Noble Mind and Body

02/27/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19tcjNDT3u/?mibextid=WC7FNe

Emerging research suggests that Alzheimer’s disease may be linked to an unexpected culprit — gum disease.

A study discovered the presence of Porphyromonas gingivalis, a bacteria responsible for chronic periodontitis, in the brains of deceased Alzheimer’s patients.

Researchers found that when mice were infected with the bacteria, it colonized their brains and triggered the production of amyloid beta, a protein commonly associated with Alzheimer’s. This evidence strengthens the hypothesis that the disease could have infectious origins rather than being solely a neurodegenerative disorder.

The study also revealed that toxic enzymes from the bacteria were present in individuals who had Alzheimer's-related brain changes but had not yet been diagnosed with dementia, suggesting the infection may begin years before symptoms appear.

This discovery opens the door to new potential treatments. A pharmaceutical company, Cortexyme, developed a compound called COR388, which showed promise in reducing both bacterial infection and amyloid beta accumulation in animal trials. While human trials are needed to confirm its effectiveness, the study underscores the importance of oral hygiene in brain health. Scientists remain cautiously optimistic, emphasizing that with no new dementia treatments in over 15 years, investigating all possible causes is crucial. While more research is needed, the link between gum disease and Alzheimer’s highlights a simple yet vital message: taking care of your teeth might help protect your brain in the long run.

Learn more: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aau3333

03/26/2022

Did you know that bad sleep can trigger a rise of 30% in anxiety levels, according to a research from UC Berkeley. They found that a type of deep sleep, or slow-wave sleep; also known as NREM (non-rapid eye movement) stage is a state in which neural oscillations become highly synchronized and thus heart rates and blood pressure drops.

Sleep is therefore believed to be a natural, non-pharmaceutical remedy for anxiety disorders — which have been diagnosed in about 40 million American adults, teens and also children.

A study with 18 young adults at the Center for Human Sleep Science in Berkeley strongly suggests that insufficient sleep amplifies levels of anxiety. After a night of no sleep brain scans showed a shutdown of the prefrontal cortex, which essentially (among other things) keeps our anxiety in check, all the while the brains deeper emotional centers were overactive.

Walker said “Without sleep, it’s almost as if the brain is too heavy on the emotional accelerator pedal, without enough brake”

In contrast to this, the participants that had NREM- sleep have gotten significantly better results. This means that deep sleep had restored the brains prefrontal mechanism that regulates our emotions, lowering emotional and physiological reactivity, thus preventing the escalation of anxiety.

“The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night of sleep.” — Matthew Walker

From: https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/how-lack-of-sleep-affects-our-lives-and-mental-health-and-why-we-sabotage-it-9f45ae1b9751

03/26/2022

Deep sleep drives brain fluid oscillations

Getting enough quality sleep at the right times helps protect physical and mental health. Slow-wave sleep (SWS) represents high-intensity sleep and predominates in the first part of the night. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep accompanies dreaming and is not influenced by prior sleep or waking and shows a rhythmicity with the body clock (circadian rhythm) (1): Sleep starts with a light form of SWS, progresses to deeper SWS and then shallow SWS, and concludes with REM sleep before beginning a new cycle (2). During SWS, the cerebral blood flow is reduced by 25%, which lowers cerebral blood volume (CBV) by ∼10% (3). Fultz et al. (4) show that this reduction in CBV in the human brain allows inflow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to the third and fourth ventricles—fluid-filled cavities in the central brain—which may facilitate communication between fluid compartments and clearance of waste products.

From: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaz5191

12/30/2021

https://snacksafely.com/2021/03/researchers-find-a-natural-protein-that-halts-allergies-anaphylaxis-and-autoimmune-conditions/

Experts from The Australian National University have unearthed a natural way the body prevents autoimmune disease and allergies.

10/15/2021

A new kind of chemotherapy derived from a molecule found in a Himalayan fungus has been revealed as a potent anti-cancer agent, and may in the future provide a new treatment option for patients with cancer.

08/02/2021

The brain and the gut are intimately connected via several important pathways, one of which is the vagus nerve.

Research has shown that in a very short time (within 6 hours) after a brain injury, there can be a breakdown in the important tight junctions of the gut.

The tight junctions within the gut lining allow for the passage of micromolecules to pass into the bloodstream to be used for nutrition.

Unfortunately, if these tight junctions begin to break down, larger molecules can pass through into the bloodstream which can lead to an unwanted immune response.

Overtime, the immune response can spread throughout the body, causing even more issues, such as breaking down the blood brain barrier (if it was not already compromised from the head injury).

Testing the integrity of the gut lining and the blood brain barrier can give great insight into which barrier systems need healing.

Something also worth mentioning, the group that discovered the break down in the gut lining after a head injury also found that “increased vagal tone” created more resilience to the head injury, so the better the vagus nerve is functioning, the more resilient our barrier systems may be!

From: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28526435/

07/19/2021

Thyroid hormones are important for the adult brain, particularly regions of the hippocampus. The hippocampus is a thyroid hormone receptor–rich region of the brain involved in learning and memory. Consequently, alterations in thyroid hormone levels have been reported to impair hippocampal-associated learning and memory, synaptic plasticity, and neurogenesis.

From: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24205791/

12/28/2020

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1038/jcbfm.1981.30
The production of cerebrospinal fluid found within the brain is moderated by sympathetic/parasympathetic output derived from the upper cervical ganglia.
This can be an important aspect of treatment in people who may have headaches and upper cervical restriction.

The choroid plexuses of all ventricles receive a well-developed adrenergic and cholinergic innervation reaching both the secretory epithelium and the vascular s...

12/18/2020

Pain from cervical disc degeneration can usually be attributed to discogenic pain or micro-motion instability.

10/10/2020

N-acetylglucosamine, a simple sugar found in human breast milk and sold as an over-the-counter dietary supplement in the United States, promotes myelin repair in mouse models, according to a new University of California, Irvine-led study.

09/21/2020

“My method is different. I do not rush into actual work. When I get an idea I start at once building it up in my imagination. I change the construction, make improvements and operate the device in my mind. It is absolutely immaterial to me whether I run my turbine in thought or test it in my shop. I even note if it is out of balance. There is no difference whatever, the results are the same. In this way I am able to rapidly develop and perfect a conception without touching anything.

When I have gone so far as to embody in the invention every possible improvement I can think of and see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form this final product of my brain. Invariably my device works as I conceived that it should, and the experiment comes out exactly as I planned it. In twenty years there has not been a single exception.” NIKOLA TESLA