Enhancing nootropics: New study shows acute cognitive benefits from guayusa and lion’s mane

Enhancing nootropics: New study shows acute cognitive benefits from guayusa and lion’s mane

Adobe Stock / Moon Safari Consumers are increasingly prioritizing their emotional well-being and, therefore, are seeking products that align with feeling good, staying mentally focused, and improving their productivity throughout the day. In 2023, nearly two-thirds (74%) of American consumers shared a belief that their food and beverage choices made an impact on their overall mental and emotional health [i] . These attributes are part of an emerging category called nootropics, which are defined as products or ingredients that can enhance cognitive function. The gradual increase in demand for improving cognitive performance has led to an upsurge in clinical research, investing in ingredients that can bring tangible results to the nootropics market. In the latest placebo-controlled crossover study, Applied Food Sciences ( AFS ) investigates two of its functional ingredients, guayusa and lion’s mane , shedding light on the potential of these natural ingredients to enhance mental acuity and mood. What is guayusa and lion’s mane?

Guayusa ( Ilex guayusa), pronounced ” gwhy-you-sah ,” is hailed as an Amazonian “super leaf” thanks to exceptional antioxidant properties and unique caffeine content. AFS created AmaTea ® Max , a patented organic guayusa extract, to enhance its naturally occurring actives and provide a bright, cognitively uplifting energy boost. The effects of this impressive ingredient have already been published in studies covering sports nutrition, esports, and daily focus. However, for added peace of mind regarding safety, Applied Food Sciences also received a historical first “no questions letter” from the FDA confirming its GRAS-safe usage for certain food and beverage applications.

” We like to say ‘guayusa hits different ,'” explains Brian Happel, National Sales Director with Applied Food Sciences (AFS). “AmaTea ® Max produces a focused, ‘feel good energy’ that consumers will notice. This study expands on numerous others to paint a more clear picture on the potential cognitive benefits of guayusa for work, sports, and mood.” Lion’s mane ( Hericium erinaceus ) has a rich history in Eastern medicine. Its distinctive compounds, called hericenones and erinacines are believed to be responsible for lion’s mane’s nootropic effects through its ability to simulate Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) synthesis, which plays a role in cell growth and neuroprotective properties in the central nervous system, especially where memory, attention, and spatial navigation take place. AFS Lion’s Mane is a GRAS ingredient extracted from the edible fruiting body of the mushroom. AFS Lion’s Mane contains a diverse array of bioactive compounds, including β-glucan polysaccharides, proteins, hericenones, and erinacines.

” This study marks an important milestone for lion’s mane, ” clarifies Happel. ” While lion’s mane is most known for its chronic benefits (over 30-60 days), this research is the first to study the acute (single-dose) cognitive benefits of Lion’s Mane in healthy adults in as little as 1-2 hours post-ingestion. ” About the study:

A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover study included 40 healthy adults to evaluate attention, working memory, mental processing speed, and mood. The study examined a single dose of 650 mg guayusa extract (AmaTea ® Max) vs. 1 g of lion’s mane (AFS Lion’s Mane Extract) vs. the placebo. Testing occurred at three intervals: baseline (pre-ingestion), 60 minutes, and 120 minutes post-ingestion.

Participants underwent comprehensive neuropsychological assessments using the Go/No-Go, Serial-Sevens, and N-Back taks. The Go/No-Go task primarily measures reaction time [ii] . The Serial-Sevens task evaluates concentration, focus, and rapid decision making [iii] . Whereas the N-Back task is extensively used to assess working memory [iv] . Participants were also graded on subject assessments of cognitive perception based on visual analog scales (VAS) and a four-item subjective happiness scale (SHS). VAS assessed focus, mood, mental clarity, concentration, productivity, and ability to tolerate stress, whereas SHS assessed happiness, mood, and overall well-being. Study findings:

Main effects and interactions considered as statistically significant changes have a p -value of ≤0.05 [v, vi] . Both AmaTea ® Max and AFS Lion’s Mane demonstrated significant cognitive benefits. AmaTea ® Max notably improved reaction time and accuracy in cognitive tasks, while also enhancing mental clarity, focus, and productivity. In comparison, AFS Lion’s Mane showed promise in enhancing working memory, attention, and reaction time. Both ingredients contributed to mood and overall perceptions of happiness/well-being. The difference between the products was most notable in the timing of effects [vii] .

Concentration, focus, and rapid decision making (Serial-Sevens Task): AmaTea ® Max and AFS Lion’s Mane had improvements in Serial Sevens scores that were statistically significant when compared to the placebo. These results demonstrated enhancements in concentration, focus, and the ability to make quicker decisions from 0 to 120 minutes post-ingestion.

Working memory (N-Back Task): AmaTea ® Max had statistically significant improvements in N-Back scores and accuracy when testing working memory compared to the placebo across a 2-hour testing period.

Reaction time (Go/No-Go Task): Participants taking AmaTea ® Max demonstrated faster reaction times over the placebo throughout the two-hour testing period. AFS Lion’s Mane also improved reaction time at 120 min. While both ingredients showed statistically significant changes over the placebo, the caffeine in AmaTea ® Max positively influenced psychomotor tasks quicker than the Lion’s Mane.

Mental clarity and productivity (VAS): AmaTea ® Max demonstrated statistically significant improvements in VAS grades for mental clarity, focus, concentration, mood, and productivity at 60 and 120 minutes following ingestion.

Happiness / Brighter mood (SHS): AmaTea ® Max and Lion’s Mane improved subjective ratings of “happiness compared to peers” and helped subjects feel like they had a “brighter mood” and were “getting the most out of everything” . In this case, the result occurred earlier in Lion’s Mane (1 hr post-ingestion vs. 2 hrs for AmaTea ® Max). Conclusion:

When 60% of consumers say they are seeking out clinically studied products, research like this helps brands make a greater impact on consumers [viii] . This groundbreaking study underscores the cognitive-boosting potential of naturally derived ingredients like AmaTea ® Max and AFS Lion’s Mane. Manufacturers looking to make products for sharper focus, improved memory, or a brighter mood, should contact Applied Food Sciences to learn more about these innovative ingredients […]

Read more at www.fooddive.com

Human brains are getting larger: That may be good news for dementia risk

A new study by researchers at UC Davis Health found human brains are getting larger. Study participants born in the 1970s had 6.6% larger brain volumes and almost 15% larger brain surface area than those born in the 1930s.

The researchers hypothesize the increased brain size may lead to an increased brain reserve, potentially reducing the overall risk of age-related dementias.

The findings were published in JAMA Neurology .

“The decade someone is born appears to impact brain size and potentially long-term brain health,” said Charles DeCarli, first author of the study. DeCarli is a distinguished professor of neurology and director of the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. “Genetics plays a major role in determining brain size, but our findings indicate external influences — such as health, social, cultural and educational factors — may also play a role.”

75-year study reveals brain changes between generations

The researchers used brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs) from participants in the Framingham Heart Study (FHS). The community-based study was launched in 1948 in Framingham, Massachusetts, to analyze patterns of cardiovascular and other diseases. The original cohort consisted of 5,209 men and women between the ages of 30 and 62. The research has continued for 75 years and now includes second and third generations of participants.

The MRIs were conducted between 1999 and 2019 with FHS participants born during the 1930s through the 1970s. The brain study consisted of 3,226 participants (53% female, 47% male) with an average age of about 57 at the time of the MRI.

The research led by UC Davis compared the MRIs of people born in the 1930s to those born in the 1970s. It found gradual but consistent increases in several brain structures. For example, a measure that looked at brain volume (intracranial volume) showed steady increases decade by decade. For participants born in the 1930s, the average volume was 1,234 milliliters, but for those born in the 1970s, the volume was 1,321 milliliters, or about 6.6% greater volume.

Cortical surface area — a measure of the brain’s surface — showed an even greater increase decade by decade. Participants born in the 1970s had an average surface area of 2,104 square centimeters compared to 2,056 square centimeters for participants born in the 1930s — almost a 15% increase in volume.

The researchers found brain structures such as white matter, gray matter and hippocampus (a brain region involved in learning and memory) also increased in size when comparing participants born in the 1930s to those born in the 1970s.

Larger brains may mean lower incidence of dementia

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, approximately 7 million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer’s disease. That number is expected to rise to 11.2 million by 2040.

Although the numbers are rising with America’s aging population, the incidence of Alzheimer’s — the percentage of the population affected by the disease — is decreasing. A previous study found a 20 percent reduction in the incidence of dementia per decade since the 1970s.

Improved brain health and size may be one reason why.

“Larger brain structures like those observed in our study may reflect improved brain development and improved brain health,” DeCarli said. “A larger brain structure represents a larger brain reserve and may buffer the late-life effects of age-related brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and related dementias.”

One of the study’s strengths is the design of the FHS study, which allows the researchers to examine brain imaging of three generations of participants with birthdates spanning almost 80 years. A limitation is that non-Hispanic white participants make up the majority of the FHS cohort, which is not representative of the U.S. population.

Additional authors: Pauline Maillard and Evan Fletcher of UC Davis; Matthew Pase of Monash University, Australia; Alexa Beiser, Daniel Kojis and Hugo Aparicio of Boston University; and Claudia Satizabal, Jayandra Himali and Sudha Seshadri of UT Health San Antonio.

Read more at www.sciencedaily.com

How Exercise Helps Boost Your Memory-Brain Health as You Age

How Exercise Helps Boost Your Memory-Brain Health as You Age

Silke Woweries/Getty Images As we age, many of us will notice that our memory isn’t as sharp as it used to be. You may have trouble remembering where you left your keys or find it difficult to recall specific events. Still, although it may be common, age-related memory decline can be confronting and worrying.

Fortunately, regular exercise is one way to protect your memory and brain health. Below, we’ll explore the science behind brain function, age and exercise, including the benefits of staying active and tips for starting a fitness routine to support healthy aging . Understanding memory and brain health

Before we dive into the connection between memory and age, let’s take a step back and look at the basics of how memory works . Any time you record a new memory (for example, learning a new skill), it changes the connections between neurons in your brain. These connections are known as synapses, forming networks in your brain. The more often you’re exposed to a particular memory, the stronger these synapses will become – and the easier it will be to recall the memory.

As an example, let’s say you’re learning how to knit. At first, when the synapses are weak, it might be challenging to remember exactly what you’re supposed to do. With practice, the synapses will get stronger, and you won’t have to work as hard to recall the steps. It’s normal to experience some degree of memory loss as you mature. Around 40% of people aged 65 and older have age-associated memory impairment , while 10% have mild cognitive impairment. Why does this happen?

As people age, some parts of the brain get smaller and function less effectively than they used to. For example, the frontal lobe and hippocampus are associated with cognitive function. When these areas shrink, it may become harder to absorb new information or recall memories .

While cognitive decline is often a normal part of aging, medical and lifestyle factors can contribute to memory loss. These include: Head injuries, such as concussions

Mental health conditions, including anxiety and depression

Infections that impact the brain, such as tuberculosis

Blood clots

Alcohol, drug or tobacco use

Lack of sleep

Inadequate nutrient intake

Medication side effects

Traumatic life events or major changes

If you’re concerned about your memory loss, reach out to your doctor to determine the cause and discuss treatment options. The science behind exercise and brain health

We all know that exercise is good for our physical health, but what does it do for our mental health and cognitive function ? Does exercise help with memory and brain health? In short, yes.

Research shows that regular exercise offers several advantages for your cognitive health, including sharpening your memory , improving your thinking skills, and reducing stress and anxiety . (We’ll take a closer look at these benefits later on.)

