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Inside the Mind of a Savant: Scientific American
Article about Kim Peek and mind of savant.
New Study Links DHA Type Of Omega-3 To Better Nervous System Function
"The omega-3 essential fatty acids commonly found in fatty fish and algae help animals avoid sensory overload, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. The finding connects low omega-3s to the information-processing problems found in people with schizophrenia; bipolar, obsessive-compulsive, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders; Huntington's disease; and other afflictions of the nervous system.
The study, reported in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience, provides more evidence that fish is brain food. The key finding was that two omega-3 fatty acids docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) appear to be most useful in the nervous system, maybe by maintaining nerve-cell membranes.
"It is an uphill battle now to reverse the message that 'fats are bad,' and to increase omega-3 fats in our diet," said Norman Salem Jr., PhD, who led this study at the Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Polyphenols and polyunsaturated fatty acids boost the birth of new neurons, study finds
"ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2009) — Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) researchers have confirmed that a diet rich in polyphenols and polyunsaturated fatty acids, patented as an LMN diet, helps boost the production of the brain's stem cells -neurogenesis- and strengthens their differentiation in different types of neuron cells.
The research revealed that mice fed an LMN diet, when compared to those fed a control diet, have more cell proliferation in the two areas of the brain where neurogenesis is produced, the olfactory bulb and the hippocampus, both of which are greatly damaged in patients with Alzheimer's disease. These results give support to the hypothesis that a diet made up of foods rich in these antioxidant substances could delay the onset of this disease or even slow down its evolution.
The study will be published in the December issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and was directed by Mercedes Unzeta, professor of the UAB Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology"
New study links DHA type of omega-3 to better nervous-system function
"ScienceDaily (Dec. 16, 2009) — The omega-3 essential fatty acids commonly found in fatty fish and algae help animals avoid sensory overload, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. The finding connects low omega-3s to the information-processing problems found in people with schizophrenia; bipolar, obsessive-compulsive, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders; Huntington's disease; and other afflictions of the nervous system
The study, reported in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience, provides more evidence that fish is brain food. The key finding was that two omega-3 fatty acids -- docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) -- appear to be most useful in the nervous system, maybe by maintaining nerve-cell membranes"
Fish consumption and risk of subclinical brain abnormalities on MRI in older adults
Fish consumption and risk of subclinical brain abnormalities on MRI in older adults.
Virtanen JK, Siscovick DS, Longstreth WT Jr, Kuller LH, Mozaffarian D.
Neurology. 2008 Aug 5;71(6):439-46.
PMID: 18678827
doi: 10.1212/01.wnl.0000324414.12665.b0
Conclusions:
Among older adults, modest consumption of tuna/other fish, but not fried fish, was associated with lower prevalence of subclinical infarcts and white matter abnormalities on MRI examinations. Our results add to prior evidence that suggest that dietary intake of fish with higher eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid content, and not fried fish intake, may have clinically important health benefits
Maximizing Vegetarian Nutrition by Michael Greger, M.D. - Vegan news portal
August of this year, the BBC reported that the British Advertising Standards Authority attacked a vegetarian organization for making "alarmist" and "unsubstantiated" claims about the risks of eating meat. Headlines like "Vegetarian group slammed over advertising" splashed across the evening news. What "exaggerated" claims were targeted by the Agency? The vegetarian group claimed that meat-eaters were at increased risk of dying from heart disease and stroke, and that vegetarians lived longer than meateaters. How could the agency possibly find fault with such incontrovertible facts?
Because, simply put, our "facts" aren't true.
The latest science and the best science that we have that we have suggests that we vegetarians do not live longer than our meat-eating counterparts. The latest published results came out January, 2002 in a journal called Public Health Nutrition. Eight thousand vegetarians were followed for 18 years, and no survival advantage was found. Then April, 2002 the results of a study twice that size were released at the International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition held at Loma Linda University. A study involving seventeen thousand vegetarians followed for about 9 years confirms the bad news-no survival advantage for vegetarians. Even more worrisome, both this huge studies found that vegetarians had an increased risk of dying from degenerative brain diseases
Combining Radiotherapy and Temozolomide With Dichloracetate in Patients With Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov
"This is a study to see whether radiotherapy plus chemotherapy (Temozolomide) plus Dichloracetate (DCA) improves overall survival and offers better control of the disease in patients with newly diagnosed Glioblastoma Multiforme Tumours"
Conversion of Phylloquinone (Vitamin K1) into Menaquinone-4 (Vitamin K2) in Mice - JBC
Conversion of phylloquinone (Vitamin K1) into menaquinone-4 (Vitamin K2) in mice: two possible routes for menaquinone-4 accumulation in cerebra of mice.\nOkano T, Shimomura Y, Yamane M, Suhara Y, Kamao M, Sugiura M, Nakagawa K.\nJ Biol Chem. 2008 Apr 25;283(17):11270-9. Epub 2007 Dec 14. \nPMID: 18083713 \ndoi: 10.1074/jbc.M702971200 \n\nOur results suggest that cerebral menaquinone-4 originates from phylloquinone intake and that there are two routes of accumulation, one is the release of menadione from phylloquinone in the intestine followed by the prenylation of menadione into menaquinone-4 in tissues, and another is cleavage and prenylation within the cerebrum.
