“FIXING YOUR BRAIN”

Neurologists at several hospitals have just started a major trial of promising implants
that can fix brain damage caused by strokes.

Mickey Lawson is a 63 year old from Lawrenceville, Georgia who is having a procedure called “deep brain stimulation” at Emory University Hospital. He has had Parkinson’s disease for a decade and cannot speak or move. Yet, his brain is active. They are implanting an electrode-a wire only a few millionths of an inch thick into Lawson’s skull. About 70% of patients who get the procedure get some benefit. Lawson still responds to a drug named “levodopa” for short periods, and that’s a big predictor of success, according to Matthew Stern, director of the Parkinson’s disease and Movement Disorders Center at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia “it means the circuits are still working to some extent”.

None of the new brain stimulation gadgets hit that most worri-some of disorders, Alzheimer’s disease. New studies indicate that what’s good for your heart is also good for your head. Workouts have been shown to reduce other ailments of aging such as hypertension and heart disease.