How exactly does exercise improve brain function? Physical activity triggers a couple of changes within your body, including blood vessel growth and better blood flow to your brain, which may slow cognitive decline , decrease your risk of dementia , and help you store long-term memories . It also reduces the number of stress receptors in your hippocampus, lessening the impact of stress hormones on your brain and helping you deal with stress. RapidEye/Getty Images On top of that, physical activity can increase your brain’s neuroplasticity , making it easier for you to learn new things. There’s even evidence that regular exercise can thicken your cerebral cortex and preserve the structural integrity of your brain’s white matter – both of which are associated with cognitive function .

Research has also identified a link between exercise and neurogenesis , or the formation of new neurons in the brain, which is vital for learning and memory. One group of researchers described physical activity as a “non-pharmacological (and sometimes enjoyable) strategy to delay the effects of both physiological aging and pathological neurodegeneration on brain health.” Benefits of exercise on memory and brain health

One of the main benefits of exercise for your memory and brain health is that it improves cognitive function and memory retention. One study found that inactive adults over the age of 45 were almost twice as likely to experience cognitive decline than active adults. Further research shows that following a moderate-intensity exercise routine can improve your memory and thinking skills in about six months.

There’s also a reduced risk of neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease among people who exercise regularly. In one analysis of multiple studies on the subject, researchers concluded that physical activity decreases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by 45% and dementia by 28%. Even light physical activity – like grocery shopping or tidying up the house – can lower the likelihood of developing dementia.

Exercise has multiple benefits for your mental health as well. For one, it’s been proven to ease anxiety and reduce your risk of depression . Both anxiety and depression can lead to memory problems, so if you have either condition, you could use exercise to help with your symptoms and potentially prevent memory loss. Other research has found that physical activity can help boost your mood and self-esteem .

Regularly engaging in physical activity also improves your sleep quality and may help manage certain sleep disorders , such as insomnia . Getting enough sleep is important for retaining new information and making memories. When you’re sleep-deprived, you may find it harder to concentrate , which can negatively affect your ability to create short-term and long-term memories. Types of exercises that benefit memory and brain health

If you’re hoping to boost your brain health through physical activity, a few types of exercises can help. For starters, aerobic exercises (like running, swimming and cycling) play a role in “maintaining and enhancing central nervous system health and cognitive functioning in older adults,” according to a study of people between the ages of 60 and 79.

Aerobic exercise has also been connected to improved cognitive performance in people with Parkinson’s disease. On top of […]

Read more at www.cnet.com

“The COVID experiment”

“The COVID experiment”

The “covid experiment” was a masterclass in the use of authority to coerce, intimidate, and compel the ignorant masses into conforming to made up rules and regulations regarding lockdowns, masks, social distancing, the use of safe and effective medicines like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, and ultimately forcing an unsafe, untested, dangerous gene altering toxin to be injected into their bodies.

(Article republished from TheBurningPlatform.com )

The totalitarian regime which inflicted this global horror show upon humanity has no hesitation in faking data in order to further their evil agenda, so their statistics showing 81% of Americans received at least one jab seem suspect. Overestimating the number who have submitted is a method for convincing more sheep to do so. I would estimate that closer to 60% of adults got the jab, under threat of sanctions, loss of job, and/or loss of privileges.

The Venn Diagram below is an accurate portrayal of the techniques used by the “authorities” in conducting this worldwide experiment in how far they could push people before they pushed back. From the perspective of our overlords, this experiment was a tremendous success, setting the stage for their next planned existential threat exercise to abscond with more of our wealth, while increasing their power and control over our lives. Continued submission to their demands will result in continued loss of our liberties, freedoms, and civil rights.

“The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority.” ? Stanley Milgram

“Control the manner in which a man interprets his world, and you have gone a long way toward controlling his behavior. That is why ideology, an attempt to interpret the condition of man, is always a prominent feature of revolutions, wars, and other circumstances in which individuals are called upon to perform extraordinary action.” ? Stanley Milgram, Obedience to Authority

The only thing missing from the Venn Diagram is an overlay of Edward Bernays’ Propaganda , providing the blueprint of how to utilize the regime media propaganda outlets to enforce whatever message was needed to support the particular authoritarian narrative of the day. Key aspects of all three experiments were utilized during the covid plandemic to achieve the desired outcomes of the ruling class, in using authoritarian measures to force the masses to do as they were told, or else. Fear and loathing toward our government has been the outcome of this covid experiment. I steadfastly stand on the loathing side. The brief descriptions below capture the gist of the experiments:

Milgram Authority Experiment

A series of social psychology experiments were conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram, who intended to measure the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience. Participants were led to believe that they were assisting an unrelated experiment, in which they had to administer electric shocks to a “learner”. These sham or fake electric shocks gradually increased to levels that would have been fatal had they been real.

Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford Prison Experiment set out to examine the psychological effects of authority and powerlessness in a prison environment. The study, led by psychology professor Philip G. Zimbardo, recruited Stanford students using a local newspaper ad. Twenty-four students were carefully screened and randomly assigned into groups of prisoners and guards. The experiment, which was scheduled to last 1-2 weeks, ultimately had to be terminated on only the 6th day as the experiment escalated out of hand when the prisoners were forced to endure cruel and dehumanizing abuse at the hands of their peers. The experiment showed, in Dr. Zimbardo’s words, how “ordinary college students could do terrible things.”

Asch Conformity Experiment

The Asch conformity experiments were a series of psychological experiments conducted by Solomon Asch in the 1950s. The experiments revealed the degree to which a person’s own opinions are influenced by those of a group. Asch found that people were willing to ignore reality and give an incorrect answer in order to conform to the rest of the group. A toddler tries to climb onto a swing in a closed-off playground Various adaptations of the Milgram Authority experiment were used during the “covid experiment” to further their aims. We’ve seen the videos of covid authoritarians inflicting pain upon average Americans, forcefully arresting them for swimming alone in the ocean, surfing, sitting in a public park, jogging, and having a catch in their yard with their kids. Inflicting pain upon those not following the “covid rules” was embraced by the Karens and Chads across the land. They wanted the non-conformists (aka critical thinkers) to be fired from their jobs, censored on social media, fined, imprisoned, and made into social pariahs. They wished death upon the un-vaxxed and did victory dances when an un-vaxxed person died. Milgram would have been proud of these petty tyrant psychopaths. The Stanford Prison experiment showed ordinary people could become cruel fascistic sociopaths almost upon command, inflicting pain and torture upon those they have been told deserve to be treated inhumanely. Authoritarian governors like Cuomo, Murphy, Whitmer, Wolf, and Newsom murdered senior citizens by putting infected patients into the senior living centers. Doctors, hospital administrators, and nurses murdered patients by putting them on ventilators, administering Remdesivir, and denying patients ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. Biden, Fauci, Trump, Walensky and the Big Pharma industrial complex have murdered and injured millions through the roll-out of their multi-billion dollar jab of death. The ongoing imprisonment of January 6 Capital tourists in the dungeons of DC without trial is cruel and inhuman punishment as a message for all critical thinkers exercising their First Amendment rights. Cuomo protestor The Asch Conformity experiment was clearly borne out during the covid scamdemic. People conform to the will of the crowd, even though their brain tells them the crowd is wrong. They don’t want to be the disruptive black sheep in a flock of submissive white sheep. Virtually every person, when told to wear a mask, did so with no push back, even […]

Read more at www.naturalnews.com

Futurist Ben Goertzel predicts AI will surpass human intelligence by 2027

Futurist Ben Goertzel predicts AI will surpass human intelligence by 2027

Decades earlier than previously predicted, artificial intelligence is set to surpass human intelligence. The mathematician and futurist who popularized the term “artificial general intelligence” (AGI) believes AI is verging on an exponential ” intelligence explosion .” Ben Goertzel announced this while closing out the 2024 Beneficial AI Summit and Unconference, which was partially sponsored by his own firm SingularityNET last week in Panama.

“It seems quite plausible we could get to human-level AGI within, let’s say, the next three to eight years. Once you get to human-level AGI within a few years you could get a radically superhuman AGI,” he said. The man who is sometimes called the “father of AI” admitted that he could be wrong, but he went on to predict that the only impediment to a runaway, ultra-advanced AI – far more advanced than its human makers – would be if the bot’s ‘own conservatism’ advised caution.

‘There are known unknowns and probably unknown unknowns,” Goertzel said. “No one has created human-level artificial general intelligence [AGI] yet; nobody has a solid knowledge of when we’re going to get there.” But, unless the processing power, in Goertzel’s words, required a ‘quantum computer with a million qubits or something,’ an exponential escalation of AI struck him as inevitable. “Once you get to human-level AGI, within a few years you could get a radically superhuman AGI,” he said. (Related: Technocrats Gates and Altman admit current AI is the stupidest version of AGI but believe it can eventually “overcome polarization” – or in reality – censor views .)

Human knowledge is under attack! Governments and powerful corporations are using censorship to wipe out humanity’s knowledge base about nutrition, herbs, self-reliance, natural immunity, food production, preparedness and much more. We are preserving human knowledge using AI technology while building the infrastructure of human freedom. Learn about our free, non-commercial AI / LLM project here . Support our efforts to build the infrastructure of human freedom by shopping at HealthRangerStore.com , featuring lab-tested, certified organic, non-GMO foods and nutritional solutions.

In recent years, Goertzel, well-known for his work on Sophia the Robot, the first robot ever to be granted legal citizenship, has been investigating a concept he calls “artificial superintelligence” (ASI), which he defines as an AI that’s so advanced that it matches all of the brain power and computing power of human civilization. According to him, three lines of converging evidence could support his thesis. First, he cited the updated work of Google’s long-time resident futurist and computer scientist Ray Kurzweil, who has developed a predictive model suggesting AGI will be achievable in 2029 . Next, Goertzel referred to all the well-known recent improvements made to large language models (LLMs) within the past few years, which he pointed out have “woken up so much of the world to the potential of AI.” Finally, he turned to his infrastructure research designed to combine various types of AI infrastructure, which he calls “OpenCog Hyperon.”

The new infrastructure would marry AI, like LLMs and new forms of AI that might be focused on other areas of cognitive reasoning beyond language. It could be math, physics, or philosophy, to help create a more well-rounded true AGI. Goertzel’s “OpenCog Hyperon” has gotten the interest of others in the AI space, including Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) which hosted an article he co-wrote with Databricks CTO Matei Zaharia and others last month.

The self-described panpsychist has suggested that researchers pursue the creation of a ‘benign superintelligence.’ Goertzel has also proposed an AI-based cryptocurrency rating agency capable of identifying scam tokens and coins. Goertzel admits to having taken drugs with AI

In a conversation with the science and technology website Futurism last year, Goertzel talked about his views on consciousness, humans, AI and otherwise. At one point, the outlet asked: “Do you think an AI would ever be sophisticated enough to do drugs, and if so, would you do drugs with one?” The scientist admitted easily that he has done drugs with an AI , “if by that we mean I have done drugs and then interacted with an AI.”

He said that in the 90s, he was doing algorithmic music composition. “It’s quite interesting to play music and have an AI play music back to you. But if you’re in an altered state of consciousness, it can be even more interesting,” he said. “I think in terms of AI themselves taking drugs, the challenge is more to get the AI to not be in an altered state of consciousness.”

According to him, when they were working with their open-source AGI system, it was very easy to make it either obsessive-compulsive and like just keep thinking about the same thing over and over or to make it basically stuck in a stoned mind, drifting from one thing to another to another to another, like semi-randomly. “You have to work to have the system auto-tune its own parameters so it’s not OCD or overly stoned and distracted,” he explained. “With humans, our brains evolved to keep the parameters in a range where we can do useful stuff, and AIs sort of have to recapitulate that process.”

