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Show This second cell may have synapses with as many as 1000 adjacent cells. Starting from the electrical discharge of a single cell, in a tenth of a second the brain becomes a sea of flowing chemicals and electrical waves. The brain waves can be detected and measured on the outside of the skull. With those measurements, called electroencephalograms (EEGs), doctors can diagnose epilepsy and sleep disorders. Imagine now the complexity of the brain. It has at least 100 billion cells. Each cell may have 1000 connections with other cells. That makes 100 trillion. Your single brain, then, boasts more connections than all the computers now operating in the world. Another finding: The dendrite has a tiny bump on its surface called a receptor. Then came the most astonishing discovery of all: Nerve cells contain receptors for an opiate. That means that nature has given these cells the power to chemically bind an opiate. But your brain doesnt contain opium, so why the receptors? Researchers theorized that the brain must make opiumlike chemicals and, sure enough, they found natures own painkillers, enkephalins. When you hurt, your brain releases enkephalins to damp the pain. Following this discovery, chemists created a drug called naloxone that attaches to the opiate receptors in the brain, stopping any of the opium compounds heroin, morphine from reaching those receptors. Naloxone blocks the opiate effect. Give naloxone to a heroin addict, and you block his heroin pleasure; it is hoped this will end the addiction. Drugs like naloxone can block the transmission of pain signals in the same way, says Dr. Solomon Snyder, discoverer of the opiate receptors and head of the neuroscience department at the Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore. The brain and our emotions. Researchers also are tying the chemistry and geography of the brain to thinking and feeling. For example, in 1974, Tom Tlapek of Glendale, Mo., suffered frightening panic attacks almost daily. His heart would race, and he could hardly breathe. No treatment helped. Six years later, Tlapek found himself with his head in a machine called a PET scanner at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis. The doctors injected a chemical. Within moments, Tlapek felt a panic attack. The radioactive scan showed a difference in blood flow between his right brain and left brain. The PET scan confirmed my belief that I had a chemical change in my brain, says Tlapek, now 33. I wasnt going crazy. Doctors prescribed an antipanic drug, imipramine. The drug produces unpleasant side effects but does stop the attacks. Scientists estimate that a million of us suffer from panic attacks. Dr. Harold A. Sackeim, a biological psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, says, Were beginning to do for emotion what was done for language. That is, research is now identifying different parts of the brain for thoughts and emotions just as, years ago, scientists found the center of speech for most people in the left side of the brain. If you suffer a stroke a hemorrhage or block of an artery that injures your speech center you cannot talk. In fact, research has laid out different functions for various parts of the brain (see diagram). In general, the right side of most peoples brains expresses feelings, emotions. The left side thinks it figures things out. Furthermore, scientists have found that each side controls the other. The left side prevents the right side from bursting out with emotions. So if you have a stroke that damages the left side, the emotional centers are set free, and you are depressed. Doctors often erroneously believe that the depression that follows a stroke is psychological, says Dr. Sackeim, in the sense that the patient is unhappy MMDE MAGAZME FEBRUARY 16, 1906 MfiC U because hes in terrible shape. Actually, the depression results directly from the damage to the left brain . Age no handicap. Studies of brain structure also have revealed that the brain, properly stimulated, can continue to develop in old age. Dr. Marian Diamond of the University of California at Berkeley studied rats that reached an equivalent human age of 75 years. She released the elderly rodents in a large cage with 12 other rats and an assortment of toys. Unlike the brains of rats raised in barren cages, the thinking part of the brains of the stimulated rats young and old grew thicker. This was similar to a condition that Dr. Diamond, in earlier research, had found in the brain of Albert Einstein, an acknowledged genius. If this finding holds up, it will be concluded that mental exercise at all ages can make the brain think better. Says Diamond, It leads us to suggest that we need to end the isolation of older people in society. Like everyone else. Im exhilarated and impressed by the new knowledge and the therapeutic power it holds out, says Dr. Oliver Sacks of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. Young doctors cannot imagine how grim it used to be. Dr. Sacks tells the story of a paralyzed patient who could not speak. He was doomed to a world of seeing and hearing without speaking. But, since the new research revealed that communication systems were spread throughout the brain, Dr. Sacks wondered: Could another communication channel be tapped? He noticed that the patient could move his nead a tiny bit. A laser beam device was attached to the mans forehead with the light ray pointing at a chart with the alphabet. With tiny head movements, the man could pick out letters to form words and sentences, which came out on a tape so that they could be read by others. The patient became so adept at it that he could speak at 100 words a minute. Sacks says the man hopes to become a computer programmer. Sacks cautions, however, that there is a danger of imbalance and losing the human dimensions to technology. In dealing with patients, he says, one must not forget the old humanity. g t g 3- - - t F - -- :r S colds can make your attacks feel worse. i alergy sensitive; there's enough dust, dander, and polution r''"'in; theyou're air under attack. to add to the winter to al And, keep you long discomfort, winter afagy attacks are often accompanied by colds. But now theres the relief of Benadryl' Decongestant capsules and liquid. Benadryl Decongestant combines the relief of Benadryt-t- he most prescribed alergy medication ever, with the added relief of a highly effective nasal decongestant. This winter, use Benadryl Decongestant as directed to refieve both upper respiratory allergy and cold symptoms. C c Introducing q Benadryl Dsioiraant PARXE-DW1- 3. HELPING YOUR PHARMACIST ANO VQUR . 9i . DOCTORHeU YOUR HEALTH. NftJkT 4 t |
