<p>The sageness of elders can never be underestimated, that is why I chose to post this thread here.</p>
<p>Is their any possible way to abolish brain cells, or slow the regeneration process of brain cells? Besides drinking alcohol, what other activities cause damage to the cells? </p>
<p><em>Praying of a brain surgeon to come across this thread</em></p>
<p>Brain surgeons would be of little help - they deal with the whole brain, not with cell death issues. You should look for a top neuroscientist with strong biochemistry backgound.</p>
<p>It’s a good thing you added “besides drinking alcohol.” That would have been my answer. :)</p>
<p>My brain’s been a little suspect since I got hit by a car a bunch of years ago. So, avoid that…</p>
<p>I’m assuming you’re not talking about diseases that destroy brain cells.</p>
<p>Here are a few activities that may damage or destroy brain cells: huffing, whippets (nitrous oxide), some recreational drugs, and certain oxygen-deprivation games.</p>
<p>alcohol, drugs, other environmental toxins, lack of exercise, lack of sleep, the kinds of food you eat, vitamin or chemical deficiencies…these can all effect or destroy brain cells.</p>
<p>Note…ingestion of ethanol (alcohol) in and of itself does NOT destroy brain cells. This is a long held prohibitionist propaganda statement that is simply not true. In fact moderate alcohol intake may be protective.</p>
<p>While long term, chronic, severe alcohol abuse can lead to Wernicke’s encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s psychosis, development of these conditions has much more to do with chronic malnutrition of the constant drunk than the actual effects of alcohol on the individual brain cells.</p>
<p>These little radicals and neurotoxic compounds sound like a slow way to kill a neuron, but there is a much easier and faster way to smash up a few brain cells - by not wearing your helmet, especially after consuming a bit of that neuroprotective drink.</p>
<p>Anything that deprives the cells of oxygen will kill them.</p>
<p>(I don’t know if I qualify as a top neuroscientist, but I am a graduate student in a developmental/regenerative neurobiology lab. :))</p>
<p>X-rays and other forms of radiation kill dividing stem cells in the brain, thus slowing the regeneration process. </p>
<p>Incidentally, only a very small number of neurons actually regenerate in the adult mammalian brain – only cells in the dentate gyrus (which is part of the hippocampus, a brain structure involved with memory) and the olfactory bulb regenerate in adults. Otherwise, you’re stuck with what you’re born with, and nothing is regenerated.</p>
<p>But there are a lot of possible ways to kill neurons – neurons are big, complex cells that require a lot of energy to function. They are very susceptible to injury and degeneration (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease, stroke, spinal cord injury, etc.). My lab, among many others, is trying to find out how neurons normally develop and grow so that hopefully someday we can treat these otherwise intractable diseases and conditions.</p>
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<p>Would like to know how to enhance the regenerative process, and/or lessen the undesireable effects on neurons by x-rays, radiation, etc. Any clues, molliebatmit?</p>
<p>What can we do to promote brain health? (Other than NOT doing the aforementioned harmful things!).</p>
<p>Yes, promoting neural stem cell growth is of interest to me.</p>
<p>Particularly important is their survival, since apparently so many of them die on their way to being “fixed” to the brain network.</p>
<p>Neurons by themselves often suffer cell death if they are frequently unused. A sort of Paleolithic adaptation to conserve energy, it seems, that doesn’t seem useful anymore (along with say, destroying the language acquisition module after puberty).</p>
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<p>After being told all my life that we’re born with all the brain cells we’ll ever have, I was amazed at the results of a Swedish study last year. According to the research, physical exercise stimulates the growth of neurons in the hippocampus:</p>
<p>[Exercise</a> Grows New Brain Cells | LiveScience](<a href=“http://www.livescience.com/health/070628_exercise_brain.html]Exercise”>Exercise Grows New Brain Cells | Live Science)</p>
<p>Also, although mental exercises don’t regenerate neurons, they can slow cognitive decline as we age:</p>
<p>[Short</a> Mental Workouts May Slow Decline of Aging Minds, Study Finds - washingtonpost.com](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/19/AR2006121901431.html]Short”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/19/AR2006121901431.html)</p>
<p>(If Mollie has time, perhaps she can explain all of this to us.)</p>
<p>There’s hope!!</p>
<p>Edit: Coincidentally, CNN just published this article on the “brain fitness” explosion in baby boomers:</p>
<p>[Aging</a> boomers fuel ‘brain fitness’ explosion - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/06/17/brain.fitness.ap/index.html]Aging”>http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/06/17/brain.fitness.ap/index.html)</p>
<p>Great info mapesy - thanks!</p>
<p>supposedly we don 't even use all of our brains- & after brain injuries and even comas we can help people restore full function.</p>
<p>Children especially have malleable brains.
[Neuroscience</a> for Kids - Brain Plasticity](<a href=“http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/plast.html]Neuroscience”>Neuroscience for Kids - Brain Plasticity)</p>
<p>Im planning on reading this book
[The</a> Brain That Changes Itself | Science Blog](<a href=“http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/brain-changes-itself-15860.html]The”>http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/brain-changes-itself-15860.html)</p>
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Well, the first thing is to stay away from radiation! 
(And if you want to read more about radiation’s effects on neurons, a recent paper is [here](<a href=“Quiescent adult neural stem cells are exceptionally sensitive to cosmic radiation - PubMed”>Quiescent adult neural stem cells are exceptionally sensitive to cosmic radiation - PubMed)</a>.)</p>
<p>Nobody really knows how to keep neural stem cells young and happy, although my money is on things like exercise and healthy eating. And though (as mapesy’s link explains) exercise seems to stimulate birth/promote survival of newly-born neurons in the hippocampus, it’s not entirely clear why this is so. </p>
<p>If I had to give a hand-waving explanation, I would say that exercise raises levels of brain serotonin, and there’s some evidence linking excess serotonin to neuron birth and survival in the hippocampus – people who are depressed or have PTSD have small hippocampi, drugs like Prozac/Zoloft start to work on a scale that fits well with neurogenesis, and blocking neurogenesis in depressed mice blocks the function of antidepressants. But it’s not clear if the relationship is really causal, or why that would be so if it is causal.</p>
<p>Scientists are also still trying to work out exactly why certain populations of neurons die in diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s. Very specific populations of neurons die in each of these diseases, but it’s not clear why.</p>
<p>I wish I had better answers for all of you, but these are big issues that are the focus of a lot of current research. Does anybody have an easy question I can answer about the brain? :)</p>
<p>So the brain is capable than we think. its capable of memorizing 100 hundred words in 15 minutes if we train it mentally? Like putting the brain in a cramming situation will train it…interesting?</p>