Ample glutamates for the brain’s neurotransmitters means quick thinking and sharp memory. The aging brain has less and less of this stuff. Is there a way to keep your glutamates buzzing? Get ready for a surprise.
By Dona Suri
Lots of people have aging on their mind. Which is to say that they worry about what aging is going to do to their mind. The thought of developing Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s is scary, but any slow down in mental processes is unwelcome. The big question:
Is it just a fact of life that everybody is going to lose cognitive ability and memory when they get old?
The answer is …yes and no.
Biochemists and neuro-scientists at Oregon State University’s Linus Pauling Institute can’t read your mind, but they are getting a picture of what’s going on in your brain … and the picture is getting clearer and more accurate every day. OSU neuro-scientist Dr Kathy Magnussen put’s it nicely:
If you forget where you put your car keys and you can’t seem to remember things as well as you used to, the problem may well be with the GluN2B subunits in your NMDA receptors. And don’t be surprised if by tomorrow you can’t remember the name of those darned subunits. They help you remember things, but you’ve been losing them from the day you were born.
So, yes … everyone loses memory-making and cognitive abilities as they get up in years. The process is well under way by age 40 and picks up speed after that. Infants and children soak up new ideas and experiences at lightning speed because their little brains are bursting with GluN2B subunits. The GluN2B population gradually thins out over the years. This doesn’t mean that you can’t learn Chinese at the age of 80, but it’s not as easy and the brain has to work harder.
This explanation is going too fast and skipping over important information. You need to know what the Glu in GluN2b is. That’s Glu for glutamate. Glutamate is your body’s most abundant AMINO ACID, as well as most abundant excitatory neurotransmitter. It is involved in more than 90 percent of all excitatory functions in your brain. It triggers a nerve cell, and then the chemical message moves nerve cell to nerve cell, non-stop.
Your glial cells (there are several types of them) hold nerve cells in place and help them work the way they should. Glutamate is made and stored in muscle tissue by the glial cells and it’s re-usable. Glial cells pull in the used glutamate, convert it to glutamine, which charges down the neural pathways. When it gets to the terminal end of the nerve cells, it reverts to glutamate – ready to be recycled and put to work again.
The body has specialized protein structures called NMDA receptors (several types of them, each made of different combinations of proteins). NMDA stands for N-methyl-D-aspartate. NMDA receptors are glutamate-gated ion channels. One component (subunit) in this set-up is the GluN2B. When the brain chemicals, glutamate and glycine, attach to the receptor, a channel opens, allowing positively charged particles (cations) to flow through. The flow of cations activates (excites) neurons and they signal each other.
So, glutamate fires up the nerve cells. To calm down the nerve cells, you need gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). GABA is involved in sleep, relaxation, anxiety regulation and muscle function. The brain needs GABA as much as it needs glutamate; but the thing is, the body needs glutamate in order to make GABA.
Have you ever put monosodium glutamate (MSG) in your chow mein? This glutamate and the glutamate made in your glial cells is the same stuff: it is L-glutamic acid, which is a nonessential amino acid (meaning that your body can produce it by itself and doesn’t need to get it from food). The stuff in the little bottle from the grocery store is made by fermenting carb sources like sugar beet, sugar cane, and molasses. Tomatoes, spinach, collard greens, kale, lettuce, cilantro, cheese and some meats are natural sources of MSG.
But, getting back to memory and thinking. As understanding of brain mechanics deepens, neuro-scientists are also gaining an understanding of how to slow down – or even prevent – GluN2B subunit loss. The secret is …
VIRUS !
Ha-ha … scared you! The word is like a spider jumping out a bouquet. But suppose a virus could be used for some beneficial purpose?
Imagine a bunch of senile mice. A genetic engineer loads a precise gene sequence onto a specific virus. The virus muscles its way into a mouse hippocampus cell and does what viruses do. It uses the cell components to make copies of itself … except this time the copies have that particular gene sequence that carries the recipe for GluN2B subunits. Long (and very complicated) story made short: some GluN2B subunits are restored and the mice can learn and remember stuff again. At least they are better at it than they were before the virus treatment.
Sounds like The Hitchhiker’s Guide? Could it be that the mice really are right in the middle of everything?
It’s going to take a while before any such procedure can be applied to the human brain but the OSU experiment reveals the direction in which neuroscience is working, and it shows that there are ways to significantly and measurably improve memory and cognitive functioning. It means that you don’t necessarily have to say goodbye to your brain before the rest of you wears out.
But what can you do RIGHT NOW to keep at least most of your marbles? The advice from Dr Magnussen (and other doctors too) is to try learning Chinese, or anything else that encourages your brain to keep ticking. Make the effort.
Pointwise, here’s what you need to do to hang on to your GluN2B subunits.
- Keep using your brain. Break old habits, do new things or do old things differently.
- Tune in. We use all our senses all the time. Tuning in requires you to occasionally pause and consciously register whatever it is that you are smelling, tasting, touching, seeing, hearing.
- Get a good night’s sleep. At the same time every night, in a room that is comfortably cool, ease into your bedtime routine (minus caffeine and electronics. Peace out and doze off.
- Keep in touch with your friends. Make new friends. Get involved with something enjoyable that involves other people. If you can’t stand people, get a dog. Don’t mope around by yourself.
- Mind what you look like. Your face, your hair, your nails, your clothes … look sharp, feel sharp, be sharp. Dressing up and going out is much better for you than slouching around the house all day in tatty pajamas. If you’ve got no place to go, go shopping.
- Eat healthy and don’t overeat. Junk food is a leading cause of brain rot. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, fish and moderate quantities of lean meats — all of these preserve brain function and slow mental decline.
- Be kind to your ears. Exposure to high volume sound can permanently damage your hearing in 30 minutes. Hearing loss in older adults is linked to brain problems, such as Alzheimer’s and loss of brain tissue.
- Get off your tuffet and get some sunshine. Give yourself minimum 30 minutes of exercise every day. It doesn’t have to be strenuous; even a walk around the neighborhood is fine. It’s even finer if your exercise takes you outdoors because your brain responds positively to natural light.
- Laugh. Neurologically speaking, a good cackle is not much different from a good high. Laughing prompts your brain to release hormones called endorphins and these bind to the very same receptors that light up when hit by an opioid. Endorphins relieve pain, reduce stress and lighten mood. Researchers have a general idea of what happens in the brain when you laugh but they are still working out the details. Anyway, the scientific details are less important that laughing heartily and frequently.
- If you are still smoking … STOP.
Let’s sign off with the immortal words of Bob Dylan (now aged an evergreen 83) …
I’m younger than that now …
Nice & valuable article.
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