Plastic bottles are deadly for your brain
July 4th 2010 21:50
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Plastic containers may be deadly for your brain. Canadian researchers have found that Bisphenol A (BPA), the chemical used in making plastic containers, might be responsible for impairing many brain functions such as learning and remembering.
They also fear that it could be a factor behind Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia and depression.
BPA is globally used in making plastic water bottles, baby food bottles, food containers and dental prostheses.
In their study, the researchers at the University of Guelph near here found that BPA might be leaking into the solid or liquid foods kept in the plastic containers.
When these foods and liquids are consumed, they said, the chemical might be getting into the human system, disrupting communication between brain neurons which is vital in understanding and remembering.
According to researcher Neil MacLusky, the slow doses of this chemical badly impair the formation of synapses in the areas of the human brain linked to learning.
As part of their study, the researchers fed African green monkeys at St. Kitts Island with foods containing low levels of BPA for a month.
After that period, they found that the chemical had slowed down the synapses in the monkey brain.
MacLusky said this process was linked to the hormone oestrogen.
“Oestrogen enhances the rate at which some types of synapses are formed and is vital in maintaining normal neuronal structure in regions of the brain that control learning, memory and mood state,” he said in a TV interview.
When monkeys had BPA in their system, he said, it seriously impaired this process, affecting their ability to remember.
Excessively sleepy?: Doctors commonly view excessive daytime sleepiness as a cardinal sign of disturbed or inadequate sleep. But a new study suggests it could also signal depression or even diabetes, regardless of whether an individual doesn’t sleep well.
Among a random sample of 16,500 men and women ranging in age from 20 to 100 years old from central Pennsylvania, 8.7 percent had excessive daytime sleepiness.
Researchers, who considered a wide range of possible reasons for why these individuals were excessively sleepy during the daytime, found that excessive daytime sleepiness was more strongly associated with depression and obesity or metabolic factors than with sleep-disordered breathing or sleep disruption.
Depression was by far the most significant risk factor for excessive daytime sleepiness, they report in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
The likelihood of being excessively sleepy during the daytime was more than three times higher in those who reported they were being treated for depression. The investigators also observed strong ties between excessive daytime sleepiness and diabetes.
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