- To Change Your Mind - Details Matter
Recipe for Brain Function: Measuring Transit Time
SPECT Imaging Notes: Just looking is the first step
October 13, 2007Blood Supply and Brain Function: Insights from Cardiology
October 28, 2007
Transit Time Is Not About A Cross Town Bus
No, this Transit Time isn't the time for the train to travel from Boston to the North Shore station at Beverly Farms. Nor is it the time for the Metro to swing from Downtown DC to Reagan Airport. This transit is far more important to healthy brain function. Brace yourself for this piece of digestive detail – you may wish, as many do, to keep it to yourself.
Think Irritable Bowel Syndrome, either Fast or Slow, Diarrhea or Constipation, and you will be approaching the importance of the rate/time-of-passage-thing.
ADHD, brain function, brain health, brain recovery and brain treatment all depend upon an essential, yet often overlooked bowel Transit Time measurement: It's the time it takes food in transit from your mouth in the North to the ultimate passage through your deep South. This round-the-world GI Transit Time is measurable. Just look at your watch and mark the calender. And the good news: Transit Time is quite fixable. In so many chronic brain/chronic illnesses presentation it is dramatically broken. But no one has asked because few are looking at that significant detail.
More Than Simply Bowel Frequency
This Transit Time thing will be news to many. – And, if it is not identified and treated, all of our best interventions, be they pharmacologic, functional, nutritional, diet, or exercise won't work – because one of the main biotransformation systems is broken or rusty. The bowel sorta works, but isn't working efficiently because transit time is too long or too short.
My current favorite question: “How many times a day do you go #2?” – just doesn't, just can't cover this transit detail.
Example and Download For TT Instructions
Recently a young grad student attending James Madison University presented as markedly refractory to any meds for years. SPECT brain scan was pockmarked with diffuse cortical hypoperfusion – looked like the cortex was beaten repeatedly by a ball peen hammer. Her neurotransmitter testing showed marked serotonin decreases – but bowel health looked good. Her answer to the # 2 Question: every day, no problem.
But her Transit Time, measured by a completely unsophisticated big dose of corn right from the can at supper, appeared at the South Station 5 full days later! This, dear readers, is a seriously corrupted Transit Time! [Another recent patient with daily #2 – the TT was 10 days!]
Transit Time explained in detail here: Why, How and What to do:
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Any bowel inefficiency directly effects brain and metabolic health. This transit time thing has something to do with every brain issue from autism and ADHD, to brain injury and depression, to hormone balance and preventing Alzheimer's. Your brain can't grow and heal itself without proper nutrition. Neurotransmitters and their precursors arrive at your brain and elsewhere through effective bowel function. If you bowel is rusty your liver is constipated, you can count on it – and psych meds… just don't work.
For an interesting and arcane reference to transit time regarding physics and atomic particles, take a peek at this link which discusses sojourn time and its relationship to transit time. Physicists and mathematicians are very interested in this same topic. The passage of particles relevant to time is measured on many deep levels!
This Transit Time news recently arrived from a presentation given by Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD [check out his bio] -who is also the director of ELISA/ACT Biotechnologies LLC, which under his direction has developed 420 assays based on the core LRA [Lymphocyte Response Assay] by ELISA/ACT technology [ELISA: Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbant Assay with an /Advanced Cell Test – the gold standard for immune dysfunction issues]. Jaffe is a remarkable lecturer, provides excellent information, with useful and practical insights backed by comprehensive references in molecular and cellular physiology.
The Science Details
Over at Google there are no less than 12,000 articles on measuring bowel Transit Time with Activated Charcoal, available at your local pharmacy for a pittance. Most of these articles don't recommend this simple process, but rather encourage of a variety of expensive markers and higher levels of technology.
But why spend the big bucks when you don't have to?
