Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Preventing Alzheimer's, Part 4, Mental Health

Preventing Alzheimer's/Part 4


In this blog we will look at timely topics on the brain. Learn along with a copy from our book series, Healing the Brain. Get your copy today. A Thousand Moms offers workshops to the general public. These workshops are presented in clear, non-complicated language. In New York, Vermont and Massachusetts, please call 518 322-0607 or write to athousandmoms@yahoo.com.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Brain-Memory-David-Balog/dp/1542537029/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1495859937&sr=8-9&keywords=david+balog

 By the author of the acclaimed  

Dana Sourcebook of Brain Science.  

Buy here on Amazon.


Source: Dana Foundation/Cerebrum
Memory problems come in all shapes and sizes. Some people tend to forget where they put their cell phone, or cannot easily recall names. Or they can’t recall taking their medication or remember the birthday or anniversary of a loved one. Whether they admit to themselves that their forgetfulness seems to happen with greater frequency or they worry about losing their memory as they age, they are right to be concerned. Because our aging population is on the rise, Alzheimer’s disease (AD)— an irreversible, progressive form of dementia that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills as people age and is ultimately fatal—has steadily risen from about 4 million in the late 1990s to 5.4 million today.
 
The disease is currently ranked as the sixth leading cause of death in the US, but estimates by the National Institute on Aging indicate that it may rank third, just behind heart disease and cancer, as a cause of death for older people. But here is some good news: Whether you want to reverse cognitive deficits now or avoid them later, more and more studies are suggesting that there is much you can do to keep your mind sharp.
 
While a pharmaceutical approach to preventing AD has proved elusive, practical lifestyle choices to reduce AD are based on good science and good sense. The secret may lie in epigenetics, the effect one’s lifestyle has on one’s genes, and thus on the risk for disease. Of course, the wisdom that lifestyle has an impact on health is not new; we have been reciting adages such as “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” for ages. Research in a variety of areas has confirmed that sensible everyday choices can significantly reduce the risk of AD. According to the National Institutes of Health, $991 million was dedicated to AD research in 2016, but how much of that went towards lifestyle-modification and prevention is unclear.


Pillar 4: Psychological Well-Being
Meditation also enhances psychological well-being (PWB) by promoting acceptance of self and others, increasing self-confidence, reducing negativity, and providing a foundation for independent living, sustained personal growth, socializing with like-minded people, service to others, and aging with purpose. These PWB factors lower the risk for cognitive decline and help reduce cholesterol and inflammation.In fact, Purpose in Life is a new movement in neuroscience that links the belief that one’s life has meaning and purpose to a robust and persistently improved physiological health outcome—not only to treat AD, but also to treat spinal cord injuries, stroke, and immunological and cardiovascular issues that include but extend beyond the brain.

Positive emotions—love, compassion, and appreciation—counteract the physiology of the stress response and support a healthy brain throughout life. Beyond that, PWB may create an enhanced sense of spirituality, which preliminary studies suggest slows the progression of AD.23 Moreover, per Helen Lavretsky, M.D., a geriatric psychiatrist at UCLA, spirituality is a way to develop personalized, patient-centered healthcare. There is evidence of a close relationship between spirituality, cognitive health, and successful aging.

Finally, in a very recent, and as of yet, unpublished three-year study, spirituality was associated with lowered atrophy rates in brain regions related to memory, visuospatial attention, and behavioral deficits in subjects at risk for AD.

As it currently stands, or until the pharmaceutical world can meet the enormous challenge of discovering the magic anecdote that can make amyloid disappear, living a healthy life offers the best chance for aging AD-free and nourishing a sharp mind. Small, easily achieved shifts in one’s daily routine can make all the difference in brain health. If everyone made such shifts, it is likely that the widespread prediction of a continuing Alzheimer’s epidemic would shift, too, with fewer reported cases.



Praise for Healing the Brain
"A book that can help medical professionals as well as the general public, Mr Balog has tackled a subject that is complex and he makes it quite approachable. It has added and enriched my own practice of medicine by making me more aware of issues not often discussed in medical circles."--Peter Paganussi, MD, Virginia

"Author David Balog has done an excellent job of creating a book for educators (or anyone working with youth) that explains the complicated workings of the brain in an easy to understand manner. Balog goes on to discuss various types of trauma and how the adolescent brain responds to trauma such as depression, stress, addiction, risk taking, PTSD, etc. LGBT/Q youth may experience trauma in ways majority youth often do not. The author shares important coping strategies....I highly recommend this book!"--Carol Dopp, M.Ed. 


