In episode #32, Dr. Michael Lewis, President of the Brain Health Education and Research Institute, joins us to discuss the positive impacts that Omega-3 fatty acids can have on the health and maintenance of the human brain.

Dr. Lewis is a graduate from the US Military Academy at West Point and is a graduate of the Tulane University School of Medicine. He completed his post-grad training at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and is board-certified in General Preventive Medicine and Public Health. While serving over 31 years in the Army, Dr. Lewis ran the primary care and flight medicine clinics at the Pentagon, developed the Emerging Infections Surveillance program at the joint US-Thai Army research lab in Bangkok, and served as the Director of the Epidemiology Division at the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland.

Dr. Lewis has several years of experience developing programs for the military involving the use of omega-3 fatty acids to treat traumatic brain injury. He has been a pioneer in the clinical use of omega-3 fatty acids for the prevention, acute treatment, and rehabilitation of brain issues from physical to psychological trauma, including concussions, stroke, PTSD, and more. His insights have impacted thousands of lives, and he is passionate about continuing to find improved solutions to the age-old problem of brain injury.

This Week In Neuroscience: Depleting The Prionic Supply Chain – The Brain’s Strategic Method for Curbing Advancement of Neurological Disease

New findings from a study conducted by the University of Alberta and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine uncover a mechanism in brain cells that may hold some degenerative neurological diseases at bay – temporarily, at least. The mutations of prion molecules in the brain can lead to incurable degenerative diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (“mad cow disease”).

When prions begin to mutate and replicate in test tubes, they do so at a rate much faster than in a living organism, indicating a biological mechanism in place that slows down this process where it matters most – in your body. Researchers found that the brain has a tricky way of slowing down the proliferation of mutated prion molecules. By generating other proteins that absorb some of the same biological resources required in the manufacture of prions, the brain slows the advancement of disease by keeping ready-for-assembly prions pushed to the back of the line. Researchers are looking for ways to work with the brain’s already ingenious strategy and give it a boost. Give the article a read below.

Read the original article here.

What You’ll Learn

The percentage of the brain that is composed of omega-3 fatty acids

How brain-repairing properties of omega fatty acids were discovered

The increasing imbalance of Omega-3 and Omega-6 in the modern diet

Key Terms Mentioned