Hallucinogens and Your Neurons

A hallucinogen is a type of drug that causes it's users to see, hear or feel things that do not exist. Hallucinogens can alter a persons perception of many things including their self, distance, time, direction and even reality. There are three main uses of hallucinogens the first on is for spiritual use. The Aztecs and many other Native American tribes have used them in rituals for centuries. The Native American Church or NAC uses a hallucinogen called peyote in their religious ceremonies which is a practice that is nearly 10,000 years old. The American government has deemed this practice legal because the drug is not being abused and their religion is against recreational drugs and alcohol. The second use is scientific use which began and was researched in the 1950s and 1960s. Scientists and doctors believed that these drugs would give them a new understanding of mental illness, this proved ineffective and is now very limited. The third and most common is recreational use which is when people use them for their own pleasure. There are over 100 types of hallucinogens and can be found naturally or produced synthetically. Some common hallucinogens are ecstasy, LSD or mushrooms. Hallucinogens have a horrific effect on ones body and cause much damage in the nervous system. The exact cause of what makes hallucinogens do what they do is still unknown, but it is known that they affect certain cells and chemicals during use. Neurons are the cells most affected by these drugs. Neurons are the cells in the nervous system and are extremely important to our body functioning properly. Hallucinogens affects a chemical called serotonin that is a chemical the neurons use to transmit and react to messages. Serotonin is linked to our emotions, judgement, sleep and moods. They have also shown that the serotonin levels is directly related to our behaviors. Hallucinogens causes large amounts of this chemical to be released from neurons so the amount that gets to the brain is lowered and could even be depleted. These low levels result in violent, aggressive, irrational and suicidal behaviors. Hallucinogens are extremely harmful and potentially deadly drugs that should most definitely be stayed away from.

Barbiturates and the Central Nervous System

Barbiturates are depressants or downers which slows down the body`s systems. They come in brightly colored pills. Barbiturates are used for medicinal purposes like anesthesia, and insomnia. Tolerance and Addiction become very quickly when on these for more than 2 weeks. Overdose and death are very high risks for users. Effects of barbiturates include intense mood swings, babbling and slurred speech, and lack or judgement. Blood pressure can drop so low that a cardiovascular collapse can occur. The can only be given by a doctors prescription. When people become addicted to these drugs they tend to lie to their doctor to get more.  The nervous system is at risk when Barbiturates cross the brain`s protective layer. The brain has a blood brain barrier, which a fatty layer that surrounds the brain preventing foreign substances in the bloodstream from entering the brain and causing malfunction. Large molecules do not pass easily through the BBB, neither do molecules that are not easily dissolved in fat. The first reaction after a person has ingested barbiturates is less inhibitions. These are emotions that tell you to restrict your behavior. The body is totally relaxed. This messes your body up and can no longer let your CNS control the body's actions. The body tries to reject these substances by vomiting. If a user is lying on their back and too sedated to get up, they could choke to do on vomit.  Taking these with other depressants such as alcohol or heroin can increase the side effects by a lot.  The with drawl process can kill a person if they are not under close doctor observation. After an abuser survives withdrawal and detoxification, they will still need help such as talking to a psychiatrist.

A few interesting sites

Table
This link is table of the muscles with origins, insertions, and actions.

Bone Health
This is great information on how to have healthy bones and what you can do to promote them.

History of Heart Disease
An interesting article about how ancient hunters and gatherers also had heart problems.

Dr. Lazarus on Miracles

In Dr. Lazarus' book he breaks down the different aspects of being a pediatric oncologist. One of his sections is all about miracles that he has experienced while being in the field and one of them in particular was rather odd to me. He took care of a boy that came in with a tumor on the back of his brain, this tumor had spread to many different areas by the time they got to him and so his outlook was very grave. His parents decided to take him home so he could die peacefully, but then something happened. He actually started improving every day. The odd part about this story however is that when he regained enough strength to start communicating through arm and hand gestures he said yes by waving and no by flipping the bird. This gets even stranger, after that as he continued to improve and was able to talk he used curse words like we use please and thank-you. Though Dr. Lazarus did not offer an explanation for this kind of behavior it was extremely interesting to me that these things are what came to this child first.

Dear Shay

Dear Shay,
      My I recently took my two year old child to the park for a birthday party, I have not noticed until now that she is much smaller than the other children her age. She also seemed to tire out much faster than the other kids on the playground. I had to take her home before the cake and ice cream because she was so exhausted.
      I have noticed since she could stand that her knees never fully came together suggesting that she was bow legged, but I dismissed the notion that anything was wrong because my father too is bow legged. In the recent months however her wrist has been swollen because her baby bracelet won't fit anymore and she has been complaining about back pain. I figured this was just part of her growing until the incident at the park. I think something might be wrong, but I am not for sure. Is this just part of her  growing or should I be concerned?

Sincerely,
Overly Concerned Parent

Dear Overly Concerned Parent,

     Through my experience with bone disease it sounds to me like your child might have a disease called rickets.  Rickets is the softening and weakening of bones due to a vitamin D deficiency. Some common symptoms of this disease include delayed growth,  pain in the spine,  and muscle weakness. This would explain why your child appeared so much smaller than the other children. Also it explains the tiredness she was feeling along with why her back hurts. Since the disease softens the growth plates, rickets can also cause bowed legs and swollen ankles or wrists, this could be the reason for those also. The deficiency of vitamin D causing this could be from lack of sunlight or not getting enough in her diet. Foods with lots of vitamin D include fatty fish, egg yolks, milk, cereal and some fruit juices like orange juice. Certain diseases also make it difficult to absorb vitamin D like Celiacs Disease, Cystic Fibrosis, and Inflammatory bowel disease. There are also different risk factors for developing this disease and one of them is the child being between 6 and 24 months of age, because of rapid bone growth during this period. Pre-mature births and anti-seizure medication could also put a child at risk. Sounds to me like you should get your child to a doctor to discuss the disease more and come up with a plan of action for treating it!

Sincerely,
Shay

Harmful Meat

Combining the meat of multiple animals and then selling it to humans have consequences. Connecting thousands of animals with thousands of consumers means that an average meat eater will consume pieces of millions of animals during their lifetime. Cooking meat eliminates the risks, but the mass number of interactions increases the potential that an microbe can make the jump to humans. Try to eat 100% beef, and check the background of how the animal was fed out.

New Neural Brain-to-bone pathway Controls Skeletal Development

Within the past year researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem that a part of the autonomic nervous system reaches bones and takes a part in controlling bone development. The new pathway has a part in controlling bone density during the adolescence years and determines the skeletal resistance to fractures throughout the whole life span. In the autonomic nervous system, the brain monitors and regulates the physiological functions of the internal organs and includes two subsystems, the "symphatic" and "parasymphatic.  Each have their own neural pathways. Sympahtic system helps in times of danger or with stress. The parasympahtic helps with digestion, and immune function. The researchers demonstrated that there are parasympahtic responses in the skeleton. A weakened rabies virus was injected into thigh bones of mice. After the injection, the virus was seen in the brain in regions know to be specific for the parasymphatic subsystem. In past research, the activity of the protein interleukin-1 was found to influence bone development. This influence is similar to the parasymphatic system. The recent discovered neural pathway which includes interleukin-1 in the brain and the parasymphatic subsystem, also control heart rate. Having conditions such as depression, osteoporosis, and epilepsy can damage interleukin-1 and the parasymphatic system  in the brain. Finding the disease mechanism in these cases can have a potential for new therapy development. This new pathway is only a small key to understanding the connection between the brain and the bones.