Saturday, February 2, 2013

Take Good Care of Your Neurons

Most cells in the body reproduce continually throughout a lifetime. Some don't (e.g., heart cells, skeletal muscle cells). Turns out that after the brain reaches its full complement of neurons somewhere around two years of age, its neurons never reproduce, either. You pretty much have what you have at that point and your neurons need to last for your entire lifetime. They are dependent on a continuous and uninterrupted blood supply to bring them oxygen and glucose. At most, brain neurons can store only a minute or two worth of glucose. In addition, they typically can only burn glucose (while cells in other parts of the body are able to burn either glucose or fat). Give them good sources of glucose and plenty of oxygen because they need adequate oxygen to burn glucose effectively.

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