The Role of Calcium in Neurotransmitter Release

Nutrition has a HUGE impact on your brain!

Everything in your brain is something you ate, something you made from something you ate, or, in a few cases, something your mother ate. Nutrition impacts your mental and emotional health, the function of your five senses, and your conscious and unconscious control over your body movements.

Join me as I lead you in a safari through the textbook, “Neuroscience,” pointing out along the way all the interesting connections to nutrition. Listen in for part 1 on the basic cellular functions of neurons!

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In this episode, you will find all of the following and more:

00:37 Cliff Notes

14:55 The primary type of cell in the nervous system is the neuron.

16:32 Glial cells are the assistants of the nervous system.

17:22 Cells in the nervous system are polarized.

18:54 Mitochondria are typically only located at the synapse of neurons and in the middle of photoreceptors; creatine is important for transporting energy in a cell where ATP production is highly polarized.

26:43 Sources of creatine

28:13 Brief overview of how to support methylation

31:06 The polarization of astrocytes and the obligate need for glucose in the brain

37:33 Electrical signaling, resting membrane potential, depolarization, threshold potential, hyperpolarization, and the importance of sodium, potassium, and chloride

45:13 How to get enough sodium, chloride, and potassium in the diet

53:51 The sodium-potassium ATPase uses ATP to pump three sodium ions out of the cell and two potassium ions into the cell, so magnesium and all of the nutrients involved in energy metabolism are important.

58:44 How action potentials propagate

01:03:40 Myelin and the importance of cholesterol

01:06:53 Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome is a rare genetic disorder of cholesterol synthesis that results in neurological problems that are corrected by dietary cholesterol.

01:09:32 Calcium acts as a second messenger in the nervous system, and the cytosolic calcium concentration has to be kept very low for this to work, which requires ATP energy.

01:14:22 Other roles of calcium in the nervous system

01:15:34 Sufficient dietary calcium and ATP energy are needed to support the second messenger roles of calcium.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here:

https://chrismasterjohnphd.substack.com/p/053-nutrition-in-neuroscience-part