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Drugs that tamp down inflammation in the brain could slow cognitive decline

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Re: Drugs that tamp down inflammation in the brain could slow cognitive decline

#41

Post by grabbalacious »

ScottFree wrote: post #37
grabbalacious wrote: post #29

Chronic inflammation appears to be caused by persistent self-stimulation -- eating for comfort or pleasure, not getting enough sleep, chain-smoking, getting high, etc, without respite. So it's not really a biological problem. It's a widespread personal problem with complex biological consequences.

Even if chronic inflammation was caused by self-stimulation, that still makes it a biological problem. Maybe you meant it wasn't an inherent, biological part of aging? If that's what you meant, then I still don't agree. IMHO, the biggest contributor to chronic inflammation is the Standard American Diet (lots of grains and refined foods) combined with a lack of exercise. These things have a greater, compounding effect…

OK, but only in the sense that a car crash is a mechanical problem (there may be repairs to make).

>lots of grains and refined foods

i.e. rather tasty! I don't think we can escape from motives here: they select what type of diet we prefer given the choice. The market caters to that.

Re: Drugs that tamp down inflammation in the brain could slow cognitive decline

#42

Post by qrbLPHiKpiux »

whoanow wrote: post #38
whatshisface wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, but what's the plan to do that?

Occasional fasting, diet, exercise, sleep, positive relationships.

Not eating inflammatory foods. Severely limit sugar, carbohydrates. Not eating as much. Enough sleep.

Re: Drugs that tamp down inflammation in the brain could slow cognitive decline

#43

Post by nradov »

knzhou wrote: post #5

From the perspective of a non-biologist reader only seeing popular articles, the past ten years have been completely bewildering. Nutrition has seemingly been boiled down to a couple of magic totems that are always simplistically either good or bad. Antioxidants are good. Inflammation is bad. Telomeres are good. Carbs are bad. All the "bad" things get associated with each other and anti-associated with the good thing…

Antioxidants aren't necessarily good. Like most anything, consuming too much can cause health problems.

Re: Drugs that tamp down inflammation in the brain could slow cognitive decline

#44

Post by antasvara »

qrbLPHiKpiux wrote: post #42
whoanow wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Occasional fasting, diet, exercise, sleep, positive relationships.

Not eating inflammatory foods. Severely limit sugar, carbohydrates. Not eating as much. Enough sleep.

That's a misunderstanding of the article, it says that the issue is due to the leaky blood brain barrier. The chemicals for inflammation in the body aren't inherently bad, they're just not designed to be in the brain. Decreasing the source of that inflammation could help but it's not the issue being discussed here.

Re: Drugs that tamp down inflammation in the brain could slow cognitive decline

#45

Post by steelframe »

lhl wrote: post #6

Alternatively, you can quite dramatically reduce inflammation in the brain via some simple lifestyle modifications (cutting out sugar, intermittent fasting): Mattson, Mark P., Keelin Moehl, Nathaniel Ghena, Maggie Schmaedick, and Aiwu Cheng. “Intermittent Metabolic Switching, Neuroplasticity and Brain Health.” Nature Reviews. Neuroscience 19, no. 2 (February 2018): 63–80. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2017.156 . Pinto,…

Eight of those studies have been published only in the past 3 years. Until I see a pattern of repeated results, I'm going to file these under "pop science." "Keto is the shizzle, let's get our pubz!" Let's see what happens as others work on repro over the next 10+ years.

Re: Drugs that tamp down inflammation in the brain could slow cognitive decline

#46

Post by ScottFree »

grabbalacious wrote: post #41
ScottFree wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if chronic inflammation was caused by self-stimulation, that still makes it a biological problem. Maybe you meant it wasn't an inherent, biological part of aging? If that's what you meant, then I still don't agree. IMHO, the biggest contributor to chronic inflammation is the Standard American Diet (lots of grains and refined foods) combined with a lack of exercise. These things have a greater, compounding effect…

OK, but only in the sense that a car crash is a mechanical problem (there may be repairs to make). >lots of grains and refined foods i.e. rather tasty! I don't think we can escape from motives here: they select what type of diet we prefer given the choice. The market caters to that.