"David Balog understands the strain of alienation, so he tackles this subject with compassion and concern. Mr. Balog draws on his knowledge of brain science to give readers insight into what happens to young people under tremendous stress, and he offers practical advice on how to help and cope."--Gary Cottle, author



"Provides comfort and learning to the reader. Flows easily from one topic to the next and knits tidbits of information together in a unifying mosaic. Easy to read. Difficult to put down." --Michael J. Colucciello, Jr., New York State Dept. of Mental Health researcher, retired.


"Well researched, fleshed out with relevant case histories, this book packs a lot of solid information into its 152 pages. Written in an engaging style for the layman, it covers a wide range of topics. One learns a great deal about the biology of stress, particularly the vulnerability of the brain in the pre-adult years. This book also provides a glossary of key brain science terms and a listing of organizations serving the LGBT /Q community and resources on the brain."--Gary Bordzuk, librarian

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Preventing Alzheimer's, Part 3

Preventing Alzheimer's


In this blog we will look at timely topics on the brain. Learn along with a copy from our book series, Healing the Brain. Get your copy today. A Thousand Moms offers workshops to the general public. These workshops are presented in clear, non-complicated language. In New York, Vermont and Massachusetts, please call 518 322-0607 or write to athousandmoms@yahoo.com.

https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Brain-Memory-David-Balog/dp/1542537029/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1495859937&sr=8-9&keywords=david+balog

 By the author of the acclaimed Dana Sourcebook of Brain Science.  

Buy here on Amazon.


Source: Dana Foundation/Cerebrum
Memory problems come in all shapes and sizes. Some people tend to forget where they put their cell phone, or cannot easily recall names. Or they can’t recall taking their medication or remember the birthday or anniversary of a loved one. Whether they admit to themselves that their forgetfulness seems to happen with greater frequency or they worry about losing their memory as they age, they are right to be concerned. Because our aging population is on the rise, Alzheimer’s disease (AD)— an irreversible, progressive form of dementia that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills as people age and is ultimately fatal—has steadily risen from about 4 million in the late 1990s to 5.4 million today.
 
The disease is currently ranked as the sixth leading cause of death in the US, but estimates by the National Institute on Aging indicate that it may rank third, just behind heart disease and cancer, as a cause of death for older people. But here is some good news: Whether you want to reverse cognitive deficits now or avoid them later, more and more studies are suggesting that there is much you can do to keep your mind sharp.
 
While a pharmaceutical approach to preventing AD has proved elusive, practical lifestyle choices to reduce AD are based on good science and good sense. The secret may lie in epigenetics, the effect one’s lifestyle has on one’s genes, and thus on the risk for disease. Of course, the wisdom that lifestyle has an impact on health is not new; we have been reciting adages such as “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” for ages. Research in a variety of areas has confirmed that sensible everyday choices can significantly reduce the risk of AD. According to the National Institutes of Health, $991 million was dedicated to AD research in 2016, but how much of that went towards lifestyle-modification and prevention is unclear.


Pillar 3: Yoga/Meditation
Chronic stress is a major risk factor for AD. It may be useful to experience stress if one is running for his or her life, but not when just trying to live one’s life. Stress has a detrimental effect on genes, causing them to express themselves in unhealthy ways, such as by producing inflammation, a trademark of AD. The frenzied pace of life that people experience in today’s world is only accelerating, so it is helpful to find a regular activity to soothe the harmful force of stress on the brain.

Published research over the past 13 years reveals that a simple, 12-minute yoga/meditation technique called Kirtan Kriya (KK) has significant brain boosting benefits. KK has been examined at leading medical schools, with the impressive, perhaps surprising, results published in more than one medical journal, including the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

The actual age of KK is unknown. It was passed down from master to student for generations in the East until Yogi Bhajan (1929-2004) brought it to the West in about 1970. Kirtan means “singing” and Kriya means “an action with specific effects.” KK involves singing the sounds Saa Taa Naa Maa (a mantra) while repeating sequential movements (mudras) with the fingertips.
Ancient yogis did not have imaging or blood tests to unravel the biochemical changes created by KK and other yoga exercises, but modern science has shown that practicing KK reduces stress levels and increases blood flow to parts of the brain that are central to memory and brain function. For example, KK activates the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG), an important brain region for stress balance and emotional and cognitive control. A robust ACG is essential to memory: Research in the elderly who’ve maintained sharp minds shows they have preserved their ACGs and other significant brain areas as they have aged.

The prefrontal cortex (PFC), the chief executive officer of your brain, essential for planning and organization, is also activated by meditation. So is the posterior cingulate gyrus (PC), one of the first areas to decline in function when memory loss strikes. Such findings have led Andrew Newberg, M.D., of Thomas Jefferson Medical School, to say, “There is a true anti-aging effect in long-term practitioners of KK; they have bigger brains.”

