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Drugs that tamp down inflammation in the brain could slow cognitive decline
- spdmn 7y agoInflammation in all parts of the body seem to be problematic and the source of all kinds of disease and other sorts of deficiencies. What sorts of studies and preventative treatments are leading this field?
- marcbal77 7y agoFrom all my readings, some natural preventative strategies seem to be: not eating sugar or long chain complex carbohydrates and sleeping consistently a full night of sleep (removing alcohol or caffeine cited multiple times seems to help).
- lhl 7y agoSleep (and related, circadian health) are some super interesting topics of emerging research. For those that like books, there are two recent ones written by researchers in the field. Matthew Walker's Why We Sleep, and Satchin Panda's Circadian Code that are pretty breezy reads. (there are YouTube interviews and TED talks as well): For those that prefer more succinct reviews and want to spelunk citations, these are a couple good starting points: Potter, Gregory D. M., Debra J. Skene, Josephine Arendt, Janet E. Cade, Peter J. Grant, and Laura J. Hardie. “Circadian Rhythm and Sleep Disruption: Causes, Metabolic Consequences, and Countermeasures.” Endocrine Reviews 37, no. 6 (December 2016): 584–608. https://doi.org/10.1210/er.2016-1083 https://doi.org/10.1210/er.2016-1083. Manoogian, Emily NC, and Satchidananda Panda. “Circadian Rhythms, Time-Restricted Feeding, and Healthy Aging.” Ageing Research Reviews 39 (October 2017): 59–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2016.12.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2016.12.006.
- marcbal77 7y agoAside from the drugs mentioned, read "Why We Sleep" by Matthew Walker and all the natural hormonal drugs that happen when one consistently sleeps.
- jermo 7y agoMatthew Walker's "Why We Sleep" Is Riddled with Scientific and Factual Errors https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/ https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/
- efoto 7y agoNot that fast. Unfortunately, "Why We Sleep" appears to be rather controversial. [1] https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/ https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/ [2] https://www.wired.com/story/stop-obsessing-over-sleepyour-brain-will-thank-you/ https://www.wired.com/story/stop-obsessing-over-sleepyour-br...
- onetimemanytime 7y agoMaybe, but we do sleep for roughly 1/3rd of our life. Something might be in there.
- pps 7y ago"I study sleep. While some of walker's claims may be hyperbolic, I think they are within reason and justified by the important message he is trying to convey. Too many people have begun to forego sleep in their health choices, and he has helped raise awareness of sleep's role in our health. Many of these criticisms are quite unfair or misunderstanding the science." https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/dwtr0m/matthew_walkers_why_we_sleep_is_riddled_with/f7mid7m/ https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/dwtr0m/matt...
- knzhou 7y agoFrom the perspective of a non-biologist reader only seeing popular articles, the past ten years have been completely bewildering. Nutrition has seemingly been boiled down to a couple of magic totems that are always simplistically either good or bad. Antioxidants are good. Inflammation is bad. Telomeres are good. Carbs are bad. All the "bad" things get associated with each other and anti-associated with the good things. Carbs have less antioxidants, which prevent inflammation, which shortens telomeres. Everything is associated in a completely mysterious way to "the gut". Carbs are bad. Why? The gut. We read this in more words and nod sagely. It gives me the feeling of reading a children's picture book. Biology isn't supposed to be this simple. If inflammation were always bad, our bodies wouldn't have evolved to do it. I'm not saying the science is wrong, I'm sure it's well thought out, but something is getting severely oversimplified in the leap to popular articles, to the point that I don't trust any nutrition advice based on the pop science. Does anybody know of a better source?
- airstrike 7y ago> Biology isn't supposed to be this simple. I don't this new understanding implies biology is simple, but it looks like we had previously understood the urban, Western diet's consumption levels of sugar and simple carbs as "normal" when in reality it wreaks havoc in seemingly everyone's system. We now have enough data to think critically about our diet so it's almost like Nutrition is a whole new field of study that is being discovered.
