Cobbers on the Brain

In Western culture, we are constantly being bombarded with unrealistic beauty standards.  As a result, many, in particular women, struggle with their body image and the unhealthy desire to achieve the thin beauty ideal.  Body image dissatisfaction and disordered eating patterns are particularly common in teenagers and young adults.  Not only are their societal pressures that influence our eating behaviors, but biological factors that influence the pathology of eating disorders.  Two of the most common eating disorders are anorexia and bulimia.  Both eating disorders are characterized by an excessive drive to be thin and abnormal eating behaviors.  Another common sign of an eating disorder is excessive exercise to try and lose additional weight.  In addition to this, both can have binge eating (excessive intake in food) and purging behaviors (self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives etc.), although this is more common in bulimia.  The difference between bulimia and anorexia is that those with anorexia are typically 15% or more below their healthy body weight, while those with bulimia are not.
Dysregulation in the neurotransmitter serotonin and the hormone estrogen have been linked to bulimia.  In those with bulimia, serotonin is typically low, which can increase the risk of impulsive behavior and anxiety.  Estrogen is thought to help aid in neuronal communication between serotonergic neurons, through increased levels of intracellular serotonin.  Thus, decreased serotonin and estrogen levels in certain areas of the brain have been associated with bulimia.  Currently, drugs that can help maintain normal serotonin levels as well as estrogen receptor modulators are being explored for treatment of eating disorders.
While the link between serotonin and bulimia has been found, there are undoubtedly more biological factors that are involved, such as other hormones or neurotransmitters.  Future research into bulimia and other eating disorders may help to uncover additional causes, and help to develop more effective treatments for these severe and dangerous eating disorders.  However, it is important that we teach our youth the importance of being comfortable with their bodies, and to accept normal and healthy eating habits at an early age to help combat the ever increasing social pressures.
More general information on eating disorders can be found HERE.

Over the past few decades, a growing number of children are being diagnosed with autism.  Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by impairments in communication, inappropriate social behavior, and repetitive behavior.   The autism spectrum (ASD) has a wide range of symptoms, with varying degrees of severity.  As with many disorders, genetic and environmental factors both have a capacity to contribute.  While there are many genetic factors that are responsible for autism, there are also some environmental risk factors for developing autism.
One of the proposed risk factors for autism is prenatal viral infections.  Researchers have potentially found that prenatal viral infection in the mother is associated with autism development in the child.  Furthermore zinc deficiency in the mother and during early development has also shown to have a strong association with autism.  Zinc is a very important metal in the body as it plays a role in many different processes, such as cell division and differentiation.  Deficiency in zinc during development is linked to severe brain dysfunction, including impaired learning and memory.  While immune system disruption and zinc deficiency are seen as the two central factors, there are many others that have been proposed.  Some other risk factors that have been associated with autism are parental age, prenatal stress, abnormal melatonin synthesis, maternal diabetes, postnatal heavy metal poisoning, and prenatal exposure to toxins including valproic acid and thalidomide.
Many of these risk factors appear prenatally, or before the child is born.  This window of time is a sensitive one for brain development, as certain aspects of the brain development may be more prone to disruption by environmental factors imposed on the mother and thus the child.  Although it appears that autism originates in early development, many of these risk factors need further research to strengthen their associations and provide a more direct link with autism.  While there are many environmental and genetic factors that are associated with autism, researchers have yet to draw them back to a single cause.  It is now clear that there are not only genetic, but environmental influences that can both lead to increased risk of developing autism.  Elucidating the exact mechanism in which these environmental factors impact autism will be an important next step towards merging the genetic and environmental components.
For more information on autism, click HERE.

Neurochemistry was my capstone course in the second to last semester of college and what a wonderful experience it was. To think of how much I learned in just a few short months is incredible. I know more about the brain and how so much of our lives and destiny is controlled by the brain and how it interacts with the many different systems in our body. We learned about ALS, endocannabinoids, the effects of concussions on the brain, alzheimer’s disease, obesity, parkinson’s disease, autism, etc. We covered many of the important brain-related topics of our time and it was truly a fun and education-filled experience. Dr. Mach did a fantastic job in picking relevant, understandable, and important papers. I cannot thank he enough for making the class worthy of showing up 3 days a week. The discussions were always unique and some tangent would bring you into a completely different quadrant that you didn’t even expect to end up on. There was always fresh material and new information to be shared with the class. I can definitely say there were not many dull moments!
I would recommend this class to any student, whether a science major or not, due to its ability to expand your ability to critically understand scientific papers as well to learn new info about how crazy the brain is and what exactly you still have yet to learn about it. Dr. Mach is the best and as long as you do your work every week, you cannot let her down. She will strive to make sure you understand every week what we are getting ourselves in to. And that is what makes this class great.
 
Cobber Neurochem. Take it.

Eating disorders are diseases that have a large impact on our society. They are many types of different eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, compulsive overeating, etc. All of these are associated with having an unhealthy perception/relationship with food. And where does that start? How can we allow people to be pushed in such a direction that even that which sustains us harms them?
Society is forcing unrealistic perceptions of body image, weight, appearance, onto those especially vulnerable. We are telling young girls that they need to be a size 0 from the moment they hit puberty through the rest of their lives. We tell young boys they need to be cut and well-built in order to attract women and to show how fit they are. This then gives false perceptions to the opposite sex and what they should expect when they look for a person to date. They are looking for these modelistic body types, but that isn’t how 99% people are.
We need to be teaching our children and youth about how people really are and what a realistic body type is. We cannot keep letting the media control what enters the brains of our youth and how they should feel about the bodies they have been given. We need to revolutionize the system that controls what content is being distributed. And don’t get me wrong, I am a free speech proponent and I think that the censoring of music/television is dumb, but we cannot have the media propping up lies to control the brains of the people. This is how body image issues arise.
Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder that involves the binge eating of food, followed by a purge soon after. Purging can be vomiting, excessive exercise, the taking of a laxative, or any way that the sufferer attempts to rid themselves of all the food they consumed. This can have drastic effects on the hormones of the person and can completely throw their body out of wack. Issues such as menstrual dysregulation can arise in the female sufferer, causing infrequent periods and other issues.
Bulimia nervosa is set in motion by the unrealistic standards of the media in our society and is furthered by mental and neurological issues that exacerbate the problem. Until we clean up our act and stop forcing unrealistic images into the brains of our citizens, we will never be able to fully rid ourselves of eating disorders.