Food for Thought (and memories)

Mealtime can provide opportunities to connect with someone experiencing memory loss and tap into deeply rooted memories. “If you’re going to make your father’s favorite meal, think about how you can delve into it as an experience,” Aguirre says. Dr. Kramer notes that several senses associated with cooking and eating dishes, including smell and taste, are closely related to memory. Both the olfactory bulb, the main receiving center for smell, and the insular cortex and frontal operculum (also called the gustatory cortex), responsible for perception of taste, are closely connected to the amygdala, an area involved in emotional learning. The olfactory nerve, which conveys the sense of smell to the brain, is also close to the hippocampus, one of the most important brain structures for memory. And the combined effect of smell and taste—what neuroscientists who study this field call “flavor”—can be especially powerful at conjuring long-held memories charged with emotion, says Joel Salinas, MD, MBA, FAAN, assistant professor of neurology at NYU Langone Health and chief medical officer at Isaac Health, a clinic in New York City for brain health and memory problems.Favorite Meals May Trigger Memories in People with Dementiahttps://www.brainandlife.org/articles/food-may-trigger-memories-in-people-with-dementia

An Extended Period of Wandering

Now, I’m ‘no one,’ a retired, forgotten old man who dithers away the days.

”Depression can ensue, fueling excessive alcohol use, accidents, or, in the most extreme cases, suicide. Of all age groups in the United States, men over age 75 have the highest suicide rate, by far. Older Men’s Connections Often Wither When They’re on Their Own https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/older-men-connections-isolation-loneliness-navigating-aging/

At the minimum I have a plan. Sell the house, buy a van and do an upscale conversion so I can sleep in it. Travel. Spend time in Oklahoma and Colorado.

Drink more Knob Creek (not when driving).

OOPS. Didn’t wait until the unthinkable.

Cannabis Use and Psychosis Risk (Aussie Version)

Professor Emmerson says Queensland’s Metro North Health — Australia’s largest public health service, based in north Brisbane and the surrounding region — is seeing increased presentations of psychosis due to medicinal cannabis.”The Metro North early psychosis service reports 10 per cent of their new presentations — so these are kids aged 16 to 21 — are people who’ve ended up on medicinal cannabis and are becoming psychotic,” the Brisbane-based psychiatrist says.

Doctors warn of significant increase in people hospitalized with psychosis after being prescribed medicinal cannabishttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-21/medicinal-cannabis-psychosis-harm-risk-prescription-marijuana/104116952

Cannabis Use and Psychosis Risk

The investigators found that cannabis use was significantly associated with psychotic disorders during adolescence (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 11.2; 95% CI, 4.6 to 27.3), but not during young adulthood (aHR, 1.3; 95% CI, 0.6 to 2.6). Adolescents who used cannabis also had a substantially higher risk for hospitalizations and emergency department visits (aHR, 26.7; 95% CI, 7.7 to 92.8), while there was no substantial risk observed in young adulthood (aHR, 1.8; 95% CI, 0.6 to 5.4). Growing Evidence Supports the Link Between Cannabis Use and Psychosis Risk https://www.psychiatryadvisor.com/news/cannabis-use-and-psychosis-risk/

Have you read the book The Dangerous Truth About Today’s Marijuana by Laura Stack? https://johnnysambassadors.org/book/

If you have small children I highly recommend this book.

Saturday Feeling Resilient – 06.22.24

Resiliency

The researchers found that people in the high resiliency group were less anxious and depressed, less prone to judge, and had activity in regions of the brain associated with emotional regulation and better cognition compared to the group with low resiliency. “When a stressor happens, often we go to this aroused fight or flight response, and this impairs the breaks in your brain,” Gupta said. “But the highly resilient individuals in the study were found to be better at regulating their emotions, less likely to catastrophize, and keep a level head,” added Desiree Delgadillo, postdoctoral researcher and one of the first authors.

The high resiliency group also had different microbiome activity than the low resiliency group. Namely, the high resiliency group’s microbiomes excreted metabolites and exhibited gene activity associated with low inflammation and a strong and healthy gut barrier. A weak gut barrier, otherwise known as a leaky gut, is caused by inflammation and impairs the gut barrier’s ability to absorb essential nutrients needed by the body while blocking toxins from entering the gut.

University of California – Los Angeles Health Sciences. “Resiliency shaped by activity in the gut microbiome and brain.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/06/240621122904.htm (accessed June 22, 2024) https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/06/240621122904.htm

Resilience is the capacity to remain flexible and adaptable while facing life’s challenges. It is a complex concept involving traits, environmental factors, and a learned capacity that comes from experience. https://positivepsychology.com/what-is-resilience/