Silver Shield is EPA approved. Former U.S. Air force Surgeon General drafted a letter to
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security recommending this new silver solution as
an important resource in bio-defence against bio- terrorism and outbreaks of infectious
disease. According to Dr. Carlton, the aquasol technology "has undergone rigorous
testing and has been found to kill anthrax, bubonic plague, hospital staph (MRSA)
and SARS" while being non-toxic to humans. Just to mention a few other benefits,
It has been found to:
- Kill 99.9% of most bacteria, yeast, and molds within 10 minutes
- Continues to kill pathogens with catalytic, not chemical action
- Can be used internally, as well as topically
- Has multiple mecanisms of action to ensure its efficacy
- Is non-toxic and safe at recommended levels
- Black mold on your bathroom tile?
Put Silver Shield in amber spray bottle and spray on tile. Let it sit for 10 minutes
then use brush to wipe it away. Silver Shield comes in liquid and gel form, is
non-toxic and can be used for 72 years daily (if you choose to) with no side effects.
The book "A Fighting Chance" by Dr. Gordon Pederson informs us of over 300 ways
Silver Sol can be used. This book is a must for families and health care practitioners.
Truthfully speaking, it's a must for everyone.
========================================================================================
|
Disturbing History
Whether we're discussing Gardisil® or a forthcoming swine flu vaccine, one
question lingers in the minds of most Americans. Will we retain our right to
choose vaccination or not? There is fear among the populous that we will lose
the right to choose. What if we're forcibly administered a vaccine? Will it save
our lives, render us paralyzed or drop us dead like a swatted fly? The
conspiracy theories are numerous and frightening. We want facts that do
not exist. Noteven researchers have the facts. However, we do know
historic facts. This article from the UK is a factual account from US history.
|
Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern
of neurologists over 25 deaths in America
By Jo Macfarlane
Last updated at 11:05 PM on 15th August 2009
A warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has
been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter.
The letter from the Health Protection Agency (UK), the official body that oversees
public health, has been leaked to The Mail on Sunday, leading to demands to
know why the information has not been given to the public before the vaccination
of millions of people, including children, begins.
It tells the neurologists that they must be alert for an increase in a brain disorder
called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine.
GBS attacks the lining of the nerves, causing paralysis and inability to breathe, and
can be fatal. The letter, sent to about 600 neurologists on July 29, is the first sign
that there is concern at the highest levels that the vaccine itself could cause serious
complications. It refers to the use of a similar swine flu vaccine in the United States
in 1976 when:
- More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu.
- 500 cases of GBS were detected.
- The vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times.
- The vaccine was withdrawn after just ten weeks when the link with GBS became
clear.
- The US Government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected.
Concerns have already been raised that the new vaccine has not been sufficiently
tested and that the effects, especially on children, are unknown. It is being
developed by pharmaceutical companies and will be given to about 13million people
during the first wave of immunization, expected to start in October.
Top priority will be given to everyone aged six months to 65 with an underlying
health problem, pregnant women and health professionals. The British Neurological
Surveillance Unit (BNSU), part of the British Association of Neurologists, has been
asked to monitor closely any cases of GBS as the vaccine is rolled out. One senior
neurologist said last night: ‘I would not have the swine flu jab because of the
GBS risk.'
There are concerns that there could be a repeat of what became known as the ‘1976
debacle' in the US, where a swine flu vaccine killed 25 people - more than the virus
itself. A mass vaccination was given the go-ahead by President Gerald Ford because
scientists believed that the swine flu strain was similar to the one responsible for the
1918-19 pandemic, which killed half a million Americans and 20million people
worldwide.
Within days, symptoms of GBS were reported among those who had been immunized
and 25 people died from respiratory failure after severe paralysis. One in 80,000
people came down with the condition. In contrast, just one person died of swine flu.
More than 40million Americans had received the vaccine by the time the program was
stopped after ten weeks. The US Government paid out millions of dollars in
compensation to those affected.
The swine flu virus in the new vaccine is a slightly different strain from the 1976 virus,
but the possibility of an increased incidence of GBS remains a concern. Shadow health
spokesman Mike Penning said last night: ‘The last thing we want is secret letters
handed around experts within the NHS. We need a vaccine but we also need to know
about potential risks. ‘Our job is to make sure that the public knows what's going on.
Why is the Government not being open about this? It's also very worrying if GPs, who
will be administering the vaccine, aren't being warned.'
Two letters were posted together to neurologists advising them of the concerns.
