Category Archives: Neurological Disorders

August 25

An Appetite for Epilepsy

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Have you ever wondered what really makes up your body? Well, even if you haven’t, you’ll be surprised to know that there are trillions of microorganisms living inside you, so many that they outnumber your actual body cells 10 to 1: for every one of your cells, there are 10 microorganisms. That’s right, you’ve got […]

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July 07

The Forgotten:

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Image source: “New Awakenings: The Legacy & Future of Encephalitis Lethargica (EL)” (Sparacin 2012) Some call it “the sleepy-sickness”, others encephalitis lethargica. This mysterious disease, lost to time, bears its colloquial name because those who contracted it entered an “all-enveloping trancelike sleep” (1); and some of those who entered this sleep, did not awake for […]

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June 23

A Genetic Identity Crisis: Mosaicism in the Brain

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We carry with us every day trillions of copies of one of the best stories ever written: the human genome. Carefully drafted and edited over 4 billion years, our genome contains all the information necessary, and then some, for making a human being from scratch. Often we think of this recipe book as a monolith: […]

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June 16

Breathe in the Benefits: Hyperbaric Oxygen for PTSD

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Even if you haven’t heard the term “hyperbaric oxygen treatment” (HBOT), you are actually probably familiar with its premise. Most often, we hear of this treatment being used for divers that ascend from depth too quickly and experience decompression sickness (“the bends”) caused by a buildup of gas bubbles in their blood from rapid changes […]

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May 05

Brainspotting: Are the eyes the window to the soul?

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“On the first session, I started by focusing on a difficult memory while concentrating on the pain that it caused me … This pain reached a climax, then … it died down, giving way to a feeling of peace and well-being … I sometimes felt myself shedding tears, but for each memory, the pain climaxed […]

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April 21

The Genetic Curse of Fatal Insomnia

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Not being able to fall asleep when you want to is frustrating. No matter how tired we are, we all have nights when we just can’t fall or stay asleep. The role of sleep in our everyday health is critical, which is no more apparent than the day after one of those sleepless nights when […]

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March 03

Why does diabetes make my foot go numb?

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Context–what is diabetic neuropathy? Worldwide, about 1 in 10 adults have diabetes, with that number expected to rise in the coming decades [1]. In this disease, the body becomes unable to properly produce or respond to insulin, leading to high blood sugar levels and abnormal energy processing [2]. Thankfully, many medications, lifestyle interventions (e.g. exercise), […]

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December 09

Mal de Débarquement: The Science of Land Sickness

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Recently I was lucky to spend seven days on a catamaran out at sea with a small group of (COVID-vaccinated) friends. We traveled around the Gulf of California, witnessing truly amazing sights like manta rays jumping out of the water, sea birds diving into the water, and turtles floating along in the swell. This was […]

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November 18

COVID-19 on the brain

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As the world has struggled with the COVID-19 pandemic over the past nearly two years, scientists and doctors have worked in absolute overdrive to provide patients with safe and effective treatments and preventative vaccines in record time. However, providing treatment options for patients infected with the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus has been a challenge due to […]

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October 29

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

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What is anxiety? Many of us know how it feels; our heart rate increases, our minds race, our palms get sweaty. Maybe it’s before giving a speech or taking a big exam. Maybe it’s because we have so many work deadlines that we’re convinced our bosses think we don’t sleep. Anxiety is an incredibly common […]

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