Okay, last episode we talked about serotonin
development and the sensory maps. We talked about
how serotonin in this time frame here has huge
implications and it's kind of like Michelangelo
to the thalamocortex. Every time the thalamus
speaks up to the cortex area. We specifically
highlighted S1, the sensory, nope, the somatosensory
area. which is heavily involved with this VP
region of the thalamus, ventral posterior, will
speak up to this somatosensory area, has strong
connections with this feed -forward, feed -back
loop, thalamocortex up to the S1, and then corticothalamic,
the layer six of these many columns back down
to the thalamus. It's just constantly updating.
But I really want to highlight that serotonin's
role here isn't limited to these areas. It's
also areas across the entire cortex. This S1
is mostly studied because it's easier because
of this humunculus. Okay? So serotonin for what
we're going to do today is also involved, but
we're going to add in the thyroid. from the mother
because this has huge implications has huge implications
of autism risk in this time frame so we talked
about before i erase all of this this these are
the many columns right and then another many
column and we drew this out as diffused so i'm
going to erase most of this remember this is
the crossover of who's making the serotonin who's
providing the serotonin maternal and fetus okay
because these this is all happening before the
dorsal raffae or the raffae less specifically
is developed which is the brain's sources of
serotonin so let's see i don't think we'll need
all of this and i wish this was different though
and we're not going to talk about sensory map
so much we're going to add something here We're
gonna add thyroid and development. Okay, so which
episodes? There's a mini episode back in last
December, December 2024. Yeah, it's about eight
minutes long. It's about talking about how hypothyroid
is a biomarker for Parkinson's and autism risk.
And it's undisputed, and it's easy to fix. How
many people know about it? And there's another
episode, Autism in Parkinson's, right after that,
right about the time frame of that. And then
there are several guest episodes. There's one
with Kristen Liao from AJ Drexel talking about
modifiable risk factors for autism. She's one
of the 13 or 14 special grants received from
the NIH to study autism again. But hers with
these modifiable risk factors is the way to go.
How do you reduce the autism? But those other
ones with genetics and things, it's exhausted.
So we have the Kristen Lyle episode and we have
three. episodes with Nicole Rincon who is a researcher
and a physician's assistant at Rasignol's clinic
with Dan Rasignol and Richard Fry. So maybe see
the Richard Fry episodes plural as well. So we're
going to do we're going to have to thread in
how thyroid and serotonin is developing the cells
and the the brain of the fetus right here these
are very underrated i think so i don't know how
we're going to exactly do this but we need to
understand what thyroid where it comes from and
what it's trying to accomplish remember this
is all from the mother the fetus isn't making
its own thyroid it's not making its own t4 and
t3 What's very specific about this is tyrosine,
I want you side by side, up and down. Tyrosine,
then you have the tyrosine ace, remember, A -S
-E, so the enzyme, and then tyrosine is very
powerful. It makes a lot of different things.
We're gonna talk about the dopamine and substantial
Niagara too because of the Parkinson's. and heavily
involved with autism. So this will make thyroxine
things like L -Dopa which is T3, T4, thyroxine,
T3, T4. The four and three is iodine. Another
way to kind of mitigate Autism risk factors.
Having these checked. If you're thinking about
having a child, these should be checked. You
can easily do this. And then L -Dopa makes dopamine.
Huge, huge implications with muscles and movement,
not just the cellular level, not just like wanting
and liking. Also makes norepinephrine. Epinephrine.
And melanin. What is this? What? Melanie. Melanin.
Wild. So tyrosine is the main protein and tryptophan.
These two are those aromatic amino acids, which
means they have this. That's a benzene ring.
Those are UV light antennas. I'm going to tell
you something, a little self -disclosure here.
I have autoimmune problems. I've had hypothyroidism,
Hashimoto's, from essentially 2005 to about 2024.
And I was on medication for it because that was
the only way. April 2023, I learned about a neurosurgeon,
kind of a quantum physics, kind of a decentralized
MD here who says these things require UV light
so I increased my exposure to sunlight both in
the morning and midday and I was like I'm not
going to take the hypothyroidism anymore levothyroxine
as on 150 micrograms it's a pretty high dose
15 20 20 years almost and I stopped taking it
and then I had lab works done and I no longer
needed it because my ranges the TSH and then
the the other one T4, T3 maybe it's called I
don't know you can these are easy checks gone
both in range without medication and I could
not do that for 15 nearly 20 years so this tells
me something about our modern environments and
not getting sunlight. And this is huge because
of developing here. So these three, tyrosine,
tryptophan, and phenylalanine have those benzene
rings, okay? It's huge for this and all of these.
So. Some more unknown roles here about the cell.
Okay serotonin we know makes the All of these
connections. Okay, we covered that good. I'm
not going to go back into that but I do want
to say That we want to kind of put these side
-by -side I think and talk about be able to see
a specific cell here and talk about what serotonin
is doing and what thyroid is doing for that specific
cell. So let's just draw a generic cell here.
It doesn't have to be perfect, okay? I just want
us to be able to see the cell body And the connections.
