Life Lessons From a Brain Surgeon by Dr Rahul Jandial

Author:Dr Rahul Jandial
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2019-06-27T04:00:00+00:00

NEURO GEEK: YOU ARE NOT WHAT YOU EAT

Most of what you eat will never make it into your brain because of the blood-brain barrier. When the arteries from your heart penetrate the skull and become brain arteries, they are no longer as porous as they were outside the brain. Instead, they become lined with a thicket of specialized cell layers, sharply limiting what can cross from the bloodstream into your brain tissue. The discovery of the nearly impervious blood-brain barrier occurred in the late nineteenth century with a simple experiment. Blue dye was injected into the blood of a mouse and then an autopsy was performed. The entire body was blue except the brain and spinal cord, which remained white. The dye couldn’t penetrate.

We now know that even inflammatory cells and most of the medicines that work elsewhere in the body cannot cross into the brain. This makes it especially difficult to develop drugs to treat neurological problems, as I learned when working on treatments for brain cancer.

What does get across? Mostly just oxygen, glucose, and ketones. Some fats, vitamins, and minerals get through as well. Nearly everything else the brain needs it builds in-house. So when you hear about “brain food,” keep in mind that the brain is a very picky eater.

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