Your brain is like a powerful command centre, surrounded by a wall to prevent enemy elements from breaching security. Damage to the wall undermines the strength of the command centre. The blood brain barrier is that wall. If compromised, the brain is left vulnerable to assault and subsequent mental health problems
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Sometimes described as “cellular housekeeping”, autophagy — meaning “self-eating” in Greek – is a process that takes place in all mammalian cells and tissues. It was in the 1960s that researchers first became aware that each cell can destroy its own components. These components include damaged proteins and organelles, considered to be “common features of neurodegenerative diseases”, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease.
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Most people practise intermittent fasting in order to lose weight, and it is indeed an effective strategy. Less well known are the neurological benefits, which include improved mood and memory, and reduced risk of stroke, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
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Your cholesterol dependency begins before you are born. There is rapid accumulation in the brain of this substance during the last three months of pregnancy. After birth, the brain continues to grow at quite a pace, requiring a large and constant supply of cholesterol. This much-maligned yet essential substance is found in all body tissues. Without it, you wouldn’t be able to make vitamin D, or your sex hormones. As far as the brain is concerned, cholesterol has four main functions, as outlined in this article.
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Vitamin D is usually associated with bone health, but it also plays an important role in brain development — there are receptor sites for this vitamin throughout the brain. A whole spectrum of neurological disorders have been linked to lack of vitamin D, including depression.
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Vegetarians and vegans are at risk of vitamin B12 deficiency, because this vitamin is only found in animal-based foods. How to avoid risk to brain function.
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