He added that AI doesn’t need chemical drugs in the same sense that a human does. But AI system parameters can be set so it’s going way off the rails in terms of its internal dynamics as well as its external behaviors. “And much like on some human drug trips, this will cause it to generate a whole lot of creative things, most of which are garbage and some of which will cause it to be totally unable to estimate the nature or quality of it,” he said.

Watch Goertzel’s closing speech at the 2024 Beneficial AI Summit below. Head over FutureTech.news for news similar to this. Sources for this article include:

DailyMail.co.uk

Futurism.com Take Action:

Support Natural News by linking to this article from your website.

Permalink to this article:

Copy

Embed article link:

Copy

Reprinting this article:

Non-commercial use is permitted with credit to NaturalNews.com (including a clickable link).
Please contact us for more information. […]

Read more at www.naturalnews.com

Alcohol and Your Brain: The Latest Scientific Insights

Key points

Transient memory loss, “blackouts,” and hangovers related to alcohol consumption are brain health risks.

Alcohol use disorder (alcoholism) is a risk factor for developing dementia.

Heavy or excessive alcohol consumption is dangerous to the brain for a number of reasons.

The impact of mild to moderate alcohol consumption (1-3 drinks a day) on brain function is less clear.

Austin Perlmutter/DALL-E Depending on who you ask, you might be told to drink a few glasses of red wine a day or to avoid alcohol altogether. The reasons for such recommendations are many, but, by and large, they tend to stem from a study someone read about or saw reported in the news.

So why is it so hard to know whether alcohol is good or bad for us—especially for our brains? In this post, we’ll explore the current science and some practical ideas on how to approach the topic. What Is Alcohol Anyway?

When people talk about drinking “alcohol,” they’re almost always referring to the consumption of ethanol. Ethanol is a natural product that is formed from the fermentation of grains, fruits, and other sources of sugar. It’s found in a wide range of alcoholic beverages including beer, wine, and spirits like vodka, whiskey, rum, and gin.

Evidence for human consumption of alcohol dates back over 10,000 years. Consumption of alcohol has and continues to serve major roles in religious and cultural ceremonies around the world. But unlike most food products, in the last century, alcohol has been wrapped up in nearly perpetual controversy over its moral effects and health implications. How Does Alcohol Impact the Brain?

As anyone who’s consumed alcohol knows, ethanol can directly influence brain function. Ethanol is classified as a “depressant” because it has a generally slowing effect on brain activity through activation of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) pathways.

In an acute sense, consumption of alcohol can lead to uninhibited behavior, sedation, lapses in judgment, and impairments in motor function. At higher levels, the effects can progress to coma and even death. The Known Brain-Damaging Effects of Excess Alcohol

There is no debate here: Excessively high levels of alcohol consumption over short periods of time are toxic and potentially deadly, specifically because of its effects on the brain.

One critical fact to understand about the overall and brain-specific effects of alcohol is that the entirety of the debate around the risk/benefit ratio concerns mild to moderate alcohol consumption. As it relates to the effects of high amounts of alcohol on the body and brain, the research is consistent: It’s a very bad choice.

High amounts of alcohol use are causal risk factors in the development of disease in the heart, liver, pancreas, and brain (including the brains of children in utero). In fact, 1 in 8 deaths in Americans aged 20-64 is attributable to alcohol use. When it comes to adults, excessive alcohol use can cause multiple well-defined brain issues ranging from short-term confusion to dementia . What Is “Excessive” or “High” Alcohol Use?

Key to the nuance in the conversation about alcohol use are definitions. Across the board, “excessive” or “high” alcohol use is linked to worse overall and brain health outcomes. So what does that mean?

While definitions can be variable, one way to look at this is the consumption of 4 or more drinks on an occasion (for women) and 5 or more for men. Additionally, excess alcohol is defined as drinking more than 8 drinks a week (women) and 15 a week (men), or consuming alcohol if you are pregnant or younger than age 21.

Beyond this, by definition, consuming enough alcohol to cause a “brownout,” “blackout,” hangover, or other overt brain symptomatology is evidence that the alcohol you’ve consumed is creating problems in your brain. Alcohol use disorder (or alcoholism ) is also a clear issue for the brain. It has been linked to a higher risk for dementia, especially early-onset dementia in a study of 262,000 adults, as well as to smaller brain size . Is There a “Safe” Amount of Alcohol for the Brain?

In a highly publicized article from Nature Communications , researchers looked at brain imaging data from nearly 37,000 middle-aged to older adults and cross-referenced their brain scans with their reported alcohol consumption. The findings were profound: People who drank more alcohol had smaller brains, even in people drinking only one or two alcoholic beverages a day.

Conversely, other recent data suggest a lower risk for dementia in people consuming a few alcoholic beverages a day. This includes a 2022 study showing that in around 27,000 people, consuming up to 40 grams of alcohol (around 2.5 drinks) a day was linked to a lower risk for dementia versus abstinence in adults over age 60. A much larger study of almost 4 million people in Korea noted that mild to moderate alcohol consumption was linked to a lower risk for dementia compared to non-drinking. How Do We Make Sense of This Data?

When it comes to the bottom line as it relates to alcohol consumption and brain health, the data are rather solid on some fronts, and a bit less so on others. There’s also the potential for confounding variables, including the fact that many people like to drink alcohol to enjoy and enhance social bonds (which we know are beneficial for the brain). Here’s a summary of what the most recent research is telling us. Heavy or excessive alcohol consumption is dangerous to the brain for a number of reasons.

Alcohol use disorder (alcoholism) is a risk factor for developing dementia.

Experiencing transient memory loss, “blackouts,” or hangovers related to alcohol consumption is overt evidence of threats to brain health.

The impact of mild to moderate alcohol consumption (1-3 drinks a day) on brain function is less clear, but it seems unreasonable to start alcohol use for brain health.

Read more at www.psychologytoday.com

Alcohol and Your Brain: The Latest Scientific Insights

Key points

Transient memory loss, “blackouts,” and hangovers related to alcohol consumption are brain health risks.

Alcohol use disorder (alcoholism) is a risk factor for developing dementia.

Heavy or excessive alcohol consumption is dangerous to the brain for a number of reasons.

The impact of mild to moderate alcohol consumption (1-3 drinks a day) on brain function is less clear.

Austin Perlmutter/DALL-E Depending on who you ask, you might be told to drink a few glasses of red wine a day or to avoid alcohol altogether. The reasons for such recommendations are many, but, by and large, they tend to stem from a study someone read about or saw reported in the news.

So why is it so hard to know whether alcohol is good or bad for us—especially for our brains? In this article, we’ll explore the current science and some practical ideas on how to approach the topic. What is Alcohol Anyway?

When people talk about drinking “alcohol,” they’re almost always referring to the consumption of ethanol. Ethanol is a natural product that is formed from the fermentation of grains, fruits, and other sources of sugar. It’s found in a wide range of alcoholic beverages including beer, wine, and spirits like vodka, whiskey, rum, and gin.

Evidence for human consumption of alcohol dates back over 10,000 years. Consumption of alcohol has and continues to serve major roles in religious and cultural ceremonies around the world. But unlike most food products, in the last century, alcohol has been wrapped up in nearly perpetual controversy over its moral effects and health implications. How Does Alcohol Impact the Brain?

As anyone who’s consumed alcohol knows, ethanol can directly influence brain function. Ethanol is classified as a “depressant” because it has a generally slowing effect on brain activity through activation of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) pathways.

In an acute sense, consumption of alcohol can lead to uninhibited behavior, sedation, lapses in judgment, and impairments in motor function. At higher levels, the effects can progress to coma and even death. The Known Brain-Damaging Effects of Excess Alcohol

There is no debate here: Excessively high levels of alcohol consumption over short periods of time are toxic and potentially deadly, specifically because of its effects on the brain.

One critical fact to understand about the overall and brain-specific effects of alcohol is that the entirety of the debate around the risk/benefit ratio concerns mild to moderate alcohol consumption. As it relates to the effects of high amounts of alcohol on the body and brain, the research is consistent: It’s a very bad choice.

High amounts of alcohol use are causal risk factors in the development of disease in the heart, liver, pancreas, and brain (including the brains of children in utero). In fact, 1 in 8 deaths in Americans aged 20-64 is attributable to alcohol use. When it comes to adults, excessive alcohol use can cause multiple well-defined brain issues ranging from short-term confusion to dementia . What is “Excessive” or “High” Alcohol Use?

Key to the nuance in the conversation about alcohol use are definitions. Across the board, “excessive” or “high” alcohol use is linked to worse overall and brain health outcomes. So what does that mean?

While definitions can be variable, one way to look at this is the consumption of 4 or more drinks on an occasion (for women) and 5 or more for men. Additionally, excess alcohol is defined as drinking more than 8 drinks a week (women) and 15 a week (men), or consuming alcohol if you are pregnant or younger than age 21.

Beyond this, by definition, consuming enough alcohol to cause a “brownout,” “blackout,” hangover, or other overt brain symptomatology is evidence that the alcohol you’ve consumed is creating problems in your brain. Alcohol use disorder (or alcoholism ) is also a clear issue for the brain. It has been linked to a higher risk for dementia, especially early-onset dementia in a study of 262,000 adults, as well as to smaller brain size . Is There a “Safe” Amount of Alcohol for the Brain?

In a highly publicized article from Nature Communications , researchers looked at brain imaging data from nearly 37,000 middle-aged to older adults and cross-referenced their brain scans with their reported alcohol consumption. The findings were profound: People who drank more alcohol had smaller brains, even in people drinking only one or two alcoholic beverages a day.

Conversely, other recent data suggest a lower risk for dementia in people consuming a few alcoholic beverages a day. This includes a 2022 study showing that in around 27,000 people, consuming up to 40 grams of alcohol (around 2.5 drinks) a day was linked to a lower risk for dementia versus abstinence in adults over age 60. A much larger study of almost 4 million people in Korea noted that mild to moderate alcohol consumption was linked to a lower risk for dementia compared to non-drinking. How Do We Make Sense of This Data?

When it comes to the bottom line as it relates to alcohol consumption and brain health, the data are rather solid on some fronts, and a bit less so on others. There’s also the potential for confounding variables, including the fact that many people like to drink alcohol to enjoy and enhance social bonds (which we know are beneficial for the brain). Here’s a summary of what the most recent research is telling us. Heavy or excessive alcohol consumption is dangerous to the brain for a number of reasons.

Alcohol use disorder (alcoholism) is a risk factor for developing dementia.

Experiencing transient memory loss, “blackouts,” or hangovers related to alcohol consumption is overt evidence of threats to brain health.

The impact of mild to moderate alcohol consumption (1-3 drinks a day) on brain function is less clear, but it seems unreasonable to start alcohol use for brain health.

If you or someone you know is concerned about your alcohol use, consult your personal healthcare provider. In the United States, you can also call 1-800-662-HELP.

Read more at www.psychologytoday.com

New Research: Talking Faster Is Linked to Better Brain Health As We Age

New Research: Talking Faster Is Linked to Better Brain Health As We Age

Recent research indicates that in aging individuals, talking speed is a more accurate indicator of brain health than the struggle to find words. This study suggests that slower speech, rather than pauses in conversation, may signal cognitive decline, offering a new approach to early detection and intervention for maintaining cognitive health in older adults. As we age, we might begin to observe that it takes more time to recall the exact words we want to use. This situation can raise worries about cognitive deterioration and the risk of dementia.

However, a new study by Baycrest and the University of Toronto suggests that talking speed is a more important indicator of brain health than difficulty finding words, which appears to be a normal part of aging. This is one of the first studies to look at both differences in natural speech and brain health among healthy adults.