The first, dated July 29, was written by Professor Elizabeth Miller, head of the HPA's
Immunization Department. It says: ‘The vaccines used to combat an expected swine
influenza pandemic in 1976 were shown to be associated with GBS and were
withdrawn from use. ‘GBS has been identified as a condition needing enhanced
surveillance when the swine flu vaccines are rolled out. ‘Reporting every case of
GBS irrespective of vaccination or disease history is essential for conducting robust
epidemiological analyses capable of identifying whether there is an increased risk of
GBS in defined time periods after vaccination, or after influenza itself, compared
with the background risk.'
Read this article in it's entirety.
|
Kids, High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
and Mercury
One of this month's featured articles comes from contributing author Mary Born.
Did you know that high fructose corn syrup is processed with mercury? I didn't.
I already knew how bad refined carbohydrates are for our health, and the health of
our children, but this sheds a whole new light on why we need to teach children to
avoid simple sugars. Of course, we aren't going to be able to do this if we don't start
with ourselves.
One of the things that I especially liked about this article was its focus on the
emotional side of why kids may eat a lot of sugar. Many of them are starved for
love and attention. I have long known that the craving for sugar is often a symptom
of a "lack of sweetness" or joy in our our lives. It also stresses that we need to help
people learn better parenting skills, a topic I plan to cover in one of my upcoming free
webinars (see the next article). You can read Mary Born's enlightening article by
clicking on the link below:
Read about the link between HFCS and mercury here.
==========================================================================================
Researchers find first common autism gene Article Courtesy Maggie Fox, Health and
Science Editor, Reuters
Tue Apr 28, 2009
Researchers have found the first common genetic link to autism and said on Tuesday
it could potentially account for 15 percent of the disease's cases. Three studies,
two in the journal Nature and one in Molecular Psychiatry, suggest
changes in brain connections could underlie some cases.
While the findings do not immediately offer hope for a treatment, they do help explain
the underlying causes of the condition, which affects as many as one in 150 children,
according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"These findings establish that genetic factors play a strong role in autism spectrum
disorder," National Institutes of Health acting director Dr. Raynard Kington said in a
statement. "Detailed analysis of the genes and how they affect brain development is
likely to yield better strategies for diagnosing and treating children with autism."
Autism refers to a spectrum of diseases, from severe and profound inability to
communicate and mental retardation, to relatively mild symptoms called Asperger's
syndrome. Doctors have been at a loss to explain it, although it has been clear autism
can often run in families, suggesting a genetic cause.
"Previous studies have suggested that autism is a developmental disorder resulting
from abnormal connections in the brain. These three studies suggest some of the
genetic factors which might lead to abnormal connectivity," Dr. Thomas Insel, director
of NIH's National Institute of Mental Health, said in a statement.
INTERNATIONAL SEARCH
The international team of researchers looked at DNA from more than 12,000 people,
some from families affected by autism, and unaffected volunteers. "We estimate that
the variants we discovered may contribute to as many as 15 percent of autism spectrum
disorder cases in a population," Dr. Hakon Hakonarson of Children's Hospital of
Philadelphia, who worked on the study, said in a statement. "Most of the genes that
have been identified in these studies are involved in the connections between
neurons called synapses,' said Tony Monaco of the Wellcome Trust Center for Human
Genetics at Britain's University of Oxford, who worked on the study, said in a statement.
"This does seem to fit with what we know from brain scans -- that people with autism
may show different or reduced connectivity between different parts of the brain."
The mutations are not unique to people with autism.
"While this gene variant is common in the general population, we discovered that it
occurs about 20 percent more often in children with autism," said Dr. Daniel Geschwind
of the University of California Los Angeles, who worked on the study. "Until now, no
common genetic variant has been identified with such overwhelming evidence to
support its role in autismspectrum disorders," added Dr. Margaret Pericak-Vance of the
University of Miami.
DNR, Inc. H1N1 Update: We have received numerous calls from many of our product
users inquiring about precautions for the new flu strain called H1N1. Swine influenza
A virus infection (H1N1) can cause a wide range of symptoms, including fever, cough,
sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people have reported
diarrhea and vomiting associated with swine flu. Like seasonal flu, swine flu in humans
can vary in severity from mild to severe. Severe disease with pneumonia, respiratory
failure and even death is possible with swine flu infection. Certain groups might be
more likely to develop a severe illness from swine flu infection, such as persons with
chronic medical conditions. Sometimes bacterial infections may occur at the same
time as or after infection with influenza viruses and lead to pneumonias, ear
infections, or sinus infections.