For your own benefit you can take 10 caps of activated charcoal [no prescription necessary] with a meal, look at your watch and count the hours until the black carbon arrives at the South End. According to Jaffe, it should be 12-18 hrs – but others stick with 18-24 hrs. Longer or shorter will bring inevitable problems with micronutrients, efficient bowel function and over time will significantly effect brain function. The charcoal is available at any pharmacy, over the counter, and *has no risks!*. It's a bit more sophisticated than corn if you plan to tell your medical team.
Activated charcoal is not an expensive medical intervention, and will take you a long way to becoming a more informed consumer. It is not unusual to find “average Americans” with a transit time of >48 hrs. Long and short transit times are both bad news.
The fix is simple depending on the transit time: Get the right fiber, check for gluten sensitivity, heal the bowel, eat the right foods, and correct the acid-base balance [more later] in the body. And, yes, cut out the high glycemic index carbs, the trans fats, and if too slow, as most are, add more fiber to correct the rusty transit time.
Probably best to measure Transit Time on the weekend in an effort to obviate “bowel surprises.” Your answer will very likely tell you something about your brain health!
cp
Dr Charles Parker
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12 Comments
Do you recommend a digestive enzyme, to facilitate digestion? Also what is your knowledge of healthy fiber ( not grain fiber )?
strange….I added a post here earlier, and it had said awaiting moderation which makes sense, but now I don’t see it at all.
My questions were — real quick:
1. Did you say to take 10 capsules of activated charcoal?! That seemed like a lot to me. Bowel “surprises”…don’t want that!
2. Is one random testing day sufficient to determine transit time or is there some other way it should be done?
3. Based on the info above, the goal for transit time should be 12-24 hours?
4. How do you heal the bowel? (if indeed needed — I already eat whole grains only, locally grown produce and meat (grass fed), plentiful fiber & protein diet)
5. And a new one…can you elaborate more on the acid-base balance in the body that you referred to above?
Thanks.
Reply sent out – but regarding bowel healing and the nuances of acid base balance… those are way beyond the scope of a pat answer, sorry.
cp
Ok — well thanks I guess. I was just going off what you had said in the post regarding the acid/base balance with the “more later”…I haven’t found any other information on that. Do you have links elsewhere that cover both those at all?
I had read the transit time instructions…none of my questions were addressed there. So – I guess I am still wondering if:
1) if 10 capsules of charcoal is what you suggested
2) If one random day was sufficient
3) if 12 to 24 hours was what to aim for (I know you said 18-24, but in your post above you also cite 12…)
thanks…
tm,
Acid base balance effects the entire immune system… too much acid = diminished immunity.
1) if 10 capsules of charcoal is what you suggested [yes]
2) If one random day was sufficient [yes]
3) if 12 to 24 hours was what to aim for (I know you said 18-24, but in your post above you also cite 12…) 18-24 – if you send me the link on the 12 hr I will go in and correct it – a typo.
cp
thanks…
Did I read correctly that you said to take 10 (!) capsules after a meal to detect transit time? That’s a lot. I’ve never taken it before because I don’t have digestive problems, but it seems like 10 is an awful lot take and would seem to cause other bowel problems? (as you imply with “bowel surprise”).
Am I correct in understanding that good transit time is between 12 and 24 hours?
Also, how often would one have to evaluate to know what it typically is? I mean, is one random test day sufficient?
Thank you!
tm,
Please download the Transit Time Instructions on this page [Item 5}. The details are there with capsules etc. Easier to use corn and not worry, unless allergic. The charcoal caps are simply to see the black color in the stool to identify passage time. Charcoal has no real medical effect to worry about.
cp
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Dr Charles Parker. Dr Charles Parker said: Bowel and Brain: Measure Transit Time Recipe for Brain Function – http://bit.ly/uc9Ip #Immune #neuroscience #neurotransmitters #ADD #ADHD […]
There is so much at work here, especially the proper use of probiotics, for improving transit time as well as enhancing our immune system. But let’s take a look at yet another angle on what we innocently are doing on a regular basis that can significantly impede our brain’s functioning. I combined the contents of two articles to stress the importance of this issue few of us realize can boggle our brains:
Anticholinergic Effects of Drugs and Cognition in the Elderly
Donald S. Robinson, MD
Primary Psychiatry. 2009;16(5):19-21
Dr. Robinson is a consultant with Worldwide Drug Development in Burlington, Vermont.
