Sleep Apnea, which affects about 20 million Americans, results in memory loss, poor concentration, and chronic fatigue. (from an earlier Smartkit post)

Adding to the evidence that sleep apnea induces structural abnormalities in the brain- a new study out of UCLA shows patients with Sleep Apnea have shrunken mammillary bodies (brain structures important for memory function). Click here to read the abstract.

Here’s the press release from the UCLA website.

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Your brain is extremely fragile, and easily damaged by concussions and other forms of acceleration/deceleration injury. Back in January, I posted the story about Andre Waters-an NFL defensive back who committed suicide at the age of 44. The pathologist who examined his brain concluded it had the appearance of an 85 year old man with Alzheimer’s disease, and thought the severe dementia-like changes were probably due to the multiple concussions sustained over the course of his football career.

The July issue of Neurology Today discusses how the same pathologist (world-renowned Dr. Bennet Omalu, MD out of the University of Pittsburgh) has autopsied the brain of Justin Strzelczyk, a Pittsburgh Steelers lineman who died in a car crash at age 36.

Interestingly, Dr. Omalu finds that Strzelczyk’s brain also has the appearance of an 80 year old man, and shows similar pathologic changes compared to what Andre Waters had in his brain.

This is the 4th football player brain Dr. Omalu has autopsied and diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Within several years time, I suspect more and more studies will come forth showing how widespread brain damage is amongst NFL players.

And next up will be the soccer players. Already, well over a dozen studies indicate heading induces measurable cognitive deficits.

Most people are surprised to learn just how fragile and easily damaged the human brain really is.

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Ecstasy damages your brain

A new study, to be published in the journal Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental [Authors Keith Laws and Joy Kokkalis from the University of Hertfordshire] shows that the drug ecstasy [MDMA] moderate to markedly damages both short and long-term memory.

The study was a meta-analysis.

Verbal memory appeared to be disproportionately affected compared to visual memory.

Another brand new study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, shows that even a first low cumulative dose of Ecstasy is associated with damaged verbal memory ability. [Ref. 1]

According to another recent meta-analysis, Ecstasy use is associated with multiple neurocognitive deficits: [Ref 2]

• attention/concentration
• verbal and nonverbal learning and memory
• psychomotor speed and executive systems

[Reference 1]: Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2007 Jun;64(6):728-36.

[Reference 2]: Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2007 Jan;189(4):531-7.

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[click on image above to jump to journal article detailing brain-heart interactions]

According to a just released report in Japan by the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Labor, nearly 150 people lost their lives in 2006 to Karoshi.

Karoshi is a Japanese term for "death from overwork".

Back in the 1980s, when several high-ranking business executives who were still in their prime years suddenly died without any previous sign of illness, the media began picking up on what appeared to be a new phenomenon. This new phenomenon was quickly labeled kar?shi. [Wikipedia]

According to this article:

Because of peer pressure to keep up with co-workers, out-do competing groups and increase market-share at the expense of competitors, hundreds of thousand of Japanese managers are caught up in a vortex of psychological pressure that forces them to work at a frenzied pace.

Is this possible? Can you suddenly die from overworking? Absolutely. Severe stress can in fact trigger cardiac arrhythmias, heart attacks, and strokes. Over the years, many of the younger stroke patients I’ve consulted on in the hospital give a history of severe stress in the days leading up the stroke.

In the last decade we’ve learned that strong emotions and stress activate specific brain regions which in turn directly influence cardiac rate and rhythm via the autonomic nervous system. A very nice review of this topic (full text & free PDF) can be found here. It’s entitled: Brain-Heart Interactions. The neurocardiology of arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. A diagram from the article illustrating the anatomic brain-heart connections is shown above.

We therefore have a mechanism by which ethereal emotions can have a concrete, injurious effect on heart tissue.

Unfortunately, as this world gets increasingly competitive, more and more people are getting desperate and having to work harder and harder to achieve success. Thus we have up to 25% of college students using stimulants, and are starting to see the 70-hour work week become the new standard.

Reference for above Brain-Heart article: Tex Heart Inst J. 1993; 20(3): 158–169.

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My wife got an email from one of her friends tonight about ‘Strawberry Quick’. As if parents don’t have enough to worry about, this strawberry flavored methamphetamine candy (looks like ‘Pop-Rocks’) is being passed around schools nationwide.

Fourteen 6th graders were hospitalized yesterday in Oklahoma after consuming the little pink crystals.

According to this article:

Strawberry Quick began to show up around mid-February on the West Coast, and the trend is moving east.

This stuff is real bad; among other things, it can quickly lead to heart attacks, arrhythmias, strokes, convulsions, and death.

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In the last 12 months, several articles have come out that have forced neurologists to seriously reconsider their basic understanding of vegetative states and coma.

From the March 2007 issue of Annals of Neurology, we have yet another article detailing the little understood yet dramatic effects Zolpidem (Ambien) can have on patients with severe hypoxic-ischemic brain injury (i.e., as is typically seen in cardiac arrest when there is a lack of blood flow and oxygen to the brain).

From the EurekAlert:

…researchers conducted a study of a 48 year-old woman who developed akinetic mutism due to oxygen deprivation to her brain following an attempted suicide by hanging. The patient was totally dependent, unable to speak or walk, and was using a feeding tube for nourishment, although she was able to understand single words. Two years after the suicide attempt, she was given zolpidem for a bout of insomnia; 20 minutes later, she was able to communicate to her family, eat by herself, and move. These effects lasted for up to three hours.

Ironically, Zolpidem (Ambien) is a widely prescribed sleeping pill.

The near-miraculous effects this drug can have on patients with severe brain injury were discussed in this earlier Smarkit article.

Reference: "Clinical and Imaging Evidence of Zolpidem Effect in Hypoxic
Encephalopathy," Christine Brefel-Courbon, Pierre Payoux, Fabienne Ory,
Agnes Sommet, Tarik Slaoui, Gaelle Raboyeau, Beatrice Lemesle, Michele Puel, Jean Louis Montastruc, Jean-Francois Demonet, Dominique Cardebat, Annals of Neurology, March 2007

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