The Heart Scan Blog: This is your brain on wheat
"Here's just a smattering of the studies performed over the past 30 years on the psychological effects of wheat consumption.
Oddly, this never makes the popular press. But wheat underlies schizophrenia, bipolar illness, behavioral outbursts in autism, Huntington's disease, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
The relationship is especially compelling with schizophrenia:
Opioid peptides derived from food proteins: The exorphins.
Zioudrou C et al 1979
"Wheat gluten has been implicated by Dohan and his colleagues in the etiology of schizophrenia and supporting evidence has been provided by others. Our experiments provide a plausible biochemical mechanism for such a role, in the demonstration of the conversion of gluten into peptides with potential central nerovus system actions." "
Berberine reduces the hypoxic-ischemic insult in rat pup brain. - Akadémiai Kiadó - Acta Physiologica Hungarica - Journal Article
Berberine reduces the hypoxic-ischemic insult in rat pup brain.
Benaissa F, Mohseni-Rad H, Rahimi-Moghaddam P, Mahmoudian M.
Acta Physiol Hung. 2009 Jun;96(2):213-20.
PMID: 19457765
DOI: 10.1556/APhysiol.96.2009.2.6
Pathologic review of the samples obtained from rats treated with different doses of berberine in comparison with samples from pups treated by normal saline showed that there was a significant reduction of brain injury and edema in the rats treated with berberine. Our study also demonstrates that berberine reduces brain ischemic-hypoxic injury dose-dependently. Therefore, beberine may be considered as useful anti-stroke agent.
Berberine: a plant alkaloid with therapeutic potential for central nervous system disorders - Wiley InterScience :: Journal :: Article PDF
Berberine: a plant alkaloid with therapeutic potential for central nervous system disorders.
Kulkami SK et al.
Phytotherapy Research, Published Online: 8 Dec 2009
This review attempts to discuss the pharmacological basis of the use of berberine in various central nervous system
and related disorders. Its protective effect in Alzheimer’s, cerebral ischemia, mental depression, schizophrenia
and anxiety are highlighted. However, more detailed clinical trials along with a safety assessment of berberine
are warranted for positioning the alkaloid in the treatment of neurological disorders.
Tempeh and tofu, for better or worse | The Jakarta Post
"Consuming tempeh can reduce the risk of developing dementia in the elderly, but eating tofu can increase it, said a joint study between universities here and in Britain on Wednesday.
The study between University of Indonesia (UI), Indonesia Respati University, University of Loughborough and University of Oxford said people over 68 years of age who consumed tofu more than twice a day had a worse memory than those who rarely ate it.
But if they also ate tempeh, the risk of dementia was reduced.
"Tempeh consumption very likely offsets tofu's negative associations with memory," Professor Eef Hogervorst of the University of Loughborough said in a seminar on aging and health at UI campus in Depok, where she presented the result of the study.
The study involved 712 respondents from Jakarta, Citengah in West Java and Yogyakarta, with ages ranging from 52 to 99 years. "
Tofu and Cognitive Function: Food for Thought -- Grodstein et al. 19 (2): 207 -- Journal of the American College of Nutrition
Tofu and cognitive function: food for thought.
Grodstein F, Mayeux R, Stampfer MJ.
J Am Coll Nutr. 2000 Apr;19(2):207-9. Review.
