The Effects Of Alcohol on the Neuronal Subserving of Behavior in the Hippocampus

Alcohol is bad for our health, this is an old ,old topic.But few people know how does it do harm to our health.

Its effects can be divided into acute and chronic. Acute poisoning often happens in the oral.There are 4 stages: excited, hypnosis, anesthesia, choking.When in the third and forth stage, sufferers may experience loss of consciousness, pupil dilation, irregular breathing, shock, heart failure and stop breathing cycles. Chronic effects often happens when one exposure to high concentrations of this product for a long time.It often causes membrane irritation of nose, eyes, mucous,even headache, dizziness, fatigue, eas ily excited, tremor, nausea, etc. Long-term alcohol abuse can cause multiple neuropathy, chronic gastritis, fatty liver, cirrhosis of the liver, myocardium damage and organic psychosis and so on.

Besides the above effects, a research from Scientific Research Publishing found some other new effects of acute and chronic ethanol(the experiment is based on Hippocampus).The following is the general:

In the present study, we concentrate on the chronic effects of ethanol on the hippocampus. We demonstrate how the neuronal activity underlying food-acquisition behavior is modified after chronic ethanol treatment, and how the hippocampus subserves formation of newly-formed alcohol-acquisition behavior. Neuronal activity in CA1 was more sensitive to chronic ethanol than the Dg area. Acute administration of ethanol had a normalizing effect on the chronically-treated animals: their performance and the hippocampal neural activity approached a normal range. The sets of neurons involved in food-acquisition behavior formed before chronic ethanol treatment, and those involved in alcohol-acquisition behavior formed after treatment significantly overlapped supporting the view that the neuronal mechanisms of pre-existing behavior provide the basis for the formation of new behavior. Additionally, we also discovered alcohol-acquisition selective neurons. Assuming that the formation of new neuronal specializations underlies learning, we believe that alcohol-selective neurons are specialized during the formation of alcohol-acquisition behavior. Our data demonstrate several new findings on the effect of acute and chronic ethanol on hippocampus activity, and how the neuronal activity relates to behavior before and after ethanol treatment.

You can read more at< The Effect ofEthanol on the Neuronal Subserving of Behavior in the Hippocampus >.

Have We Been Giving the Wrong Dietary Advice?

What is a healthy diet? This is a matter of concern to everyone.So we often read some health book.But a research from SCIRP raises doubt: Have we been giving the wrong dietary advice?The following is the background, methods, findings ,interpretation of the research:

Background: Since 1984 UK citizens have been advised to reduce total dietary fat intake to 30% of total energy and saturated fat intake to 10%. The National Institute of Clinical Excellence [NICE] suggests a further benefit for Coronary Heart Disease [CHD] prevention by reducing saturated fat [SFA] intake to 6% - 7% of total energy and that 30,000 lives could be saved by replacing SFAs with Polyunsaturated fats [PUFAs]. Methods: 20 volumes of the Seven Countries Study, the seminal work behind the 1984 nutritional guidelines, were assessed. The evidence upon which the NICE guidance was based was reviewed. Nutritional facts about fat and the UK intake of fat are presented and the impact of macronutrient confusion on public health dietary advice is discussed. Findings: The Seven Countries study classified processed foods, primarily carbohydrates, as saturated fats. The UK government and NICE do the same, listing biscuits, cakes, pastries and savoury snacks as saturated fats. Processed foods should be the target of public health advice but not natural fats, in which the UK diet is deficient. With reference to the macro and micro nutrient composition of meat, fish, eggs, and dairy foods the article demonstrates that dietary trials cannot change one type of fat for another in a controlled study. Interpretation: The evidence suggests that processed food is strongly associated with the increase in obesity, diabetes, CHD, and other modern illness in our society. The macro and micro nutrients found in meat, fish, eggs and dairy products, are vital for human health and consumption of these nutritious foods should be encouraged.

You can get more information through original essay<Food for Thought: Have We Been Giving the Wrong Dietary Advice?>.

Do you have any other opinions?

Research of pathology -A Probable Case of Secondary Infection

Palaeopathology research is of great difficulty for 2 reasons:1) Most of the ancient biological remains retaines only a skeleton part(Including the fossil),with only a small amount of the soft tissue left(such as ancient human mummies, frozen corpse, wet wax and peat tanning corpse,ect);2) Some pathological information can not be extracted for the preservation of the human skeleton various with different regions.Although with so many problems that hard to solve,scientists still devote themselves to the study.Because the study of the history of a disease, will contribute to the modern human for the prevention and treatment of the disease.A research from SCIRP presents a case study of differential diagnosis of pathological conditions which have been observed on the bones of the skeleton of a 30 - 34 years old female from Tell Masaikh (Syria).And use morphological, histological, radiological and molecular methods to assess the pathological lesions.In the end,the research illustrates the complications associated with differential diagnosis of pathological conditions from ancient bones.

Australian freshwater crocodile devours his smaller friend

The hungry croc was captured on camera chomping on one of its less fortunate cousins in a rare documented case of cannibalism. 

The moment was captured by David White, who runs Solar Whisper boat tours on the Daintree River in Queensland, Australia.

More animal research can be found at< OpenJournal of Animal Sciences>

To lose weight,the attitude is of important

How to lose weight is always a hot topic!There are all kinds of ways ,and medince of losing weight. Even a fantastic study states: clicking mouse can be helpful to weight lose,however overruled.The study on weight lose are in an endless stream.Because,not only femal need to lose weight,male also need nowadays.

