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com/pages/Molecular-Healthmagazine/138365346266194 Inside you'll find answers to these questions! What is neurogenesis, what helps neurogenesis, what inhibits neurogenesis etc.

First off all what the heck is neurogenesis and why should I care? Neurogenesis is the making of a new neuron from a neural stem cell. This process will occur throughout your lifetime there are many diseases linked to neurogenesis. For the sake of the example lets start out by looking at depression.

Depression will among other reasons occur when the neurogenesis process is halted. As we can see from the below picture there is much more activity in the normal brain than there is in the depressed. The activity going on in the not depressed brain is among other things neurogenesis. Now lets have a look at a few of the causes of this halt of neurogenesis. The main reason is thought inactivity and body inactivity some of the other causes can be treatment with Benzodiazepines because these drugs will kill your newborn neurons through a mechanism I will tell you about later. Now lets have a look at some of the other diseases caused by a halt in the neurogenesis process. First of lets have a look disease that affects alot of people worldwide. You guessed it its Alzheimer's disease.

What is the connection between AD and neurogenesis you might be asking? One of the side effects of AD is the death of neurons in the brain. Woulden't it be great if I told you that you could actually counteract this death of neurons in your brain by following the advices in the section boost your neurogenesis of course it can't halt the disease completely however it might give an AD affected person a few years more. Of course there is more but should I mention all the diseases caused by a halt of neurogenesis I would need like 600 pages in this book.

What inhibits neurogenesis. Lets have a look at all the factors that can decrease your neurogenesis. I will show you both the direct and indirect killers of your neurogenesis process. Of course I won't show em all because if I did then this issue of molecular health would be 600 pages long.

Ohh it looks like a cute poppy. But it isn't its ethanol an alcohol (which you probably already knows) ethanol is an indirect inhibitor. Because it has agonism (I.e it will bind and activate the receptor) at the gaba receptors in the brain, which causes it to kill the newborn neurons through excitotoxicity (to much calcium flowing into the cell this has the odd effect that it will activate some enzymes that will kill the cell, and it also binds certain chemicals the cell needs to break down and excrete thus making it impossible for the cell to break down these toxic waste products) don't get me wrong on this your cells do need calcium however if the concentration becomes to great it will kill your cells.

Benzodiazepines are also neurogenesis inhibitors and the reason for this is that they are positive allosteric modulators at the gaba receptor (I.e a drug that will enhance the activity of the receptor by forcing it to stay in its active conformation) see this link for more on why you would wanna avoid these Benzodiazepines .

Insomnia is also a major inhibitor of neurogenesis and the molecular reasons for this is because if you don't sleep you will inhibit the synthesis of melatonin from serotonin however and I repeat however don't run out and by melatonin supplies because it isn't melatonin nor is it serotonin that is a key compound in your neurogenesis process. The key compound is something that is called NAcetylSerotonin or NAS for short. Which I will get back to a little later. You should also check out the section where is the pictures taken from.

Nitric oxide is also an inhibitor of neurogenesis and the reasons for this is that it will act as a free radical (i.e a chemical compound that will cause damage by

reacting with the dna bases and the amino acids of the proteins in the cells) in the brain I guess I just gave ya yet another reason to stay clear of car exhaustion. :-)

Cortisol (the stress hormone) is also a major inhibitor of neurogenesis. Why are you probably thinking well because cortisol decreases the secretion and synthesis of the neurotrophins. Among other inhibitors of neurogenesis can I mention repetitive behavoir (bad habits). And the reason for this is that whenever the brain encounters a new behavoir it will spark the devolopment of a new synapse (connection in between the brain cells) a process for which the neurotrophins are needed. And there is of course also as mentioned earlier brain inactivity if you don't think your brain won't need many new neurons. And then there is physical inactivity.

Sparking neurogenesis

sex promotes neurogenesis the reason is that sex is physical activity i.e it will boost your brains S and S of neurotrophins and like that wassen't enough there is certain evidence tying together endomorphins (the endogenous heroin) and neuroprotection and of course there is the release of serotonin and dopamine. (now I know that dopamine dossen't really have much to do with neurogenesis however this was just to illustrate that sex makes you happy especially if its with different partners and this goes both for men and women)

