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March 26, 2018 - Health Ranger - Mike Adams
23:49
Dr. Russell Blaylock interview on MSG and brain-damaging excitotoxins MSG, Mar 2012
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Hello and welcome everyone.
This is Mike Adams, the health ranger for naturalnews.com and today I'm joined by neurosurgeon and author, researcher, Dr.
Russell Blaylock.
He is widely regarded as the foremost authority on excitotoxins and we're going to be talking about MSG, aspartame and other issues as we interview him today via Skype video.
Dr.
Blaylock, thanks for joining me today.
Well, thank you, Mike.
It's great to have you on.
You know, I'm a big fan of your work and your books.
In fact, one of your earlier books, Excitotoxins, The Taste That Kills, is one of the first books I read that helped get me into the business of teaching people about health.
I'm glad I contributed because you're a great person to teach people about these things.
I'm a great fan of yours as well.
Well, I mean, I'm a huge fan of your work, but for those watching, I mean, most people are probably familiar with you and your work and your books, but for those who may not be, can you give us just a brief background of, you know, how you got started in this, what encouraged you to write that book, and so on?
Well, I was a neurosurgeon, and during my residency training, I was interested in what causes all these neurological diseases.
And I was particularly interested in something that most of my colleagues were not interested in, and that's nutrition and its effect on the brain and recovery from brain injuries.
So that naturally led into looking at things that produce these problems.
And I came across a book by George Schwartz on the MSG syndrome.
And as I read this little book about it, I said, well, you know, there's a lot of things in here I wasn't familiar with.
So I started researching monosodium glutamate, what it does to the brain, and I was absolutely astounded by what I found.
I said, this is a very common attitude to food, and most people have no clue as to what it's doing to the brain's function and pathology, particularly in the developing brain, the child's brain.
Sure.
I amassed all of this research, and so I decided to write a book, my first book, and I put it together and presented it to the publishing company, and they liked it and printed it.
Now, most people who read that book are truly astonished by what you unveil in there.
You talk about how the excitotoxins overexcite nerve cells and cause those cells to die, how it passes through the blood-brain barrier and so on.
Just how toxic is MSG, really?
Might you also add, what have you learned since writing the book that would add to the weight of the evidence?
Well, actually, this book was written in 1994 and updated a few years after that.
But the amount of information we have about this toxicity has just grown by leaps and bounds.
I mean, it's an enormous amount of literature.
So the weight of the evidence on my side is just overwhelming.
Now, what we've discovered is that this is a very toxic substance, particularly to the developing brain, so that if a mother is consuming it while she's pregnant in these high amounts, it not only passes through the percentage of the developing baby, but the amount or the concentration that glutamate in the baby's blood is twice as high as the mother's.
And of course, this is a very delicate developing brain.
This is a period at which the brain is under its very complex development.
And we know that glutamate plays a big role in brain development.
If the levels are too high or too low, it can cause significant abnormalities in how the brain develops.
Well, women have been consuming this stuff and children have been consuming this stuff since 1945.
And the amount in the food has doubled every decade since that time.
Oh, that's scary.
Doubled every decade.
Massive amounts of this stuff.
And a study by the Research Foundation found out, in fact, that the amount humans are consuming is the same amount that produces lesions in animal brains.
So, of all the life forms on Earth, humans are the most sensitive to MSG toxicity.
Let's make sure we cover two of the basic concepts here, again for those viewers who may be new to this.
Number one, why is MSG added to foods?
And then number two, what are the most common symptoms that people might observe in their own physiology that would be a clue that they may be experiencing MSG toxicity?
Well, it was originally added to food during wartime to the sea rations and to the Japanese rations for the soldiers to increase taste, to stimulate taste.
And they had discovered long ago, if you add a little bit of monosodium glutamate, it stimulates certain cells in the tongue.
To make food taste very good.
So you could take a very bad tasting food, particularly canned foods, they have that tinny type taste in it, metallic taste, and you put MSG in it, it just tastes scrumptious.
Well, all the food manufacturers discovered this as they were introduced to it by the military, and so all the major food manufacturers started adding MSG to food, including baby food.
Right.
So up until 1970, it was placed in the baby foods itself.
And then when Dr.
John Olney, a neuroscientist, discovered this toxicity to the brain and the serious implications of that toxicity, that's when we started getting a little bit more attention to it.
Now, for our symptoms, of course, the first group of symptoms that came to the public's attention was the MSG syndrome.
In which people would have flushing of their face and heart palpitations and sometimes pains going down their arms and even episodes of GI discomfort and diarrhea.
Well, those are the obvious symptoms.
What was discovered after that, in fact, that there's silent damage to the brain in which there's very few symptoms.