A study at the University of Pennsylvania, which followed people with early cognitive decline for eight weeks, demonstrated that practicing the yoga/meditation technique started reversing memory loss and reduced anxiety, two hallmarks of early AD. A UCLA study of family dementia caregivers revealed that KK not only lowered their stress and improved their memory, but also reduced inflammatory genes and increased the enzyme telomerase by 43 percent, the largest increase ever recorded. Increasing this enzyme elongates the DNA protective cap, the telomere, which is crucial for a long life and a sharp mind.

Additionally, at West Virginia University, subjects with the earliest form of memory loss, subjective cognitive decline (SCD), showed an improvement in cognitive function with KK.And a landmark study at UCLA found that subjects with an advanced form of early memory loss called mild cognitive impairment (MCI) had better memory outcomes with KK than those who practiced a standard memory-improvement approach. KK apparently enhanced brain cell connectivity as well. Importantly, the positive benefits lasted through the six-month follow up period of the study.
KK has practical advantages. It only takes 12 minutes a day and requires no equipment or lengthy or expensive training sessions. One can practice KK at home with an easy-to-follow CD, for example, and it is completely safe, with no side effects reported. Its lack of time requirements makes the practice perfect for caregivers, and it’s easy for seniors with decreased mobility and activity levels.



Praise for Healing the Brain
"A book that can help medical professionals as well as the general public, Mr Balog has tackled a subject that is complex and he makes it quite approachable. It has added and enriched my own practice of medicine by making me more aware of issues not often discussed in medical circles."--Peter Paganussi, MD, Virginia

"Author David Balog has done an excellent job of creating a book for educators (or anyone working with youth) that explains the complicated workings of the brain in an easy to understand manner. Balog goes on to discuss various types of trauma and how the adolescent brain responds to trauma such as depression, stress, addiction, risk taking, PTSD, etc. LGBT/Q youth may experience trauma in ways majority youth often do not. The author shares important coping strategies....I highly recommend this book!"--Carol Dopp, M.Ed. 


"David Balog understands the strain of alienation, so he tackles this subject with compassion and concern. Mr. Balog draws on his knowledge of brain science to give readers insight into what happens to young people under tremendous stress, and he offers practical advice on how to help and cope."--Gary Cottle, author


"Provides comfort and learning to the reader. Flows easily from one topic to the next and knits tidbits of information together in a unifying mosaic. Easy to read. Difficult to put down." --Michael J. Colucciello, Jr., New York State Dept. of Mental Health researcher, retired.

"Well researched, fleshed out with relevant case histories, this book packs a lot of solid information into its 152 pages. Written in an engaging style for the layman, it covers a wide range of topics. One learns a great deal about the biology of stress, particularly the vulnerability of the brain in the pre-adult years. This book also provides a glossary of key brain science terms and a listing of organizations serving the LGBT /Q community and resources on the brain."--Gary Bordzuk, librarian

Saturday, May 27, 2017

Part 2: The 4 Keys of Alzheimer’s Prevention

In this blog we will look at timely topics on the brain. Learn along with a copy from our book series, Healing the Brain. Get your copy today. A Thousand Moms offers workshops to the general public. These workshops are presented in clear, non-complicated language. In New York, Vermont and Massachusetts, please call 518 322-0607 or write to athousandmoms@yahoo.com.

https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Brain-Memory-David-Balog/dp/1542537029/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1495859937&sr=8-9&keywords=david+balog

 By the author of the acclaimed Dana Sourcebook of Brain Science.  

Buy here on Amazon.


Source: Cerebrum/Dana Foundation

The Four Pillars of Alzheimer’s Prevention

By: Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D., and George Perry, Ph.D. Editor’s Note: Much is yet to be discovered about the precise biological changes that cause Alzheimer’s, disease, why it progresses more quickly in some than in others, and how the disease can be prevented, slowed, or stopped. And while researchers continue to search for the magic pill that can prevent or halt the spread of amyloid in the brain, our authors believe that changing or modifying one’s lifestyle and attitude can make a difference in both prevention and treatment.

Pillar 2:  Physical and Mental Exercise
The evidence is convincing: Both physical and mental exercise are absolutely essential in preventing AD. Exercise increases blood flow to the brain, augments crucial brain compounds such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and, perhaps most significantly, causes neurogenesis, or the growth of new brain cells. In a study at Columbia University, researchers showed that older men who exercised on a treadmill four times a week for 30 minutes grew new cells in their dentate gyrus, an important area of the brain related to memory and cognition such as executive function.11 And guess what? One can experience these brain-boosting effects of exercise regardless of one’s age or existing level of fitness or cognitive decline.
 
