Lifestyle

CTE = Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

NFL Brain Collector Shows Violence in Slices of Gray Matter – Bloomberg.com

Healthy tau helps strengthen the neurons in the brain, like steel reinforcements in a concrete bridge. Repetitive trauma can lead to a change in tau, making it clump like tangles of yarn. The more tangles, the more the communication between cells is hampered. Functions such as memory and anger control can disappear; dementia and death can follow.

CTE is a unique pathological condition, according to Stern. The postmortem diagnosis of Alzheimer’s requires the presence of deformed tau and another protein, beta amyloid. The diagnosis of CTE requires only the presence of deformed tau.

More Mediterranean Diet, Less Depression

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

I think it’s the wine.

Medical News: Mediterranean Diet May Protect Against Depression – in Psychiatry, Depression from MedPage Today

Studies have shown that the lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorders is lower in Mediterranean countries than in countries of northern Europe, and it is “plausible” that diet may contribute, the researchers wrote in the October Archives of General Psychiatry.

Low Carb Diets Damage Arteries

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

In mice.

BBC NEWS | Health | Low-carb diets ‘damage arteries’

The low-carb diet did not affect cholesterol levels, but there was a significant difference on the impact on atherosclerosis – the build-up of fatty plaque deposits in the arteries that can lead to heart attacks or strokes.

After 12 weeks, the mice eating the low-carb diet had gained less weight, but developed 15% more atherosclerosis than those on the standard mice food. For the western diet group there was 9% more atherosclerosis.