Disclosure: Dr. Robinson has served as a consultant to Johnson and Johnson, PGxHealth, and Takeda.
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Adults experience gradual decline in cognitive function with aging, predominately a modest impairment of memory and recall. For most, this cognitive decline is relatively benign so that activities of daily living are maintained. As people live longer, developing Alzheimer’s dementia is becoming a late-life problem; if one reaches 80 years of age, the risk approaches 50%. The pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease is poorly understood, and definitive treatment remains an enigma. Many approved Alzheimer drugs act via a cholinomimetic mechanism of action; they modestly improve functioning by enhancing endogenous acetylcholine within the central nervous system (CNS). However, drugs with anticholinergic (ACH) properties block acetylcholine receptors, antagonizing the central effects of this neurotransmitter and impairing cognition. Many commonly prescribed drugs, by blocking acetylcholine receptors, produce cognitive deficits in older adults.
Inappropriate Medications in Elderly Patients
Prevention of drug-related problems in the elderly is a major healthcare issue. If medication-related problems were ranked as a disorder for assigning cause of death, it would be the fifth leading cause of death in the United States.1 Adverse drug events in the elderly are linked to many potentially preventable problems, such as depression, falls, hip fractures, immobility, and confusion. This panel of experts identified 48 individual drugs and classes of medications to be avoided in susceptible older adults.
Drugs and Cognitive Deficits in the Elderly
Multi-drug therapy of elderly patients is common because of the prevalence of disorders warranting chronic treatment. In this age group, drug-related adverse events have serious health consequences. An international panel of experts have identified 600 drugs in clinical use with ACH effects and observed that ~50% of the 25 most commonly prescribed drugs for the elderly possess this pharmacologic liability.3
Hundreds of drugs with anticholinergic activity are available in the U.S. Brand names of OTC medications with anticholinergic activity include popular products such as Advil PM, Bayer Aspirin Pain Reliever PM, Benadryl, Dramamine, Excedrin PM, Nytol, Sominex, Tylenol PM and Unisom. Prescription druges with these effects include a number of drugs used to treat hypertension, depression, Parkinson’s disease, vertigo, asthma, cardiovascular disease, incontinence, phychotic symptoms and behavioral problems. 4
Anticholinergics affect the functioning of the central nervous cholinergic system, a network of neurons that uses the neurotransmitter achtylcholine to transmit signals from cell to cell. Problems in the cholingeric system can lead to cognitive impairment: Abnormally low levels of acetylcholine in regions of the brain involved in the regulation of memory and learning contribute substantially to the cognitive impairment and behavioral symptoms of people with AD, Lewy body dementia, vascular dementia and even delirium. 5
Conclusion
Elderly patients are prescribed multiple medications for chronic illnesses, many of which have muscarinic receptor-binding properties. Over 600 drugs have been identified that bind to and block acetylcholine receptors. Population studies of randomly selected elderly find significant levels of anticholinergic activity in blood specimens of older patients. Data show significantly greater cognitive deficits in users of ACH medications, even after correction for potentially confounding baseline variables. Clinicians should not overlook the adverse anticholinergic properties of medications when prescribing for elderly patients.
4-5: Massachusets General Hospital, Mind, Mood & Memory, September, 2009
Excellent points Nick,
Thanks for sharing them with our readers – we see these issues often and appreciate your sending the refs as well,
cp
Sam,
Thanks for jumping so precisely on it.
Will run over the post and correct that one right now,
Thanks-
Chuck
Link Correction
The web link for “mean sojourn time” in the 6th paragraph doesn’t work. There are extra characters at the end that need to be deleted:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_sojourn_timettp://
should be:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_sojourn_time