Current wisdom recommends 150 minutes a week of cardio (aka aerobic) exercise, plus several sessions of strength training. But the benefits of even mild exercise begin to accrue right away. Just getting out and taking a 20 to 30- minute brisk walk three times a week will improve brain and memory function. Like diet, exercise also creates a healthy epigenetic response. Those who are already in good physical condition should add more variety and intensity to their workouts. Get a trainer, join a gym, play tennis, swim, or take a boot camp, Zumba, or cycling class. Find enjoyable activities and make them part of your routine.
 
Additionally, keeping one’s mind active is an important aspect of AD prevention. There are a variety of ways to do this. One of them, reading, is one of the best ways to stay sharp—not only does learning take place, but the mind is forced to think and engage outside of everyday tasks. Other simple strategies—or what are sometimes called brain-aerobic activities—include playing and listening to music, creating and viewing art, or completing crossword puzzles. All stimulate and challenge the brain, giving it a nice “workout.” Remember, it’s not just about physical fitness, it’s about mental conditioning as well.

Friday, May 26, 2017

Part 1: Diet. The 4 Keys of Alzheimer’s Prevention

In this blog we will look at timely topics on the brain. Learn along with a copy from our book series, Healing the Brain. Get your copy today. A Thousand Moms offers workshops to the general public. These workshops are presented in clear, non-complicated language. In New York, Vermont and Massachusetts, please call 518 322-0607 or write to athousandmoms@yahoo.com.

https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Brain-Memory-David-Balog/dp/1542537029/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1495859937&sr=8-9&keywords=david+balog

 By the author of the acclaimed Dana Sourcebook of Brain Science.  

Buy here on Amazon.


Source: Cerebrum/Dana Foundation

The Four Pillars of Alzheimer’s Prevention

By: Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D., and George Perry, Ph.D. Editor’s Note: Much is yet to be discovered about the precise biological changes that cause Alzheimer’s, disease, why it progresses more quickly in some than in others, and how the disease can be prevented, slowed, or stopped. And while researchers continue to search for the magic pill that can prevent or halt the spread of amyloid in the brain, our authors believe that changing or modifying one’s lifestyle and attitude can make a difference in both prevention and treatment.

Cerebrum - The Four Pillars of Alzheimer’s Prevention - Feature image
Source/Shutterstock
Memory problems come in all shapes and sizes. Some people tend to forget where they put their cell phone, or cannot easily recall names. Or they can’t recall taking their medication or remember the birthday or anniversary of a loved one. Whether they admit to themselves that their forgetfulness seems to happen with greater frequency or they worry about losing their memory as they age, they are right to be concerned. Because our aging population is on the rise, Alzheimer’s disease (AD)— an irreversible, progressive form of dementia that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills as people age and is ultimately fatal—has steadily risen from about 4 million in the late 1990s to 5.4 million today.
 
The disease is currently ranked as the sixth leading cause of death in the US, but estimates by the National Institute on Aging indicate that it may rank third, just behind heart disease and cancer, as a cause of death for older people. But here is some good news: Whether you want to reverse cognitive deficits now or avoid them later, more and more studies are suggesting that there is much you can do to keep your mind sharp.

While a pharmaceutical approach to preventing AD has proved elusive, practical lifestyle choices to reduce AD are based on good science and good sense. The secret may lie in epigenetics, the effect one’s lifestyle has on one’s genes, and thus on the risk for disease. Of course, the wisdom that lifestyle has an impact on health is not new; we have been reciting adages such as “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” for ages. Research in a variety of areas has confirmed that sensible everyday choices can significantly reduce the risk of AD. According to the National Institutes of Health, $991 million was dedicated to AD research in 2016, but how much of that went towards lifestyle-modification and prevention is unclear.

Funding uncertainty notwithstanding, the positive effects of a healthier lifestyle on cognition were recently documented for the first time in a longitudinal study. The two-year, 1,200 participant Finnish Interventional Geriatric Study for the Prevention of Cognitive Disability (FINGER) showed that a healthy diet, exercise, socialization, and mental stimulation can dramatically reduce the development of AD in people at risk for cognitive decline. The French MAPT Study: A Multidomain Approach for Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease also suggested that lifestyle modification has an effect in reducing risk factors. This multi-domain approach is consistent with the four-pillar strategy recommended by a number of reputable sources, including the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation (ARPF), the Dana Alliance, the American Association of Retired Persons, and the Alzheimer’s Association.