“Our results indicate that changes in general talking speed may reflect changes in the brain,” says Dr. Jed Meltzer, Baycrest’s Canada Research Chair in Interventional Cognitive Neuroscience and the lead author on this study. “This suggests that talking speed should be tested as part of standard cognitive assessments to help clinicians detect cognitive decline faster and help older adults support their brain health as they age.” Study Design and Findings

In this study, 125 healthy volunteers aged 18 to 90 completed three different assessments. The first was a picture-naming game, in which they had to answer questions about pictures while ignoring distracting words they heard through headphones. For example, when looking at a picture of a mop, they might be asked, “Does it end in ‘p’?” while hearing the word “broom” as a distraction. In this way, the researchers were able to test the participants’ ability to recognize what the picture was and to recall its name.

Next, participants were recorded as they described two complex pictures for 60 seconds each. Their language performance was then analyzed using Artificial Intelligence-based software, in partnership with Winterlight Labs. Among other things, researchers examined how fast each participant spoke and how much they paused.

Finally, the research participants completed standard tests to assess mental abilities that tend to decline with age and are linked to dementia risk – namely, executive function, which is the ability to manage conflicting information, stay focused, and avoid distractions. Implications for Future Research and Cognitive Health

As expected, many abilities declined with age, including word-finding speed. Surprisingly, although the ability to recognize a picture and recall its name both worsened with age, this was not associated with a decline in other mental abilities. The number and length of pauses participants took to find words were not linked to brain health. Instead, how fast participants were able to name pictures predicted how fast they spoke in general, and both were linked to executive function. In other words, it wasn’t pausing to find words that showed the strongest link to brain health, but the speed of speech surrounding pauses.

Although many older adults are concerned about their need to pause to search for words, these results suggest this is a normal part of aging. On the other hand, slowing down of normal speech, regardless of pausing, may be a more important indicator of changes to brain health.

In future studies, the research team could conduct the same tests with a group of participants over several years, to examine whether speed speech is truly predictive of brain health for individuals as they age. In turn, these results could support the development of tools to detect cognitive decline as early as possible, allowing clinicians to prescribe interventions to help patients maintain or even improve their brain health as they age.

Reference: “Cognitive components of aging-related increase in word-finding difficulty” by Hsi T. Wei, Dana Kulzhabayeva, Lella Erceg, Jessica Robin, You Zhi Hu, Mark Chignell and Jed A. Meltzer, 14 February 2024, Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition .
DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2024.2315774

This research was supported by a Discovery Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), an Internship Grant from the Mitacs Accelerate Program and a Connaught Innovation Award.

Read more at scitechdaily.com

Research provides insight into how the brain translates motivation into goal-oriented behavior

Research provides insight into how the brain translates motivation into goal-oriented behavior

Hunger can drive a motivational state that leads an animal to a successful pursuit of a goal -; foraging for and finding food.

In a highly novel study published in Current Biology , researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the National Institute of Mental Health, or NIMH, describe how two major neuronal subpopulations in a part of the brain’s thalamus called the paraventricular nucleus participate in the dynamic regulation of goal pursuits. This research provides insight into the mechanisms by which the brain tracks motivational states to shape instrumental actions.

For the study, mice first had to be trained in a foraging-like behavior, using a long, hallway-like enclosure that had a trigger zone at one end and a reward zone at the other end, more than 4 feet distant.

Mice learned to wait in a trigger zone for two seconds, until a beep triggered initiation of their foraging-like behavioral task. A mouse could then move forward at its own pace to the reward zone to receive a small gulp of strawberry-flavored Ensure. To terminate the trial, the mice needed to leave the reward zone and return to the trigger area, to wait for another beep. Mice learned quickly and were highly engaged, as shown by completing a large volume of trials during training.

The researchers then used optical photometry and the calcium sensor GCaMP to continuously monitor activity of two major neuronal subpopulations of the paraventricular nucleus, or PVT, during the reward approach from the trigger zone to the reward zone, and during the trial termination from the reward zone back to the trigger zone after a taste of strawberry-flavored food. The experiments involve inserting an optical fiber into the brain just about the PVT to measure calcium release, a signal of neural activity.

The two subpopulations in the paraventricular nucleus are identified by presence or absence of the dopamine D2 receptor, noted as either PVT D2(+) or PVT D2(–) , respectively. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that allows neurons to communicate with each other. We discovered that PVT D2(+) and PVT D2(–) neurons encode the execution and termination of goal-oriented actions, respectively. Furthermore, activity in the PVT D2(+) neuronal population mirrored motivation parameters such as vigor and satiety.” Sofia Beas, Ph.D., assistant professor in the UAB Department of Neurobiology and co-corresponding author of the study Specifically, the PVT D2(+) neurons showed increased activity during the reward approach and decreased activity during trial termination. Conversely, PVT D2(–) neurons showed decreased activity during the reward approach and increased activity during trial termination.

“This is novel because people didn’t know there was diversity within the PVT neurons,” Beas said. “Contrary to decades of belief that the PVT is homogeneous, we found that, even though they are the same types of cells (both release the same neurotransmitter, glutamate), PVT D2(+) and PVT D2(–) neurons are doing very different jobs. Additionally, the findings from our study are highly significant as they help interpret contradictory and confusing findings in the literature regarding PVT’s function.”

For a long time, the thalamic areas such as the PVT had been considered just a relay station in the brain. Researchers now realize, Beas says, that the PVT instead processes information, translating hypothalamic-derived needs states into motivational signals via projections of axons -; including the PVT D2(+) and PVT D2(–) axons -; to the nucleus accumbens, or NAc. The NAc has a critical role in the learning and execution of goal-oriented behaviors. An axon is a long cable-like extension from a neuron cell body that transfers the neuron’s signal to another neuron.

Researchers showed that these changes in neuron activity at the PVT were transmitted to the NAc by measuring neural activity with an optical fiber inserted where the terminals of the PVT axons reach the NAc neurons. The activity dynamics at the PVT-NAc terminals largely mirrored the activity dynamics the researchers saw at the PVT neurons -; namely increased neuron activity signal of PVT D2(+) during reward approach and increased neuron activity of PVT D2(–) during trial termination.

“Collectively, our findings strongly suggest that motivation-related features and the encoding of goal-oriented actions of posterior PVT D2(+) and PVT D2(-) neurons are being relayed to the NAc through their respective terminals,” Beas said.

During each mouse recording session, the researchers recorded eight to 10 data samples per second, resulting in a very big dataset. In addition, these types of recordings are subject to many potential confounding variables. As such, the analysis of this data was another novel aspect of this study, through use of a new and robust statistical framework based on Functional Linear Mixed Modeling that both account for the variability of the recordings and can explore the relationships between the changes of photometry signals over time and various co-variates of the reward task, such as how quickly mice performed a trial, or how the hunger levels of the animals can influence the signal.

One example of how researchers correlated motivation with task performance was separating the trial times into “fast” groups, two to three seconds to the reward zone from the trigger zone, and “slow” groups, nine to 11 seconds to the reward zone.

“Our analyses showed that reward approach was associated with higher calcium signal ramps in PVT D2(+) neurons during fast compared to slow trials,” Beas said. “Moreover, we found a correlation between signal and both latency and velocity parameters. Importantly, no changes in posterior PVT D2(+) neuron activity were observed when mice were not engaged in the task, as in the cases where mice were roaming around the enclosure but not actively performing trials. Altogether, our findings suggest that posterior PVT D2(+) neuron activity increases during reward-seeking and is shaped by motivation.”

Deficits in motivation are associated with psychiatric conditions like substance abuse, binge eating and the inability to feel pleasure in depression. A deeper understanding of the neural basis of motivated behavior may reveal specific neuronal pathways involved in motivation and how they interact. This could lead to new therapeutic targets to restore healthy motivational processes in patients.

Co-authors with Beas in the study, “Dissociable […]

Read more at www.news-medical.net

Deep brain stimulation didn’t work for a young OCD patient until new brain maps changed everything

Deep brain stimulation didn’t work for a young OCD patient until new brain maps changed everything

Deep brain stimulation for severe obsessive-compulsive disorder helped Julia Hum earn her high-school equivalency certificate last year. By Brenda Goodman, CNN

(CNN) — Five years ago, in a wheelchair, Julia Hum was admitted to a state mental hospital in Massachusetts.

After treatment with targeted deep brain stimulation, she hopes to walk out soon and, for the first time in her adult life, live independently, in her own apartment.

Hum, 24, has severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, which once caused her to hurt herself and even affected her ability to eat and drink.

“My OCD kind of convinced me food and drinks were contaminated,” Hum said. Her thoughts told her things like that her food had parasites or harmful chemicals.

“I was fully aware of how ludicrous these thoughts were, and I desperately wanted to gain weight and eat enough and drink enough and be healthy. But the doubts I had were just so loud,” she said. “They were screaming, and I couldn’t focus on anything else.”

Her heart rate and blood pressure became so erratic, she needed to use a wheelchair to move around. Doctors used a tube that led into her stomach through her nose to give her food and gave her fluids intravenously.

Now, after treatment, she’s doing much better. In August, she got her high-school equivalency diploma and posed for a photo with the certificate with a wide smile on her face. She’s no longer hurting herself, and she can eat and drink normally. She says intrusive thoughts are no longer in control.

“I feel like my OCD was kind of at the helm of the ship before, and now it’s kind of like a pesky passenger. It’s there, but it’s not taking over my life,” Hum said.

She and her doctors credit this lifesaving improvement to innovative research that allowed them to more precisely target a dysfunctional circuit with a device called a deep brain stimulator, which acts like a pacemaker for her brain.

Deep brain stimulators have been used for two decades for movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease and dystonia. More recently, their uses have been expanded to include mood disorders like depression and other neurological conditions such as Tourette’s syndrome and OCD.

The devices have two electrodes that target a pea-size structure deep inside the brain called the subthalamic nucleus. This node, which looks like a contact lens, contains more than half a million nerve cells .

It’s a hub for signals passing between the brain’s outer and inner layers. It’s like a switchboard, says Dr. Andreas Horn, a neurologist at the Brain Modulation Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Doctors implant the electrodes close to the subthalamic nucleus and then adjust the settings through a pulse generator that is implanted under the skin of the chest. After waiting about two weeks after surgery to let the body heal, they turn on the electricity and adjust the settings to find something that feels good to the patient.

“I’ll suddenly feel lighter, my rituals will slow down, and I’ll sit up straighter and feel more energy,” as an example, Hum said. Refining deep brain stimulation

Hum had a deep brain stimulator implanted in 2021.

Her psychiatrist, Dr. Darin Dougherty of the Mass General Research Institute, said it didn’t initially give them the results they’d hoped for.

“It was this kind of cycle where we would find settings that felt really good. They would work maybe for a month or two, and then I’d slide backwards again because the initial effects would wear off,” Hum said.

Deep brain stimulation can be life-changing, but it doesn’t work equally well for everyone, and researchers say they’re getting closer to understanding why.

In a recent study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Horn and an international team of researchers took data from more than 530 electrodes implanted in the brains of more than 200 people living with four conditions: Parkinson’s disease, dystonia, Tourette’s syndrome and OCD.

They looked at where the devices were stimulating each person’s brain and how much improvement each had. Then, they used these records to map the nerve networks that seem to become dysfunctional in each of the four disorders.

“The idea is that by learning from a cohort of patients and contrasting who got better with the ones that unfortunately did not get as much better after treatment, we can pinpoint where the optimal site is and maybe the optimal network to stimulate,” Horn said.

The team used their maps to adjust deep brain stimulators for three patients, including Hum.