But over time, we see destruction of major important areas of the brain, things that could cause Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, ALS, and that if you have these diseases, it make them progress much faster.
Now, as a neurosurgeon, have you ever actually seen brains that you know those tissues have been damaged by MSG? Is it something that's visible when you're actually looking at a living brain, or is it not visible?
Well, it's not visible to the naked eye.
You're going to have to look under a microscope to see it.
We know there's certain areas of the brain that are very sensitive.
For instance, the hypothalamus.
There's a nucleus in the hypothalamus called the archaeate nucleus that controls your energy supply.
That's where leptin receptors are located and growth hormone.
And it is the most sensitive place in the entire brain.
Well, it's just virtually wiped out by high doses of MSG. We know there's a lot of damage to that nucleus, and there's good evidence that this obesity epidemic is caused by damage to that nucleus by the large amount of MSG put in food.
The Germans knew this.
The German research scientists write about this regularly.
It's just that in America, they don't want to talk about it because of enormous wealth.
Yeah, it's really extraordinary.
The food lobby has so much influence in Washington that they're able to keep the FDA off of this issue or the USDA off of this issue.
And it's not just MSG. They've been able to put sodium nitrite in processed meats, for example, to the point where today if you go buy beef jerky, you look at the ingredients, it's got both MSG and sodium nitrite in it.
It's like a double dose of a toxic chemical cocktail.
It's amazing.
Well, if you look at a lot of processed foods, which you'll see, they do contain multiple toxins and multiple forms of glutamate, which is excitotoxin.
So I refer to them rather than MSG, I refer to it as excitotoxic food additive.
And they put it in virtually everything, every processed food.
And those that don't put it in there have trouble selling their food because they can't get the taste hyped up enough to be able to sell it.
You know, that's a good point, Dr.
Blalock.
I also have noticed, because I'm very sensitive to MSG, and I have been, for as long as I can remember, decades.
It causes severe migraine headaches and face flushing and things like that, so I know if I've hit some MSG, I've learned to look for it on labels, and I've found that, of course, the food companies hide it Under all these different names and my pet peeve name today is yeast extract because it's used by many of the so-called natural food companies and even the vegetarian foods.
They're loaded with yeast extract.
Can you talk about yeast extract and other hidden names for a minute?
Yeah, when I first spoke on this issue in Chicago at a convention, one of the chief manufacturers of processed foods came up and told me, he said, if you convince everybody of the toxicity of this, we'll just change the name.
We're going to get it in the food one way or another.
So I told him, well, I'm going to tell everybody this story of our conversation.
And so I do.
I repeat this story because it's very important.
And the government allows them, if it's less than 99% pure MSG, they can call it anything they want to.
Autolized yeast, caseinate, carrageenan, natural flavoring, vegetable extract, protein concentrate, soy isolate.
The names just go on and on and on and on.
And they're very benign sound, like natural flavoring.
Well, people think that's natural.
Or it'll say a hydrolyzed protein, a plant protein.
Well, people think that's natural.
And that's why you see it in so many of these natural foods, these natural food stores.
Yeah, it's sickening.
It's insidious.
I mean, this is an age when consumers want full transparency.
Consumers want to know, are there GMOs in the product?
They want to know, is it organic or not?
They want to know, is there MSG in there?
And these companies just keep trying to hide it.
Now, to the credit, some companies have placed claims on their labels that say no MSG added.
And generally I find that to be an honest claim, and some of those companies are very much doing the right thing in that realm, but other companies just hide it under a different name.
It seems to be a wide diversity of ethics in the food industry.
Well, you see this quite commonly.
You know, when my book came out and a lot of people were talking about it, it had a big impact on these companies, and they began to remove MSG on the label.
And they would even put no MSG in it, and I would look at the label, and I would see about three to four different forms of disguised glutamate in it.
So they learned very quickly to just disguise the name.
Most of the public's not going to know what it is.
And they'll say, well, it says plainly on the label, no MSG. But, in fact, it contains more glutamate.
That's incredible.
I want to urge those watching right now to learn more from Dr.
Russell Blaylock, and his website is russellblaylockmd.com.
Did I get that right?
That's right.
Okay, russellblaylockmd.com.
Put it on the screen there.
And then also, you can check out his books at bookstores everywhere, including amazon.com, where he's got excitotoxins, the taste that kills, and health and nutrition secrets.
Is that another one?
Yeah.
Health and Nutrition Secrets.
What's your book on cancer, Dr.
Blalock?
Natural Strategies for Cancer Patients.
Okay, good.
Natural Strategies for Cancer Patients.
I really want to encourage you to check out his books.
You'll learn a wealth of information.
It's just astonishing.
Dr.
