Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, schizophrenia, mood and anxiety disorders, depression, eating disorders, learning disabilities, and obsessive-compulsive disorders are all illnesses involving the brain. There is an enormous interest in finding out what can be done to keep our brains healthy. The National Institute of Aging, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute of Diseases and Stroke are collaborating to bring together what we know about brain health and cost-effective ways to extend that knowledge, according to the AMA.
“We are already learning that there may be ways of maintaining general brain health that can be safely recommended to everyone, and could have a real impact on helping people maintain the brain’s repair mechanisms, resilience, and responsiveness,” said Dr. Marilyn Albert, director of the division of cognitive neuroscience, department of neurology at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine, in an article from the AMA. Vitamin E, an anti-oxidant, has been tested and successfully shown to reduce symptoms of brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s. St. John’s Wort has also shown effective in treating mild to moderate depression.
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