md+Guest+Lecture

I attended a lecture by Dr. Charles Raison in the afternoon of March 11th entitled "Cytokines sing the blues." He talked about Emory University's research into inflammation and environmental factors that are impacting more and more people as depression rates increase.
 * Environmental factors interesting included "old friends" micro-organisms that no longer exist in our first-world, industrialized nation. It has been proposed that someday these micro-organisms could be added to our drinking water, like Flouride was 50 years ago. These "old friends" imply that the human genome is not complete without them, and that our bodies and supposed to be interdependent on the earth.
 * Other more apparent factors are processed food, sleep deprivation, obesity, stress, population increase, and also enhanced hygiene and sanitation and fewer children per family. These last two things have changed the timing of when our bodies go through common diseases and build our immune system.
 * So, with a more vulnerable immune system, we can easily start this devastating cycle: (1) psychosocial stress/trauma penetrates our mind, (2) our bodies turn up adrenaline and produce inflammation in many organs including the brain, (3) our immune system is activated to calm the inflammation, (4) our immune system's secrete chemical known as cytokines which try to track down the infection that caused the inflammation, and finally (5) since there is no physical infection to kill, the cytokines end up attacking our brains and bodies. As a result, we feel pain and fatigue, and our brains get damaged neurotransmitters and the other effects proven by the Waisman Laboratory.

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