It happens to everyone. We forget where we put our car keys, cannot place a name with a face, these are natural memory lapses that happen to us all as we get older. They begin to occur more frequently the older we get and when it becomes worrisome we should speak to our physician, no question. In most cases this is just our brains acting their age and can be improved by focusing our attention on matters at hand and not giving in to what I’ll call a “lazy brain” pattern. Some individuals do this on purpose as a means of controlling what they hear and what they would rather block out.
Science researchers have made some recent discoveries regarding the brain and the advancement of old age, revealing that dementia can be thwarted or even prevented by making better nutritional choices. They feel that the best way to beat back the clock where your brain is concerned is to feed the brain antioxidants which will block the damage from free radicals that are particularly pernicious where the brain is concerned.
The field of bioscience is making remarkable headway with stem cell research as it pertains to the brain and our ability to acquire knowledge, solve problems and in formulating memories. There are therapies available today that will alleviate many problems with brain function. What is being discovered in neurobiology research laboratories around the world will aid brain function as we age and will not cost a person’s life savings to do so.
The excitement surrounding stem cell therapies for brain function can be even more valued when one understands the immense success of treating the serious brain diseases Parkinson’s and Huntington’s by transplanting fetal and embryo stem cells directly into patient brains. This success does not come without certain dissension from the morality fringe and there is a real danger given the invasiveness of the procedure into the brain. There is also the issue of rejection due to the immune system reacting to foreign cells and aggressively confronting them.
The human brain is not known for its immunity detection capability but still the transplanted cells fail viability and about fifty percent of the time these procedures prove to be unsuccessful. Those that do work have a limited durability and to make matters worse, many patients who undergo this stem cell therapy have been prone to brain tumors.
Once again thanks to neuroscience exploration, in recent years it has been found that the mature human brain includes its own stem cells whose role is to manufacture new brain cells on a continual basis – generating multitudes of fresh brain cells daily. Recent study has revealed that the novel brain neurons are associated with knowledge and memory. This research makes it apparent that revitalizing the brain means having the ability to invigorate stem cells in the brain to produce fresh neurons.
One can imagine the activity at pharmaceutical companies scheming to produce growth factors to enhance stem cell actions within the brain. The primary complexity in doing so is the blood brain barrier that impedes the assimilation of any drug into the brain. Intense intravenous procedures to counter the problem have been causing serious adverse reactions in patients.
Research is ongoing in these medical areas and eventually there will be a breakthrough. Until then there is a much more rudimentary method of augmenting the stem cell action in your brain by double its current levels. Exercise on a daily basis is the ticket. It turns out that studies have shown how a vigorous daily exercise program will assist in the creation of fresh neurons. Given the apathy of so many of us even the motivation of significantly increasing our brain functionality is not going to be enough to get us off the sofa.
So we continue to ask the question, what, if anything can we do to help our brains that does not require surgery, risk or physical momentum? We can start by decreasing our intake of alcoholic beverages, since alcohol is essentially known to be a brain cell killer, what is not so well known is that booze will discourage the speed and effectiveness of stem cell activity within the brain. You are ahead of the game from a brain saving perspective if you are a teetotaler and if you imbibe, cut back or quit altogether for the sake of your grey matter.
Taking a diet health supplement can also be effective. Research of late has displayed the advantages of supplementing your diet for a reactive effect on innate stem cell substitution of brain cells. Extract from the blueberry, of all things, has shown amazing promise and is a principal source of novel neuron creation, though no one is really sure how they accomplish this. There is also some success with the innately obtainable amino acid Carnosine, which has shown the capacity for cell renewal and extending their life expectancy. Antioxidants have the facility to cross that blood brain obstacle discussed earlier and will safeguard neurons in an effort to keep them from perishing.
Thus far, it is obvious that the neuroscience community is expending every effort to help humanity keep their brains operating at peak efficiency and they have still more surprises up the sleeves of their lab coats. There have been some astounding new studies that show that adult stem cells from areas other than the brain can participate in the replenishment of novel brain cells. Bone marrow cells have the ability to travel into the brain and produce neurons.
The power to conscript stem cells from bone marrow is available through an innate supplement derived from blue green algae. Drafting the bone marrow stem cells into service has proven it can be augmented by up to twenty five percent inside of an hour when “Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, a cyanobacterium – or blue green algae has been ingested. These are quite remarkable results from natural organic supplemental sources.
The problem with everything we have discussed as alternatives to medical stem cell procedures is that unless we are teetotaling tri-athletes, who have a craving for blueberries and blue green algae, we are destined to suffer from aging dementia. Not quite, I’m sorry to say, since even these individuals would need to carefully manage and maintain any new brain cells that they develop. New brain cells while being associated with knowledge and memory do not have much staying power within the brain.
This means that they must be externally inspired in order to remain viable by doing some cerebral calisthenics – the proverbial use it or lose it scenario. You need to keep your brain actively working and stimulated by education and continually testing it. This means challenging your brain to function at a level it may not be accustomed to. You need to pretty much focus on utilizing your brain as it was used in your youth, learning new things, physically challenging yourself with an exercise regimen or participate in some form of meaningful physical activity that gets you moving and your blood circulating. Take a course at some college that interests you and feed your body well with a great diet. Consume supplements specifically designed for cognitive brain improvement like blue green algae and carnosine and most important of all; do not forget to eat your blueberries!
Thu, Jun 24, 2010
Anti Aging, Bioscience, Health And Aging, Stem cells