All of them saw substantial improvement in their symptoms.

Dr. Sameer Sheth, a professor of neurosurgery at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who was not involved in the study, says that the research is encouraging because it uses data from a large number of people but that trying it out in just three people isn’t enough to know whether these brain maps are accurate.

“For the most part, this information has not been tested in the wild in a new set of patients, so that’s what this is setting up,” said Sheth, who also treats people with deep brain stimulation.If the same good results can be repeated in more patients, “then we should act on it. We should implant with this type of profile in mind for this type of patient, let’s say a patient with OCD,” he said. ‘It gave me my hope back’ Using the maps created by Horn’s team and a special type of magnetic resonance imaging called diffusion imaging, doctors can see the fibers they need to stimulate to have the best chance of getting people well, Dougherty said.Each electrode implanted for the therapy has multiple points of contact that doctors can use to stimulate different brain areas.“We were then able to see which of those contacts was closest to the fibers that would be most likely to be helpful” for Hum, Dougherty said.They made adjustments to Hum’s settings in August, and she says the difference has been night and day.“It’s allowed me to focus,” Hum said. She notices that she can engage in therapy better, and she’s been able to […]

Read more at localnews8.com

Addiction and the Gut-Brain Axis

Addiction and the Gut-Brain Axis

Key points

A poor gut microbiota can lead to a leaky gut and systemic inflammation.

Inflammation affects the brain, causing depression, anxiety, and poor impulse control.

This can lead to self-medication and multiple kinds of substance use disorders.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Source: Midjourney

Addiction carries a heavy mantle of social stigma . One-fifth of the population are afflicted, and it puts a burden on them, their friends, and their family members. It seems like a character flaw: Why can’t the addict simply quit?

But research is consolidating around a new view: Addiction has a connection to your gut microbes. This weird association is both intriguing and liberating. It’s intriguing that tiny gut microbes can run our lives into the ground, but it’s liberating because we can control our microbes with diet and lifestyle changes. At least 40 percent (and maybe more) of addicts may be helped or even cured by repairing a bad gut. How the Gut Alters Our Mood and Cognition

The story of the gut-brain axis is finally well accepted after two decades of brilliant, ground-breaking research. The gut, and the microbes therein, can alter our mood and cognition in three basic ways. From fastest to slowest, these include speedy nerve connections (via the vagus nerve ), slower immune system reactions, and leisurely hormonal secretions.

A healthy gut has microbes that produce butyrate, a chemical that nourishes and heals the cells lining the gut. Butyrate even reaches the brain where it can boost the production of new nerve cells, essential to learning and cognition.

Our planet is infused with invisible bacteria, fungi, and viruses. They coat every surface and float through the air. With everything we touch and every breath we take, we pick up microbes. To a bacterium, almost everything—including us—looks like lunch. For animals and plants to survive in this microbial miasma, we must conscript some of them to our side.

We typically think that our immune system fights disease-causing microbes, but that’s only half the story. Most germs are stopped dead in their tracks by our own microbes before our immune system is even aware of them. It takes a germ to fight a germ.

Our collection of microbes—our microbiota—coats our skin and our gut, providing complete round-the-clock protection. If it goes south, so does our health. When our gut microbes are imbalanced, our gut lining gets leaky, allowing microbes to sneak into our circulation. This unhealthy gut state is called dysbiosis.

Our heart obligingly pumps these germs and their toxins to every single organ in our body—including our brain. That is one way that our microbiota can affect our moods and cognition. With germs storming the gates, our brain becomes hypersensitive and finds it difficult to concentrate. We get anxious without quite knowing what the cause is. Self-Medicating a Troubled Mind

The poor communication between us and our guardian microbes is problematic. Depression has many legitimate causes, such as bereavement and loss, but it can also be the result of a quietly leaking gut. Not realizing that the cause lies in our gut, we may try to work around it by self-medicating.

Alcohol , nicotine, and drugs won’t help our gut, but in the short term, they may soothe a troubled mind. Unfortunately, these substances can exacerbate our gut issues. Alcohol can loosen the proteins that stitch the cells of our gut lining together, adding to gut leakiness. Unwittingly, we make a bad situation worse. It’s not a small issue: Half of the people with mood disorders are also addicted to something, and half of addicts have mood disorders.

A leaky gut leads to systemic inflammation, as our immune system tries to track down and kill rogue bacteria. This inflammation can affect the brain’s reward center, which drives cravings and pleasure-seeking activity. It also ramps up impulsive behavior. It’s an ideal setup for addiction. Worse yet, a dysbiotic gut can make withdrawal symptoms worse, discouraging abstinence.

In studies with rats, researchers found that 30 percent of them were hard-core consumers, even enduring electric shocks to get some alcohol. This special group had a distinctly different gut microbiota. Human studies have similar results: Some 40 percent of people with alcohol use disorders have significantly higher levels of depression and cravings than the rest, along with leaky guts and bad bacteria. These people also had higher rates of recidivism after detoxification.

While it is easy to understand how drinking can affect our gut, it is more of a leap to see how drugs that aren’t taken orally can do so. But a recent study found that both gut and oral microbiotas are profoundly different in cocaine users, with production of butyrate significantly reduced. Abstaining from cocaine helps to restore a healthy gut. Similar effects on the gut are observed with opioid use. The mechanism for this microbial disruption is murky, but the gut-brain axis goes both ways, and the brain may be the instigator of this dysbiotic cycle. Improving Gut Health for Recovery

Because we can control much of our gut microbiota with diet and supplements, we have a real opportunity to reduce the cravings and impulse control issues that lead to addiction. Vegetables, especially those high in fiber, are particularly effective for improving gut health. Fermented foods like sauerkraut and yogurt can also help. Probiotic and prebiotic fiber supplements are additional tools. Together, these could represent a solid first step toward recovery.

References

Gerace, Elisabetta, Simone Baldi, Maya Salimova, Leandro Di Gloria, Lavinia Curini, Virginia Cimino, Giulia Nannini, et al. “Oral and Fecal Microbiota Perturbance in Cocaine Users: Can rTMS-Induced Cocaine Abstinence Support Eubiosis Restoration?” iScience 26, no. 5 (April 20, 2023): 106627.

Meckel, Katherine R., Sierra S. Simpson, Arthur Godino, Emily G. Peck, Jonathon P. Sens, Michael Z. Leonard, Olivier George, Erin S. Calipari, Rebecca S. Hofford, and Drew D. Kiraly. “Microbial Short-Chain Fatty Acids Regulate Drug Seeking and Transcriptional Control in a Model of Cocaine Seeking.” Neuropsychopharmacology 49, no. 2 (January 2024): 386–95.

Leclercq, Sophie, Sébastien Matamoros, Patrice D. Cani, Audrey M. Neyrinck, François Jamar, Peter Stärkel, Karen Windey, et al. […]

Read more at www.psychologytoday.com

How ultra-processed food harms the body and brain

How ultra-processed food harms the body and brain

Diets heavy in ultra-processed food are linked with increased morbidity and mortality, including increased risk for metabolic syndrome, obesity, and depression. Although many ultra-processed foods—soda, candy, energy bars, fruit-flavored yogurt, frozen pizza, and frozen meals—can satisfy cravings for sweet, fatty, salty foods, emerging research suggests these items are particularly bad for the heart and brain, with mood and cognition taking a hit.

The most recent meta-analysis looking at the impact of ultra-processed food, published in BMJ in February, found the most far-reaching and unsettling results. Researchers identified direct links between higher consumption of ultra-processed foods and a greater risk of heart disease-related deaths, type 2 diabetes, obesity, wheezing, anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and deaths from all causes.

These results are consistent with earlier studies. Diets high in these foods were linked to a 44 percent greater risk of depression and a 48 percent higher risk of anxiety, according to a meta-analysis published in the journal Nutrients . In one of these studies, risk rose from consuming just 33 percent of calories from ultra-processed food. A separate study from Brazil that tracked 10,775 people found that taking in just 20 percent of calories from these foods was linked to a 28 percent faster rate of cognitive decline compared with people who ate less processed food.

Also alarming is a study tracking about half a million people living in England, Scotland, and Wales that found the risk of dementia went up by 25 percent for every 10 percent increase in ultra-processed food.

“While the exact cause-and-effect relationship is still unknown, the strongest observational evidence from prospective studies leans towards the idea that eating high amounts of ultra-processed foods increases the risk of depression onset in the future,” lead researcher of the Nutrients article, Melissa M. Lane, wrote in an email. She is a post-doctoral research fellow at Deakin University’s School of Medicine, in Geelong, Australia.

It is common knowledge that eating too much salt, sugar, and/or saturated fat is linked to chronic inflammation, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. What the public may not appreciate, however, is that all these conditions affect the brain by raising the risk for vascular dementia—which is decreased blood flow to the brain. Additives such as certain artificial sweeteners and monosodium glutamate may also interfere with the production and release of brain chemicals such as dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, which can adversely affect mental and emotional well-being.

Another problem with ultra-processed foods is that they might be addictive. “Ultra-processed foods have more in common with a cigarette than foods by Mother Nature,” says Ashley Gearhardt, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

That’s by design; “Multi-billion-dollar companies create these foods to hook us, so our agency around food is low. I see this as a food sovereignty issue,” says Cindy Leung, assistant professor of public health nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston.

Humans have evolved to respond to foods that are sweet, fatty, and high in calories. For most of human existence this helped us survive. But in nature, foods are only modestly high in sugar—like berries—or high in fat, like nuts.

“You don’t find foods high in both sugar and fat,” says Gearhardt. “That’s a hallmark of ultra-processed foods. Add in salt, artificial flavorings, and bright colors, and our brain simply loses control over these foods.” Unprocessed vs. processed vs. ultra-processed

Processed foods can be healthy, it’s the ultra -processed items that are linked to poor health. What’s the difference? Very generally, ultra-processed foods use ingredients not found in a home kitchen. A more precise description comes from the NOVA classification system.

Unprocessed or minimally processed foods such as fresh or frozen fruit, vegetables, seafood, meats, flour, and pasta, usually have just one item on their ingredient lists.

Processed ingredients, such as vegetable oils, sugar, corn starch, are extracted directly from unprocessed foods.

Processed foods, such as bakery bread without preservatives, most cheeses, and tuna, beans or vegetables canned in salt and water have short ingredient lists with recognizable terms, and salt is the main preservative.

Ultra-processed foods include items such as soda, candy, cookies, cake, energy bars, fruit-flavored yogurt, meal replacement bars and shakes, hotdogs, many types of packaged breads and cereals, and frozen meals. They are often high in fat, sugar and/or sodium and typically enhanced with flavorings, dyes, artificial sweeteners and/or other additives. Ingredient lists can be long, like the 48 items in a Nutri-grain Soft Baked Strawberry Breakfast Bar . How ultra-processed foods mess with your brain

A diet high in ultra-processed foods could hurt your brain for similar reasons that these diets are linked to a slew of other chronic diseases. They’re often high in calories, for example, there’s nearly a day’s worth in the 1,603-calorie Burger King Texas Double Whopper . High calorie diets can lead to obesity, which is linked to depression . One reason why might be that fat cells become dysfunctional and release inflammatory molecules, which are triggers for depression, anxiety, and dementia.

“Ultra-processed foods are effortless to consume in large quantities because they’re generally soft and easy to chew,” Lane explains. They’re also hyper-palatable—that’s the research term for very tasty. “These attributes may disrupt and override the normal ‘I’m full’ communication between your gut and your brain.” You May Also Like

That’s one explanation for why people spontaneously ate 500 more calories a day, and gained, on average, two pounds during a two-week-long ultra-processed food diet; they lost two pounds on a whole food diet, in a carefully controlled National Institutes of Health experiment .

