Prevent Brain Degeneration with Proper Care of Your Pineal Gland!

Posted on by Jesse Santiano, M.D.

Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease are examples of neurodegenerative diseases. They are similar to coronary artery disease, diabetes, hypertension, and obesity in that they all result from chronic inflammation.

The diseases mentioned above are also associated with chronic lack of sleep. Sleep time is when the body repairs itself. It is also the period with the highest levels of melatonin in the brain.

The pineal gland secretes melatonin in response to darkness and the circadian rhythm.  Melatonin has potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities that help prevent the previously mentioned diseases.

The problem is as we age, the melatonin secretion declines. An explanation in decline is the gradual calcification of the pineal gland. 

Pineal Gland Calcification (PGC)

With age, the pineal gland accumulates calcium deposits. The calcium sticks together and becomes large enough to form a small stone in the middle of the brain. This is a frequent observation in many CT scans of the head.

Pineal calcification has a relationship with neurodegenerative disease and schizophrenia. The highest pineal calcification are seen in patients who died of renal diseases associated with hypertension.

Why does the pineal gland accumulate calcium? The answer lies in understanding what happens every day to the brain, particularly to the pineal gland.

Pineal_gland
The Pineal Gland is the Red Dot in the Middle

The Peculiarities of the Pineal Gland

A. The Pineal Gland has a High Blood Flow

The brain receives a lot of blood. It gets 20% of the total blood supply even though it only weighs one percent of the entire body weight.

The blood flow to the pineal gland is second only to the kidney in the amount of blood it receives. That may be because the pineal gland also produces and filters cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The CSF bathes the brain and works as the “shock absorber.”

B. The Pineal Gland is Loaded with Mitochondria

All that blood supply is needed to provide oxygen and glucose to make energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate or ATP. ATP production happens in the mitochondria and is necessary for the brain to function 24/7.   The pineal gland has most mitochondria in all of the cells of the brain.

During the ATP production, free-radicals are formed. Free radicals or reactive oxygen species or ROS lead to cellular oxidation and degeneration.

An excellent example of oxidation is rust once iron is exposed to oxygen.  ROS are not totally bad because they are needed to complete chemical processes in the body, but in excess, ROS are harmful. That is why it has to be regulated by an antioxidant.

The melatonin from the pineal gland functions as an antioxidant in the brain and thus contributes to brain maintenance.  If the melatonin level decreases, as in aging and PGC, brain oxidative stress and inflammation happens.

The melatonin from the pineal gland is mostly made in the mitochondria.  Thus it is critical to keep the mitochondria healthy to ensure a steady supply of melatonin.

What Causes Pineal Gland Calcification?

  1. Chronic inflammation of the blood vessels. The high amount of blood exposes the brain to pro-inflammatory cytokines.
  2. Brain hypoxia. Hypoxia is a condition of low oxygen levels. Several diseases that cause hypoxia are lung diseases, sleep apnea, and hypertension. Cellular hypoxia also happens if the mitochondria do not have enough materials to produce ATP.
  3. Fluoride intake. The calcified pineal glands have higher fluoride.
  4. Calcium supplementation. Calcium tablets have been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease.
  5. Aging and statins decrease coenzyme Q. Coenzyme Q or Ubiquinone is needed by the mitochondria to make ATP.
  6. Low creatine levels. Creatine is also needed by mitochondria for ATP production. Creatine should not be confused with creatinine, which is commonly tested for kidney function.
  7. As brain cells get older, there is more inflammation, and less melatonin is produced. This leads to a vicious cycle that leads to neurodegeneration.

Diseases Associated with Pineal Gland Calcification

  1. Neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis),
  2. Migraine
  3. Intracerebral hemorrhage
  4. Cerebral infarction
  5. Sleep disorders
  6. Defective sense of direction 
  7. Pediatric primary brain tumor
  8. Dampening of the circadian rhythm
  9. Insomnia
ice_screenshot_20200115-140759
CT scan of the Brain: The white in the middle is the Calcified Pineal Gland

To preserve the pineal gland function, it is essential to prevent the pineal gland from calcifying and supply the mitochondria with necessary ingredients.

