Sunday, January 22, 2012

Search for the Brain's First Defense

I would have expected this writeup to come from one of the researchers associated with a stroke association, but no it comes from the

But it explains a lot about why this is taking so long. Part of the reason has to be they don't use the words that signify immediacy, like cascade of neuronal death.
Neuroprotection is so wimpy, stop using it.
http://www.michaeljfox.org/newsEvents_parkinsonsInTheNews_article.cfm?ID=188
Read it and weep.
Meanwhile, 78 million baby boomers are reaching the peak years for stroke and degenerative brain diseases. Already, in the United States each year, 700,000 Americans suffer a stroke, and as many as 500,000 are diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease (1.4 million suffer a traumatic brain injury).
With these numbers we should be able to get better attention, call your legislators on NIH research.
"There are so many things going wrong" when the brain is under attack, says Dr. Robert M. Friedlander of Harvard University's Brigham and Women's Hospital, who has pioneered much of the work on creatine as a neuroprotectant. "It's probably like plugging many holes in a cup: The more holes you plug, the better you do."

And, doctors say, finding a neuroprotectant or a cocktail of neuroprotectants that work for many kinds of brain injury will take a bit of luck as well.

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