As these foods are typically hyperpalatable, about 14 to 20 percent of adults and 12 to 15 percent of children and adolescents are food addicted, based on research using the Yale Food Addiction Scale which Gearhardt helped develop. “Those are similar rates of addiction of alcohol and cigarettes,” she says.

By consuming ultra-processed food people neglect the “good stuff” like fruits, vegetables and simply-prepared whole grains.

“That means you’re shortchanged on nutrients that are good for the brain, including phytonutrients—beneficial substances in plants,” […]

Read more at www.nationalgeographic.com

Lion’s mane mushroom: The exotic functional mushroom that boosts brain health and provides many other health benefits

Lion’s mane mushroom: The exotic functional mushroom that boosts brain health and provides many other health benefits

Several studies have added to the growing pile of evidence proving that lion’s mane mushroom can be very beneficial for people looking to boost brain health .

Considered the world’s first “smart mushroom,” lion’s mane mushroom, also known by its scientific name Hericium erinceus, is an excellent source of vitamins and minerals and offers a mildly sweet flavor and a tender texture that mimics seafood.

Lion’s mane mushroom has been used for centuries in traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine, and several studies have theorized that the reason lion’s mane keeps appearing in traditional medicinal practices is because there is some merit to their beliefs.

Modern scientific tests have revealed that lion’s mane does offer a number of nootropic or mind-affecting benefits, boosting cognitive function and helping to enhance memory retention.

A study published in the journal Antioxidants (Basel) found that lion’s mane mushrooms contain two special aromatic compounds that stimulate the growth of brain cells – hericenones and erinacines.

Another study in the Journal of Neurochemistry found that compounds in lion’s mane mushrooms may help improve memory. Researchers wrote that the compounds in lion’s mane mushrooms caused neurons in the hippocampus – the region of the brain believed to be responsible for learning and forming memories – to have larger growth cones. This strongly suggested that lion’s mane caused hippocampal neurons to not only grow, but grow more efficiently and form more connections. (Related: Compounds in Lion’s mane mushroom found to improve memory by aiding nerve growth .)

Furthermore, lion’s mane mushroom is also known to have other significant health benefits. Supports digestive health and prevents ulcers

An article published in Johns Hopkins Medicine reports that properties of lion’s mane mushrooms have been shown to support the digestive tract, preventing ulcers by stopping the growth of Helicobacter pylori, a bacteria that damage the tissues in the stomach and the first part of the small intestine. This can cause redness and swelling and, in some cases, can also cause painful sores called peptic ulcers in the upper digestive tract. Supports healthy immune function

Animal research, including a study published in the journal Food & Function , has shown that lion’s mane mushroom boosts immunity by increasing the activity of the intestinal immune system , which protects the body from pathogens that enter the gut through the mouth or nose.

A study published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology reported that a fungal protein from lion’s mane called HEP3 regulates the composition and metabolism of gut microbiota to activate the proliferation and differentiation of T cells, stimulate the intestinal antigen-presenting cells and play a probiotic role that has been proven beneficial in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Helps fight cancer

A study published in the journal Anti-cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry identified two natural compounds from Hericium erinaceous , named erinacerin O and erinacerin P, which inhibited glioma, the most common tumor of the central nervous system. Results showed increased apoptosis of U87 cells – a cell line with epithelial morphology isolated from malignant gliomas for patients diagnosed with glioblastoma – after treatment with erinacerin P. Reduces the risk of heart disease

Research, including a study published in the journal Mycobiology, showed that lion’s mane extract improves fat metabolism and lowers triglyceride levels – reducing the risk of heart disease. Speeds recovery from nervous system injury

Some research, including a study published in the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, suggested that extracts of lion’s mane mushrooms encourage nerve cells to grow and repair more quickly.

One study published in the journal Evidence-based Complementary Alternative Medicine showed that rats with nerve damage receiving a daily extract of lion’s mane mushrooms had quicker nerve regeneration than control animals. Helps manage diabetes symptoms

A study published in the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules proved lion’s mane mushroom beneficial for diabetes management by improving blood sugar management and reducing some of these side effects.

A study published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology demonstrated that lion’s mane lowers blood sugars by blocking the activity of the enzyme alpha-glucosidase, which breaks down carbohydrates in the small intestine.

A study published in the journal Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicin e showed that in addition to lowering blood sugars, lion’s mane extract significantly reduced diabetic nerve pain in the hands and feet and even increased antioxidant levels. Naturally uplifts mood and relieves anxiety and mild depression

Animal research, including a study published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, found that lion’s mane mushroom extract has anti-inflammatory effects that reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression in mice.

A small study of menopausal women published in the journal Biomedical Research found that eating cookies containing lion’s mane mushrooms daily for one month helped reduce self-reported feelings of anxiety and irritation .

Our mission is to empower, uplift and defend the lives of every human being across our planet, and we’re doing it by building the infrastructure of human freedom. Find out about how we’re doing this using cutting-edge AI technology at this link . Support our ongoing efforts by shopping at HealthRangerStore.com , and thank you for your support!

Watch this video to learn about mushrooms with a magical effect on brain health .

This video is from the Finding Genius Podcast channel on Brighteon.com . More related stories:

Research shows Lion’s mane mushroom can combat dementia and cognitive decline .

Lion’s mane mushroom – Unparalleled benefits for your brain and nervous system .

Supporting brain health: Lion’s mane mushroom helps reduce depression and anxiety .

Enjoy a lion’s share of health benefits by adding Lion’s mane mushrooms to your diet . Lion’s mane lives up to its reputation as a great natural mood enhancer . Sources include: Healthline.com MDPI.com 1 PubMed.NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov FrontiersIn.org EurekaSelect.com TandFOnline.com DL.BegellHouse.com Hindawi.com 1 ScienceDirect.com 1 ScienceDirect.com 2 Hindawi.com 2 MDPI.com 2 JStage.JST.go.jp Brighteon.com

Read more at www.naturalnews.com

Lion’s mane mushroom: The exotic functional mushroom that boosts brain health and provides many other health benefits

Lion’s mane mushroom: The exotic functional mushroom that boosts brain health and provides many other health benefits

Several studies have added to the growing pile of evidence proving that lion’s mane mushroom can be very beneficial for people looking to boost brain health .

Considered the world’s first “smart mushroom,” lion’s mane mushroom, also known by its scientific name Hericium erinceus, is an excellent source of vitamins and minerals and offers a mildly sweet flavor and a tender texture that mimics seafood.

Lion’s mane mushroom has been used for centuries in traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine, and several studies have theorized that the reason lion’s mane keeps appearing in traditional medicinal practices is because there is some merit to their beliefs.

Modern scientific tests have revealed that lion’s mane does offer a number of nootropic or mind-affecting benefits, boosting cognitive function and helping to enhance memory retention.

A study published in the journal Antioxidants (Basel) found that lion’s mane mushrooms contain two special aromatic compounds that stimulate the growth of brain cells – hericenones and erinacines.

Another study in the Journal of Neurochemistry found that compounds in lion’s mane mushrooms may help improve memory. Researchers wrote that the compounds in lion’s mane mushrooms caused neurons in the hippocampus – the region of the brain believed to be responsible for learning and forming memories – to have larger growth cones. This strongly suggested that lion’s mane caused hippocampal neurons to not only grow, but grow more efficiently and form more connections. (Related: Compounds in Lion’s mane mushroom found to improve memory by aiding nerve growth .)

Furthermore, lion’s mane mushroom is also known to have other significant health benefits. Supports digestive health and prevents ulcers

An article published in Johns Hopkins Medicine reports that properties of lion’s mane mushrooms have been shown to support the digestive tract, preventing ulcers by stopping the growth of Helicobacter pylori, a bacteria that damage the tissues in the stomach and the first part of the small intestine. This can cause redness and swelling and, in some cases, can also cause painful sores called peptic ulcers in the upper digestive tract. Supports healthy immune function

Animal research, including a study published in the journal Food & Function , has shown that lion’s mane mushroom boosts immunity by increasing the activity of the intestinal immune system , which protects the body from pathogens that enter the gut through the mouth or nose.

A study published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology reported that a fungal protein from lion’s mane called HEP3 regulates the composition and metabolism of gut microbiota to activate the proliferation and differentiation of T cells, stimulate the intestinal antigen-presenting cells and play a probiotic role that has been proven beneficial in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Helps fight cancer

A study published in the journal Anti-cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry identified two natural compounds from Hericium erinaceous , named erinacerin O and erinacerin P, which inhibited glioma, the most common tumor of the central nervous system. Results showed increased apoptosis of U87 cells – a cell line with epithelial morphology isolated from malignant gliomas for patients diagnosed with glioblastoma – after treatment with erinacerin P. Reduces the risk of heart disease

Research, including a study published in the journal Mycobiology, showed that lion’s mane extract improves fat metabolism and lowers triglyceride levels – reducing the risk of heart disease. Speeds recovery from nervous system injury

Some research, including a study published in the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, suggested that extracts of lion’s mane mushrooms encourage nerve cells to grow and repair more quickly.

One study published in the journal Evidence-based Complementary Alternative Medicine showed that rats with nerve damage receiving a daily extract of lion’s mane mushrooms had quicker nerve regeneration than control animals. Helps manage diabetes symptoms

A study published in the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules proved lion’s mane mushroom beneficial for diabetes management by improving blood sugar management and reducing some of these side effects.

A study published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology demonstrated that lion’s mane lowers blood sugars by blocking the activity of the enzyme alpha-glucosidase, which breaks down carbohydrates in the small intestine.

A study published in the journal Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicin e showed that in addition to lowering blood sugars, lion’s mane extract significantly reduced diabetic nerve pain in the hands and feet and even increased antioxidant levels. Naturally uplifts mood and relieves anxiety and mild depression

Animal research, including a study published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, found that lion’s mane mushroom extract has anti-inflammatory effects that reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression in mice.

A small study of menopausal women published in the journal Biomedical Research found that eating cookies containing lion’s mane mushrooms daily for one month helped reduce self-reported feelings of anxiety and irritation .

Our mission is to empower, uplift and defend the lives of every human being across our planet, and we’re doing it by building the infrastructure of human freedom. Find out about how we’re doing this using cutting-edge AI technology at this link . Support our ongoing efforts by shopping at HealthRangerStore.com , and thank you for your support!

Watch this video to learn about mushrooms with a magical effect on brain health .

This video is from the Finding Genius Podcast channel on Brighteon.com . More related stories:

Research shows Lion’s mane mushroom can combat dementia and cognitive decline .

Lion’s mane mushroom – Unparalleled benefits for your brain and nervous system .

Supporting brain health: Lion’s mane mushroom helps reduce depression and anxiety .

Enjoy a lion’s share of health benefits by adding Lion’s mane mushrooms to your diet . Lion’s mane lives up to its reputation as a great natural mood enhancer . Sources include: Healthline.com MDPI.com 1 PubMed.NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov FrontiersIn.org EurekaSelect.com TandFOnline.com DL.BegellHouse.com Hindawi.com 1 ScienceDirect.com 1 ScienceDirect.com 2 Hindawi.com 2 MDPI.com 2 JStage.JST.go.jp Brighteon.com

Read more at www.naturalnews.com

Study finds daily fiber supplement improves older adults’ brain function in just 12 weeks

Study finds daily fiber supplement improves older adults' brain function in just 12 weeks

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A daily fiber supplement improved brain function in people over 60 in just 12 weeks. The study, published recently in Nature Communications by researchers from the School of Life Course & Population Sciences showed that this simple and cheap addition to diet can improve performance in memory tests associated with early signs of Alzheimer’s disease.

