“You’re nothing but a pack of neurons.”-Francis Crick
Is it possible to grow the new brain cells? Yes it is possible. The oncologists say that it is a matter of relative state of individuals. There are various factors responsible for increasing or decreasing the number of cells. One of our psychology students asked in the classroom that there are more than 100 billions of such cells, what difference will it make whether you increase a couple of thousand cells? But just think if are able to grow your nerve cells say about one hundred per day, what will be the status of nerve cells after the age of 40 years? With small incremental value for longer time may almost replace most of the old cells as brain is always in a constant process of losing hundreds of cells per day. If you have good quality nerve cells in more quantity than your friend, will you be able to learn fast? Or will your mental health be better than your friend? The functions of the brain will be faster or slower?
Neurons are generated from neural stem and progenitor cells. Most active during pre-natal development, neurogenesis is responsible for populating the growing brain with neurons. Suppose the multiplication of neuro cells start decreasing considerably, what will happen? Definitely, you may develop certain brain disorders.
The hippocampus
Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in each side of the brain. The hippocampus is part of the limbic system, and plays important roles in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory, and in spatial memory that enables navigation.
Sometimes, psychiatrists suggest to take different routes to reach home or instructs to brush the teeth with another hand. The data transformation may become faster with increased amount of neuro cells. A single cell is connected to almost ten thousand others cells, and therefore more number of cells will have better function and better memory retention in case of limbic system.
Depression
Depression doesn’t spring from simply having too little of certain neuro brain cells but it can be one of the reasons. Rather, there are many possible causes of depression, including faulty mood regulation by the brain, genetic vulnerability, stressful life events, medications, and medical problems. It’s believed that several of these forces interact to bring on depression. But increased amount of neuro cell will certainly reduce the intensity of depression.
Cancer Drugs
During the treatment of certain cancer or tumour, the cancer drugs are so powerful that they destroy huge amount of neuro cells. Chemotherapy drug doxorubicin may destroy not only cancer cells but also healthy cells as well. After lot of care also there is huge loss of good cells and ultimately patients have lot of unbearable side effects.
Choices Of Activities To Increase The Neuro Cells
Some of the activities are responsible for increasing the neuro cells and some activities are detrimental to reduce the subject cells. New learnings experiences will increase the cells. Any kind of stress will decrease the neuro cells. Sex may increase the neuro cells but too much of sex may deprive the sleep and ultimately decrease the amount of neuro cells. Running or brisk walk will certainly increase the cells. When you get older, the rate of neurogenesis decreases. In fact, there is reduction of overall immunity at the rate of 0.7% per year after the age of sixty.
Role Of Diet For Increase Or Decrease Of Neuro Cells
Diet has very much important role for variation of cells in the brain. When you have calorie restriction almost up to 30% will increase the neurogenesis. Intermittent fasting will increase the neurogenesis. Diet containing blue berries will increase the neurogenesis. Counter effects of omega 6 by omega 3 especially received from salmon fish will increase the neuro cells. Diet with high saturated fat will have negative effect. It is well known fact that alcohol may increase your heart efficiency but definitely decrease the neurogenesis. However, resveratrol contained in red wine is promoted for survival of new neurons. It has been found that soft diet impairs neurogenesis as opposed to food textures which may require mastication, chewing or efforts involving to chew crunchy food. It also matter when you eat and how much you eat subject diet. Proper sleep and rest can not be ignored for increase of neurogenesis.
As far as the exercise is concern, any type of movements which increase blood flow towards the brain will definitely increase the amount of neuro cells. So let us increase our activities and food habits that may increase our neurogenesis and ultimately increase our efficiency.
Take Away
1. Some researchers suspect that schizophrenia and the learning disorder dyslexia are partly the result of misguided neurons.
2. A single neuro cell is connected with other ten thousand cells through axons and dendrites.