The aforementioned studies add substantially to mounting scientific evidence that suggests lifestyle and psychological well-being play a critically important role in Alzheimer’s prevention. We have taken them into account, along with our own findings, in fine-tuning our longstanding recommendations for staving off and even helping to reverse AD to the following four strategies. The secret to AD prevention is tied to maintaining connections: between your brain cells, other people, and your well-being.

Pillar 1: Diet and Supplements
Diet is one of the most important targets for lifestyle modification to prevent AD. Many people still blindly follow the Standard American Diet, or SAD. According to the US Government, about 75 percent of all Americans do not consume an adequate amount of vegetables and fruits, while most exceed the recommended amount of sugars, saturated fats, sodium, and calories. Studies show that rejecting SAD may be critical in the fight against AD.

The science reveals that those who eschew processed foods and choose whole, real-food options have the least decline in mental faculty. Research published in the Alzheimer’s Association’s journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, for example, confirms that making the switch from a fat- and meat-heavy way of eating to a primarily plant-based diet—no matter how old a person is when doing so— can slow and possibly reverse memory loss.The components of a healthy diet may enhance cognitive performance by one or more of several actions:  affecting synaptic plasticity, synaptic membrane fluidity, glucose utilization, mitochondrial function, or reducing oxidative stress.

Many studies highlight the Mediterranean diet that is rich in vegetables, fruit, nuts, olive oil, and fish or seafood. Researchers at UCLA discovered that study participants who followed  this eating plan, which is modeled on the traditional diet of certain Mediterranean peoples, had lower levels of AD’s hallmark amyloid-beta plaques in the spaces between their brain nerve cells, along with fewer telltale tangles of tau protein—meaning those important cell connections were firing properly. And at the Mayo Clinic, through MRI scans, researchers found that participants who followed the Mediterranean diet for a year had greater thickness in parts of their brain’s cortex that play a role in memory. Those on the SAD diet, on the other hand, lost cortex. These findings have implications for maintaining cognitive function:  positive associations of the Mediterranean Diet scores were observed with average cortical thickness in parietal and frontal lobes, and in regions of the brain that mediate or support elements such as memory, executive function, and language. Americanized versions of the Mediterranean diet, as well as the MIND ( Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay ) and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets, have also shown promising results.  Research from Rush University, where the MIND diet was developed by nutritional epidemiologist Martha Clare Morris, revealed that the MIND diet could turn back your mental aging clock the equivalent of up to 7.5 years. Although this is now widely accepted by researchers, further confirmative studies are ongoing.

The ARPF nutrition plan has much in common with both the Mediterranean and MIND diets. Some of the organization’s main tenets are:
●     Vegetarian foods: A vegetarian diet—full of fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, legumes and soy—improves focus and begets higher productivity. Wild-caught salmon is the only animal protein the Alzheimer’s Research & Prevention Foundation’s diet recommends for its brain-friendly omega-3 fats, advising eating it only two to three times a week.
●     Juicing: Fresh juices are alive with the vitamins, minerals, trace elements, and phytonutrients needed to strengthen the brain.
●     Supplements : Take a high-potency multivitamin and multi-mineral supplement that includes folic acid. Memory specific supplements of omega-3 oils, phosphatidyl-serine, coenzyme Q10, alpha lipoic acid, huperzine-A, and resveratrol are also recommended.

As previously noted, we suspect that certain genes can influence risk of developing AD. But well-chosen foods and their nutrients may move gene expression toward a sharp brain. “Genetics are not our destiny,” says Victor S. Sierpina, M.D., professor of family and integrative medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. “How we eat can have a major impact in reducing our risk of developing this feared condition.” By moving away from the SAD diet to a more Mediterranean-type diet, it is possible to eat for optimal brain health.


Thursday, May 25, 2017

Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's diseases share common, crucial feature


In this blog we will look at timely topics on the brain. Learn along with a copy from our book series, Healing the Brain. Get your copy today. A Thousand Moms offers workshops to the general public. These workshops are presented in clear, non-complicated language. In New York, Vermont and Massachusetts, please call 518 322-0607 or write to athousandmoms@yahoo.com.

https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Brain-Stress-Trauma-Development/dp/1535179058/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1495754567&sr=8-3&keywords=david+balog


Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's diseases share common crucial feature

Finding suggests that treatment for one disease could work for the other two

Date:
May 23, 2017
Source:
Loyola University Health System
Summary:
A study has found that abnormal proteins found in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases share a similar ability to cause damage when they invade brain cells. The finding suggests that an effective treatment for one neurodegenerative disease might work for other neurodegenerative diseases as well.
FULL STORY

A Loyola University Chicago study has found that abnormal proteins found in Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease all share a similar ability to cause damage when they invade brain cells.