> i.e. rather tasty!

Most people don't find refined foods tasty. In blind taste tests, people vastly prefer the old McDonalds fries back when they used actual potatoes and fried them in lard. Then the American Government said it was illegal to use lard for "health reasons" and they need to use vegetable oil instead. As it turns out, vegetable oils are considerably more pro-inflammatory than lard and, as a result, are extremely unhealthy compared to lard.

> OK, but only in the sense that a car crash is a mechanical problem (there may be repairs to make).

You're making a category error. Self-stimulating activities and inflammation are orthogonal. Mechanical problems don't always cause accidents and accidents aren't always the result of mechanical problems. Similarly, not all self-stimulating activities contribute to chronic inflammation. Eating better will absolutely help decrease chronic inflammation, but smoking pot is anti-inflammatory.

PS: are you a bear or ilk? Feel free to email me if you don't want to answer publicly.

Re: Drugs that tamp down inflammation in the brain could slow cognitive decline

#47

Post by snvzz »

knzhou wrote: post #5

From the perspective of a non-biologist reader only seeing popular articles, the past ten years have been completely bewildering. Nutrition has seemingly been boiled down to a couple of magic totems that are always simplistically either good or bad. Antioxidants are good. Inflammation is bad. Telomeres are good. Carbs are bad. All the "bad" things get associated with each other and anti-associated with the good thing…

Easy to see when comparing diet with life expectation throughout the world.

Carbs bad, fat actually alright.

Re: Drugs that tamp down inflammation in the brain could slow cognitive decline

#48

Post by dehrmann »

snvzz wrote: post #47
knzhou wrote: post #5

From the perspective of a non-biologist reader only seeing popular articles, the past ten years have been completely bewildering. Nutrition has seemingly been boiled down to a couple of magic totems that are always simplistically either good or bad. Antioxidants are good. Inflammation is bad. Telomeres are good. Carbs are bad. All the "bad" things get associated with each other and anti-associated with the good thing…

Easy to see when comparing diet with life expectation throughout the world. Carbs bad, fat actually alright.

> Carbs bad

But Japan.

Re: Drugs that tamp down inflammation in the brain could slow cognitive decline

#49

Post by rsync »

knzhou wrote: post #5

From the perspective of a non-biologist reader only seeing popular articles, the past ten years have been completely bewildering. Nutrition has seemingly been boiled down to a couple of magic totems that are always simplistically either good or bad. Antioxidants are good. Inflammation is bad. Telomeres are good. Carbs are bad. All the "bad" things get associated with each other and anti-associated with the good thing…

"Antioxidants are good."

Ingested antioxidants have no pathway to the cell interior where they might act to "counter oxidation".

Further, if there were it would probably be quite negative as the oxidation and free radical production, etc., is very likely an essential cell signaling mechanism - namely, a signal that it is time for that cell to undergo apoptosis.

Which is to say, those cells are poorly performing and need to be culled. They should commit cellular "suicide". If you found a way to keep them alive it would be to your freat detriment.

I encourage everyone to read _Power, Sex, Suicide_ by Nick Lane:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power,_Sex,_Suicide

... which is a very enjoyable and enlightening look at these mechanisms. His book _Oxygen_ is also quite good.

Re: Drugs that tamp down inflammation in the brain could slow cognitive decline

#50

Post by knubie »

ScottFree wrote: post #46
grabbalacious wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, but only in the sense that a car crash is a mechanical problem (there may be repairs to make). >lots of grains and refined foods i.e. rather tasty! I don't think we can escape from motives here: they select what type of diet we prefer given the choice. The market caters to that.

> i.e. rather tasty! Most people don't find refined foods tasty. In blind taste tests, people vastly prefer the old McDonalds fries back when they used actual potatoes and fried them in lard. Then the American Government said it was illegal to use lard for "health reasons" and they need to use vegetable oil instead. As it turns out, vegetable oils are considerably more pro-inflammatory than lard and, as a result, are…

> back when they used actual potatoes

What are they using now?

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