dementia
dr. dolittle | November 30, 2016
I know this is not a comparative physiology topic, but this article caught my attention as I know I just ate a rather high fat meal last week for Thanksgiving and I plan to do the same throughout the holiday season.
Insulin does more than just lowering blood sugar by increasing its uptake into tissues. It can also increase blood flow to the hippocampal region of the brain to help cognitive function. This area of the brain is important in memory formation and spatial orientation. A new study published in the American Journal of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism used ultrasound to…
esiegel | January 12, 2013"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." -Thomas Merton
Whatever your creative outlets are -- music, painting, photography, drawing, or even writing, to name a few -- I hope you get to enjoy them frequently. There's nothing like engaging your imagination and creativity, although I have to admit that I speak of this only from my own anecdotal experience, not from any scientific knowledge that I have. That's part of why each weekend I give you a song to listen to; today I give you Josh Harty's unique Roots/Americana composition,
Last Known Address.
But this…
neurophilosophy | June 16, 2010THE dangers of obesity are very well known. Being overweight is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease and stroke, the two leading causes of death in the Western world. Gout is more common in overweight people, with the risk of developing the condition increasing in parallel with body weight. Obese people are twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes as those who are not overweight, and being overweight is also associated with several types of cancer. The list goes on...
Less well known is the effect of obesity on the brain. In the past few years, however, it has…
purepedantry | March 18, 2009The New Old Age blog at the NYTimes -- hadn't read it before, but I like it -- has a post about reversible causes of cognitive decline in the elderly. I think they make a really good point: there are reversible causes to senility. Not all mental decline in the elderly is "normal" and certainly it is not always Alzheimer's:
But according to the National Institute on Aging, missed diagnoses of reversible dementia still occur too often. "Some physical and mental changes occur with age in healthy people," the agency writes in a publication called "Forgetfulness." "However, much pain and…