Cobbers on the Brain

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that autism is present in 1 in 68 children and is almost four times more prevalent in males than females.  Autism speaks classifies autism as “…a range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication, as well as by unique strengths and differences.”  This shows that autism is more often referred to as a spectrum disorder, which implies that there are no exact set symptoms that an individual will exhibit.

There are several ways that autism can be caused in utero.  First, is simply by genetic mutations which is seen in almost every disease in the human species.  However, since there has been a higher prevalence in recent years of autism it is believed that there are more factors than just genetics.  One of the risk factors is a prenatal viral infection of the mother.  Prenatal influenza, rubella, and cytomegalovirus infections show a strong correlation with the development of autism.  Another possible cause is prenatal stress. It has been shown that there is higher prevalence of autism when a mother is stressed while pregnant.  Finally, there is the strong correlation between prevalence of autism and the presence of certain toxins.  The most important of these toxins are valproic acid and thalidomide.  Both of these have demonstrated an increased risk of fetus’ developing autism.

Now before I continue I think it is important to note that autism arises during development in utero and CANNOT BE CAUSED BY VACCINES! Get your child vaccinated so we don’t have any outbreaks occur!

Please excuse my digression.  However, the most interesting potential cause for autism is a zinc deficiency.  Zinc homeostasis is essential for proper brain development and function.  Zinc is also the second most abundant trace element in the body and is involved in many bodily and neuronal processes.  It’s most important function in the human body is its presence in presynaptic vesicles on neurons.  It is important to note that according to Andreas Grabrucker “…in a recent study…the incidence rate of zinc-deficiency in the infant-group aged 0-3-year-old was estimated 43.5% in male and 52.5% in female.”  This shows a very close association between zinc-deficiency and autism.  To make the link even closer a zinc deficiency is known to cause learning and memory impairments, behavioral problems, and can cause seizures.  This is important because there are many autistic patients that also have epilepsy.

Now I know this seems kind of scary because how are you supposed to know if you or your child is getting enough zinc?  Well I can’t help with this problem, but I can help you to know what you should be eating to ensure proper zinc levels.  The top ten foods that contain the highest zinc levels are as follows: Oysters, beef and lamb, wheat germ, spinach, pumpkin and squash seeds, cashews, cocoa powder, pork and chicken, beans, and mushrooms.  So you see, it does not matter your diet preference we can all consume the perfect amount of zinc.  By simply doing this it can lower the chance of having an autistic child.

Coming out of high school we all know how tough it is to decide what you want to do with your life or where you want to go.  Being from Mesa, Arizona I only knew one thing…I wanted to leave there and see another part of the country.  I visited schools in Iowa, Colorado, and in Minnesota and after 10 plus visits I finally settled at Concordia.  I mean after all I was kind of a legacy at this school.  My aunt is in the athletic hall of fame for winning a national championship here and my great grandfather is former Concordia College president Joseph Knutson (his statue is in the Knutson Campus Center).  The decision was one of the best I have made in my life.

The first reason it was the best choice is that I got to continue to play the sport I love, but being able to put education first was key.  I played golf at this college for four years, amassing 23 top-25s and finishing 3^rd all-time in career scoring average.  Most importantly though I was privileged enough to become captain the past two years and to be able to show the other men how to make the right choices.  This allowed me to make an imprint on my fellow teammates and shape how they think about the world.  It is important to stress the ability to instill a hard work ethic, the same work ethic that I learned in Chemistry 127-128 in my freshman year.  Golf provided me an outlet and allowed me to grow as a man and a kid trying to become a responsibly engaged in the world.

The education at Concordia is grueling and the teachers are not shy about pushing you to exceed your expectations.  They push you to set higher goals and expand your horizons.  Dr. Mach of my Neurochemistry class has done this just as much as anyone.  In her class we looked at 9 neurodegenerative diseases the plague the world at this time and each week I found myself becoming more engaged in the material and thirsting for more knowledge on the topics.  In life, there is no easy road and I am constantly going to keep driving forward and the thirst for knowledge that Concordia has instilled in me will make that happen.
 
The well-rounded curriculum at Concordia College has allowed me to be a science major but also take classes in global studies, English, and humanities while also focusing on my major.  This allows me to make connections between fields of study that I would not have had the ability to do at a large university.  It has become easier for me to see problems from many different angles and has allowed me to see the world from a new lens.  All this allows me to become a more responsible citizen in a global community.

Finally, we get to my capstone experience, the peak of the mountain, the cherry on top of the sundae.  Taking Neurochemistry for any science major is a must.  The ability to have a free flowing classroom where we all participate and are not lectured at for an hour provides an experience where we all learn together.  We research was interests us and are not confined to a bubble of material that the professor assigns.  Dr. Mach gave all of us the freedom to follow our passion and this was especially exemplified in the blog posts and the community action project.  The blog posts only requirement was that they had to focus on the week’s topic and provide some science.  This allowed me to write a biography one week and provide research another.  These gave me the chance to provide my own learning into the topic.