The finding potentially could explain the mechanism by which Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, and other neurodegenerative diseases spread within the brain and disrupt normal brain functions.

The finding also suggests that an effective treatment for one neurodegenerative disease might work for other neurodegenerative diseases as well.

The study by senior author Edward Campbell, PhD, first author William Flavin, PhD, and colleagues is published in the journal Acta Neuropathologica.

"A possible therapy would involve boosting a brain cell's ability to degrade a clump of proteins and damaged vesicles," Campbell said. "If we could do this in one disease, it's a good bet the therapy would be effective in the other two diseases."

Neurodegenerative diseases are caused by the death of neurons and other cells in the brain, with different diseases affecting different regions of the brain. Alzheimer's destroys memory, while Parkinson's and Huntington's affect movement. All three diseases are progressive, debilitating and incurable.

Previous research has suggested that in all three diseases, proteins that are folded abnormally form clumps inside brain cells. These clumps spread from cell to cell, eventually leading to cell deaths. Different proteins are implicated in each disease: tau in Alzheimer's, alpha-synuclein in Parkinson's and huntingtin in Huntington's disease.

The Loyola study focused on how these misfolded protein clumps invade a healthy brain cell. The authors observed that once proteins get inside the cell, they enter vesicles (small compartments that are encased in membranes). The proteins damage or rupture the vesicle membranes, allowing the proteins to then invade the cytoplasm and cause additional dysfunction. (The cytoplasm is the part of the cell that's outside the nucleus).

The Loyola study also showed how a cell responds when protein clumps invade vesicles: The cell gathers the ruptured vesicles and protein clumps together so the vesicles and proteins can be destroyed. However, the proteins are resistant to degradation. "The cell's attempt to degrade the proteins is somewhat like a stomach trying to digest a clump of nails," Campbell said.

Flavin said the finding that protein clumps associated with the three diseases cause the same type of vesicle damage was unexpected. Loyola researchers initially focused on alpha-synuclein proteins associated with Parkinson's disease. So they asked collaborator Ronald Melki, PhD, to send them samples of different types of alpha-synuclein. (To do the experiment in a blinded, unbiased manner, the Loyola researchers did not know which types of alpha-synuclein were which.) Melki, a protein researcher at the Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience, is known for his ability to generate distinct types of alpha-synuclein. Without telling the Loyola researchers, Melki sent other types of proteins as well. This led to the surprise finding that tau and huntingtin proteins also can damage vesicles.

Campbell stressed the study's findings need to be followed up and confirmed in future studies.
The Loyola study is titled, "Endocytic vesicle rupture is a conserved mechanism of cellular invasion by amyloid proteins." It was supported by grants from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, Parkinson's Disease Foundation, Illinois chapter of the ARCS Foundation, Arthur J. Schmitt Foundation and other sources.

Campbell is an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. Flavin is a Loyola University Chicago MD/PhD student. Other co-authors are Zachary Green, Stratos Skarpathiotis, and Michael Chaney of Loyola University Chicago; Luc Bousset and Ronald Melki of the Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience; and Yaping Chu and Jeffrey Kordower of Rush University Medical Center.

Story Source:
Materials provided by Loyola University Health System.


https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Brain-Stress-Trauma-Development/dp/1535179058/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1495754567&sr=8-3&keywords=david+balog

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Opioids, Heroin and Public Health

In this blog we will look at timely topics on the brain. Learn along with a copy from our book series, Healing the Brain. Get your copy today. A Thousand Moms offers workshops to the general public. These workshops are presented in clear, non-complicated language. In New York, Vermont and Massachusetts, please call 518 322-0607 or write to athousandmoms@yahoo.com.


Source: The Dana Foundation

The Opioid Epidemic

“We’ve moved from an epidemic to a crisis” in opioid abuse in the United States, said Daniel Ciccarone, M.D., MPH, during a panel discussion at AAAS in Washington, DC, this week. Ciccarone, a doctor at University of California, San Francisco, who treats addicted people and does research, described a pattern of intertwined waves involving abuse of prescription pills, heroin, and synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

For example, while overdose deaths due to prescription pill use are spread relatively evenly across the country, “this is not true for heroin,” Ciccarone said. The Northeast has had troubles with opioid abuse for a generation, while in the Midwest, numbers have jumped just recently. And while older folks (50-64) are using pills in greater numbers, it’s younger people (20-35) driving heroin use.
“Heroin itself is becoming more and more dangerous,” he said, especially when it is laced with synthetic drugs like fentanyl and carfentanil (used to tranquilize elephants). People who stop breathing after using these stronger concoctions often don’t respond to emergency treatments like naloxone.