DNR suggests a common sense approach to preventing this virus.
- Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
- Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
- Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.
- Influenza is thought to spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.
- If you get sick, we recommend that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.
February 24, 2009 Scientific American
Saving New Brain cells
By Tracey j. Shors
Key concepts
*Thousands of new cells are generated in the adult brain every day, particularly in
the hippocampus, a structure involved in learning and memory. *Within a couple of
weeks, most of those newborn neurons will die, unless the animal is challenged to
learn something new. Learning-especially that involving a great deal of effort-can
keep these new neurons alive.
*Although the neurons do not seem to be necessary for most types of learning, they
may play a role in predicting the future based on past experience.
*Enhancing neurogenesis might therefore help slow cognitive decline and keep
healthy brains fit.
If you watch TV, read magazines or surf the Web, you have probably encountered
advertisements urging you to exercise your mind. Various brain fitness programs
encourage people to stay mentally limber by giving their brain a daily workout-doing
everything from memorizing lists and solving puzzles to estimating the number of
trees in Central Park.
It sounds a bit gimmicky, but such programs may have a real basis in eurobiology.
Recent work, albeit mostly in rats, indicates that learning enhances the survival of
new neurons in the adult brain. And the more engaging and challenging the problem,
the greater the number of neurons that stick around. These neurons are then
presumably available to aid in situations that tax the mind. It seems, then, that
a mental workout can buff up the brain, much as physical exercise builds up the body.
The findings may be particularly interesting to intellectual couch potatoes whose
brains could benefit from a few cerebral sit-ups. More important, though, the results
lend some support to the notion that people who are in the early stages of
Alzheimer's disease or who have other forms of dementia might slow their cognitive
decline by keeping their minds actively engaged. It's a New Neuron!
In the 1990s scientists rocked the field of neurobiology with the startling news that
the mature mammalian brain is capable of sprouting new neurons. Biologists had long
believed that this talent for neurogenesis was reserved for young, developing minds
and was lost with age. But in the early part of the decade Elizabeth Gould, then at the
Rockefeller University, demonstrated that new cells arise in the adult brain-particularly
in a region called the hippocampus, which is involved in learning and memory. Similar
reports soon followed in species from mice to marmosets, and by 1998 neuroscientists
in the U.S. and Sweden had shown that neurogenesis also occurs in humans
[see "New Nerve Cells for the Adult Brain," by Gerd Kempermann and Fred H. Gage;
Scientific American, [May 1999].
In rodents, studies of neurogenesis generally involve injecting the animals with a
drug called BrdU (bromodeoxyuridine), which marks newly formed cells, making
them stand out when viewed under a microscope. Those studies indicate that in
rats, between 5,000 and 10,000 new neurons arise in the hippocampus
every day. (Although the human hippocampus also welcomes new neurons, we do
not know how many.) The cells are not generated like clockwork, however. Instead
their production can be influenced by a number of different environmental factors.
For example, alcohol consumption has been shown to retard the generation of new
brain cells. And their birth rate can be enhanced by exercise. Rats and mice that log
time on a running wheel can kick out twice as many new cells as mice that lead a
more sedentary life. Even eating blueberries seems to goose the generation of new
neurons in the rat hippocampus. Use It or Lose It
Exercise and other actions may help produce extra brain cells. But those new recruits
do not necessarily stick around. Many if not most of them disappear within just a few
weeks of arising. Of course, most cells in the body do not survive indefinitely. So the
fact that these cells die is, in itself, not shocking. But their quick demise is a bit of a
puzzler. Why would the brain go through the trouble of producing new cells only to
have them disappear rapidly? From our work in rats, the answer seems to be: they are
made "just in case."
If the animals are cognitively challenged, the cells will linger. If not, they will fade
away. Gould, who is now at Princeton University, and I made this discovery in 1999,
when we performed a series of experiments looking at the effect of learning on the
survival of newborn neurons in the hippocampus of rat brains.
The learning task we used, called trace eyeblink conditioning [see box on page 50],
is in some ways similar to the experiments in which Pavlov's dogs started to salivate
when they heard a sound they associated with the arrival of dinner. In eyeblink
conditioning, an animal hears a tone and then, some fixed time later
(usually 500 milliseconds, or half a second), gets hit with a puff of air or a mild
stimulation of the eyelid, which causes the animal to blink. This article is a must read. Follow this link to read the article from Scientific American in .pdf format. neuroscience
46 Scientific American March 2009
© 2009 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. Key Concepts
¡¡Thousands of new cells are generated in the adult brain every day, particularly
in the hippocampus, a structure involved in learning and memory.
