model of ALS."

It just so happened very much by accident that I was looking at my sister's amino acid deficiencies from the nutraeval test that she had and I had just been reading about the amino acid deficiencies from the shikimate pathway and I stopped and looked again, and they matched and my sister eats organic, so GMO foods are not contributing to this problem in her, however, the nutritional deficiencies are still showing up, so the belief that we only get essential amino acids from our foods is likely wrong, we probably also get supplemented from out gut microbes, or perhaps compete with gut microbes for some nutrients.