Findings identify a novel pharmacological target for drug development.
Researchers at McGill University have found that sodium - the main chemical component in table salt - is a unique "on/off" switch for a major neurotransmitter receptor in the brain. This receptor, known as the kainate receptor, is fundamental for normal brain function and is implicated in numerous diseases, such as epilepsy and neuropathic pain.
Prof. Derek Bowie and his laboratory in McGill's Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, worked with University of Oxford researchers to make the discovery. By offering a different view of how the brain transmits information, their research highlights a new target for drug development. The findings are published in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.
Balancing kainate receptor activity is the key to maintaining normal brain function. For example, in epilepsy, kainate activity is thought to be excessive. Thus, drugs which would shut down this activity are expected to be beneficial.
Health & Wellness
Findings challenge conventional thinking about possible causes of disorder.
Alzheimer's disease has proven to be a difficult enemy to defeat. After all, aging is the No. 1 risk factor for the disorder, and there's no stopping that.
Most researchers believe the disease is caused by one of two proteins, one called tau, the other beta-amyloid. As we age, most scientists say, these proteins either disrupt signaling between neurons or simply kill them.
Now, a new UCLA study suggests a third possible cause: iron accumulation.
Dr. George Bartzokis, a professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and senior author of the study, and his colleagues looked at two areas of the brain in patients with Alzheimer's. They compared the hippocampus, which is known to be damaged early in the disease, and the thalamus, an area that is generally not affected until the late stages. Using sophisticated brain-imaging techniques, they found that iron is increased in the hippocampus and is associated with tissue damage in that area. But increased iron was not found in the thalamus.
The research appears in the August edition of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
Alzheimer's disease has proven to be a difficult enemy to defeat. After all, aging is the No. 1 risk factor for the disorder, and there's no stopping that.
Most researchers believe the disease is caused by one of two proteins, one called tau, the other beta-amyloid. As we age, most scientists say, these proteins either disrupt signaling between neurons or simply kill them.
Now, a new UCLA study suggests a third possible cause: iron accumulation.
Dr. George Bartzokis, a professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and senior author of the study, and his colleagues looked at two areas of the brain in patients with Alzheimer's. They compared the hippocampus, which is known to be damaged early in the disease, and the thalamus, an area that is generally not affected until the late stages. Using sophisticated brain-imaging techniques, they found that iron is increased in the hippocampus and is associated with tissue damage in that area. But increased iron was not found in the thalamus.
The research appears in the August edition of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
A kind of beta-agonist drug originally developed to treat asthma in humans, Zilmax alters the animals' metabolism to make them pack on lean muscle for 20 days leading up to slaughter. Introduced to the U.S. in 2007, about 70 percent of U.S. cattle now take some kind of beta-agonist drug.
Tyson has since said it would stop accepting Zilmax-fed cows for slaughter, and Merck & Co, the pharmaceutical company behind Zilmax, announced it would suspend U.S. and Canadian sales of the drug.
In patients with early Alzheimer's disease, disruptions in brain networks emerge about the same time as chemical markers of the disease appear in the spinal fluid, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown.
While two chemical markers in the spinal fluid are regarded as reliable indicators of early disease, the new study, published in JAMA Neurology, is among the first to show that scans of brain networks may be an equally effective and less invasive way to detect early disease.
"Tracking damage to these brain networks may also help us formulate a more detailed understanding of what happens to the brain before the onset of dementia," said senior author Beau Ances, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurology and of biomedical engineering.
While two chemical markers in the spinal fluid are regarded as reliable indicators of early disease, the new study, published in JAMA Neurology, is among the first to show that scans of brain networks may be an equally effective and less invasive way to detect early disease.
"Tracking damage to these brain networks may also help us formulate a more detailed understanding of what happens to the brain before the onset of dementia," said senior author Beau Ances, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurology and of biomedical engineering.
At which point I ask the female patients about their pie cooking - and they all agree they used lard.