¡¡Within a couple of weeks, most of those newborn neurons will die, unless the
animal is challenged to learn something new. Learning-especially that involving a
great deal of effort-can keep these new neurons alive.
¡¡Although the neurons do not seem to be necessary for most types of learning,
they may play a role in predicting the future based on past experience. Enhancing
neurogenesis might therefore help slow cognitive decline and keep healthy brains fit.
-The Editors
Fresh neurons arise in the adult brain every day. New research suggests that the
cells ultimately help with learning complex tasks-and the more they are challenged,
the more they flourish
By Tracey j. Shors
Saving New BrainCells If you watch TV, read magazines or surf the Web, you have
probably encountered advertisements urging you to exercise your mind. Various brain
fitness programs encourage people to stay mentally limber by giving their brain a daily
workout-doing everything from memorizing lists and solving puzzles to estimating
the number of trees in Central Park.
It sounds a bit gimmicky, but such programs may have a real basis in neurobiology.
Recent work, albeit mostly in rats, indicates that learning enhances the survival of new neurons in the adult brain. And the more engaging and challenging the problem, the greater the number of neurons that stick around. These
neurons are then presumably available to aid in situations that tax the mind. It
seems, then, that a mental workout can buff up the brain, much as physical exercise
builds up the body. The findings may be particularly interesting to intellectual couch
potatoes whose brains could benefit from a few cerebral sit-ups. More important,
though, the results lend some support to the notion that people who are in the early
stages of Alzheimer's disease or who have other forms of dementia might slow their
cognitive decline by keeping their minds actively engaged.
It's a New Neuron!
In the 1990s scientists rocked the field of neurobiology with the startling news that
the mature mammalian brain is capable of sprouting new neurons. Biologists had long
believed that this talent for neurogenesis was reserved for young, developing minds
and was lost with age. But in the early part of the decade Elizabeth Gould, then at the
Rockefeller University, demonstrated that new cells arise in the adult
brain-particularly in a region called the hippocampus, which is involved in learning
and memory. Similar reports soon followed in species from mice to marmosets, and by
1998 neuroscientists in the U.S. and Sweden had shown that neurogenesis also occurs
in humans [see "New Nerve Cells for the Adult Brain," by Gerd Kempermann and Fred
H. Gage; Scientific American, May 1999]. www.SciAm.com SCIENTIFICAMERICAN47
Jana Leon
© 2009 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.48 Scienti f ic American March 2009
[The Author]Tracey J. Shors, a professor in the department of psychology and the
Center for Collaborative Neuroscience at Rutgers University, has had a long-standing
interest in the neurobiology of learning and memory. Working with Elizabeth Gould of Princeton University,
a discoverer of adult neurogenesis, Shors showed that learning enhances the survival
of new neurons in the hippocampus and that these neural recruits seem to be involved
in some aspects of learning. Some 10 years later Shors continues to ponder the
question: "Neurogenesis: What's learning got to do with it?" In rodents, studies of
neurogenesis generally involve injecting the animals with a drug called BrdU
(bromodeoxyuridine), which marks newly formed cells, making them stand out when viewed under a microscope. Those studies indicate that in rats, between 5,000 and 10,000 new neurons arise in the hippocampus every day. (Although the human hippocampus also welcomes new neurons, we do not know how many.)
The cells are not generated like clockwork, however. Instead their production can be influenced by a number of different environmental factors. For example, alcohol consumption has been shown to retard the generation of new brain cells. And their birth rate can be enhanced by exercise. Rats and mice that log time on a running wheel can kick out twice as many new cells as mice that lead a more sedentary life. Even eating blueberries seems to goose the generation of new neurons in the rat hippocampus.
Use It or Lose It
Exercise and other actions may help produce extra brain cells. But those new recruits do not necessarily stick around. Many if not most of them disappear within just a few weeks of arising. Of course, most cells in the body do not survive indefinitely. So the fact that these cells die is, in itself, not shocking. But their quick demise is a bit of a puzzler. Why would the brain go through the trouble of producing new cells only to have them disappear rapidly?