The community action project was another highlight of my undergraduate education.  Logan, Hannah, and I decided to focus on ALS a debilitating neuro disease that has no cure and is a death sentence.  Based on Dr. Mach’s instructions whatever we did just had to be focused on ALS and this gave us the freedom to act as ambassadors to the ALS association and try and promote the ALS walk in Fargo, ND on Saturday August 19 at 10:00am.  We contacted radio station executives in an effort to get air time to discuss the walk and are still in negotiations, but this experience allowed us to leave the bubble on campus and promote change on a larger scale.  To experience the real world and try to make a difference.  Hopefully we are successful in the end.

My time at Concordia has come and gone and I am thankful for the opportunity to attend a college that allowed me to grow as a man.  A place where the professors push you to excellence, but at the same time provide you with the support needed.  A place where I was able to follow my passion of playing golf and also provide me with a rigorous education.  However, now it is time to enter the real world and I know wherever I go, Concordia has provided me with a launch pad into the future.

Waiting till the last moment to reflect on my college education, in true Gus McCarthy fashion, I think my time spent at Concordia was worth the extra buck.
 
I’ve been asked to reflect on the mission of Concordia College by highlighting my experience with the five goals.
 

1. Instill a love for learning
2. Develop foundational skills and transferable intellectual capacities
3. Develop an understanding of disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and intercultural perspectives and their connections
4. Cultivate an ethical, physical, cultural, and spiritual self understanding
5. Encourage responsible participation in the world

The guy on the left here isn’t the dumbest person in the bunch, but he also has the worst study skills imaginable. He can understand subject matter, but transferring it is impossible, and he has no idea who he is.

I didn’t have many life experiences prior to Concordia. I had invested heavily in my sports career, and I got good but not great grades. Everything ended up changing when I got to Concordia.

Hopefully this guy will be a little more prepared for what the world has to throw at him.

Drug addiction is a hot topic of late, both with regards to scientific understanding and social action. The United States has been ramping up border protection in an effort to mitigate drug usage, and Portugal has legalized all drugs for recreational use in hopes of improving public health by de-stigmatizing drug addiction.
The question at the forefront of this issue is whether or not it is within our power to break away from our addictions.
Tackling this issue becomes difficult for several reasons. From a social standpoint, our society has been deeply influenced by Cartesianism ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartesianism ), and we think that our mind has the power to overcome every and all obstacles with sheer determination. The glorification of the mind over body mentality continues today with movies depicting soldiers and athletes overcoming their respective pain and achieving the goal they set out to achieve.
This is all fine and dandy, but it minimizes the power of the brain, and I believe it is the root of stigmatism in the U.S.
So what is happening in a person’s brain who’s struggling with addiction? For starters, addict’s “reward centers” in the brain are being overwhelmed. Our brains help us out by making us feel good whenever we do something that’s supposed to be good for ourselves. One example of this is eating some ice cream. Our brain processes the signal from our mouth, and tells us “Ice cream good, eat more.” So we eat more because it feels good.This feeling good comes from a place in the brain called the Striatum (marked in green on the picture below). Our Striatum releases a neurotransmitter called dopamine, and we receive a feeling of pleasure.
Drugs:
So where do drugs fit into all of this? Particularly addictive drugs like methamphetamine and heroin hijack your Striatum. These drugs cause a huge amount of dopamine to be dumped into your brain and cause a feeling of intense pleasure and euphoria. Herein lies the problem with drug addiction. The Striatum’s job is to promote continued action by making us feel good. When we stimulate that region of our brain with an action, such as taking some prescription pills or illegal substances, our brain becomes hardwired to wanting to repeat that action. The dial gets turned up to 11 when we do this with addictive drugs because of the amount of dopamine released. Several proteins and cellular pathways become activated in our brain to rewire it. Some of the proteins such as protein kinase A and C serve to cause cellular restructure and proliferation.
 
When we take all that’s happening to our brains into account, we see that drug addiction becomes less and less of a choice and more of necessity. Our brains become trained to want drugs more than things like life-sustaining food. It seems confusing that our brains would rather have drugs and die instead of being healthy. But that’s because living healthy doesn’t always activate our striatum. Simply put, our brain gets turned against us when addictive drugs are put into the equation. We become erratic and irrational.
 
Regardless of your stance on drug addiction, please let anyone you know struggling with addiction that there are people out there who are willing to help them without any judgement. The hotline for drug abuse is 1-877-978-2486, and you can find there website here http://drugabuse.com
 
 

Neurochemistry sounds kind of scary, doesn’t it? Well let me tell you that it was a great class. The structure and organization of the class created a great environment for all the students to have interesting dialogues. We learned about a neurological disease every week from a scientific literature standpoint. By doing this we discussed the paper in full, researched new topics relating to the disease, and had open dialogue to discuss the disease. This has been one of my favorite classes at Concordia College and any upcoming senior should definitely consider taking it. Mental health diseases affect so many people around the world and so many of our friend and family either know someone affected or are affected. By taking this class you can further your knowledge on these topics and develop an understanding and compassion for people that suffer from these diseases.
We also were required to do a community action project where we had the opportunity to spread awareness of a disease of choice. This was a great project that I had a lot of fun taking my time and effort to actually do something concerning a disease. I will miss the weekly couch dialogues every Friday and listening to everyone’s opinions. Thank you Dr. Mach for a wonderful experience!