Blaylock, you, as a neurosurgeon, you are, of course, well-informed about the function and structure of the brain, and yet I'm sure you often find yourself either arguing with or debating with some sort of MSG pusher who says things like, ah, it's perfectly safe.
It doesn't affect brain function at all.
I mean, is that a common...
Piece of feedback that you hear from the industry.
Well, not anymore.
In the beginning, I did.
When I first started giving lectures and the book first came out, I did an interview with the Chicago Tribune, and they pointed out all these different dangers.
And then they had the representatives of the company that makes the product come back after me and say, well, it doesn't enter the brain because of the brain barrier.
And I'd already discussed that with the reporter, that in fact, there's compelling evidence and now absolute proof that it does pass the barrier.
And that there's many tissues in the body that have glutamate receptors.
Virtually every cell in your body has glutamate receptors, and there's no barrier.
So now they know that I've accumulated so much powerful evidence, they never try to confront me directly, or if they know I've been to an audience, they never try to come back and defend themselves, because there's no defense.
All the evidence is on my side.
They just hope people don't pay attention to your message?
Exactly.
That's right.
They just ignore me and they have their major media ignore it because the evidence I have is so compelling.
Most of the scientific world would agree with what I'm saying once they start looking at it and more and more articles being written on this.
You mentioned the scientific world.
That's one of the most extraordinary things happening today is that the so-called scientific world, in many cases, they simply abandon the science and they become a priesthood of defenders of a certain narrow mythology.
Such as MSG doesn't harm the brain or all vaccines are safe and effective, for example.
Complete quackery.
But that becomes the line of the so-called scientists who abandon the science.
I mean, are you concerned about the reputation, the credibility of the scientific community because of that?
What are your thoughts on that?
Well, you're exactly right.
This is a major problem, and a number of studies and articles have been written in some of the clinical journals, very good journals, pointing out this fact that, in fact, the pharmaceutical companies, the food industry is having such a massive effect on publication of papers and research articles that it's really polluting the scientific world, and they're trying to make this more stringent Where there's transparency and you know that people work for the company.
For instance, when I look at an article that says MSG is good for the elderly because it makes them eat more nutritious food or that it's good for babies or that it's safe, I can almost assure you, if I look at who wrote the paper, it's somebody that either works directly for the Genomoto company Or is connected and being funded by the Genomoto Company, the principal maker of monosurium glutamate and its other attitude.
What do you think about the theory, it's something that I've noticed as a very keen observer of this, that Chinese people, in particular, seem to not suffer the migraine headaches that many white people do when they consume MSG. Is there a metabolic difference in the way different people process glutamate?
Well actually, the difference is they don't consume near as much of this as we do.
Really?
When they eat, they eat small portions.
And now we're starting to see in the Japanese population that are eating these higher proportions, they're getting grossly obese, they're having neurological problems, Alzheimer's increasing, ALS, Parkinson's disease, all increasing significantly in Japan and these countries that traditionally ate a smaller amount.
The other thing is the rest of their diet.
For instance, they eat a lot of omega-3 fatty acids.
They have one of the highest flavonoid intakes From fruits and vegetables of any population in the world.
These are protective against a lot of this toxicity.
Well, Americans don't do that.
They do just the opposite.
They're eating things that enhance the toxicity of glutamate.
Yeah, that's a really good point.
Yeah, instead of the antioxidants, they've got other junk food, other fried food, and then maybe a couple of vaccines on top of that, and some chemtrails on top of that.
I mean, it's like a toxic stew.
Well, and fluoride and aluminum, and, you know, it just goes on and on and on.
And pesticides, herbicides, which all add to the toxicity, and have been shown to enhance the toxicity of glutamate additives.
Incredible.
All right, one last question for you in this segment, Dr.
Blalock, and then we'll wrap this up.
What about the critics of your work who say, well, hey, glutamate appears naturally at some level in tomatoes or seaweed or other natural foods.
What's your response to that criticism?
Well, it does, but it's almost always bound as a protein, so that when it's released in your body, it has to break down the protein.
It's a slow release, so your blood levels really don't go up that high.
Now, we know in people with, for instance, ALS, if they eat, for instance, a steak, their blood level goes twice as high as a person that does not have ALS. So with certain neurological conditions, you do have to avoid foods that naturally have high glutamate levels, like meats and the pureed tomatoes.
Now, a whole tomato, when you eat a whole tomato, it's a very slow release of the glutamate, so your blood level really does not rise that high.
If you're physically active, that glutamate, instead of going to your brain, goes into your muscles.
If you're sedentary and you eat the very same diet, most of it's going to go to your brain and have a toxicity.
So there's so many variables there.
Yeah, that's interesting.
So there's a fitness level impact on the way your body metabolizes.