The latest epidemic came about in large part out of doctors’ good intentions, said Nora Volkow, M.D., director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of NIH. Starting in the late 1990s, doctors increasingly prescribed opioids to young and old for acute (sudden onset) and chronic pain (pain that is regular and has lasted for months). They were responding to a call to better help people who were in severe pain, and they thought that while the patient was experiencing pain, they would not be likely to become addicted to the drug.

“The epidemic really started from our over-prescription,” said Volkow, a member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives. For example, in 2013, the number of total pills prescribed in this country was the equivalent of a 1 month supply for every adult in the US, she said. Over the past 15 years, “the whole United States appeared to become infected,” she said.

Opioids are very effective for acute pain. Volkow described her own experience taking them after she was in a car accident: “It was amazing, not just because the pain was gone but because of that great sense of well-being.” But many people grow more tolerant of the drug the longer they use it, and need ever-increasing doses to find relief. This can lead to over-use, and to people transitioning from pills to black-market drugs like heroin and fentanyl. “80 percent of new cases of heroin are actually emerging from individuals who became addicted to prescription opioids,” she said; because prescription drugs are expensive and difficult to get, while heroin has gotten cheaper, they make the switch. (The other 20 percent of new users are mainly younger people, who started directly with heroin as a recreational drug.)

This is dire news, but we have experienced waves of other deadly maladies and overcome them before. “When we had the HIV epidemic, when we had the Ebola epidemic, we addressed it using science,” Volkow said. “Scientific solutions can provide us means to control these problems, and it’s not any different for the opioid crisis”

For example, Karen Drexler, M.D., an addiction psychiatrist and program director for addictive disorders at the Veterans Healthcare Administration (VA), described the success of Dr. John Snow in solving a cholera epidemic in 1854 London. While others blamed bad air for the outbreak, Snow looked at this map showing where the sickened people lived, and asked what they had in common. It turned out they all obtained water from one local pump. Snow stopped the outbreak by taking the handle off the pump. People obtained their water from elsewhere, and stopped getting sick.
opioid_map_2013
Map of opioid prescriptions and overdoses. Data source: National Vital Statistics, 2013 Source: State of Maryland

Looking at “our ‘map of London’ for the opioid epidemic,” Drexler said, it was clear that the most overdoses were where there were the most over-prescriptions. For opioids, “taking the handle off the pump” means reducing the number of prescriptions and changing prescription advice to use the lowest effective dose for the shortest amount of time so people have the least risk of becoming addicted. “Prevention is best,” she said.

The VA is applying a series of evidence-based actions to reduce prescriptions, including more-closely monitoring people who are taking opioids, advising doctors not to prescribe opioids for chronic pain, and suggesting alternative drugs and counseling.

Volkow described three areas NIH and others are working on: developing better, safer treatments for chronic pain; designing better strategies to help addicted people come off the drugs; and finding more direct opioid-blocking drug interventions like methadone, naloxone, and buprenorphine. The latter are proven to help, but “they are not being used. Less than 15 percent of people who would benefit from these are getting them,” she said, because of stigma, lack of doctor training, and lack of insurance reimbursement. In addition, “with science, of course we look for transformation,” she said, including looking for a potential vaccine against fentanyl.

Drexler described several current models of treatment that have evidence of success, including brief one-on-one counseling, which “is sufficient for many with opioid-use disorder,” she said. Other methods include the Massachusetts model of buprenorphine maintenance, Project Echo in New Mexico, and a method mirroring the alcohol care management model.

“I’m very hopeful that we’ll be able to disseminate these models out,” she said, perhaps by using marketing methods similar to those drug companies use. Still, “we need more help for newer, better treatments as well as how to implement the ones we have.”

“We need to treat this as a poisoning epidemic, not a drug epidemic,” Ciccarone said, including boosting programs that do “harm reduction,” caring for people who are engaging in risky behavior. “We tend to think of harm reduction as ‘aiding and abetting drug users,’ in the political sphere, but harm reduction saves lives,” it’s cost-effective, and it can bring people into treatment, he said. “Stop treating the drugs as sort of the special privilege of the criminal justice folks and the injured bodies as only public health.”


Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Autism: Thinking in Pictures

In this blog we will look at topics on the brain. Learn along with a copy of our book series, Healing the Brain. Get your copy today. 



My Mind Is a Web Browser:
How People With Autism Think
By: Temple Grandin, Ph.D. (/Authors/Temple_Grandin,_Ph_D_/)
The struggle that made possible Temple Grandin’s early development, graduate education, and notable career as a professor of animal behavior, designer of animal facilities worldwide, and celebrated writer, speaker, and researcher on autism, is told in her books, Emergence: Labeled Autistic (1986) and Thinking in Pictures and Other Reports From My Life With Autism* (Vintage Books, 1996). 

