Cobbers on the Brain

Autism while not a positive thing to have it is also not as bad as some of the things that people avoid in order to not contract autism.  There are many various environmental factors that have been linked with autism.  There is correlation of autism occurring in the children of mothers who have diabetes, stress, exposure to toxins, or encounter diabetes while pregnant.  Largely, the paper we studied this week found that “synaptopathy is the underlying mechanism for autism and focusing on the two central environment factors ‘immune system abnormalities’ and ‘zinc deficiency,’ similarities can be found influencing synaptic function and plasticity.” (Environmental Factors in autism, Grabrucker) Many different factors can lead to these environmental factors, including exposure to toxins, poor nutrition (pica), heavy metal poisoning, copper overload, stomach abnormalities, stress, psychiatric drugs and other factors (Environmental Factors in autism, Grabrucker). When one has a zinc deficiency, this tends to lead to immune dysregulation, then to glutamatergic dysregulation (poor signaling in the brain) which leads to an imbalance of ions in the neurons and can eventually lead to autism, as the brain is not functioning properly.
Now, in recent years, there has been a surge of parents choosing to not vaccinate their children for sometimes the reason of not wanting their child to contract autism, granted this is not always the case, but a scientist posting fraudulent results about vaccines being linked to autism in order to better sell a new vaccine that was not supposed to have this link.  Now, even if this link were established, it still makes little sense to me as to why someone would choose to not vaccinate their child over risking a disease that could kill them.  Many different factors can lead to autism, and vaccines aren’t even a valid factor, and there is no way to protect one’s child from all of these factors. You see something as simple as a pregnant mother having stress can lead to autism, stress, the most common emotion felt by college students (at least it feels that way) and something that most people feel every day.  And thinking about it big picture, autism in all reality is not the worst disease someone could have, as even with it they are largely healthy physically.  Autism is mostly a social syndrome, it largely impacts how one interacts with others, which can be debilitating as it is then harder to communicate.  In the more severe end of the autism spectrum , there are some health problems (like seizures), but the most common form of autism is Asperger’s, which is where the child is high functioning, and has largely only social and communication problems, which while nothing one would wish on their child, is also better than a child contracting deadly diseases.  Thus, the thought that a parent would chose to risk the chance of their child being very ill or dying of risking their child having social and communication issues.  I feel sometimes there needs to be a certain aspect of trust that when doctors recommend things like vaccines,  as they are only trying to help children stay healthy and alive.

Did you know that obesity can be considered a brain disorder?
That it can effect the way our brain is working, that all the extra fat and sugar in a person’s diet if it is poor can actually change the brain.  Obesity is thought as of a negative thing for the health, that it is bad to be overweight as different function sin the body may not be working properly.
And while this may be true in some respect, the paper that we read this week addressed how it is in fact the high fat and high sugar diets that affect the brain more so than just being overweight in itself.
Thus, if someone who was just genetically predisposed to being on the heftier side, if they were to live a healthy lifestyle and eat good food not containing a lot of fat or sugar, and exercised regularly, they would not have the negative effects occurring in their brain, and may in fact be healthier than someone who is skinny but has poor eating habits and does not exercise regularly.
Multiple factors can lead to someone being/becoming, you can eat the wrong things at the wrong time, your mother could have had a high fat diet while pregnant, or you could be genetically predisposed.  Each of these effect how likely one is to become overweight; however, sometimes the brain is also working with the outside factors.
Poor diets can “disrupt the blood brain barrier in the hippocampus” which can then lead to chemicals being in the brain that are not supposed to be, which can lead to certain functions of the brain not being carried out. Specifically we see a change in the POMC neuron working improperly, which can lead to lack of signals being sent telling the body that it is full.  Thus, when the brain is exposed to a poor diet, the effect it has on the blood brain barrier can lead to an intake of more food.  Poor diets that are high in sugar can also be linked to diabetes, as the high sugar intake can lead to insulin resistance.
With the array of effect on the brain, people who have poor diets, or are just overeating, can experience problems like decreased ability to learn, decreased memory, decreased drive to move or exercise, lower attention span and poor overall brain function. Obesity, in addition to all of the previously listed affects, can also lead to low or high blood sugar, diabetes, high blood pressure and metabolic syndrome.  The scary things about these effects though is that there is a lag between the time of which one eats poorly and the time when the symptoms arise, so the best way to avoid these is just by living a healthy lifestyle.
After discovering that obesity makes true changes to the brain, I was thinking how unfortunate it is that those who are overweight but were just born that way have all of these various problems in the brain.
However, after looking more closely, it is largely mentioned that the poor diet is what makes the biggest impact on the brain, and that it matters less the weight of the person and more how they treat their body.