However, the prebiotic supplements inulin and FOS were found to have no effect on muscle strength over this period.

“We are excited to see these changes in just 12 weeks. This holds huge promise for enhancing brain health and memory in our aging population. Unlocking the secrets of the gut-brain axis could offer new approaches for living more healthily for longer,” says first author Dr. Mary Ni Lochlainn from the Department of Twin Research.

As populations age globally, the prevalence of age-related conditions such as cognitive decline and muscle loss is on the rise. Researchers at TwinsUK, the U.K.’s largest adult twin registry based at King’s College London, sought to understand how targeting the microbiota, the diverse community of microorganisms residing in our intestines, using two cheap, commercially available plant fiber supplements inulin and FOS, could impact both muscle health and brain function .

Researchers assigned 36 twin pairs—72 individuals—over 60 years old to receive either a placebo or the supplement every day for 12 weeks. Neither the analysis team, nor the participants knew which they received until the analysis was complete (double-blind). Alongside this, all study participants did resistance exercises and ate a protein supplement which was aimed at improving muscle function.

Researchers monitored participants remotely via video, online questionnaires and cognitive tests. They found the fiber supplement led to significant changes in the participants’ gut microbiome composition, particularly an increase in the numbers of beneficial bacteria such as Bifidobacterium.

While there was no significant difference in muscle strength between the groups, the group receiving the fiber supplement performed better in tests assessing brain function, including the Paired Associates Learning test which is an early marker for Alzheimer’s disease, together with tests of reaction time and processing speed. These measures are important for daily living—for example reacting to traffic or stopping a simple trip-up turning into a fall.

“These plant fibers, which are cheap and available over the counter, could benefit a wide group of people in these cash-strapped times. They are safe and acceptable too. Our next task is to see whether these effects are sustained over longer periods and in larger groups of people,” says senior author Professor Claire Steves, professor of aging and health.

Another novel aspect of the study was its remote design which demonstrated the feasibility of conducting trials in older adults without the need for extensive travel or hospital visits, which could be delivered in many settings globally. Challenges such as digital literacy and access to the necessary technology were acknowledged and will be addressed in future larger scale projects with the aim to enhance the quality of life for aging populations worldwide.

More information: Mary Ni Lochlainn et al, Effect of gut microbiome modulation on muscle function and cognition: the PROMOTe randomised controlled trial, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46116-y

Provided by King’s College London

Read more at medicalxpress.com

A noninvasive treatment for ‘chemo brain’

Patients undergoing chemotherapy often experience cognitive effects such as memory impairment and difficulty concentrating — a condition commonly known as “chemo brain.”

MIT researchers have now shown that a noninvasive treatment that stimulates gamma frequency brain waves may hold promise for treating chemo brain. In a study of mice, they found that daily exposure to light and sound with a frequency of 40 hertz protected brain cells from chemotherapy-induced damage. The treatment also helped to prevent memory loss and impairment of other cognitive functions.

This treatment, which was originally developed as a way to treat Alzheimer’s disease, appears to have widespread effects that could help with a variety of neurological disorders, the researchers say.

“The treatment can reduce DNA damage, reduce inflammation, and increase the number of oligodendrocytes, which are the cells that produce myelin surrounding the axons,” says Li-Huei Tsai, director of MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Picower Professor in the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. “We also found that this treatment improved learning and memory, and enhanced executive function in the animals.”

Tsai is the senior author of the new study, which appears today in Science Translational Medicine . The paper’s lead author is TaeHyun Kim, an MIT postdoc.

Protective brain waves

Several years ago, Tsai and her colleagues began exploring the use of light flickering at 40 hertz (cycles per second) as a way to improve the cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Previous work had suggested that Alzheimer’s patients have impaired gamma oscillations — brain waves that range from 25 to 80 hertz (cycles per second) and are believed to contribute to brain functions such as attention, perception, and memory.

Tsai’s studies in mice have found that exposure to light flickering at 40 hertz or sounds with a pitch of 40 hertz can stimulate gamma waves in the brain, which has many protective effects, including preventing the formation of amyloid beta plaques. Using light and sound together provides even more significant protection. The treatment also appears promising in humans: Phase 1 clinical trials in people with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease have found the treatment is safe and does offer some neurological and behavioral benefits.

In the new study, the researchers set out to see whether this treatment could also counteract the cognitive effects of chemotherapy treatment. Research has shown that these drugs can induce inflammation in the brain, as well as other detrimental effects such as loss of white matter — the networks of nerve fibers that help different parts of the brain communicate with each other. Chemotherapy drugs also promote loss of myelin, the protective fatty coating that allows neurons to propagate electrical signals. Many of these effects are also seen in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s.

“Chemo brain caught our attention because it is extremely common, and there is quite a lot of research on what the brain is like following chemotherapy treatment,” Tsai says. “From our previous work, we know that this gamma sensory stimulation has anti-inflammatory effects, so we decided to use the chemo brain model to test whether sensory gamma stimulation can be beneficial.”

As an experimental model, the researchers used mice that were given cisplatin, a chemotherapy drug often used to treat testicular, ovarian, and other cancers. The mice were given cisplatin for five days, then taken off of it for five days, then on again for five days. One group received chemotherapy only, while another group was also given 40-hertz light and sound therapy every day.

After three weeks, mice that received cisplatin but not gamma therapy showed many of the expected effects of chemotherapy: brain volume shrinkage, DNA damage, demyelination, and inflammation. These mice also had reduced populations of oligodendrocytes, the brain cells responsible for producing myelin.

However, mice that received gamma therapy along with cisplatin treatment showed significant reductions in all of those symptoms. The gamma therapy also had beneficial effects on behavior: Mice that received the therapy performed much better on tests designed to measure memory and executive function.

“A fundamental mechanism”

Using single-cell RNA sequencing, the researchers analyzed the gene expression changes that occurred in mice that received the gamma treatment. They found that in those mice, inflammation-linked genes and genes that trigger cell death were suppressed, especially in oligodendrocytes, the cells responsible for producing myelin.

In mice that received gamma treatment along with cisplatin, some of the beneficial effects could still be seen up to four months later. However, the gamma treatment was much less effective if it was started three months after the chemotherapy ended.

The researchers also showed that the gamma treatment improved the signs of chemo brain in mice that received a different chemotherapy drug, methotrexate, which is used to treat breast, lung, and other types of cancer.

“I think this is a very fundamental mechanism to improve myelination and to promote the integrity of oligodendrocytes. It seems that it’s not specific to the agent that induces demyelination, be it chemotherapy or another source of demyelination,” Tsai says.

Because of its widespread effects, Tsai’s lab is also testing gamma treatment in mouse models of other neurological diseases, including Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis. Cognito Therapeutics, a company founded by Tsai and MIT Professor Edward Boyden, has finished a phase 2 trial of gamma therapy in Alzheimer’s patients, and plans to begin a phase 3 trial this year.

“My lab’s major focus now, in terms of clinical application, is Alzheimer’s; but hopefully we can test this approach for a few other indications, too,” Tsai says.

The research was funded by the JPB Foundation, the Ko Hahn Seed Fund, and the National Institutes of Health.

Read more at www.sciencedaily.com

Does intermittent fasting have benefits for our brain?

Does intermittent fasting have benefits for our brain?

Intermittent fasting has become a popular dietary approach to help people lose or manage their weight . It has also been promoted as a way to reset metabolism, control chronic disease, slow ageing and improve overall health .

Meanwhile, some research suggests intermittent fasting may offer a different way for the brain to access energy and provide protection against neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease .

This is not a new idea – the ancient Greeks believed fasting enhanced thinking . But what does the modern-day evidence say?

Read more: I want to eat healthily. So why do I crave sugar, salt and carbs? First, what is intermittent fasting?

Our diets – including calories consumed, macronutrient composition (the ratios of fats, protein and carbohydrates we eat) and when meals are consumed – are factors in our lifestyle we can change. People do this for cultural reasons, desired weight loss or potential health gains.

Intermittent fasting consists of short periods of calorie (energy) restriction where food intake is limited for 12 to 48 hours (usually 12 to 16 hours per day), followed by periods of normal food intake. The intermittent component means a re-occurrence of the pattern rather than a “one off” fast.

Food deprivation beyond 24 hours typically constitutes starvation. This is distinct from fasting due to its specific and potentially harmful biochemical alterations and nutrient deficiencies if continued for long periods. 4 ways fasting works and how it might affect the brain

The brain accounts for about 20% of the body’s energy consumption .

Here are four ways intermittent fasting can act on the body which could help explain its potential effects on the brain.

1. Ketosis

The goal of many intermittent fasting routines is to flip a “ metabolic switch ” to go from burning predominately carbohydrates to burning fat. This is called ketosis and typically occurs after 12–16 hours of fasting, when liver and glycogen stores are depleted. Ketones – chemicals produced by this metabolic process – become the preferred energy source for the brain.

Due to this being a slower metabolic process to produce energy and potential for lowering blood sugar levels, ketosis can cause symptoms of hunger, fatigue, nausea, low mood , irritability, constipation, headaches, and brain “fog”.

At the same time, as glucose metabolism in the brain declines with ageing, studies have shown ketones could provide an alternative energy source to preserve brain function and prevent age-related neurodegeneration disorders and cognitive decline .

Consistent with this, increasing ketones through supplementation or diet has been shown to improve cognition in adults with mild cognitive decline and those at risk of Alzheimer’s disease respectively.

Read more: Does it matter what time of day I eat? And can intermittent fasting improve my health? Here’s what the science says

2. Circadian syncing

Eating at times that don’t match our body’s natural daily rhythms can disrupt how our organs work. Studies in shift workers have suggested this might also make us more prone to chronic disease .

Time-restricted eating is when you eat your meals within a six to ten-hour window during the day when you’re most active. Time-restricted eating causes changes in expression of genes in tissue and helps the body during rest and activity.

A 2021 study of 883 adults in Italy indicated those who restricted their food intake to ten hours a day were less likely to have cognitive impairment compared to those eating without time restrictions. Matching your eating to the active parts of your day may have brain benefits. 3. Mitochondria

Intermittent fasting may provide brain protection through improving mitochondrial function, metabolism and reducing oxidants.

Mitochondria’s main role is to produce energy and they are crucial to brain health. Many age-related diseases are closely related to an energy supply and demand imbalance, likely attributed to mitochondrial dysfunction during ageing .

Rodent studies suggest alternate day fasting or reducing calories by up to 40% might protect or improve brain mitochondrial function . But not all studies support this theory.

4. The gut-brain axis

The gut and the brain communicate with each other via the body’s nervous systems. The brain can influence how the gut feels (think about how you get “butterflies” in your tummy when nervous) and the gut can affect mood, cognition and mental health.

In mice, intermittent fasting has shown promise for improving brain health by increasing survival and formation of neurons (nerve cells) in the hippocampus brain region, which is involved in memory, learning and emotion. What we eat can affect our brain, and vice versa. There’s no clear evidence on the effects of intermittent fasting on cognition in healthy adults. However one 2022 study interviewed 411 older adults and found lower meal frequency (less than three meals a day) was associated with reduced evidence of Alzheimer’s disease on brain imaging.