PMID: 10763901
In addition, a plausible biologic hypothesis is generally an important part of judging epidemiologic relations. While high tofu intake may lead to lower plasma estrogen levels [12], we do not know how tofu influences estrogen levels in the brain; we also know very little about estrogen effects in men. Furthermore, data have not even consistently indicated that low endogenous estrogen levels are directly related to cognitive function in non-demented subjects [13]. The authors also posit a non-estrogen mediated hypothesis for the effects of tofu, namely that soy inhibits hippocampal tyrosine kinase and may block long-term potentiation (the likely mechanism by which humans learn and remember). Still, considerably more work must be done to substantiate this hypothesis.
Finally, the single measures of outcome used in this study may have limited value, as cognitive function and brain structure change over time. Factors which predict these measures at one point may or may not be the same as those which predict decline over time; fundamentally, the public health interest is in preventing cognitive decline, as the steepness of the decline trajectory likely provides an early marker for risk of the more clinically relevant result—dementia.
Tofu 'may raise risk of dementia' - BBC NEWS | Have Your Say
"Eating high levels of some soy products - including tofu - may raise the risk of memory loss, research suggests.
The study focused on 719 elderly Indonesians living in urban and rural regions of Java. '
The latest study suggests phytoestrogens - in high quantity - may actually heighten the risk of dementia.
Lead researcher Professor Eef Hogervorst said previous research had linked oestrogen therapy to a doubling of dementia risk in the over-65s.
She said oestrogens - and probably phytoestrogens - tended to promote growth among cells, not necessarily a good thing in the ageing brain.
Alternatively, high doses of oestrogens might promote the damage caused to cells by particles known as free radicals.
A third theory is that damage is caused not by the tofu, but by formaldehyde, which is sometimes used in Indonesia as a preservative.
The researchers admit that more research is required to ascertain whether the same effects are found in other ethnic groups.
However, previous research has also linked high tofu consumption to an increased risk of dementia in older Japanese American men.
The researchers found high tofu consumption - at least once a day - was associated with worse memory, particularly among the over-68s. "
High Tofu Intake Is Associated with Worse Memory in Elderly Indonesian Men and Women
High tofu intake is associated with worse memory in elderly Indonesian men and women.
Hogervorst E, Sadjimim T, Yesufu A, Kreager P, Rahardjo TB.
Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2008;26(1):50-7. Epub 2008 Jun 27.
PMID: 18583909
DOI: 10.1159/000141484
CONCLUSION: The results for tofu consumption as a risk factor for low memory function may tie in with the Honolulu Asia Aging Study data. It is unclear whether these negative associations could be attributed to potential toxins or to its phytoestrogen levels. Estrogen (through which receptors phytoestrogens can exert effects) was found to increase dementia risk in women over 65 years of age. Tempe contains high levels of phytoestrogens, but (due to fermentation) also exhibits high folate levels which may exert protective effects. Future studies should validate these findings and investigate potential mechanisms.
Vitamin D supplementation during the first year of life and risk of schizophrenia: a Finnish birth cohort study
Vitamin D supplementation during the first year of life and risk of schizophrenia: a Finnish birth cohort study.
McGrath J, Saari K, Hakko H, Jokelainen J, Jones P, Järvelin MR, Chant D, Isohanni M.
Schizophr Res. 2004 Apr 1;67(2-3):237-45.
PMID: 14984883
Conclusion: Vitamin D supplementation during the first year of life is associated with a reduced risk of schizophrenia in males. Preventing hypovitaminosis D during early life may reduce the incidence of schizophrenia.
Are we meat eaters or vegetarians? Part II | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D.
"Meat eating made us human. The anthropological evidence strongly supports the idea that the addition of increasingly larger amounts of meat in the diet of our predecessors was essential in the evolution of the large human brain. Our large brains came at the metabolic expense of our guts, which shrank as our brains grew.
In April 1995 an article appeared in the journal Current Anthropology that was an intellectual tour de force and, in my view, an example of a perfect theoretical paper. “The Expensive-Tissue Hypothesis” (ETH) by Leslie Aiello and Peter Wheeler demonstrated by a brilliant thought experiment that our species didn’t evolve to eat meat but evolved because it ate meat.
It was our gradual drift toward the much higher quality diet provided by food from animal sources that allowed us to develop the large brains we have. It was hunting and meat eating that reduced our GI tracts and freed up our brains to grow. As I wrote at the start of this post, the evidence indicates that we didn’t evolve to eat meat – we evolved because we ate meat."
Field Trip Earth
"When they reach the Brooks River, the salmon are still silver and very fat. Early in the season the bears eat the whole fish—even the bones. Later in the season, when they are not as hungry, they eat only their favorite parts: the skin, the brain, and the eggs (roe), which contain a lot more fat"
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