Posted on 11/04/2008 5:18:15 AM PST by Dysart
WASHINGTON — How fast you can throw a ball or run or swerve a steering wheel depends on how speedily brain cells fire off commands to muscles. Fast firing depends on good insulation for your brain’s wiring.
Now research suggests that in middle age, even healthy people begin to lose some of that insulation in a motor-control part of the brain — at the same rate that their speed subtly slows.
And while that may sound depressing, keep reading. The research points to yet another reason to stay physically and mentally active: An exercised brain may spot fraying insulation quicker and signal for repair cells to get to work.
To Dr. George Bartzokis, a neurologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the work, the brain is like the Internet. Speedy movement depends on bandwidth, which in the brain is myelin, a sheet of fat that coats nerve fibers.
Healthy myelin — good, thick insulation wound tightly around nerve fibers — allows prompt conduction of the electrical signals the brain uses to send commands. Higher-frequency electrical discharges, or actional potentials, speed movement — from a basketball rebound to a finger tap.
Consider someone like Michael Jordan. "The circuitry that made him a great basketball player was probably myelinated better than most other mortals," Bartzokis said.
But while myelin builds up during adolescence, when does production slow enough that we fall behind in the race to repair fraying, older insulation?
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
But physical and mental activity may also stimulate myelin repair, while unused neural pathways wouldn’t send out a "help" signal, Bartzokis said.
"Remember, these are average people I tested," he said. "Someone that’s really practicing could make it [myelin] last longer because you’re sending the signals to repair, repair, repair."
How about if I just wear a hat? ;o)
So our brains are like 747 fuel tanks? Old frayed wiring makes things go “boom” and quit working.
And to think these fancy "scientists" spent all that time and money trying to cipher this out when a little headdress is all that's needed to keep things a-hummin' along all proper like..
Two other interesting, marginally related things I've learned in recent years:
1) The reason increased salt results in higher blood pressure is that salt helps the body retain water by 'swelling' tissue. The swelled tissue then 'squeezes' or constricts blood vessels resulting in increased blood pressure, sort of like squeezing a garden hose, or placing one's finger partially over the spout of a drinking fountain.
2) Sugar causes tooth decay, not by physical 'grinding' of the hard sugar crystals against our teeth, but rather by promoting bacterial growth. The little buggers apparently love the stuff and flourish on it. After they've gorged themselves on it for a while, like us, they need to take a 'poop'. And it is their highly acidic microscopic little poops, or excretions, which causes the decay. The acid from it eats away at the teeth. This is why food items like milk with sugars that don't break down so easily can result in more cavities than soda. Milk also sticks to the teeth more readily.
I could be wrong about some of this. If I am, please correct.
Yes, I know about that relationship. As I’ve debated whether to continue with a statin, weighing the risks/benefits but this negative aspect of runaway cholesterol (along with high triglycerides), I’ve decided to stick with the treatment. I can’t afford to lose much brain power. ;o)
You need your essential fatty acids, fish oils, etc. EPA and DHA.
Studies show 60% of a healthy brain is fat.
Be a fat head, not a fat a$$!!
3 Fish Oil tabs a day for me. I’ve actually began taking my statin every other day for a while now in hopes of raising my HDL and still keeping my LDL/Try’s in a reasonable range. Pretty sure the statin knocked down my HDL score despite my fatty acid sups. Doc hasn’t been advised of my evil plan... Anyway I really need to get tested someday soon and see how that is working out for me.
If so, I am in great shape.
In part, yes. Cholesterol(fatty sterol) constitutes about 20% of myelin.
I’ve been trying to do that too, but for different reasons. But I was curious, did you try to figure out if that was the right dosage? It says such a wide range of times to take it, I haven’t been comfortable taking more than one a day (If I remember that... I take to help with ADHD)
bump
There is a percentage of the population whose LDL receptors are, to one degree or another, screwed up. When this happens, the feedback loop of endogenous cholesterol production is impaired and the body merrily churns it out. High triglycerides have an impact because, if the fats are saturated, they can further impair the function of the LDL receptor. LDL particles remain too long in the blood, become oxidized, become scavenged by foam cells, which then extravasate through the intimal lining of arteries and build up as plaque between the thin intimal lining and the smooth muscle arterial wall. The plaque is cholesterol and cellular debris. It’s highly thrombogenic. In addition to restricting blood flow through the arteries, if the intimal lining over the plaque becomes ruptured, the plaque can build large clots very quickly. These can block the artery and lead to a heart attack or break off and cause a heart attack or a stroke.
Are you speaking of the fish oil caps or Lipitor?
I take 20mgs of Lipitor which is probably too high form me; one reason I skip a day now. Yeah, I know I need to have my Doc bump it down to 10mg but I haven’t seen him in over a yr.
As for th fish oil, that varies, and depends on whom you listen to. I take 3 daily. Just 1 with ea meal, but that’s dose dependent too. Different formulations have different recommendations. But the 1:1 ratio of EPA to DHA is thought to be desirable by many.
Fish oil caps. My Dad is the one who needs the Lipator. I take the fish oil to try to help with concentration for classes... I was just curious about the amount that some one else was taking.
In reality my triglycerides,which have been pretty high since college are the bigger concern for me than my formerly elevated LDL Chol. Carbs are my weakness. And shapely yet petite brunettes with green eyes. :)
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