A  research from SCIRP state that the attitudes towards losing weight make a difference:

To investigate motivators and strategies of adult weight loss or management, 1805 adults aged 18 - 65 were asked by computer assisted telephone interviews about their weight management behavior during the previous four weeks. High levels of importance to reduce risks associated with chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes were observed, although were indistinguishable between people attempting or not attempting to lose or maintain weight. Results showed that BMI was the strongest predictor of attempting to manage weight irrespective of age and, compared with males, females were more likely to attempt weight management at a lower BMI. Among the weight management group, the most popular weight management strategy was to choose healthier food options (77% and 70% for females and males respectively). With the weight management group also more likely to be monitoring the amount of food they consume, limiting portions sizes and tracking their physical activity participation compared with people not managing their weight. The current study showed that the likelihood of weight management within four weeks prior to the survey peaked for both sexes when BMI reached obese levels, (BMI = 30 - 39.9), suggesting that among people categorised as obese most were attempting to manage their weight. The results also suggest that at least some adults were not attempting to maintain their weight in the four weeks prior to the survey, irrespective of their BMI status. The implications of these findings suggest more effective approaches to weight loss and maintenance could focus on strategies that directly address the benefits and motivations of weight loss and weight maintenance, rather than focusing on conveying the risks of being overweight and the importance of avoiding chronic disease.

You can read and download < Attitudestowards, and methods of, maintaining or losing body weight among adults  > for more.

If you have the chance to transplant brain,you may be more like the organ donor

Are you ever curious about "Will brain transplants ever be possible? And, after the transplant, who would the person be – would they be the person whose brain was transplanted or the person whose body got the new brain?" On top of that, would continuous brain transplants be a good way to keep a mind alive forever? To the scientists.

Angelique Bordey, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine:

1. [Will there ever be brain transplants?] Not sure. Why not. Spooky though. You have to change not just the brain but also the spinal cord otherwise forget walking.

2. [Would the person's identity be maintained?] Psychological horrible as we grow our brain/mind to our body. So personality could change just due to the psychological shock.

3. [Could we stay alive forever this way?] No. our brain is aging as fast as the rest of our body. We will be able to replace organs heart lungs kidney…..with artificial ones but not the brain. We will all end up with cancer or Alzheimer or another neurodegeneration. Back to baby stage.

The bigger question: do we want to live forever? Why would we. Dying gives us a reason to live.

Khalid M. Abbed MD, Professor of Neurosurgery, Yale:

Human brain transplants are very far away but may someday be possible. A key step in making brain transplants possible is the ability to connect nerve fibers from the transplanted brain to the native spinal cord. This is very difficult and is one of the main reasons why severe spinal cord injuries are so devastating and usually permanent.

If brain transplants were possible, the identity of the person would undoubtedly change and be more like the identity of the donor of the transplanted brain. This is because, unlike a transplanted heart, the brain is where identity and personality are stored.

Konstantin Slavin MD, Professor of Neurosurgery, University of Illinois at Chicago:

Yes, I do believe the day will come when there will be a "whole body transplant" – so the brain of a person will be given a new body (and not the other way around). If this happens, the identity and personality of the original brain owner will be allowed to continue within new physical body, natural or artificial. This will not keep the person alive indefinitely as the brains age and degenerate over time – and I would not be very optimistic about our ability to stop aging completely.

[Dr. Slavin also referred us to the science fiction novel "Professor Dowell's Head," by Russian science fiction writer Alexander Belyaev. Someone please leave a book report in the discussion section.]

THE VERDICT: Yes! Neurosurgeons are optimistic about the theoretical possibility of a human brain transplant, although it does not seem to be coming in the near term. If you had your brain transplanted into another person's body, you would maintain your own identity, although you might be somewhat traumatized and fucked up by the experience. And no, transplants will not allow you to live forever—and really, would you want to?? (A: No, only until they invent robot sex.)

More advance in organ transplant surgery,you can pay close attention to < Open Journal of Organ Transplant Surgery >.

Some new aspects of etiology of Alzheimer’s disease , disrupted sleep may be one of the first signs of Alzheimer's disease

According to mailonline, disrupted sleep can be an earlier sign  of Alzheimer’s disease than memory loss. Disrupted sleep may be less sleep, but napped more often.Moreover,this disease has been younger tendency.Except disrupted sleep and memory loss,does this disease has any other prognostic? How to detect it and and prevent as soon as possible? A research  focuses on the possibility of early detection of AD-specific vascular and atrophic brain changes in families which have a tendency to inherit the disease.The following is the general content:

The research included three families with AD inheritance. All patients underwent: cognitive function assessment (MMSE), determination of dementia severity (CDR) and AD stages (TDR), computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), scintigraphy of the brain (SG), rheoencephalography (REG), and cerebral multigated angiography (MUGA). All patients with different AD stages, as well as their descendants, have specific atrophic changes in the temporal lobes of the brain. The degree of these changes increases as AD becomes more severe and ranges from 4% - 8% (TDR-0) to 33% - 62% (TDR-3) of the total mass of a healthy person’s temporal lobes. Simultaneously, the patients examined have changes of microcirculation manifested by reduction of the capillary bed in the temporal and frontalparietal regions, the development of multiple arteriovenous shunts in the same areas, early venous dumping, anomalous expansion of venous trunks that receive blood from the arterialvenous shunts, venous stasis on the frontoparietal boundary. Similar changes are found among AD patients’ descendants aged 8 - 11, the only difference being in the degree of temporal lobes atrophy which is 4.7%. This proves that microcirculatory disorders are primary and atrophic changes of the temporal lobes are secondary in AD development. The data obtained indicate that the examination of AD patients’ relatives should begin well before the possible manifestations of the disease, even in childhood. It will allow to reveal the possibility of inheritance and the signs of the disease at the earliest possible stage and to begin its treatment in time.

I hope this research can be helpful to  the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

(source:Scientific Research Publishing/Advances in Alzheimer's Disease)