How to Prevent Pineal Calcification

  1. Reduce fluoride exposure by using fluoride-free toothpaste and using water filters that filter fluoride. Teeth enamel is made of calcium hydroxyapatite. Typically there is no fluoride in teeth.
  2. Be aware that black tea contains a high level of fluoride.  White tea has a better antioxidant profile and less fluoride.
  3. Phytate rich foods like wheat bran, rice bran, beans, and nuts, including peanuts, seeds, and potatoes, prevent calcium crystallization and stone formation in the pineal gland. Below is a list of phytate rich foods.
  4. 7-8 hours of sleep provides enough time to clean up the brain.
  5. Foods rich in melatonin can also aid in reducing inflammation and calcification.
ice_screenshot_20200115-143838
Phytate Rich Foods

Maintaining Mitochondrial Health and Function

  1. A ketogenic diet or a  low carbohydrate diet and intermittent fasting switch the body’s fuel source from glucose to ketones. Ketones produce much ROS. A ketogenic or low carbohydrate diet uses ketones in the brain and burns more “cleanly” because of the production of fewer free-radicals.
  2. Supply the mitochondria with enough ubiquinol. Ubiquinol is the more easily absorbed CoQ 10.
  3. The mitochondria use creatine together with CoQ 10.   It should not be confused with creatinine, which is a blood test for kidney function.
  4. 1-3 is not limited to the pineal gland but is applicable for the mitochondria all over the body.

More articles about brain health will be made in the future.

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Related Readings:

To know more about inflammation: Inflammation: Dolor, Tumor, Rubor, and Calor

The ketogenic diet is explained here: Hybrid Engines are Cool! Do You Know that You Have One?

A primer on circadian rhythm is here: The Circadian Rhythm: Timing is Everything

Do you have sleeping problems? Check this out: 30 Ways For a Good Sleep Without Drugs

Sleeping cleans up the brain, and the science is here: How Does Sleeping Protect the Brain?

There is more to melatonin than for beauty sleep. Wake-Up to the Other Benefits Melatonin.

The body may not produce enough melatonin. Can you be interested in melatonin tablets? A Study on the Safety of Melatonin Tablets

Would you rather have your melatonin from food instead of pills? The Best Food Sources of Melatonin

References:

  1. Dun Xian Tan, Bing Xu, Xinjia Zhou, Russel J. Reiter. Pineal Calcification, Melatonin Production, Aging, Associated Health Consequences, and Rejuvenation of the Pineal Gland. Molecules. 2018 Feb; 23(2): 301. Published online 2018 Jan 31. doi: 10.3390/molecules23020301
  2. Stacey E. Seidl, Judith A. Potashkin.  The Promise of Neuroprotective Agents in Parkinson’s Disease. Front Neurol. 2011; 2: 68. Pre-published online 2011 Oct 10. Published online 2011 Nov 21. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2011.00068
  3. Declan T. Waugh, Michael Godfrey, Hardy Limeback, William Potter.  Black Tea Source, Production, and Consumption: Assessment of Health Risks of Fluoride Intake in New Zealand.  J Environ Public Health. 2017; 2017: 5120504. Published online 2017 Jun 21. doi: 10.1155/2017/5120504
  4. Richard Sauerheber. Physiologic Conditions Affect the Toxicity of Ingested Industrial Fluoride. J Environ Public Health. 2013; 2013: 439490. Published online 2013 Jun 6. doi: 10.1155/2013/439490
  5. Luke J. Fluoride deposition in the aged human pineal gland. Caries Res. 2001 Mar-Apr;35(2):125-8.
  6. Grases, F.; Costa-Bauzà, A.; Prieto, R.M. A potential role for crystallization inhibitors in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Med. Hypotheses, 2010, 74, 118–119. 
  7. Jürgen Kern, Silke Kern, Kaj Blennow, Henrik Zetterberg, Margda Waern, Xinxin Guo, Anne Börjesson-Hanson, Ingmar Skoog, Svante Östling. Calcium supplementation and risk of dementia in women with cerebrovascular disease
    Neurology Oct 2016, 87 (16) 1674-1680; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000003111
  8. Lu Y, Guo WF, Yang XQ. Fluoride content in tea and its relationship with tea quality.  2004 Jul 14;52(14):4472-6.
  9. Alessandro Pinto, Alessio Bonucci, Elisa Maggi, Mariangela Corsi, Rita Businaro. 
    Anti-Oxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Ketogenic Diet: New Perspective for Neuroprotection in Alzheimer’s Disease. Antioxidants (Basel) 2018 May; 7(5): 63. Published online 2018 Apr 28. doi: 10.3390/antiox7050063. PMCID:  PMC5981249

Image Credits:

  • Rotating Pineal Gland By Images are generated by Life Science Databases(LSDB). – from Anatomography, website maintained by Life Science Databases(LSDB).You can get this image through the URL below. 次のアドレスからこのファイルで使用している画像を取得できますURL., CC BY-SA 2.1 jp, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7855244
  • Calcified Pineal gland from NCBI
  • Phytate Rich Foods from Wikipedia

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