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Following a Mediterranean-based ketogenic diet may decrease the risk of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study. Researchers compared a low-fat diet with a diet consisting of healthy fats/protein and low carbohydrates—the modified Mediterranean ketogenetic diet—and found that the modified diet showed robust changes in a biological pathway that is linked to Alzheimer's disease. This builds upon previous research showing that a modified ketogenic diet may prove beneficial in the prevention of cognitive decline. The randomized, single-site study involved 20 adults, nine diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 11 with normal cognition. These participants were randomly assigned to follow either...

Preclinical studies in mice that model human COVID-19 suggest that an inexpensive, readily available amino acid might limit the effects of the disease and provide a new off-the-shelf therapeutic option for infections with SARS-CoV-2 variants and perhaps future novel coronaviruses. Researchers report that an amino acid called GABA, which is available over-the-counter in many countries, reduced disease severity, viral load in the lungs, and death rates in SARS-CoV-2-infected mice. Said Daniel Kaufman: "If our observations of the protective effects of GABA therapy in SARS-CoV-2-infected mice are confirmed in clinical trials, GABA could provide an off-the-shelf treatment to help ameliorate infections...

A ‘water pill’ used to reduce swelling could combat autism, experts claim. New research has revealed that a prescription drug, known as bumetanide, can also improve the symptoms of the developmental disability by boosting signals between neurons.... ….Bumetanide is a type of medicine called a diuretic which is available in the UK and the US and enables patients with cardiovascular, liver or kidney disease to produce more urine and rid the body of surplus fluid and salt. Diuretics are sometimes called “water pills/tablets” because they make you pee more. However, a study has shown that in autistic children it helps...

Harvard University researchers found that autistic behavior is associated with a breakdown in the signaling pathway used by a major inhibitory neurotransmitter called GABA. "This is the first time, in humans, that a neurotransmitter in the brain has been linked to autistic behavior. This theory -- that the GABA signaling pathway plays a role in autism -- has been shown in animal models, but until now we never had evidence for it actually causing autistic differences in humans," study leader Caroline Robertson said in a university news release. Robertson's team used brain imaging plus a visual test known to trigger...

Insomniacs desperate for some zzzs may one day have a safer way to get them. Scientists have developed a new sleep medication that has induced sleep in rodents and monkeys without apparently impairing cognition, a potentially dangerous side effect of common sleep aids. The discovery, which originated in work explaining narcolepsy, could lead to a new class of drugs that help people who don't respond to other treatments. Between 10% and 15% of Americans chronically struggle with getting to or staying asleep. Many of them turn to sleeping pills for relief, and most are prescribed drugs, such as zolpidem (Ambien)...

Americans are about to be reminded again how much they need sleep — and sleeping pills. A new effort appears to be developing to expand the use of sleeping pills, which because of their potential for abuse have long had a reputation as being in some ways more dangerous than the insomnia they are meant to treat. Some sleep experts say newer pills are safer than the ones that once caused deaths from overdose. Moreover, some say, there is growing evidence that insomnia is a serious medical condition, not just a nuisance. "Slowly, we are beginning to identify that insomnia...

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...

The slowdown of the brain with old age is due to the lack of a brain chemical which helps neurons to be selective about what they respond to, reveals research involving the world's oldest monkeys. Higher brain functions, such as visual recognition or understanding language, require the processing of information in the brain but decline as people get older. This decline appears to be due to a reduction in a neurotransmitter called GABA, say researchers, which means neurons with specific tasks become more easily fired by some other stimulus. Macaque monkeys, with an age equivalent to 90-years in humans, were...