For Healthy Brain Now and In Later Years, Focus on Nourishing All Other Organs
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It goes by several appellations. That dreadful, unwished, but seemingly inevitable terminus of the human brain (and mind) in the post “mythical days of our lives” — three score and ten (70) years.
These terms, i.e. appellations include, for the medically informed/inclined, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and neuro-degeneration.
For some laypersons, the saying goes like this: Oh my God, he/she is no longer with it; or, oh well, that’s what you call old age.
Yes, the speed and efficiency of our comprehension and reaction to events, physically and mentally are not as robust in the senior years as in early and mid life. Nonetheless, crippling brain degeneration is not necessarily inevitable.
The assumed inevitability of downward slope of cerebration has fueled a multibillion dollar industry marketing various fixes/remedies.
THE CROWN JEWEL OF HUMAN LIFE
The most highly protected (in addition to the spinal cord) structure in the human body is the brain. It is, hands down, the most precious organ in our bodies.
The brain is who we are. Very well protected in its bony cage, the skull. It is the most intensely active, most demanding and most selective organ in the body.
Most intensely active because of its high “Metabolic Rate” and in the adult brain, neurons have the highest energy demand.
Most demanding because although the average adult brain is only 2% of the body weight, it consumes 20% of the body’s oxygen supply, and accounts for 20–25% of total body resting glucose consumption.
Most selective because there is a strong barrier that tightly guards the entry into the brain of any content in the blood vessels of the brain. That barrier is called the Blood-Brain Barrier.
Much has been accomplished in the understanding of human brain since the second half of the 20th century largely due to advances in basic science and technology.
Still, the mystery of the functional eloquence of this crown jewel of creation remains far from our sight.
