Posted on 05/18/2003 4:57:05 PM PDT by jwalburg
When I saw an Associated Press article this month promising brain improvement - "Study suggests old brains can be improved" - I got excited. Old brains can be improved? Like laundry detergent? I had to know more.
Researchers discovered the key to young brain function, a neurochemical called GABA. GABA keeps young people's brains spry by suppressing "stray signals" that can "distract and overwhelm" your brain "in the same way the ear is overwhelmed when trying to hear a whisper at a rock concert."
What I wonder is this: Is the whisper what is overwhelming your ear at a rock concert? And is rock music the "stray signal" or is that the whispering?
The article states that you wouldn't hear anything when trying to hear a whisper at a rock concert, and I assume it means you wouldn't hear the whisper. I'm pretty sure you'd still hear the infinite repetition of "And she's climbing a stairway to heaven."
"But," the article continues, "if there is screaming in an empty room, then it is very easy to hear. That is sort of what GABA does."
Super!
Just what my brain has been desiring. Screaming in an empty room.
In my house, it is not the empty rooms that I hear screaming in. It is the rooms full of tracked-in garden dirt, spilled craft beads, piles of school papers that have multiplied like tribbles, scatterings of discarded books, open instrument cases with instruments out and used as door stops. Those are the rooms there is screaming in, and the screaming is coming from me.
I have never been in an empty room where there is screaming. (If a scream falls in an empty room, does it really make a sound?)
Never having tried to hear a whisper at a rock concert, I can't identify with that overwhelmed ear example, but there are others. And I definitely get the concept of stray signals.
When you concentrate on difficult furniture assembly instructions translated from Korean, for example, a stray signal might be your toddler dumping cat food across the room while your son pounds out a Beethoven etude on the piano and your daughter watches a video loud enough to drown out the etude.
But how GABA can mute these stray signals the article doesn't say. What it does say is that this neurochemical declines in later years. And supposedly that's bad news.
Without sufficient levels of GABA to drown out all background signals, the articles says, "all of your higher brain functions go bad." But just what ARE higher brain functions? Brewing coffee and listening to National Public Radio at the same time?
Being able to do The New York Times crossword puzzle without looking on a map for the Uere River? Figuring out how to get your new printer to work without messing up your computer settings?
Honestly, can't we get by without higher brain function?
I know at least one math-hating teen-ager who thinks so.
Now, one main problem with the study is that it was conducted by forcing Rhesus monkeys to look at patterns of light flashes on a computer screen. They weren't allowed to play Roller Coaster Tycoon or even Pajama Sam.
When older monkeys' brains were injected with GABA, they started reacting to the light patterns the same way younger monkeys did. This is the researchers' idea of higher brain function. If you can still play Free Cell on your computer, then, your brain is in good shape.
But once the GABA levels declined, they were right back to their "aged confusion."
The other problem with the study is the solution. How do you increase GABA levels? Valium. Yep. "The idea is counterintuitive," one researcher said.
Yeah. Counterintuitive always means "it seems to work even if we don't know why."
Maybe if we put the researchers into a screaming empty room for a while, they will make the necessary connections.
How am I supposed to know if my brain is in better shape if all I can do is sleep.
Is it made from pot?
Hehehe...
Likely true, but (waa) this is not fair. I mean, here's a supplement that might help even a Democrat grow a brain, but where's the pill that will help the Pubbies grow a spine?
GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid) is a non-essential amino acid found mainly in the human brain and eyes. It is considered an inhibitory neurotransmitter, which means it regulates brain and nerve cell activity by inhibiting the number of neurons firing in the brain. GABA is referred to as the brain's natural calming agent. By inhibiting over-stimulation of the brain, GABA may help promote relaxation and ease nervous tension.*
Sleep problems due to a chronic illness. My better half works rotating shifts and takes it with Melatonin to help deal with the sleep problems that causes.
As to the poster that says it doesn't cross the blood/brain barrier and that it can't be useful ingesting it, I'd ask why it has made a huge difference in our sleep and why it is used not only for improving sleep, but also for anxiety attacks? It works great for both and that is through taking it by tablet, or sublingually as it is also available?
That's why I drilled a hole in my skull and now pour it in by the cupful.
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