Blue green algae research, possible breakthrough

[Anne123]

Scientists discover potential cause of motor neurone disease - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Link between algae and MND (Science Alert)

This is big news here in Australia.

 

[pearshoot]

Google; institute of ethnomedicine.com located in jackson hole, wy please read their extensive list of articles. They have been writing about this for over 10 years the medical research community appears to have no interest in it it appears its not the blue-green alge but a substance that grows in it. Of course if its processed as a health food its probaley processed with it. The substance is cynobacteria and produces a toxin label bmaa. Cynobacteria can be found elsewhere also, middle east dererts, which may account for high incident rate in gulf war vets. It comes down to this, find cynobacteria and you find a closter of als, or find a cluster of als you will cynobacteria

 

[R9L13026]

Thanks. I know I've read about the Blue green algae and BMAA but mostly gone way over my head. I think the Jackson hole people mentioned about a recent partnering with the AU. Glad the research is drawing attention and awareness.

 

[AfraidButNotAlone]

I live in the Mid-East, but I am only the second case of ALS in this country.

Thinkin about cynobacteria...

 

[olly]

I commented on this on the alstdi.........I did keep tropical fish in a large tank for a 10yrs before I got ill....had to cleen out a lot of algae but not sure if that counts.

 

[AfraidButNotAlone]

I googled: getting cyanobacteria out of your body

The 6th hit is interesting.

 

[affected]

lol the one about Mars?

 

[AfraidButNotAlone]

I got a different result LOL

 

[AfraidButNotAlone]

Here is the link:

The Emerging Science of BMAA: Do Cyanobacteria Contribute to Neurodegenerative Disease?

 

[AfraidButNotAlone]

The link is awaiting vetting

 

[Alyoop]

This has been discussed here at length in the past. Maybe do a search.

 

[pearshoot]

m y last post was censored institute for ethnomedicine

 

[Caliburn]

the substance from blue-green algae, seen in the native guam chamarro population with ALS, is beta-Methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), an excitotoxic neurotransmitter.

i believe they found it in extremely high concentrations in their brains while doing tissue analyses. they ingested it, not from eating fish, but from eating fruit bats who ate the seeds of a tree that grow on guam, the entire tree contains blue-green algae, i think it helps them obtain phosphorous if i remember right. wasnt from an ocean-dwelling blue-green algae, but it wouldnt shock me to find out that ocean-dwelling blue-greens had similar excitoneurotoxic compounds as well.

 

[Caliburn]

cyanobacteria are blue-green algae, the 'cyano' prefix is where the blue comes from in blue green. cyanobacteria are the oldest form of algae. They are basically 'photosynthetic bacteria' from which most alga are derived. theyre responsible for alot of the shellfish poisoning syndromes that we know about, along with the dinoflagellate's.

sorry for the rant, i worked with algae for four years.

 

[Kitchener]

It has been known for a long time that there appears to be a link between ALS clusters and places where blue green algae might be found. This information was filed in the "that's interesting" basket and left there. What this new Australian research claims to have determined is a mechanism by which a substance associated with blue green algae could be causing problems. This substance is called BMAA and apparently what it does is to mimic one of the 20 essential amino acids called serine. When your body makes protein, it constructs the proteins from amino acids. If the protein is built using BMAA instead of serine then that protein won't work properly. The paper postulates that it could be such defective proteins that are poisoning motor neurones and causing them to die. Interestingly, it was discovered that under laboratory conditions a high concentration of serine inhibited the take-up of BMAA therefore resulting in far fewer defective proteins. It was suggested that this may point the way towards new research in therapeutics for the condition. Here's hoping….