Talk:Neurolathyrism

Poverty and malnutrition

The cause of the disease has been attributed to poverty and malnutrition in combination with the presence of the neurotoxin (203.57.68.20 14:46, 8 July 2007)

Yes, poverty and malnutrition are two major etiological factors associated with lathyrism. But as it is written now it can be thought that ingestion of the neurotoxin alone is not sufficient to cause the poisoning, as according to the present wording in addition to eating the toxic beans one would also need to be poor and malnourished to get the disease. However, all of the symptoms can be artificially reproduced in the laboratory by feeding the purified toxin to otherwise well fed animals. In fact, ignorance is certainly the main cause of the poisoning, as not knowing the involved legumes to be toxic may justify their ingestion, wheter by rich and well nourished individuals or not.

Sophos II 08:41, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

Hi Sophos II

Food for thought.

Ingestion of the neurotoxin alone does not seem to produce the disease. While some laboratory studies have demonstrated neurological effects of the toxin; the neurodegenerative effects leading to permanent crippling, have not been successfully produced under experimental conditions.

Every day millions of people eat grasspea and hence ingest significant amounts of the toxin with no apparent ill effects.

Overconsumption of grasspea leads to the disease. I think the current estimate for overconsumption is 50% of the diet for a period of at least 4 weeks.

The argument, let's call it a hypothesis, is precisely that well nourished individuals won't get poisoned by grasspea, a) because they eat sufficient other foods and b) these foods have a protective effect.

Ref Getahun,H,Lambien F,Vanhoome M,Van Der Stuyft P(2003).Food-aid cereals to reduce neurolathyrism related to grass-pea preparations during famine.The Lancet,vol 362,Nov 2003,pp 1808-1810.Full text available free online at:http://www.thelancet.com/journal/vol362/iss9398/

Cheers

Dirk.Enneking 08:11, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Hi Dirk,

If oxalyldiaminopropionate (ODAP) was not toxic, as you suggest, it would not be called a toxin.

If ODAP would not interfere with the glutamate-mediated neurotransmission, it would also not be called a neurotoxin.

There is a vast amount of litterature showing evidence that ODAP is produced by plants of the genus Lathyrus, that ODAP is present in the seeds of these plants, and that ODAP it is the main cause of the (maybe occasional) symptoms of lathyrism, an illness by definition only suffered by those who have been ingesting beans from these plants. I estimate that it is not necessary to show proof of this but if absolutely required, this could easily be sorted out.

Now of course, that doesn't mean that nothing can be done to make these beans less toxic. In fact there are many other foods that can be toxic or even lethal if they are not prepared correctly or if they are ingested in wrong quantities or in a wrong combination: coprinus, fugu and cassava are just three examples that just come to my mind...

Regards,

Sophos II 22:57, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Treatment?

No mention of treatment or even if the damage is permanent. This is a severe lack. Halfelven 20:04, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Dr Enneking, I have noticed that too much importance is given to effects of ODAP on glutamate receptors.But the most significant effect of ODAP is its inhibition of Tyrosine amino transferase and is not referred to by most researchers. Why ?. In fact this inhibition explains several features of ODAP toxicity to experimental animals SLN Rao —Preceding unsigned comment added by Slnrao213 (talk • contribs) 16:16, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Treatment and prognosis

This article could use a "Treatment" section addressing these questions:

• Is lathyrism treatable?
• Is the damage permanent?
• Can it be fatal?

I expect these questions could be answered with a little research but I don't have time for it at the moment. Augurar (talk) 05:15, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

Requested move 2 July 2020

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. Kindly see the discussion, and my closing statement below. —usernamekiran (talk) 14:53, 30 July 2020 (UTC)

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Lathyrism → Neurolathyrism – This page is about neurolathyrism specifically. The page for neurolathyrism is a redirect to this page. Sneasel talk 05:52, 2 July 2020 (UTC) —Relisting. (t · c) buidhe 08:32, 10 July 2020 (UTC)

• Support Lathyrism is a condition that comes from eating legumes from the genus Lathyrus. What legumes are ingested depends on the disease that can present. Ingestion of Lathyrus legumes that contain the ODAP leads to neurolathyrism. Ingestion of Lathyrus legumes that contain the toxin beta-aminopropionitrile leads to Osteolathyrism (bone tissue) or angiolathyrism (blood capillaries). Also, there is pages for the other two types of Lathyrism: Osteolathyrism and Angiolathyrism. Sneasel talk 19:13, 2 July 2020 (UTC)
• Support Obviously per above. Orientls (talk) 10:55, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
•  Comment: @SneaselxLv94 and Orientls: Do you think Lathyrism should be a disambiguation page? —usernamekiran (talk) 06:29, 29 July 2020 (UTC)
  •  Comment: @Usernamekiran: It very well could be a disambiguation page. However, I was going with an overview article. It is mostly finished. You can see the draft on my 2nd Sandbox. Sneasel talk 16:36, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

Closing statement: looking at the nomination, and next comment by Sneasel; it is evident that Lathyrism is a group of diegeses like, and others are its type. As draft is currently under progress for the parent disease, it makes sense that Neurolathyrism should be moved to its base name/title. Until the draft is ready for publication, I will keep Lathyrism as a redirect to Neurolathyrism, this will also give the bot time to fix all the redirects. Once the draft is ready to be published, I will WP:SWAP Lathyrism with the draft to preserve draft's edit history. After all the page moves, Lathyrism (disambiguation) can be created. @SneaselxLv94: The current User:SneaselxLv94/sandbox2 draft has some edits which are not related to the disease, kindly create User:SneaselxLv94/Lathyrism, and paste all the Lathyrism related content there; with edit summary: copied content from [[User:SneaselxLv94/sandbox2]] see that page's history for attribution. You should do that before making any Lathyrism related edits to the sandbox2. Once the draft is ready to be published, kindly let me know; and I will perform the remaining page moves, and maintenance tasks. If you have any questions/doubts, please feel free to ask me. Please take your time, as wikipedia has no deadline :)
—usernamekiran (talk) 14:53, 30 July 2020 (UTC)

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The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.