Courtesy the Dana Foundation.
 
Since writing Thinking in Pictures, which described my visual way of thinking, I have gained further insights into how my thought processes are different when compared to those of people who think in language. At autism meetings, I am often asked, “How can you be effective at public speaking when you think in pictures that are like video tapes in your imagination?” It is almost as though I have two levels of consciousness that operate separately. Only by interviewing people did I learn that many of them think primarily in words, and that their thoughts are linked to emotion. In my brain, words act as a narrator for the visual images in my imagination. I can see the pictures in my memory files. 

To use a computer analogy: The language part of my brain is the computer operator, and the rest of my brain is the computer. In most people, the brain’s computer operator and the computer are
page1image14272
merged into one seamless consciousness; but in me they are separate. I hypothesize that the frontal cortex of my brain is the operator and the rest of my brain is the computer.

When I lecture, the language itself is mostly “downloaded” out of memory from files that are like tape recordings. I use slides or notes to trigger opening the different files. When I am talking about something for the first time, I look at the visual images on the “computer monitor” in my imagination, then the language part of me describes those images. After I have given the lecture several times, the new material in language is switched over into “audio tape-recording files.” When I was in high school, other kids called me “tape recorder.”

Non-autistic people seem to have a whole upper layer of verbal thinking that is merged with their emotions. By contrast, unless I panic, I use logic to make all decisions; my thinking can be done independently of emotion. In fact, I seem to lack a higher consciousness composed of abstract verbal thoughts that are merged with emotion. Researchers have learned that people with autism have a decreased metabolism in the area in the frontal cortex that connects the brain’s emotional centers with higher thinking (the anterior cingulate).1 The frontal cortex is the brain’s senior executive, like the CEO of a corporation. Brain scans indicate that people with autism use problem-solving circuits in social situations. Unlike non-autistic people, the emotion center in their amygdala is not activated, for example, when they judge expressions in another person’s eyes.

I do have the ability to control the rate at which pictures come onto the “computer screen” in my imagination. Some people with autism are not able to do this. One person with autism told me that images explode into a web of a pictures that are interrelated. The decision-making process can become “locked up” and overloaded with pictures coming in all at once.

UNMASKING TALENT
I have been fascinated with research indicating that the detailed, realistic pictures that autistic savants—autistic individuals with extraordinary talent in a specific area— make may be created by directly accessing primary memory areas deep in the brain. Researchers in Australia hypothesize that autistic savants may have privileged access to lower levels of information.3 A study with a non-autistic “human calculator,” who could solve multiplication problems twice as quickly as a normal person, indicated that his brain had enhanced low-level processing.4 EEG recordings of his brain waves showed that brain activity was greatest, as compared with a normal person, when the multiplication problem was first flashed on the screen.
When designing livestock equipment in my business, I can do three-dimensional, full-motion videos of equipment and can test-run the equipment in my imagination. I can walk around it or fly over it.
I hypothesize that I am able to access primary visual files in my brain. When designing livestock equipment in my business, I can do three-dimensional, full-motion videos of equipment and can test-run the equipment in my imagination. I can walk around it or fly over it. My ability to rotate the image is slow. I move my mind’s eye around or over the image. 

When I read an article in Neurology about frontal temporal lobe dementia, I became extremely excited. It provided a scientific foundation for the idea of hidden visual thinking under a layer of verbal thinking. Research on frontal temporal lobe dementia, an Alzheimer’s-like condition that destroys language and social areas in the brain, demonstrated that, as the condition progressed, visual skills in art emerged in people who had no interest in art.5 The increase in creativity was always visual, never verbal. Brain scans found the highest activity in the visual cortex. As the patient’s cognitive abilities deteriorated, the art became more photo realistic. Artwork published with the journal article looks like the art of autistic savants.

I SEE THE DECISION PROCESS
I see the decision-making process in my mind in a way most people do not. When I tried to explain this to a person who thinks in language, he just didn’t get it. How my decision-making works is most clearly seen in an emergency. 

On a bright, sunny day, I was driving to the airport when an elk ran into the highway just ahead of my car. I had only three or four seconds to react. During those few seconds, I saw images of my choices. The first image was of a car rear-ending me. This is what would have happened if I had made the instinctive panic response and slammed on the brakes. The second image was of an elk smashing through my windshield. This is what would have happened if I had swerved. The last image showed the elk passing by in front of my car. The last choice was the one I could make if I inhibited the panic response and braked just a little to slow the car. I mentally “clicked” on slowing down and avoided an accident. It was like clicking a computer mouse on the desired picture. 

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