4 ms·
I wonder how factors associated with high blood pressure, such as diet and exercise, also contribute to the damages on the brain.
by cypher517 14y ago
I wonder how factors associated with high blood pressure, such as diet and exercise, also contribute to the damages on the brain.
- hluska 14y agoGreat question! As far as diet and exercise go, researchers from UCLA conducted an experiment. They found that (in mice) a high fat diet reduces the level of brain derived neurotrophic factors. These levels are a predictor of how well you will learn. However, exercise can counteract these effects. Dehydration causes a range of neurological problems. Essentially, if you don't have enough water to cleanse your system, your body starts using amino acids. These amino acids would normally be used up building neurotransmitters, so, this can cause all sorts of problems, from what resembles ADHD, to depression, or even conditions that look like autoimmune disorders.
- omnisci 14y agoIt is pretty well established that exercise can have a huge effect on brain function, specifically through increasing blood flow. Diet will as well, although the mechanisms by which this happens are probably not as well understood. Actually, now that I think about it, there are a bunch of articles on this. I'm not familiar with the field as much, but I can point you to a free review paper that goes over the topic. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22141190 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22141190