Some research has suggested calorie restriction may have a protective effect against Alzheimer’s disease by reducing oxidative stress and inflammation and promoting vascular health.When we look at the effects of overall energy restriction (rather than intermittent fasting specifically) the evidence is mixed. Among people with mild cognitive impairment, one study showed cognitive improvement when participants followed a calorie restricted diet for 12 months.Another study found a 25% calorie restriction was associated with slightly improved working memory in healthy adults. But a recent study , which looked at the impact of calorie restriction on spatial working memory, found no significant effect. Read more: Yes, intermittent fasting can boost your health, but how and when to restrict food consumption is crucial Bottom line Studies in mice support a role for intermittent fasting in improving brain health and ageing, but few studies in humans exist, and the evidence we have is mixed.Rapid weight loss associated with calorie restriction and intermittent fasting can lead to nutrient deficiencies, muscle loss, and decreased immune function, particularly in older adults whose nutritional needs may be higher.Further, prolonged fasting or severe calorie restriction may pose risks such as fatigue, dizziness, and electrolyte imbalances, which could exacerbate existing health conditions.If you’re considering intermittent fasting , it’s best to seek advice from a health […]

Read more at theconversation.com

Lithium: The little-known element that can protect people from brainwashing by global elites, says researcher, author and medical doctor

Lithium: The little-known element that can protect people from brainwashing by global elites, says researcher, author and medical doctor

For experts such as Dr. Michael Nehls, a world-renowned author, medical doctor and post-doctoral molecular geneticist, the globalist anti-human agenda is being rolled out via a warfare inside human brains – hijacking cognitively to influence and disrupt both the mental and physical immune systems.

But there is an essential trace element that could inhibit any disruption to the optimal functioning of the human brain, such as brain fog, Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) post-vaccination syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, Alzheimer’s disease and even “globalists’ indoctrination” agenda: lithium.

“The natural inhibitor is lithium, which is the only substance at low molecular levels. One milligram per day is sufficient to actually stop the Alzheimer’s progression and other disruptions to brain functions,” Nehls told “Health Ranger Report” host Mike Adams during a sit-down interview at the Brighteon studio. He added that the element can also be taken as a supplement .

“Lithium was shown to activate the process of autophagy and microautophagy,” he stated. Autophagy is the body’s process of reusing old and damaged cell parts while microautophagy serves diverse biological functions, including protein quality control. “It was actually proposed in a paper… that it can even get rid of the microbe of the spike protein in the brain.”

In his Substack newsletter, Nehls further explained that microdosing lithium can reduce the risk of entering a life-threatening cycle. Said cycle is the long-term dysfunction of the hippocampus, a complex brain structure embedded deep into the temporal lobe that plays a major role in learning and memory, leads to reduced psychological resilience, which triggers an excessive and chronic stress response, which in turn over activates the brain’s immune system and leads to an increased and particularly persistent release of pro-inflammatory messengers.

“A slightly higher dosage even offers the legitimate hope of breaking an existing cycle. But although there is ample scientific evidence that lithium, in addition to its well-known therapeutic benefits, is also an essential trace element, it is not yet recognized as such and, for example, cannot be marketed as a dietary supplement in most European Union member states,” Nehls pointed out in the article. (Related: Study: Supplementing with vitamin D helps prevent cancer, especially if it’s taken more frequently .)

Although microdosed lithium is available in the United States as an over-the-counter supplement, Nehls pointed out that its perceived non-essential status “and the misperceived risk of side effects” inhibits its growth in popularity as a natural preventative measure against chronic inflammation.

The geneticist also mentioned that 7Up, an American brand of lemon-lime-flavored carbonated drink, got its name from lithium because it “used to contain” the element. The number seven is the molecular mass of lithium and they used the word “up” because it claims to pick up the mood of the person drinking the soda. However, the manufacturers would not admit this as they were no longer allowed to use the element. They claim that “lithium is not good for technocratic narrative.”

“Does this also explain why lithium is sometimes prescribed to people for depression or mental health?” Adams further asked. “It is almost without side effects for the cause. The side effects only come if you go into much higher doses like with bipolar disorders. It can shut down mood alterations by giving high doses,” the doctor explained. Global elites control governments around the world

Elsewhere in the show, Adams brought up the new law implemented in France, wherein any person who dares to openly criticize mRNA vaccines will be liable to fines and imprisonment. Critics call it the “Pfizer law.” It calls for fines of up to 45,000 euros and possibly three years in prison for debunking an approved medical treatment, the Epoch Times reported.

If it can happen in France, it can happen throughout Europe, then the Commonwealth, and then the United States, Brownstone Institute founder Jeffrey Tucker warned in the said article. “It is global. The elites that have seized control of our governments coordinate across borders. That’s why it is hugely important to pay attention to what’s going on across the pond.”

“It’s fortunate when I’m flying home, we are not landing in France and we are directly jumping over it,” said Nehls, who hails from France’s neighboring country Germany.

We are building the infrastructure of human freedom and empowering people to be informed, healthy and aware. Support us at HealthRangerStore.com and read about our “human freedom infrastructure” mission at this article link .

Watch the full episode of the ” Health Ranger Report ” with Mike Adams featuring Michael Nehls below.

This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com . More related stories:

Scientific literature shows chlorophyll-rich chlorella to be among the most effective nutritional supplements for dioxin DETOX .

Study: Vitamin D supplementation found to reduce the risk of heart attack .

Study: Multivitamin supplements can help improve memory . Sources include:

Brighteon.com

MichaelNehls.Substack.com

TheEpochTimes.com Take Action:

Support Natural News by linking to this article from your website.

Permalink to this article:

Copy

Embed article link:

CopyReprinting this article:Non-commercial use is permitted with credit to NaturalNews.com (including a clickable link). Please contact us for more information.

Read more at www.naturalnews.com

Study finds direct correlation between increased screen time for toddlers and delays in language development

Study finds direct correlation between increased screen time for toddlers and delays in language development

A recent study conducted by the Telethon Kids Institute in Australia has found a direct correlation between increased screen time for toddlers and delays in their language development .

The study, which spanned two-and-a-half years and involved monitoring 220 Australian families, uncovered alarming insights into the potential impact of technology on the crucial early years of a child’s linguistic growth.

The families, who had toddlers aged 18 to 36, had their kids wear a device capturing 16 hours of audio daily in their homes, leading to over 7,000 hours worth of recordings. Families involved in the study were unaware that screen time would be measured during recording to ensure a more realistic view of young children’s screen exposure. (Related: Screen time linked to developmental delays in young children .)

According to the results, published in JAMA Pediatrics , toddlers who are 18 to 36 months of age spend approximately three hours a day on screens, which, in turn, results in a significant decline in their language skills.

The study found that at 36 months, there is a concerning decrease of 6.6 adult words for each additional minute of screen time. This cumulative effect amounted to a loss of 1,139 adult words, 843 vocalizations and 194 conversations per day.

Mary Brushe, senior researcher for the study, explained the importance of early interaction for language development. She claimed that screen time disrupts the necessary amount of talking and interaction children require.

“Our findings support the notion of ‘technoference’ as a real issue for Australian families , whereby young children’s exposure to screen time is interfering with opportunities to talk and interact in their home environment,” said Brushe. “Because we haven’t been able to capture parents’ silent screen-related activities, such as reading emails, texting, or quietly scrolling through websites or social media. The devices only picked up noise associated with screen time – for example, TV shows, videos or games. This meant we ended up with a more realistic view of young children’s screen exposure because parents were not subconsciously altering their normal habits.”

Furthermore, psychology lecturer Rachael Sharman at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland reveals a link between increased screen time and social skill problems at younger ages. She explained that brain imaging studies suggested that increased screen time is associated with reduced white matter tracts in the brain, which is crucial for the development of language and cognitive abilities.

“Spending a great deal of time in the outdoors is associated with higher grey matter in regions associated with working memory and attention,” she said. Parents know the adverse effects of screen time, but some have no choice but to allow it

According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies , parents consider excessive screen time and its adverse effects to be the foremost health concern for their children.

For instance, one parent, deeply concerned about the potential harm, shared on the social platform Reddit that their three-year-old daughter is strictly prohibited from using any tablet or phone under any circumstances. The parent, working in product design, discussed their awareness of the problems these apps cause for adults, let alone children.

“I wouldn’t judge those that allow their kids to; I know how tough it is to find a break, but I’ve been strict for a reason. I work in product design and know a lot of the problems these apps cause adults, never mind children. We are learning more and more about the damage caused, and it genuinely frightens me,” the parent wrote.

However, some parents, despite reservations, still find themselves resorting to using screens as a temporary solution to juggle daily responsibilities.

“We have a 14-month-old and only use the TV when we really need a break. We have no family nor friends nearby, so sometimes, for example, if one of us is showering and the other one has to make dinner, we use the TV. It’s easy to say ‘Let the toddler play with you in the kitchen meanwhile then’ or whatever, but sorry, our son is super demanding and wants to be held A LOT. So no, sometimes we need to use the TV to be able to function,” the parent explained.

Visit BrainDamaged.news for more stories about the harmful effects of screen time.

Watch this video to learn how excessive screen time and the pandemic affect children’s eyesight .

This video is from the High Hopes channel on Brighteon.com . More related stories:

Study: Childhood inactivity and screen time linked to heart damage in young adults .

Are screens as bad for toddlers as they say? Study says yes .

Study: Excessive screen time during COVID-19 lockdowns impaired children’s sense of balance .

Excessive use of video games, social media and the internet linked to poor academic performance .

Screen time found to have direct impact on speech delays in babies, reveals new research .

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

TelethonKids.org.au

Brighteon.com Take Action:Support Natural News by linking to this article from your website.Permalink to this article:CopyEmbed article link:CopyReprinting this article:Non-commercial use is permitted with credit to NaturalNews.com (including a clickable link). Please contact us for more information.

Read more at www.naturalnews.com

6 Best Natural Adderall Alternatives for Adults in 2024

6 Best Natural Adderall Alternatives for Adults in 2024

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in natural alternatives to prescription medications like Adderall. This shift comes from a desire to avoid side effects associated with pharmaceuticals and to embrace a more holistic approach to health. As we step into 2024, several natural supplements have emerged as potential substitutes for those seeking to manage ADHD symptoms or enhance cognitive performance without the use of traditional stimulant medications. Below we explore six top natural Adderall alternatives that adults might consider.

1.Ginkgo Biloba

Ginkgo Biloba is an ancient plant extract known for its cognitive-enhancing properties. Studies suggest that it can improve focus, memory, and executive functions, which makes it a popular alternative for adults looking for a natural cognitive boost.

2.L-Theanine with Caffeine

Found naturally in green tea, L-Theanine has calming properties that can moderate the jitters often associated with caffeine intake. When combined, L-Theanine and caffeine can provide smooth energy and concentration improvements, mimicking some of the beneficial effects of Adderall.

3.Rhodiola Rosea

Rhodiola Rosea is an adaptogen herb acclaimed for its stress-reducing and brain-boosting benefits. It supports the body’s stress response system and can enhance mental stamina, providing an alternative way to improve focus and productivity.

4.Bacopa Monnieri

An herb commonly used in Ayurvedic medicine, Bacopa Monnieri may support cognitive processes such as learning rate, memory formation, and verbal recall. It’s considered one of the most effective natural nootropics available.

5.Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential nutrients that play a significant role in brain health and function. High concentrations are found in fish oil supplements, which can support brain cell structure and neurotransmitter function, translating into improved focus and cognition.

6.Ashwagandha

Ashwagandha is another adaptogen that has been shown to help reduce anxiety and stress while improving concentration and energy levels. Its potential positive impact on brain health and cortisol levels makes it a sought-after natural stimulant-free alternative to pharmaceutical options like Adderall.

While these natural supplements show promise as potential alternatives to Adderall for cognitive enhancement or ADHD symptom management in adults, it’s important to consult with a healthcare provider before making any changes to your medication regimen. Natural doesn’t always mean risk-free, so professional guidance is crucial when considering these options.

Read more at www.thetechedvocate.org

Nature Knows Nootropics