Neurogenesis: How to Change Your Brain

I have been a proponent of the following proposition:

Follow the “Best Practices”, namely: Eat Right, Exercise Daily, Become Involved in
Stimulating Intellectual, Social and Creative Activity. Add to that the admonition take
your medication. This will prolong ones time in the greater functional capacity of Early
Stage Alzheimer’s Disease.

Medicine, Science and recently the National Institute of Health (NIH) have come out to
say this is not true because it has not been proven. The Best Practices do not prolong ones
time in Early Stage. The deterioration of the brain in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD)
progresses unremittingly. In pronouncing this the NIH stated although interesting and
difficult to dispel, the findings as they relate to the positive affect of the Best Practices
have not been scientifically proven.

Proof in Science, Medicine and Philosophy seem to follow this process. If it’s anecdotal
it should be disregarded. Anecdotal they define as: specific instance or instances having
similarity, not of sufficient number or consequence to be suggestive of anything more
than interesting.

To constitute truth it must rise above anecdotal to theory, then hypothesis, and then
principle. If principle, namely proven to be so, more than hypothesized or theorized than
it is acceptable as truth to doctors, scientists and philosophers.

In Medicine and Science it is taken a step further than the above. If it is not principle it is
not true, or so it seems, as we hear the pronouncements of the NIH.

I have wondered as I have followed the Best Practices and have had the experience I have
had, whether or not the brain is acting in a similar way that it does with stroke therapy.
With stroke therapy it is surmised that the brain regenerates. It does this by learning new
pathways to replace ones lost. It generates new tissue to pick up and replace lost
functions.

If this is true does it also work in loss from AD?

I recently wrote on another board in answer to the question what is Vascular Dementia
and Regeneration of the Brain. My answer, (that of a layman) was this:

Vascular Dementia is a common cause of dementia often appearing as a gradual

progressive deterioration like Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Often it is mistaken as AD.

Vascular Dementia in its most common state is the result of brain damage because
of a damaging stroke. This can be because of a clot in the vessels of the brain,
cutting off blood supply starving brain cells to death or the result of a hemorrhage
 of the vessel producing a loss of supply of blood and directly damaging the brain
by reason of the bleed. Both are easily identified and are subjected to extensive
physical and occupational therapy to retrain the body and brain to overcome the
losses resulting from the stroke.

The sneakier version of strokes are what's called Transient Ischemic Accident
(TIA's) Often they do no damage directly, leave no trace, and resulting damage is
harder to detect. Others cause minute damage which again is difficult to trace and
deal with directly. These have the feature of seeming a chronic process because
they can repeat in multiples over time causing a gradual deterioration.

Because of the passage of time I suspect they are less amenable to the retraining
by therapy. I do not know this other than as a layman, but, I believe the retraining
phase of therapy is most effective when the damage producing dysfunction is
recent. The more the damage is set in time the harder it is to deal with.

The medical field theorizes that the brain in therapy can be taught new ways of
doing functions lost by damage. It is also believed the brain has the capacity to
regenerate, to make new pathways able to conduct a lost function. A wonderful
book that details this is Jill Taylor's "My Stroke of Insight" that I recommend. Are
regeneration and the learning new ways effective with AD. I think so. With AD
well informed patients tell you to follow the “Best Practices”.

I have no idea nor have I found any treatment of this in what writing I have found in
research except:

Nonetheless I have found two articles that seem directly on point.

The first I posted on Wednesday, October 27, 2010 entitled Health Brain Aging. The
second is posted today, Neurogenesis: How to Change Your Brain Click on both of them
to go and read them on my Archive.

The second article posted cites reasons explaining this capacity of the brain. It explains
how this capacity can be enhanced.

It also states “Studies reveal decreased BDNF in Alzheimer's patients” Does this negate
the possibility of the enhancement occurring with an AD brain.

I of course do not know. All I know is the Best Practices are working with me. They are
working with other I see.

This needs to be said. Some might say I don’t may not have AD it could be vascular
disease producing my dementia.

Consistent with that, I have had two TIA’s that were treated and 3 other events which
remain unexplained other than at the time I was told even though they appeared to be
stroke they were not. No other name could be put on the three events previous to the
TIA’s

The TIA’s were said to be Amaurosis fugax. That is a temporary clot in the blood vessels
of the eye. In my case the first caused the entire loss of vision in one eye which lasted 20
minutes, the second a partial loss of about the same duration.

These were treated vigorously following which I have dosed myself with increased
statins and blood thinners.

It would seem to me that if the first three added to the next two equaling five in all were
the cause of my dementia it would have plateaued after the time of the last one that
preceded my dx of AD. It did not plateau, my AD has slowly but consistently progressed
since that time.

Accordingly on Neuro Psychometric testing I was determined to have an atypical AD.

David Perlmutter, M.D.

