Chocolate, TIQs, and Parkinson's: Is cocoa bad for the brain?

[nuke]

There is a lot bunch of research showing that:
1.) Tetraisoquinoline and derivatives are neurotoxic (or in 1-Me-TIQ's case, neuroprotective), and induce Parkinsonian symptoms in rats.
2.) Chocolate, as well as other foods that contain beta-phenethylamine, contain TIQ and substituted TIQs.
3.) Many TIQs do pass the BBB.

Is it anything to be concerned about? I dunno, but I do love chocolate..

 

[fastandbulbous]

What, sully chocolate's beautiful image - shame on you!

Aren't THIQ's a artefact from acetaldehyde (or other alydehydes/ketones) onteraction with PEA's?

 

[Jamshyd]

Well, people have been eating chocolate for ages, and nothing has changed since all the innumerable researches praising/cursing chocolate... so the worst that could happen is that you'd end up like everyone else

 

[vecktor]

a lot of THIQ's form from alcohol breakdown products (acetaldehyde mostly) and naturally occurring monoamines like dopamine. in the 1960's it was postulated threat these suposedly hallucinogenic THIQ's were the modus operandi of alcohol intoxication which we now know not to be true.

there are a lot more tetrahydroisoquinolines in papaver species and cacti than there could be in chocolate, so if this was a problem then poppy tea and san pedro would be more of an issue than a couple of bars of chocolate.

chocolate also contains anandamide and other fatty acid ethanolamides if i remember correctly but there is no suggestion that these contribute to the niceness of chocolate, which I suspect is almost entirely to do with the physical nature of chocolate melting and covering the taste buds with a complex mixture of tastes.
The phenethylamine chocolate hypothesis is similarly flawed

Hi I am vecktor and I am a chocolate addict....

 

[LuxEtVeritas]

the amounts in chocolate are minute and negligible

 

[kidamnesiac]

correct me if i'm wrong, but chocolate also contains minute amounts of maois. combine this with minute amounts of t(h)iqs, something might be possible?

 

[LuxEtVeritas]

all are far too minute

chocolate has very little cocoa in it relatively speaking (and that is what we speak of in this regard, components of the Cocoa bean, Theobroma Cacao)

even within high potency cocoa extracts these entities IMO are still of far too minute quants to be of any effect, but in chocolate it is not even remotely an issue

 

[kidamnesiac]

i usually eat 70% cocoa, and have been known to indulge in near pounds @ a time

 

[LuxEtVeritas]

well i still would think these are negligible substrates even at those amounts but the only way to know for sure is to know how many ppm these TIQ compounds add up to and do the math


also i think many compounds are neuroprotective in cocoa and would far outweight any effect of opposing nature

 

[fastandbulbous]

i usually eat 70% cocoa, and have been known to indulge in near pounds @ a time

Funny how a lot of the BLers who are ADD regulars (including the two mods who are hopeless cases!) are all chocaholics :D

 

[Reminisant B]

I would guess your probably more likely to absorb MPTP like pesticides or other synthetic nasties from food/intesive farming/environment etc [?] as a source of problems rather than chemicals inherent in chocolate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraquat

 

[hussness]

mmmmmm.....chocolate.....