Now this is not a rigorous scientific study, but I have been doing this for over 20 years, and the observation is remarkably consistent. The important fact, in my opinion is not what they ate, but what it implies about what they didn't eat: They did not switch to margarine. They did not use Crisco for cooking. They did not wallow in corn oil. In short, they ate natural fats, not manmade ones. In their heartland, meat and potatoes, home-cooked diet, the ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 oils was generally high.
I hate to keep denigrating the food pyramid, but it deserves denigrating, and once again with regard to intake of "fats." For at least 40 years, the policy wonks have pushed a low-fat diet, also promoting "heart-healthy" margarines in place of butter, and have recommended more complex carbs overtly as well as covertly (in most low-fat foods, artificial lab-derived filler carbs give the food "substance," so low-fat foods are generally high-carb foods).
During this reign of the government nutritionists, Americans have become more obese with more diabetes, metabolic syndrome and Alzheimer's dementia. The recommendations persist even in the face of massive data showing that oils derived from plants such as soybeans and corn - i.e. Omega 6 oils - create inflammation in the body and contribute to disease.
We associate food with at most, pleasure, at the very least, survival. It's not too different for animals. Lambs turned out on new grass move "quickly over certain grasses to get to others - to nosh on clover and mustard grass, avoiding horse nettle and fescue along the way," writes Dan Barber in A Chef Speaks Out . Wild pigs, capable of seeking out the nutrients they need," enjoy eating nuts, roots, fruits, mushrooms, bugs, rabbits, and, occasionally, dead animals."
But what happens when animals are confined in cramped, filthy environments and force-fed monoculture diets of genetically modified corn and soy?
A lot can happen. Calves are born too weak to walk, with enlarged joints and limb deformities. Piglets experience rapidly deteriorating health, a "failure to thrive" so severe that they start breaking down their own tissues and organs - self-cannibalizing - to survive. Many animals suffer from weak, brittle bones that easily fracture. Dairy cows develop mastitis, a painful udder infection. Beef cattle develop liver abscesses and an excruciating condition referred to as "twisted gut."
Headed by Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and the Duke University of Medicine, the study demonstrates that daily consumption of four cups of coffee or tea shares a health benefit due to the caffeine present in both beverages.
The animal models of the research that was taken on mice proved the effects of caffeine on the fatty livers.
The researchers found that caffeine was able to trigger the stored lipids in the liver cells to metabolize, which then helped lower the amount of fat in the liver.
The study was conducted by a team of researchers from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, University of Vermont, and Harvard School of Public Health.
The team assessed nearly 3000 children at about 5 years old and monitored their soft drink consumption as well as behavioral manifestations.
The children were selected from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a prospective birth cohort that follows mother-child pairs from 20 large cities in the United States.
The children's soft drink consumption and behaviour were regularly reported by their mothers through some checklists.
A ketogenic diet is based on animal fat sources.
The entire body uses ketones in a more safe and effective way than the energy source coming from carbohydrates - sugar AKA glucose. Our bodies will produce ketones if we eat a diet devoid of carbs or a low-carb diet (less than 60 grams of carbs per day).[2] By eating a very low-carb diet or no carbs at all (like a caveman), we become keto-adapted.
In fact, what is known today as the ketogenic diet was the number one treatment for epilepsy until Big Pharma arrived with its dangerous cocktails of anti-epileptic drugs. It took several decades before we heard again about this diet, thanks in part to a parent who demanded it for his 20-month-old boy with severe seizures. The boy's father had to find out about the ketogenic diet in a library as it was never mentioned as an option by his neurologist. After only 4 days on the diet, his seizures stopped and never returned.[3] The Charlie Foundation was born after the kid's name and his successful recovery, but nowadays the ketogenic diet is available to the entire world and it's spreading by word of mouth thanks to its healing effects.
Comment: For more information on the inflammatory foods which are best avoided, see:
The Dark Side of Wheat - New Perspectives on Celiac Disease and Wheat Intolerance
Opening Pandora's Bread Box: The Critical Role of Wheat Lectin in Human Disease
The Obesity Epidemic, Courtesy of the Agricultural Industry
Why Milk Is So Evil