From our work in rats, the answer seems to be: they are made "just in case." If the animals are cognitively challenged, the cells will linger. If not, they will fade away. Gould, who is now at Princeton University, and I made this discovery in 1999, when we performed a series of experiments looking at the effect of learning on the survival of newborn neurons in the hippocampus of rat brains.
The learning task we used, called trace eyeblink conditioning [see box on page 50], is in some ways similar to the experiments in which Pavlov's dogs started to salivate when they heard a sound they associated with the arrival of dinner. In eyeblink conditioning, an animal hears a tone and then, some fixed time later (usually 500 milliseconds, or half a second), gets hit with a puff of air or a mild stimulation of the eyelid, which causes the animal to blink.
After enough trials-usually several hundred-the animal makes a mental connection between the tone and the eye stimulation: it learns to anticipate when the stimulus will arrive and to blink just before that happens. This "conditioned" response indicates that the animal has learned to associate the two events together in time. The rats' accomplishment may sound trivial, but the setup provides a good way to measure "anticipatory learning" in animals-the ability to predict the future based on what has happened in the past.
To examine the connection between learning [basics]
Where NewNeuronsForm
In the adult brain, new neurons arise in the hippocampus, a structure involved in learning and memory. Although the original discovery was made in rodents, new brain cells have since been found in adult humans as well. More specifically, the fresh crop of neurons arises in an area of the hippocampus called the dentate gyrus, highlighted in the brain slices at the right.
Humanbrain
Hippocampus Cross section of hippocampus
Dentate gyrus
courtesy of tracey j. shors (Shors); RubberballProductions Getty Images (woman); jen christiansen (illustrations) The tasks that rescue the most neurons are the ones that are hardest to learn.
© 2009 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.www.Sc iAm.com SCIENTIFIC AMERIC AN49
and neurogenesis, all the animals were injected with BrdU at the start of the experiments. One week later half the rats were recruited into the eyeblink training program; the others lounged in their home cages. After four or five days of training, we found that the rats that had learned to time their blink properly retained more BrdU-labeled neurons in the hippocampus than did the animals that had simply remained in their cages. We concluded that learning this task rescued cells that would otherwise have died. In the animals that received no training, very few of the newborn cells that had been labeled with BrdU at the start of the experiment could be seen at the end. And the better the animal learned, the more new neurons it retained. The same thing happens in animals that have learned to navigate a maze.
When we first started doing the eyeblink studies in the late 1990s, we examined the effects of training in animals that had learned well: in other words, rats that learned to blink within, say, 50 milliseconds of the eyelid stimulation-and did so in more than 60 percent of the trials. More recently, we asked whether animals that failed to learn-or that learned poorly-also retained new neurons after training. They did not. In studies published in 2007, rats that went through some 800 trials but never learned to anticipate the eyelid stimulation had just as few new neurons as the animals that never left their cages.
We also conducted eyeblink experiments in which we limited the animals' opportunity to learn. This time we gave rats only one day-200 trials-to get it right. In this situation, some animals learned to anticipate the stimulus, and others did not. Again, the rats that learned retained more of the new neurons than the rats that did not, even though all went through the same training. These data imply that it is the process of learning-and not simply the exercise of training or exposure to a different cage or a different routine-that rescues new neurons from death.
No Pain, No Gain
Although learning must occur if newborn hippocampal neurons are to survive, not all types of learning work. For example, training an animal to swim over to a platform that is visible in a pool of water does not enhance cell survival. Nor does training an animal to recognize that two stimuli, such as a tone and an eyeblink stimulus, occur almost simultaneously.
The reason these tasks fail to rescue new cells from death, we surmise, is that they do not require much thought. Swimming to a visible platform is something rats do readily. After all, they do not want to drown. And if eyelid stimulation overlaps in time with a tone, the animals do not need to form a memory trace of an event that happened in the past-the sound of the tone-to help them predict when the eyeblink stimulus will occur. They simply respond when they hear the sound.
We think that the tasks that rescue the most new neurons are the ones that are hardest to learn, requiring the most mental effort to master. To test this hypothesis, we took a task that is a bit of a no-brainer and made it a little more challenging. We started with the easy eyeblink task, in which the tone precedes but still overlaps in time with the eyelid stimulation. Learning that connection, as indicated above, does not typically rescue new neurons. Then we made this task more challenging by greatly extending the duration of the tone so that now the stimulus arrived toward the end of a very long sound.
