Zinc's role in the brain

University of Toronto Scarborough ^ | October 5, 2011 | Unknown

[decimon]

Research gives insight into 50-year-old mystery -- zinc important for learning and memory

Zinc plays a critical role in regulating how neurons communicate with one another, and could affect how memories form and how we learn. The new research, in the current issue of Neuron, was authored by Xiao-an Zhang, now a chemistry professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC), and colleagues at MIT and Duke University.

Researchers have been trying to pin down the role of zinc in the brain for more than fifty years, ever since scientists found high concentrations of the chemical in synaptic vesicles, a portion of the neuron that stores neurotransmitters. But it was hard to determine just what zinc's function was.

[decimon]

Ping

[FrdmLvr]

Please put me on your ping list.

[headsonpikes]

Truly galvanizing article!

[CrazyIvan]

Truly galvanizing article!

Nickel for your thoughts?

[decimon]

Done.

[SunkenCiv]

I zinc they may be onto something.

[decimon]

I zinc they may be onto something.

Don't know what lead you to that conclusion but I tin you right.

[SunkenCiv]

Perhaps scientists will discovery an alloy in the fight against alzheimer’s and such.

[Lancey Howard]

I am lead to the same conclusion.

[decimon]

Perhaps scientists will discovery an alloy in the fight against alzheimer’s and such.

I can't stand steel for this.

[Vision]

In the last year I learned a powerful lesson on proper nutrition. People who aren’t taking (at least) a strong multivitamin daily are putting themselves at a disadvantage.

[decimon]

In the last year I learned a powerful lesson on proper nutrition. People who aren’t taking (at least) a strong multivitamin daily are putting themselves at a disadvantage.

I take a multivitamin-mineral-kitchensink pill just to know I'm getting at least some of all of that stuff.

[redhead]

I am a pyroluric. That means that I have a congenital blood condition that produces too many kryptopyroles (a nontoxic byproduct of hemoglobin production), which latches onto zinc molecules and vitamin B6 molecules and carries them out of the body in the urine. As a result, I must have large daily supplements of these nutrients, or I suffer major depression and other brain-chemistry problems.

[SunkenCiv]

This is getting silly, I bismuth on.

[Vision]

I like Lifeforce.

[redhead]

Another interesting zinc/B6 deficiency article that may help someone who has been trying to figure out why they feel the way they do.

[Lancey Howard]

I eat a few Zicams every week even if I feel perfectly fine.

[decimon]

...I bismuth on.

Pinko!

[decimon]

Thanks.