Brain development
Hi Andrew. Absolutely love your podcast mate. And I also love your balanced attitude toward so many of the subjects you cover. Science without ego!!!! Brilliant. I am a sports chiropractor in Sydney and enjoy spending that little bit of extra time with my patients fully explaining the deeper mechanisms of their injury and rehabilitation plan. So we are on the same wavelength. A request if I may. I’d love you to do an episode on a subject that I feel is fast becoming a big issue/epidemic. The mental well-being of our children/adolescent/teenagers. Why does it appear that child ADHD, depression, anxiety and poor resilience are on a steep rise. I wonder about the immature child/adolescent brain and the effects of increased devices and gaming on that neural development. And then all the possible issues that this may bring. And now not enough child psychologists to handle the cases. From my neuro/biomechanical perspective, when I look at children and child athletes in the clinic, I am seeing a worsening ability to assume a good strong upright posture. Terrible spinal stability and endurance. Clearly increased time spent slumping and sitting at a device directly leads to proprioceptive deconditioning. But what of the role of say the dopaminergic pathways in this postural distortion and weakness. A comparison might be the mental, physical and postural deterioration in Parkinson’s patients. A loss of receptors for dopamine to bind and do its job. Are we allowing children to alter brain chemistry and sensitivity at the expense of normal mental and physical development? I’m sure there is scientific study into the mental/cognitive side, but I’d be most interested to understand if any such developmental changes in the brain might affect the physical potential and athletic ability of the child/adolescent. Maybe your friend Dr Anna Lembke could join you once again to discuss. Would love to hear your thoughts on this very modern and worrying health issue. Yours in science Simon
Using metformin as a positive hormetic to increase mitochondria density in athletes
Hi Andrew, I understand that one of things that metformin does is to have a hormetic effect on mitochondria so that the positive impact over time is to increase the number of mitochondria in the cell. I'm a 69 year old (non diabetic) aging cyclist that still trains 6 days a week, following zone 2 and 5 recommendations. I like the idea of taking metformin if it's going to increase my mitochondria and have a positive impact on race day. The question would be whether to take it before or after a workout, or only on low intensity or off days. I have read that metformin's hormetic effect can be counter productive to the the body's natural reaction to exercise to produce more mitochondria, so I'm thinking that just taking it at night before sleep could work. This ties in with my body's reaction to taking it, which is to make me very tired.:) Appreciate any thoughts. Rob