Learning when to blink in this task is more difficult than in the easy test, because in this case blinking soon after the tone begins, like runners taking off after hearing the starting pistol, is not the correct response. The task is also more difficult than the standard, 500-millisecond trace test because the animal cannot use the
The micrograph at the right shows the hippocampus of a "Brainbow" mouse, which was engineered to produce differently colored proteins in its neurons. Dentate gyrus
COUrtesy of Jean Livet, Tamily Weissman, Joshua Sanes and Jeff Lichtman Harvard University (hippocampus); Courtesy of Benedetta Leuner (BrdU)
© 2009 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.50 Scienti f ic American March 2009
end of the tone as a signal to "get ready." Rather the rat must keep track of exactly when the tone started and estimate when the eyelid stimulation will occur-a real challenge for all animals, including humans. And we found that this challenge rescues as many, and sometimes more, new neurons than does the standard trace conditioning task.
Interestingly enough, among the animals that learned in our conditioning tasks those that were a bit slow-in that they required more trials to learn how to master a task-ended up with more new neurons than animals that learned fast. Thus, it seems that new neurons in the hippocampus respond best to learning that requires a concerted effort.
Timing Counts
Why effortful learning should be critical is not clear. One theory is that tasks requiring more thought-or taking longer periods of training to learn-activate more vigorously the networks of hippocampal nerve cells that include these newborn neurons, and that such activation is key. I tend to favor this hypothesis for a couple of reasons.
First, a number of investigators have demonstrated that tasks involving learning, such as the classical eyeblink conditioning test, generally increase the excitability of neurons in the hippocampus, making them become much more active. Furthermore, this hippocampal hustle and bustle goes hand in hand with learning: the animals that show the most activation are the ones that best learn the task.
Next, it appears there is a critical window of time in which learning can save newborn neurons-in rodents, between about one week and two weeks after the cells arise. One recent study in rats reported, for instance, that learning can rescue cells when the cells are seven to 10 days old. Training that occurs after that time is too late: the neurons are already dying off. And training before that time is too early to help. This learning window corresponds to the period when these newborn cells, which start life unspecialized, begin to differentiate into neurons-sprouting signal-detecting dendrites (which receive impulses from other parts of the brain) and axons (which carry messages to a neighboring region of the hippocampus called CA3). Around this time they also begin to re [learningtests]
What Rat StudiesRevealed
The author and her colleagues relied on "eyeblink conditioning" experiments to discover that working hard to learn something enhances the survival of new neurons. They began with a classical form of the experiment (top), in which an animal hears a tone that is followed half a second later by a stimulus that will make it blink. After several hundred trials, most animals learn to blink just before the stimulus arrives. Because the tone and the blink-inducing stimulus are separated in time, figuring out when to blink is difficult; this task rescues a large fraction of newborn neurons.
Rats master readily an easier version of the test-in which the blink stimulus overlaps with the tone (middle); this task does not enhance survival of new neurons. Making conditions more challenging-by having the rat wait much longer before the stimulus arrives (bottom)-rescues more neurons than even the classical approach does. Delay conditioning
classical "trace"conditioning long-Delay conditioning Difficulty
NigelCattlin Photo Researchers, Inc. (rat); jen christiansen (illustrations) It appears there is a critical window of time in which learning can save new neurons.
© 2009 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.www.Sc iAm.com SCIENTIFIC AMERIC AN51
spond appropriately to certain neurotransmitters-the chemicals that carry communications between nerve cells.
These observations suggest that the new cells must be somewhat mature and wired into networks with other neurons in the brain before they can respond to learning. When learning is difficult, neurons throughout the hippocampus-including the new recruits-are fully engaged. And these recruits survive. But if the animal is not challenged, the new neurons lack the stimulation they need to survive and then simply fade away.
What Do They Do?
So thousands of new cells arise in the hippocampus every day, and if an animal is challenged to learn, these cells stay around. But what function do they perform? They cannot, of course, help with learning in real time as they arise. Much learning occurs almost instantaneously (over the course of seconds, if not less). Faced with a new task, the brain cannot very well wait around a week or so for new neurons to be born, mature and hook up into functional networks before an animal can begin to learn. My colleagues and I suspected that the stockpiled cells influence some aspects of learning later on.
To test that idea, we decided to get rid of newborn brain cells. If these cells become important for learning, we reasoned, animals that lacked them would be less successful students. Of course, excising every single new cell from an animal's brain would be technically impossible. Instead we prevented the cells from being generated in the first place by treating rats for several weeks with a drug called MAM, which stops cells from dividing. Then the animals hit the classroom.
