Brain Food: Turmeric

The brilliant yellow spice turmeric does more than just add color and flavor to food. Studies suggest that it possesses cancer-fighting properties and even the ability to boost the brain‘s healing capacity. Rats injected with aromatic-turmerone, a compound found in turmeric, had increased activity in areas of the brain involved in nerve cell growth, suggesting it may encourage the proliferation of brain cells. Additionally, bathing rodent neural stem cells in aromatic-turmerone extract appeared to boost the growth of these cells. The findings could have implications for the future treatment of strokes and Alzheimer’s disease. More… Discuss

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SLEEPING BUILDS BRAIN CELLS

Why do we need to sleep? Obviously, without it we are tired, irritable, and unable to think and function as effectively as we otherwise could, but why is this? What are the underlying biological processes that drive this need? Scientists have long been grappling with this topic, and recent research has yielded some pretty interesting findings. During sleep, the production ofnervous system cells that generate myelin, a substance that insulates the nerves and permits the rapid transmission of nerve impulses, doubles in mice. This suggests that sleep may serve certain reparative and growth functions in the brain. More… Discuss