Board-Certified Neurologist and author of upcoming book, "Power Up Your Brain."
Posted: November 2, 2010 07:26 AM
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Neurogenesis: How to Change Your Brain
Read More: Alzheimer's , Alzheimer's Disease , Brain Cell Growth , Brain Growth , Brain
Neurogenesis , Human Brain Growth , Human Neurogenesis , Health News

"In adult centers the nerve paths are something fixed, ended, immutable. Everything may die,
nothing may be regenerated."
-- Santiago Ramon Y Cajal, "Degeneration and Regeneration in the Nervous System," 1928
This long-held tenet, first proposed by Professor Cajal, held that brain neurons were unique
because they lacked the ability to regenerate.

In 1998, the journal Nature Medicine published a report indicating that neurogenesis, the growth
of new brain cells, does indeed occur in humans. As Sharon Begley remarked in her book, "Train
Your Mind, Change Your Brain," "The discovery overturned generations of conventional wisdom
in neuroscience. The human brain is not limited to the neurons it is born with, or even the
neurons that fill in after the explosion of brain development in early childhood."
What the researchers discovered was that within each of our brains there exists a population of
neural stem cells which are continually replenished and can differentiate into brain neurons.
Simply stated, we are all experiencing brain stem cell therapy every moment of our lives.

As one might expect, the process of neurogenesis is controlled by our DNA. A specific gene codes
for the production of a protein, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) which plays a key role
in creating new neurons. Studies reveal decreased BDNF in Alzheimer's patients, as well as in a
variety of neurological conditions including epilepsy, depression, schizophrenia and obsessive-
compulsive disorder.

Fortunately, many of the factors that influence our DNA to produce BDNF factors are under our
direct control. The gene that turns on BDNF is activated by a variety of factors including physical
exercise, caloric restriction, curcumin and the omega-3 fat, DHA.

This is a powerful message. These factors are all within our grasp and represent choices we can
make to turn on the gene for neurogenesis. Thus, we can treat ourselves to stem cell therapy by
taking control of our gene expression.

Physical Exercise
Laboratory rats that exercise have been shown to produce far more BDNF in their brains
compared to sedentary animals. And there is a direct relationship between elevation of BDNF
levels in these animals and their ability to learn, as one might expect.
With this understanding of the relationship of BDNF to exercise, researchers in a report in
theJournal of the American Medical Association, entitled "Effect of Physical Activity in Cognitive
Function in Older Adults at Risk for Alzheimer's Disease," found that elderly individuals engaged
in regular physical exercise for a 24-week period had an improvement of an astounding 1,800
percent on measures of memory, language ability, attention and other important cognitive
functions compared to an age-matched group not involved in the exercise program.
The mechanism by which exercise enhances brain performance is described in these and other
studies as sitting squarely with increased production of BDNF. Just by engaging in regular
physical exercise, you open the door to the possibility of actively taking control of your mental
destiny.

Caloric Restriction
In January, 2009, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science published a study entitled
"Caloric Restriction Improves Memory in Elderly Humans." In this study, German researchers
imposed a 30 percent calorie reduction on the diets of elderly individuals and compared their
memory function with a similar age group who basically ate whatever they wanted. At the
conclusion of the three-month study, those who ate without restriction experienced a small, but
clearly defined decline in memory function, while memory function in the group consuming the
calorie-reduced diet actually increased, and fairly profoundly. In recognition of the obvious
limitations of current pharmaceutical approaches to brain health, the authors concluded, "The
present findings may help to develop new prevention and treatment strategies for maintaining
cognitive health into old age." What a concept. Preventive medicine for the brain.
Curcumin
Because curcumin, the main active ingredient in the spice turmeric, increases BDNF, it has
attracted the interest of neuroscientists around the world. Interestingly, in evaluating villages in
India where turmeric is used in abundance in curried recipes, epidemiological studies have found
that Alzheimer's disease is only about 25 percent as common as in the U.S. There is little doubt
that the positive effects of enhanced BDNF production on brain neurons is at least part of the
reason why those consuming curcumin are so resistant to this brain disorder.
DHA
Like curcumin, DHA enhances gene expression for the production of BDNF. In a recently
completed double-blind interventional trial, 485 healthy older individuals (average age 70 years)
with mild memory problems were given a supplement containing DHA from marine algae or
placebo for six months. Lead researcher of the study, Dr. Karin Yurko-Mauro, commented, "In
our study, healthy people with memory complaints who took algal DHA capsules for six months
had almost double the reduction in errors on a test that measures learning and memory
performance versus those who took a placebo ... The benefit is roughly equivalent to having the
learning and memory skills of someone three years younger."
Harnessing the expression of our DNA is empowering, and the tools to better brain health are
available to us all -- right now!

Sources:
Results of the MIDAS trial: Effects of docosahexaenoic acid on physiological and safety
parameters in age-related cognitive decline. Karin Yurko-Mauro, Deanna McCarthy, Eileen
Bailey-Hall, Edward B. Nelson, Andrew Blackwell, MIDAS Investigators

Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, July 2009 (Vol. 5, Issue 4,
Supplement, Page P84).

David Perlmutter, MD, FACN, ABIHM is a Board-Certified Neurologist and Fellow of the
American College of Nutrition who received his M.D. degree from the University of Miami
School of Medicine where he was awarded the Leonard G. Rowntree Research Award. After
completing residency training in Neurology, also at the University of Miami, Dr. Perlmutter
entered private practice in Naples, Florida.