Rats treated with MAM, we found, were poor students in the standard, 500-millisecond trace eyeblink conditioning task. They had a difficult time learning to anticipate the stimulus. Yet the treated animals performed well on many other learning tasks that depend on the [hypothesis]
howlearning helpsto save newneurons During their first week of life, newborn hippocampal cells migrate from the edge of the dentate gyrus in to a deeper area, where they mature and become wired into a network of neurons. Learning that occurs when the cells are between about one to two weeks old enhances their survival-perhaps exerting this effect by stimulating existing neurons, which in turn release signals that foster maturation of young cells. In the absence of learning during the maturation period, most new hippocampal cells will die. Learningwindow
Learning that occurs about seven to 14 days after a new cell's birth maximizes its chance of survival Day 1 •Stem cells give rise to a cell destined to become a new neuron Day 14 •New neuron is active and wired into a learning network Day 7 •Newborn cell migrates and becomes an immature neuron
Stem cell Immature new neuron
Functional new neuron
Connection to cells in CA3 region of hippocampus
Dendrite receiving signals from elsewhere in the brain
Stem cell progeny (newborn cells)
jen christiansen
CA3 region of hippocampus
Area enlarged
Dentate gyrus
© 2009 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.52 Scienti f ic American March 2009
hippocampus, such as the Morris water maze. In this task, rats are dropped into a pool of opaque liquid through which they must swim until they find a submerged platform. The walls of the pool are marked with spatial cues that help the animals navigate. Rats bereft of recently born neurons caught on just as quickly as their untreated mates.
In our hands, animals that were treated with MAM also learned to remember the place in which an emotional experience occurred. For example, rats that received a mildly unpleasant stimulus to the foot when placed into a particular cage froze the moment they were put back there. This type of emotional learning, known as contextual fear conditioning, also depends on the hippocampus, but it did not give our treated animals any problems.
All told, the learning abilities of rats with few new neurons were relatively unimpaired. The animals did seem to have trouble learning more difficult associations, such as figuring out that a sound always precedes a stimulation to the eyelid by half a second. We surmise, therefore, that if the new neurons are necessary for learning at all, they come into play only in a select set of situations, apparently those involving some cognitive effort.
Biologically speaking, that kind of specialization makes sense: an animal would not want to rely on producing and developing an entire cohort of new neurons to respond to situations that will affect its immediate survival. So presumably the added cells, once they mature, are used to fine-tune or boost problem-solving skills that already exist. In the lingo of psychology, enhancement of such skills is called "learning to learn."
What about My Brain?
All the studies discussed thus far were conducted in laboratory animals-either mice or rats. What would happen in humans who did not produce new neurons in the hippocampus? Modern medicine, sadly, provides us with a population of ready-made subjects: people who are undergoing systemic drug treatment (chemotherapy) for cancer. Like treatment with MAM, chemotherapy impairs the cell division required for generating new cells. It is perhaps no coincidence, then, that people who have had chemotherapy often complain that they have trouble learning and remembering things, a syndrome sometimes referred to colloquially as "chemobrain."
In some ways, the observation fits our animal data. Like rodents who show very mild or limited cognitive impairment after MAM treatment, people undergoing chemotherapy function quite well under most circumstances. They get dressed, go to work, make meals, socialize with friends and family, and otherwise continue to live their lives. Which makes sense. Given the findings in laboratory animals, one would not expect profound or pervasive deficits in basic cognitive functions. Rather one would expect selective deficits in more difficult types of learning processes-the kinds of things everyone finds challenging, such as multitasking that calls for juggling multiple projects while trying to process new information.
To establish that neurogenesis plays a role in human learning, investigators need to develop noninvasive methods for detecting new neurons in the living brain, and they need to find reversible ways to prevent the cells' maturation during the learning process. The former methods are what helps, what hurts
Learning promotes the survival of new neurons but does not affect the number of cells produced. Other interventions, however, have been found to influence the generation of neurons in rodents.
BOOSTERS
Exercise
Antidepressants
Blueberries BLOCKERS
Alcohol
Nicotine
what's next?
Much remains to be discovered about how learning affects the survival of new neurons in the hippocampus. First, we would like to determine the molecular mechanisms by which cognitive challenges save new cells. Which neurotransmitters are involved? Which receptor proteins? And when exactly do those mechanisms operate? Does learning help new neurons to become integrated into neuronal networks, or does it promote the survival of those that are already connected? Further, how do neurons produced in the mature brain contribute to the ability to gain knowledge?