It's not bad, I guess. I don't know, we'll have
to make it work. Serotonin comes on pretty fast,
okay? Remember, right around neuralation. For
neurogenesis, cell differentiation, you know,
cells divide, and then they differentiate, they
become specialized cells. What is the role of
that specific cell after it proliferates? It
has to have a job. Serotonin is kind of big on
that, and then it will help it migrate. Where
does it need to go once it becomes a specific
cell, right? And that's why we have these clusters
and neculi and things like the thalamus. Well,
all of those things migrate to and make the thalamus.
Thyroid here has Similar kind of roles here,
but a little bit later about week 16 or so once
once the the brain is developing and all of these
regions are kind of coming to Thyroid will help
take over and do neuro differentiation and the
migration and it will kind of mature the cell
specifically t3, okay so T3 will kind of take
over this area right here kind of like the cell
body and all of those crucial organelles things
like mitochondria and the soma and things T3's
role here for developing the cell right here
is the most important thing it's non -negotiable
and then things like Insulin is probably second
for the importance of developing the cell here
for things like survival. Now, there's a lot
to be said. You can find anywhere that the metabolic
condition of the maternal is a huge risk factor
for autism. And it's T3 and her insulin growth
factors, things like that. that are kind of implicating
this area right here. Now this is just a specific
cell. But how many cells are going to be implicated?
Because another role here is things like myelination.
So the mother's T3 will provide energy for this
up until the time the fetus can make its own,
which is about weeks 16 to 20. So we have serotonin
early, early. to develop all of this, all of
these maps and the cortex, the thalamus to the
cortex, roles. Remember, thalamus is a workhorse.
And then the thyroid, or thyroid, specifically
the T3, because this is the sequence. It makes
T4, which is kind of thyroxine. And then T3.
Now you can look up the nomenclature to T3. I'm
not going to spell it out. I can barely spell
melanin. So the thyroid here, T3 is huge for
this kind of area, for billions of cells. And
then serotonin is more responsible for things
like this. Things like the dendrites and spines.
Remember, we extracted a specific spine. That
spine will mean the same thing every time. Every
time a spine receives a connection, it's the
same meaning every time. So serotonin's role
with a specific cell is more this green area,
more of these connections, more of the axons
and things. Remember that make up the norophil
that provides communication. So serotonin and
thyroid are the two biggest factors here for
cell development. And it's a little bit unknown.
Mainly I think because of this little epoch here
before delivery isn't studied enough. It's just
not well understood. But we can see like the
studies from UC San Diego about the size of the
brain organelle. UC San Diego early last year
in 20, well no, 2024 now, the size of the brain
organelle will predict severity of socialness.
in the autistic child and they found this on
two -month -olds roughly two months old it's
UC San Diego they can have like this ability
to track that specific child to ages three four
whatever and this specific child with the altered
brain organelle size have severities with socialness
and are they so -called fit into this autistic
phenotype It's similar to the study that I talk
about frequently about the salience network.
Remember, that's what these were. You have the
ACC, anterior cingulate cortex, which is deep
in the medial prefrontal cortex, and then the
insula, which is lateral. These make up, those
are the two critical hubs for the salience network.
These two regions here will bias our attention
kind of more powerfully than anything. That's
why they're the hubs of the salus network. And
then you have other regions, mostly subcortical.
Things like VTA, the RAFA, hippocampus amygdala,
so forth, things like that. So that study from
UCLA with the salus network was found on six
weeks old. The study from UC San Diego was found
on two months old. San Diego does a lot of good
research here. But nothing is really done about
it. Ezekiel Ben Ari does a lot of good stuff
here. He has an episode. He was one of my first
guests. He's the one that found that, well, he's
kind of famous for inhibition during this time
frame is excitatory. Remember, we talk a lot
about excitation inhibition. That might be the
central theme of the autistic phenotype. And
during this period, that allows for massive growth
here we don't have inhibition so much it's all
excitation up until like perinatal so this role
here with the thyroid and the mother is a huge
risk factor for developing autism it should be
well known it should be a checklist Kind of the
conflict is you take the hypothyroidism medication.
If you want to mitigate the risk factors for
autism, yes, probably. But our environments are
horrible, absolutely horrible for synthesizing
proteins like this. Why? Because of things like
this. Exposure to things like this. This isolated
blue light will destroy and not allow these to
kind of synthesize properly and another thing
about this is the myelination serotonin and thyroid
has huge implications for myelination so we just
want to talk about that one specific cell but
you can extract any cell and it's going to have
implications because serotonin is The master
kind of architect. It's the Michelangelo of all
of these connections all of them Especially with
sensation and then t3 is the master kind of engineer
Michelangelo's right -hand man of Developing
this cell because this cell if we're going to
expand or create st. Peter's Basilica the specific
cell is a specific block Okay, now each specific
block is very important. Sure, you might have
some deficiencies with a block and it can kind
of mix in. The other blocks can kind of take
over and help it out even if it's visual. It
doesn't look as good. You might not see it. The
autistic probably will because of the attention
to detail, but that's a different story. That's
another episode coming soon. So how is hypothyroidism
is biomarker for autism and Parkinson's? That's
too clustered. Hypothyroidism is a biomarker
for autism and Parkinson's. What's the role with
Parkinson's? Well, we've talked a lot about the
basal ganglia. We talked a lot about the mesencephalon.