That's fascinating.
I want to bring up one last question, sorry, one more that just came to mind when you were speaking there.
People talk about glutamine, the amino acid and the dietary importance or applications of glutamine and then some people confuse glutamine with glutamate.
Can you briefly describe the difference for those watching?
Well, glutamine is an amino acid that's converted to glutamate.
In your brain, in order to make glutamate, your body has glutamine that is converted in your brain cells into the glutamate neurotransmitter.
If you feed an animal a lot of glutamine, you will produce excitotoxicity in the brain.
You will produce these brain lesions.
Patients who have ALS, if you feed them a lot of glutamine, they will get worse and die a lot sooner.
So there is a conversion of glutamine into glutamate.
They're related amino acids.
It's just a difference between amine and a group.
So there's a relationship.
Now, as far as the health effects of glutamine, that's just way overblown.
And I get this question a lot when I lecture.
People want to say, well, isn't it good for gut repair?
Isn't it good for immune stimulation?
Well, yes, because immune cells have glutamate receptors that have to do with producing the free radicals they use to kill microorganisms.
So to a limited degree, yes, it's good for that.
Now, as far as for gut repair, the new results show that actually glutamine is not that good for gut repair.
Things like pyruvate are much more effective.
Pyruvate also protects your brain against glutamate toxicity.
Oh, really?
Pyruvate?
Any mineral bound in the pyruvate form?
It doesn't matter.
It's the pyruvate that's protected.
Really?
Yeah, pyruvate's used in Krebs' cycle to produce energy.
When you produce energy in the brain, it protects the brain against excitotoxicity, and it's an antioxidant.
Well, see, now you're getting me fascinated.
I've got to ask you one more question, sorry.
But people often ask me, what is the defense against high glutamate foods?
For example, if they know they're going out to eat with a social group, let's say, they know they're going to get some MSG in the soup or whatever, can they take something beforehand to reduce the effects of the MSG? Well, there's several things.
One of the most important is magnesium.
One of the most prominent glutamate receptors, one of the regulators of its overactivity is magnesium.
So people that have low magnesium that eat soup, for instance, with MSG in it, they'll have a terrible headache, terrible response to the glutamate.
If they have a higher magnesium level, if they take magnesium supplements, then get their brain levels up higher, they're much more resistant to the toxicity.
Also, curcumin, quercetin, all your antioxidants, vitamin E, vitamin C, these things protect against glutamate excitotoxicity in the brain and the perubate.
Well, that's really interesting.
So there is a strategy of what you might call defensive eating.
Again, if you know you're going to subject yourself to the toxicity, I mean, obviously it would be wiser to not do that, but if you want to, you could protect yourself in advance with better nutrition.
That's fascinating.
Yeah, if you combine these nutrient protectants, and I've collected the literature on how to protect against glutamate toxicity.
If you combine them, you could produce tremendous protection against this toxicity to your brain.
But like you say, you don't want to expose yourself to a toxin just because you can reduce the level of damage.
Right, right.
It's like putting a helmet on your head so that you can strike yourself with a sledgehammer.
That's exactly right.
Well, you know, you brought up the migraine headaches.
Expand on that a little bit.
Interesting thing.
When you look at people who have migraine headaches, number one, they have very low magnesium levels.
When they have an attack of migraine, the spinal fluid glutamate level goes up tremendously.
Once the attack stops, the glutamate level falls.
And this is why glutamate in your diet can trigger a migraine headache.
And usually when I was treating migraine headaches that were very resistant to treatment, the first thing I'd tell them to get off all the glutamate, and I'd make a list of things on how to get off the glutamate, their attacks would get dramatically better.
They were less intense, easier to control.
Then you put them on the magnesium or the pyruvate, they got even better.
And a lot of them never had a migraine attack again.
You know, that's fascinating.
You've got so much great information here.
We're about out of time for this segment, but let me just give your websites again, russellblaylockmd.com.
Folks, sign up there for Dr.
Blaylock's email newsletter, and you can stay informed on issues like what we've talked about here.
Also, you have a wellness center website, is that right?
Yeah.
Can you give us the URL? It's blaylockwellnesscenter.com.
Perfect.
BlalockWellnessCenter.com.
And there you can find books and DVDs, lots of information that Dr.
Blalock has put together to help educate you about how to protect your health against excitotoxins.
Dr.
Blalock, I want to thank you for joining me in this segment.
We'll do more in the future, but I thank you for this time.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
Alright folks, that was our interview with Dr.
Russell Blalock.
Share this video.
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Russell Blalock.
We're going to talk to him about vaccines and other topics in future videos.
Thanks for joining me today.
This is Mike Adams, the Health Ranger reporting for naturalnews.com.
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