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Pineal gland disease
Category: Illness or disabilities
Type
Involuntary
Introduction and description
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The pineal gland - also called the "third eye" - is a small endocrine gland in the vertebrate brain. It produces the serotonin derivative melatonin.
Its shape resembles a tiny pine cone (hence its name), and it is located near the centre of the brain, between the two hemispheres, tucked in a groove where the two rounded thalamic bodies join.
In younger people, the pineal gland grows with the baby until he or she is about 1–2 years of age, then remains a stable size thereafter until the person reaches puberty. The gland then grows again in line with the spurt of growth which appears during puberty.
The pineal gland is not isolated from the body by the blood–brain barrier system; it has profuse blood flow, second only to the kidney.
Illnesses and diseases of the Pineal gland
One problem that can occur with the pineal gland is the accumulation of Brain sand. This is described in some detail below. Other problems that can occur with the Pineal gland include Pineocytoma, also known as a pinealocytoma, which is a benign, slowly growing tumour of the pineal gland and the similar condition pineal gland cyst, which appears to be caused principally by parasites.
Symptoms
All disorders of the pineal gland are accompanied by profound spiritual experiences - hallucinations, visions, extraordinary dreams. The connection between the pineal gland and spiritual experience has long been recognised and was deliberately engineered at one time. It was part of the Mystery religions' preparations - although in those days there were nowhere near as many toxins, and other unpleasant things to make it so risky.
Causes
Calcification - Brain sand are calcified structures in the pineal gland and other areas of the brain such as the choroid plexus. Concentrations of "brain sand" increase with age, so the pineal gland becomes increasingly visible on X-rays over time, usually by the third or fourth decade. They are sometimes used as anatomical landmarks in radiological examinations. Chemical analysis shows that they are composed of calcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, magnesium phosphate, and ammonium phosphate. Recently, calcite deposits have been described as well. This means that diet probably plays a big part in producing these deposits, especially one high in Calcium, Magnesium and Phosporus. One of the ways in which people can deliberately cause calcification in order to obtain spiritual experience - dreams etc is via Sexy eating, which adjusts the mineral balance towards these minerals. It is not without its risks, but this is explained.
Other causes - there are also these days, however, other less benign mechanisms by which illness and diseases can result
- Toxins - one known class of toxins which interfere with endocrine function are the Endocrine disruptors but many other toxins are implicated
- Viral infection - of which numerous viruses are implicated. But the following was especially interesting as it showed that just one of the viruses could affect all sorts of areas of the brain and cause brain tumours - not just the pineal gland
A total of 111 fresh brain biopsies from patients with primary brain tumors were examined for JC polyomavirus sequences from the Large T antigen encoding region (LT) and the viral non-coding control region (NCCR). … In the glioblastoma group of 39 patients 48.7% were positive ... Among the astrocytoma group (19 patients) and the oligodendroglioma group (12 patients) 31.6% and 33.3% were also positive. The prevalence of LT genomic sequences among the other groups was as follows: in 2 out of 3 oligoastrocytomas; in 3 out 5 gangliogliomas; in 2 out of 5 meduloblastomas; in 1 out 3 pineocytomas; and in none of the tested 5 ependimomas. PMID: 21739452
Pineocytomas have been induced in a high percentage of hamsters inoculated intracerebrally within 24 hours after birth with particular strains of a human papovavirus. Studies on …pineal tumors have led to important conclusions and implications. Many of the differentiated pineocytoma cells contained organelles and related structures that are characteristic of hamster pineocytes, PMID: 7411135
Virus-like particles were seen in the tumour cells of a pinealoma in a male of 18 years. The particles were dense, spherical or hexagonal in shape, and 100-130 nm in size. They were found in the cytoplasm, but not in the nucleus. They occurred in aggregates or in isolation. These particles may be ..one of the herpes-, leuro- or arena-groups, especially when judged from their size. However, greater certainty as to their nature is impossible from the morphological evidence. PMID: 941682
- Bacterial infection - again with a number of bacteria as possible candidates. The TB bacteria seems to crop up time and time again in papers
Computerized tomography (CT) revealed obstructive hydrocephalus and a pineal mass in a 14-year-old girl who presented with headaches and a Parinaud's syndrome. …. suboccipital transtentorial biopsy of the lesion revealed it to be a tuberculoma. PMID: 6619942
- Heavy metals - both toxin and heavy metal poisoning may manifest as odd pigmentation and this might be the clue that toxins of one sort or another are the cause
- Parasites - the links here are very clear and there are numerous instances of the problems caused by parasites. But this paper was quite interesing
The distribution of Trypanosoma brucei brucei in the nervous system of experimentally infected Sprague-Dawley rats and BALB/c and deer mice was examined with immunohistochemical techniques. The trypanosomes showed an early invasion in areas lacking a so-called blood-brain or blood-nerve barrier, i.e., in sensory ganglia and circumventricular organs including the area postrema, pineal gland, and median eminence. This distribution of trypanosomes may relate to the origin of cardinal symptoms of the disease, e.g., sensory disturbances, nausea, disturbed circadian rhythm, and neuroendocrinological dysfunctions. Trypanosome infections in rodents may provide a model for studies of how an infectious agent or factors released by the immune response may relatively selectively interfere with these functionally defined regions of the nervous system. PMID: 3216412
- Nutritional deprivation - including mineral imbalance, vitamin imbalance, and other forms of nutritional deprivation.
- Radiation - see the observations for examples.
How it works
As we saw one of the things that can happen to the pineal gland is that it can become ‘calcified’ [see Brain Sand]. A calcified pineal gland does not produce melatonin as efficiently as one which is not calcified. This is possibly why human melatonin production decreases as a person ages.
But if the Pineal gland becomes calcified via Brain sand, there is a high probability the Choroid plexus will also become calcified, which means that the blood brain barrier is compromised. Thus one reason why there are spiritual experiences is that if the blood brain barrier is calcified almost anything in the blood will be able to get straight to the brain and affect it.
This means anything, so it could be everything, from heavy metals to parasites, viruses to bacteria, drugs to pharmaceuticals, which is why so much encephalitis results from the compromising of this barrier.
In this case the experiences are being caused by a form of Brain damage.
Where the Pineal gland is damaged by tumours, cysts or similar, the mechanism is different. One reason is simply that the deformed organ presses on the reticular formation and disrupts the sleep wake cycle.
References and further reading
- Nat Cell Biol. 2000 Jul;2(7):466-8. Calcium-dependent modulation by melatonin of the circadian rhythm in malarial parasites. Hotta CT, Gazarini ML, Beraldo FH, Varotti FP, Lopes C, Markus RP, Pozzan T, Garcia CR. PMID: 1087881
- Int J Neurosci. 1992 May-Jun;64(1-4):217-9. Pineal calcification and its relationship to hallucinations in schizophrenia. Sandyk R, Kay SR. PMID: 1342042