N-acetyl serotonin is a trk-b receptor agonist (tyrosine kinase a catalytic

receptor that will add a phosphate group to the amino acid tyrosine) now lets all agree that if you boost the production of the parts you also have a outstanding chance of boosting the production of the product. So now I will tell you how to boost your serotonin production in the brain of course since the serotonin molecule is just to hydrophilic to cross the blood brain barrier. So lets look at some ways to boost serotonin levels in the brain. Way no.1 train your memory http://www.memorise.org/memory-gym and here is why studies have shown that whenever we use our memory it is facilitated by serotonin. Among other neurotransmitters. Especially when you're recalling happy events in your life. Way no.2 E&D Exercise and Diet. You should eat alot of proteins + you should work out, especially resistance training will give you a nice boost in your serotonin + neurotrophin levels. Way no. 3 SSRI's will boost your serotonin levels 2. (now i'm probably going to get unpopular in the alternative health scene) however there is actually a few natural alternatives to SSRI's (Selective serotonin reuptake Inhibitors I.e a drug that works by substituting for serotonin a the serotonin transporter protein Sert, a protein that will transport the serotonin into the cell for metabolism) one of these are hyperforin a compound found in St. Johns wort. That works through an absolutely different mechanism then the SSRI's and thereby have an enterily different side effects profile. And fewer. Hyperforin works by activate sodium channels in the CNS, thereby causing inhibition of uptake of all these neurotransmitter. GABA, Glutamate, Dopamine, Serotonin and last but not atleast norepinephrine. But didn't you say that gaba was hurtfull? Well yes I did, however aslong as gaba remains in the synapses between 2 mature neurons it won't do any harm. Eat all the neccesary compounds for the serotonin production I will now generate a list of these natural compounds. 1. Tryptophan the reason for this is that tryptothan is the building block of serotonin. 2. Ionisine is a precursor of a precursor of a cofactor needed for the conversion of tryptophan into 5-HTP. I will explain this in detail later. Liver and heart of animals does contain large amounts of this. And it is also avaible in pills. 3. Vitamin b6, why? Well allow me to tell you why this vitamin is super important the reasons for this is that vitamin b6 in its active phosphorylated form is an essential cofactor for the synthesis of serotonin. 4. Ok so now we got the serotonin in order lets start by looking at what you should ingest in order to convert serotonin to N-acetyl-serotonin. 5. First of all we'll need cocunut oil, and here is why the reason why coconut oil is super important is because it contains some fatty acids that are metabolized into ketone-bodies, an important part of acetyl-coa. Which is the cofactor of the synthesis of N-acetylserotonin. 6. Second of all you should eat a little more of glucose, because glucose is

another part of the acetyl-coa molecule. 7. Inosine because one of the products of inosine is an important part of the acetyl-Coa molecule. 8. Cysteine, Cysteine is found in a variety of foods including poultry, yogurt, egg yolks, red peppers, garlic, onions, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, oats, and wheat germ. 9. Leucine which is found in egg-white, soy-protein, most meats is also a very good source of leucine. 10. Alanine is yet another important amino acid, in this mixture. Cannibinoids (such as THC) does also help your neurogenesis process through shutting down all the ion channels in the newborn neurons + inhibiting the release of gaba from older neurons. Lets have a look at how you can boost your endocannibiniod synthesis. in this issue I will only show you how you can boost the production of one of your endocannibinoids. And the one I've choosen for this issue is NADA NArachidonoyl dopamine. But before I'll show you how to produce this Endocannibinoid Lets have a look at what it is made of. It is made of Arachidonic acid and dopamine. In the relationship 1:1 So the way to increase your bodies production of NADA must be to ingest more peanut oil, and don't worry since the fatty acid is hydrophobic it will easily cross the blood/brain barrier. Ok so lets have a look at how ionisine can boost your brain's serotonin production, it all starts soon after you ingest the ionisine. After you ingest some ionisine what happens is that it is firstly converted into ITP, and from there to ATP and lastly but not atleast the ATP (or used as an energy source for the cell) is converted into GTP. And what happens from here is actually quite interresting because from here the GTP is converted into tetrahydrobiopterin. Which is the hydroxy donor for the tryptothan molecule. And now here are the websites from which I've stolen pictures for this issue. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (of course coulden't it be any different) http://remedyforinsomnia.net/ (the insomnia picture) http://blogs.princeton.edu/anscombe/2010/08/stress-sex-andneurogenesis.html (the neurogenesis picture) http://www.babybusiness.dk/cosleeping-at-sove-i-samme-seng-som-baby.html (the sex picture) if you own any of the pictures in this issue and feel left out, forgotten or want your picture removed then do not hessitate to email us at molecularhealth346@gmail.com