We talked a lot about melanin, more than probably
most, thanks to Jack Cruz. You know, LDOPA, you
probably know about Oliver Sacks and Robin Williams
and Rude Awakenings. with L -Dopa and we drew
out, let's just extract this out right here.
Let's just take this area right here and kind
of make it bigger. What area is this? The mesencephalon.
So let's talk about I'm just going to have to
overhead it. Remember, if this is the brain stem,
we're going to just take a slice out and look
at it like this from the top down. Okay, because
that's the best way of looking down through the
brain stem through the spine because it's just
so packed into the small area. So if we extract
out the mesencephalon at this at this view remember
because you can you can zoom in or out you can
go vertical as much as you want and this will
change drastically as you're moving up and down
the brain stem and spine because this is packed
full of things but if you just want to look at
where we're going we drew this out I think in
the neurolation episode okay Seven. Seven. So
we have the substantia nigra here. These black
spots, because it's full of neuromelanin. It's
full of dopamine. Then we have the third and
fourth cranial nerves, ocular motor and tricular,
Eddinger Westfall. And then fifth cranial nerve
is down through here. And we have the medial
geniculate nucleus here, which is the relay station
for audition. And then we have the superior colliculus
here, which are the relay stations for vision.
The laminscus here, remember the auditory brainstem
response. So we're just going to look at this
area right here. The para -aqueductal gray is
here. Remember serotonin. The raffae is down
through here, this red mark here. So as you move
up and down, you can see the raffae. But we're
going to mainly talk about the substantia nigra.
Remember the differences between the substantia
nigra and a healthy versus a Parkinson's patient.
You can't see this black. This black is gone.
It's gone because this is gone. And remember
the mesencephalon is all of these subcortical
areas are surrounding this. The lateral and third
ventricle. The ventricular system. Remember the
caudate nucleus actually pushes in on these lateral
ventriculars. So there's a lot of power here.
There's a lot of special nuclei that formed around
this because there's a lot of water and a thing
about developing this cell is it needs a lot
of water a huge part of what's going on here
is it's interacting with water especially melanin
and the t3 remember it's making organelles mitochondria
if you ever look at the mitochondria you can
see things like Kind of looks like this. Enter
mitochondrial membrane. These are complexes.
One, two, three, four, and then the FOA, complex
five, where ATP is made. Cytochrome C oxidase
here. This fourth one is where we make water.
H2O. Remember electrons are coming in. This is
the electron transport chain. And it's pumping
electrons through this membrane and hydrogen
out. Then this FO head will take the hydrogen,
pump it back through and make ATP. ADP ADP to
ATP it's the amount of phosphorus adenosine and
the amount of phosphorus there because this is
oxidative phosphorylation oxygen okay so this
area right here is huge for water and it melanin
and water whenever they're coupled is the most
probably the most powerful things that can provide
energy here especially here that's why you want
this dark you want that dark remember because
this is the source of what modulates the basal
ganglia and this is a huge part about autism
and Parkinson's is the basal ganglia because
these will speak up and kind of conduct If we
want to zoom in here, we have the reticulata
and then compacta. Pars, if you want to get down
to the nomenclature of it. Reticulata is GABA,
inhibition. It's stopping. Pars compacta is the
dopamine. We have two major sources of dopamine
in the brain here. Parus compacta from the Sancta
nigra and then another area in the brain stem,
the ventral tegmental area. It's also using a
lot of power and dopamine in water. So this is
more for conducting the basal ganglia, go, no
go. Whenever we have autism and Parkinson's,
this is off. undisputed we have a lot of episodes
on the basal ganglia and dr robert malello talked
about the basal ganglia quite in good detail
we we could have went on and on to be honest
but this is off if you want to compare a normal
substantial nigra versus a parkinson's it looks
like this much contrast dark nothing because
there's a loss of this a loss of this will mean
a loss of this and a loss of dopamine okay so
i'll just say a lot loss of melanin will mean
a loss of dopamine or vice versa a loss of dopamine
you're going to have awkward movements you're
not going to have the ability to orchestrate
brain circuitry because dopamine and serotonin
or neuromodulators they're conductors to a huge
orchestra If dopamine is off, it cannot conduct
the orchestra. It's like different sections of
the instruments are playing off timing. And if
they're off timing, if it's an orchestra, it's
going to be awful. Orchestras and the brain is
all about space -time. So hypothyroidism, because
of tyrosine, will make thyroxine, and L -Dopa,
so you have the loss of T3 and then you have
the loss of dopamine and melanin will get you
Parkinson's and it will get you autism now you
think about things like this or this things like
these movements with the dinosaur hands and things
right there so the biggest takeaway here today
is thyroid Hypothyroidism is an easy biomarker
for autism and Parkinson's. It is the easiest.
If you don't know, now you do know, but you should
know.