Those kinds of studies are being done in animals. But we would also like to understand more about neurogenesis in humans-both in healthy individuals and in people with diseases such as Alzheimer's.
To do that, we will need noninvasive ways to monitor the birth and death of newborn neurons in the human brain. Armed with that ability, we could begin to address some interesting issues, such as how much neurogenesis goes on in a healthy human brain versus a brain afflicted by Alzheimer's. Ultimately, we could also examine whether an intervention such as gene therapy could increase the numbers of new neurons generated in the human hippocampus-and whether particular brain-exercising activities would help keep those new neurons around. -T.S.
jen christiansen Could neurogenesis somehow be exploited for preventing or treating disorders that
bring about cognitive decline?
© 2009 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.54 Scienti f ic American March 2009
More To➥Explore Learning Enhances Adult Neurogenesis in the Hippocampal Formation. Elizabeth Gould, Anna Beylin, Patima Tanapat, Alison Reeves and Tracey J. Shors in Nature Neuroscience, Vol. 2, No. 3, pages 260-265; March 1999. Neurogenesis in the Adult Is Involved in the Formation of Trace Memories. Tracey J. Shors, George Miesegaes, Anna Beylin, Mingrui Zhao, Tracy Rydel and Elizabeth Gould in Nature, Vol. 410, pages 372-376; March 15, 2001. Neurogenesis, Learning and Associative Strength. Jaylyn Waddell and Tracey J. Shors in European Journal of Neuroscience, Vol. 27, No. 11, pages 3020-3028; June 2008.
being developed, and the latter are likely to be some time off.
Suppose, for the moment, though, that having a ready supply of new neurons on tap does help to keep the human brain intellectually limber. Could neurogenesis, then, somehow be exploited for preventing or treating disorders that bring about cognitive decline?
Consider the case of Alzheimer's, in which degeneration of hippocampal neurons leads to a progressive loss of memory and of learning ability. People with Alzheimer's do continue to produce new neurons, but it seems that many of the cells do not survive to become fully mature. Perhaps the process of neurogenesis and neuronal maturation is impaired in these individuals. Or perhaps the new cells do not survive because the disease hampers the ability to learn.
Yet some findings offer hope, at least for those in the early stages of dementia. As mentioned earlier, studies in healthy animals and people suggest that simple actions such as aerobic exercise can boost the production of new neurons. In addition, antidepressants have been found to be powerful modulators of neurogenesis. And a study in 2007 found that chronic treatment with antidepressants increases daily living and global functioning in patients with Alzheimer's-a hint, at least, that such therapy might promote production and survival of new neurons in patients.
Anecdotal accounts suggest that effortful learning may also help some patients. I recently presented our animal data at a meeting about Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. The clinicians in the audience were intrigued by our findings indicating that efforts to learn something difficult help to preserve freshly minted nerve cells. They report having seen benefits from such exertions in their patients. And they note that patients who can fully engage themselves in cognitively demanding activities may be able to delay the progression of this mind-robbing disease.
That said, it would be foolish to think that cognitive engagement combined with antidepressants or physical activity could completely reverse the damage done by a disease such as Alzheimer's, which kills many more brain cells than just new ones. It could be, though, that such activities might slow the rate of cognitive decline-in people grappling with degenerative diseases and, perhaps, in all our brains as we grow older.
They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, and certainly as adults, many of us find it painful to learn something completely new. But if we want to keep our brains in shape, it probably would not hurt to learn a new language, take up tap dancing, or tackle some fast gaming after your Wii Fit workout-and it might even help. ¡ the more challenginga cognitive task is, the more new neurons it is likely to rescue, if findings from rodents hold true in humans.
PhotoAlto Getty Images; PHOTOILLUSTRATIONBYJENCHRISTIANSEN(book title)
© 2009 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.
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Genetically Engineered Foods: An experiment on the Masses.
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Pusztai found that rats fed GM potatoes had smaller livers,Hearts, testicles and brains, as well as damaged immune
Systems; they showed structural changes in their white blood Cells, making them more vulnerable to infection and disease
Compared to other rats fed non- GM potatoes. It got worse.Thymus and spleen damage showed up, as did enlarged tissues,
Including the pancreas and intestines. There were cases of liver atrophy as well as significant proliferation of stomach and
intestinal cells that could be a sign of greater future risk of cancer. Equally alarming was that all this happened after only
10 days of testing, andthe changes persisted after 110 days- that's the human equivalent of 10 years.
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