- ianai 7y agoCarbs aren’t bad and protein isn’t some miracle. First I’ve heard of proteins being a source of antioxidants if carbs can’t be their source. Really colorful things like the skin of blueberries tend to be the highest sources of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. Also is there some dietary source of telomeres? Slightly sarcastic there... “How not to die” really combined a lot of knowledge, including dietary knowledge, into one place. Netflix’s “the game changers” was cool, too. I spend/spent a lot of time on nutritional information sites like the SELF or nutritional value org site. I research ingredients and recipes that way to make dietary choices. It’s the pretty “boring”, uncontested data in the dietary mine field. General trends include Whole foods tend to have the highest concentrations of nutrients per calorie. Stay away from processed foods like white sugar, white flour, etc.
- lhl 7y agoAlternatively, you can quite dramatically reduce inflammation in the brain via some simple lifestyle modifications (cutting out sugar, intermittent fasting): Mattson, Mark P., Keelin Moehl, Nathaniel Ghena, Maggie Schmaedick, and Aiwu Cheng. “Intermittent Metabolic Switching, Neuroplasticity and Brain Health.” Nature Reviews. Neuroscience 19, no. 2 (February 2018): 63–80. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2017.156 https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2017.156. Pinto, Alessandro, Alessio Bonucci, Elisa Maggi, Mariangela Corsi, and Rita Businaro. “Anti-Oxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Ketogenic Diet: New Perspectives for Neuroprotection in Alzheimer’s Disease.” Antioxidants 7, no. 5 (April 28, 2018). https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox7050063 https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox7050063. Gao, Yuanqing, Maximilian Bielohuby, Thomas Fleming, Gernot F. Grabner, Ewout Foppen, Wagner Bernhard, Mara Guzmán-Ruiz, et al. “Dietary Sugars, Not Lipids, Drive Hypothalamic Inflammation.” Molecular Metabolism 6, no. 8 (June 20, 2017): 897–908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmet.2017.06.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmet.2017.06.008. White, Hayden, Karthik Venkatesh, and Bala Venkatesh. “Systematic Review of the Use of Ketones in the Management of Acute and Chronic Neurological Disorders.” Journal of Neurology and Neuroscience 08, no. 02 (2017). https://doi.org/10.21767/2171-6625.1000188 https://doi.org/10.21767/2171-6625.1000188. Alirezaei, Mehrdad, Christopher C. Kemball, Claudia T. Flynn, Malcolm R. Wood, J. Lindsay Whitton, and William B. Kiosses. “Short-Term Fasting Induces Profound Neuronal Autophagy.” Autophagy 6, no. 6 (August 16, 2010): 702–10. https://doi.org/10.4161/auto.6.6.12376 https://doi.org/10.4161/auto.6.6.12376. Mattson, Mark P. “Energy Intake, Meal Frequency, and Health: A Neurobiological Perspective.” Annual Review of Nutrition 25 (2005): 237–60. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.nutr.25.050304.092526 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.nutr.25.050304.092526. This incidentally also reduces system-wide inflammation among other benefits as well: Houtman, Judith, Kiara Freitag, Niclas Gimber, Jan Schmoranzer, Frank L. Heppner, and Marina Jendrach. “Beclin1‐driven Autophagy Modulates the Inflammatory Response of Microglia via NLRP3.” The EMBO Journal, January 7, 2019, e99430. https://doi.org/10.15252/embj.201899430 https://doi.org/10.15252/embj.201899430. Camell, Christina, Emily Goldberg, and Vishwa Deep Dixit. “Regulation of Nlrp3 Inflammasome by Dietary Metabolites.” Seminars in Immunology 27, no. 5 (September 2015): 334–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smim.2015.10.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smim.2015.10.004. Yamanashi, Takehiko, Masaaki Iwata, Naho Kamiya, Kyohei Tsunetomi, Naofumi Kajitani, Nodoka Wada, Takahiro Iitsuka, et al. “Beta-Hydroxybutyrate, an Endogenic NLRP3 Inflammasome Inhibitor, Attenuates Stress-Induced Behavioral and Inflammatory Responses.” Scientific Reports 7, no. 1 (August 9, 2017): 7677. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-08055-1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-08055-1. Youm, Yun-Hee, Kim Y. Nguyen, Ryan W. Grant, Emily L. Goldberg, Monica Bodogai, Dongin Kim, Dominic D’Agostino, et al. “Ketone Body β-Hydroxybutyrate Blocks the NLRP3 Inflammasome-Mediated Inflammatory Disease.” Nature Medicine 21, no. 3 (March 2015): 263–69. https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3804 https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3804. Marín‐Aguilar, Fabiola, Ana V. Lechuga‐Vieco, Elísabet Alcocer‐Gómez, Beatriz Castejón‐Vega, Javier Lucas, Carlos Garrido, Alejandro Peralta‐Garcia, et al. “NLRP3 Inflammasome Suppression Improves Longevity and Prevents Cardiac Aging in Male Mice.” Aging Cell 0, no. 0 (n.d.): e13050. https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13050 https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13050. Xiao, Yichen, Wenna Xu, and Wenru Su. “NLRP3 Inflammasome: A Likely Target for the Treatment of Allergic Diseases.” Clinical and Experimental Allergy: Journal of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology 48, no. 9 (2018): 1080–91. https://doi.org/10.1111/cea.13190 https://doi.org/10.1111/cea.13190. Bugyei-Twum, Antoinette, Armin Abadeh, Kerri Thai, Yanling Zhang, Melissa Mitchell, Golam Kabir, and Kim A. Connelly. “Suppression of NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation Ameliorates Chronic Kidney Disease-Induced Cardiac Fibrosis and Diastolic Dysfunction.” Scientific Reports 6 (December 21, 2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep39551 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep39551.
- 0898 7y agoWhat actually is inflammation?
- tooMuchCensor 7y agoI've been a casual reader about it. It seems to be the healing process, but it can go overboard and be counter productive.
- 6d6b73 7y agoWouldn't it be better and more effective to treat the cause of the inflammation instead?
- whatshisface 7y agoMaybe, but what's the plan to do that?
- whoanow 7y agoOccasional fasting, diet, exercise, sleep, positive relationships.
- qrbLPHiKpiux 7y agoNot eating inflammatory foods. Severely limit sugar, carbohydrates. Not eating as much. Enough sleep.
- antasvara 7y agoThat's a misunderstanding of the article, it says that the issue is due to the leaky blood brain barrier. The chemicals for inflammation in the body aren't inherently bad, they're just not designed to be in the brain. Decreasing the source of that inflammation could help but it's not the issue being discussed here.
- grabbalacious 7y agoChronic inflammation appears to be caused by persistent self-stimulation -- eating for comfort or pleasure, not getting enough sleep, chain-smoking, getting high, etc, without respite. So it's not really a biological problem. It's a widespread personal problem with complex biological consequences.
- aw4y 7y agocan you expand this concept?
- grabbalacious 7y agoNot much because it's quite nebulous. It does seem to make scientific sense that the body would reduce such defences to bare essentials like inflammation and blood clotting during crisis in order to save energy. These systems would normally come fully back online during 'rest and digest' periods when the short-term crisis is over. Why do people enjoy chronic activation of the sympathetic nervous system? I think it's a form of distraction: a way of avoiding boredom or the contemplation of painful memories and personal problems. This is common sense for many people but it obviously isn't being addressed by the harder biological and medical journals because they don't like to talk about subjective experiences. Presumably because they require objectivity and they think of subjectivity as being the opposite. But this is itself a misconception: https://twitter.com/DavidDeutschOxf/status/1174630365912326144 https://twitter.com/DavidDeutschOxf/status/11746303659123261...
- aw4y 7y agothanks. in the end, I think your view is quite interesting. thanks for sharing.
- grabbalacious 7y agoA pleasure!
- acupofnope 7y ago
- louma12 7y agoDrugs are the only cause of psychological and physical affect of the inflammation in the brain
- to1y 7y agoStress, injury, etc