2013 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit - Registration Open

I just got early notice of the 2013 SharpBrains Virtual Summit, set for September 19-20th, 2013. According to the email, the event “will feature nearly 40 of the world's top scientists, innovators and decision-makers addressing the central theme of "How Can Neuroscience-based Innovation Enhance Behavioral and Brain Health?"

The speaker list includes:

• Alvaro Fernandez, CEO of SharpBrains (YGL Class of 2012)
• Andrew Lee, VP of Emerging Business at Aetna (YGL Class of 2011)
• Corinna Lathan, CEO of AnthroTronix (YGL Class of 2006)
• Hilal Lashuel, Visiting Associate Professor at Stanford University (YGL Class of 2012)
• Jayne Plunkett, Head of Casualty Reinsurance at Swiss Re (YGL Class of 2010)
• Olivier Oullier, Pro­fes­sor of Behav­ioral and Brain Sci­ences at France's Aix-Marseille University (YGL Class of 2011)
• Tan Le, CEO of Emotiv Lifesciences (YGL Class of 2009)

 Here’s a link to the registration site: http://sharpbrains.com/summit-2013/

Ohh, and according to their email you can get a 10% discount using with this promotional code: sharp2013

Is Coconut Oil the New Miracle Brain Food?

I had a friend in the brain-building business recently send me this link to an article at NaturalNews.com  with the provocative headline of “Just one dose of coconut oil can tremendously boost brain function and cognitive performance. “ http://www.naturalnews.com/039811_coconut_Alzheimers_dementia.html

Do I need improved cognition? Absolutely! Am I hugely suspicious of such audacious claims? Absolutely!

According to the article, here’s what’s at the crux of the argument for the benefits of coconut:

“High triglyceride blood readings are red flags for obesity, diabetes, and heart health issues. Most dietary fats contain long chain triglycerides (LCT), which are not easily metabolized and can be stored as fatty deposits in one's body.

Long chain triglycerides contain chains with 14 to 18 carbon atoms. But coconut oil contains medium chain triglycerides (MCT) with shorter chains of 5 to 12 carbon atoms, which are easily metabolized by the liver to produce ketone bodies that can replace glucose as metabolic fuel.

As we age, the brain's ability to metabolize glucose for energy wanes, especially for those who have a metabolic disorder or insulin resistance. But MCT-created ketones can be used as cellular fuel in the brain when glucose is not available.”

Not being a scientist, that explanation didn’t help me at all. But the article went on to say that: “As far back as 2004, a study published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging determined that coconut oil MCTs improved cognitive function among older folks with memory problems and even Alzheimer's disease.

They took 20 subjects and randomly fed them coconut oil or placebos on different days. Some of the Alzheimer's group demonstrated improved scoring on a special Alzheimer's cognitive rating scale, and all of them demonstrated better paragraph recall shortly after taking each dose of coconut oil.

This wasn't a long term study. They got immediate positive cognitive and memory results from single doses of coconut oil compared to placebos.”

Yea! Should we all go out and coat our food with coconut oil?

Maybe not. I also found this Journal of the American Academy of physician Assistants article that states "A few people have reported that coconut oil helped ... but there's never been any clinical testing of coconut oil for Alzheimer's, and there's no scientific evidence that it helps.” See http://www.jaapa.com/can-coconut-oil-replace-caprylidene-for-alzheimer-disease/article/251425/

As always, with food-based claims regarding brain function, I retreat to Barbara Strauch and her nifty book entitled The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind in which she describes the difficulty of using food to impact brain function.

Does the JAAPA article mean that coconut oil can’t help or is dangerous?

Nope. And, just to be sure, I am starting to use of bit of coconut oil myself.

Image credit: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/photo_12756963_coconut-oil-on-a-bamboo-mat.html'>ckellyphoto / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

Jack Hoffman, 7 Year Old Brain Cancer Victim Scores a Touchdown, Everybody Wins!

This writing about brain tumors is often depressing. For reasons I still can't fathom good people, wonderful people, unsuspecting people of all ages get whacked with brutally oppressive diseases that drag them to unhappy endings.

And then I read about Jack Hoffman and the Nebraska football team. Jack is a 7 year old cancer victim on a two-week hiatus from a “60-week chemotherapy regimen.”  A 6 week chemo regimen would depress me, I can’t imagine what 60 weeks of chemo would be like.

But during the Nebraska football team’s spring scrimmage, the coach drew up a play just for Jack that allowed him to score in front of nearly 70 thousand cheering fans (If you are not from the U.S. or even the Midwestern section of the U.S., yes, you read that right. Seventy thousand people attended a “practice” game in the off season).

And if this video doesn’t bring a tear to your eye or quicken your pulse, call the funeral home, because you’re dead.

Here’s a link to the ESPN article: http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/9142300/jack-hoffman-7-scores-nebraska-cornhuskers-spring-game

$100M for brain mapping project that could help Alzheimer’s, other diseases

The Washington Post, reported that “President Barack Obama on Tuesday proposed an effort to map the brain’s activity in unprecedented detail, as a step toward finding better ways to treat such conditions as Alzheimer’s, autism, stroke and traumatic brain injuries.”

Here’s a link to the youtube.com video of the announcement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95cdJE6_oYg

While I have a vested interest, I applaud this proposal. Given the impending tsunami of Alzheimer cases that will start crashing down on us boomers, any research that helps ameliorate the issues will be, in my opinion, of great value to everybody regardless of nationality or age.

The article reports that “Obama said the so-called BRAIN Initiative could create jobs, and told scientists gathered in the White House’s East Room that the research has the potential to improve the lives of billions of people worldwide.”

The article goes on to say that “BRAIN stands for Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies. The idea, which Obama first proposed in his State of the Union address, would require the development of new technology that can record the electrical activity of individual cells and complex neural circuits in the brain “at the speed of thought,” the White House said.”

Here’s a link to the youtube.com video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95cdJE6_oYg

And here’s a link to Wilson’s article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/official-obama-to-announce-brain-mapping-project-that-could-help-alzheimers-other-diseases/2013/04/02/f2d891a8-9b89-11e2-9219-51eb8387e8f1_story.html?hpid=z3

My only concern? That the BRAIN project maps the right brain. For example, my brain probably isn't going to help modern science very much. Why? Read this previous blog posting: http://johnstumor.blogspot.com/2012/01/igor-i-need-new-brain.html 

New Brain Surgery Mapping Technique = Increased Survival

According to yesterday’s article in ScienceDaily.com, an imaging technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), can now help neurosurgeons to better adapt brain tumor surgeries and preserve language, visual and motor function while removing cancerous tissue.

 
ScienceDaily was reporting on the latest issue of Neurosurgical Focus, in which researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania reviewed research showing that “…this ability to visualize relevant white matter tracts during glioma resection surgeries can improve accuracy and, in some groups, significantly extend survival (median survival of 21.2 months) compared to cases where DTI was not used (median survival of 14 months).”

The good news is that this extends the median survival rate by over substantially (+50%) on a percentage basis. The bad news is that the survival rate (Length? Expectancy?) is still awfully damn low.

For more info on this technique, here’s a link to the ScienceDaily.com article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130401120915.htm