WELL, WELL, WELL

Everybody must get stoned. Well, okay, maybe not everybody
..Shortly after I got myself sufficiently worried about the link
between teen-marijuana use and schizophrenia, I learned that THC is
more effective than the leading drugs used for treating
Alzheimer's. It has an upside relevant to me then, as I'm into prevention.

One recent study showed marijuana prevented the plaque-depositing,
memory-impairing enzyme AChE from doing its dirty work almost
completely, where tactrine and donepezil (drugs used to inhibit the
enzyme) did so only seven and 22 per cent of the time respectively.

The hope is that this finding will lead to a more effective
pharmaceutical with which to treat Alzheimer's, even though 97 per
cent of new drugs offered in Canada between 2000 and 2004 offered no
improvement over existing drugs, despite their higher costs, and
even though adverse drug reactions are among the leading causes of
death in Canada. And marijuana is far less toxic than most drugs
prescribed by our friendly family doctors every day, and has no
deaths attributed directly to its use (this last bit
is, unbelievably, a US government statistic).

Maybe the aversion to therapeutic and preventative use of marijuana
comes from it also inducing a bit of euphoria. But cases of
Alzheimer's are expected to quadruple over the next 50 years. What
are we waiting for?

Prevention is everything, I always say, and there are some great and
effective products out there. Marijuana isn't the only one.

But now that we know the importance of omega-3s for brain health,
and that wild salmon are a great source of those, we learn that wild
salmon populations are being killed off-fast, too: as many as 95 per
cent of them by sea lice that thrive in West Coast fish farms. The
young wild salmon, on their way out to sea, swim near the fish farms
where the water is cloudy with sea lice, sea lice that latch onto
their tender young skin and give them puncture wounds that make it
impossible for them to survive in salt water.

Great. Because farmed salmon, besides ruining our wild salmon
population and fishing industry, pollute the ocean and our bodies,
they're fed antibiotics, which contributes to drug-resistant
bacteria in humans, and to simulate the naturally pink colour wild
salmon have from their shrimp-rich diets, they're injected with dyes.

But don't despair yet-there are other good sources of essential
fatty acids if we do run out of edible salmon: walnuts, and flax and
hemp seeds for omega-3s, and the Mediterranean secret of
monounsaturates like olives, avocados, almonds, pecans and macadamia nuts.

Balance is key when it comes to fatty acids, though. We tend to get
too many omega-6s, from foods like corn, safflower, peanut, soybean
and sunflower oils, which plays a role in inflammatory responses and
autoimmune diseases, inflammation being a factor in Alzheimer's.

And since I pointed out a few weeks ago that marijuana use in teens
had been linked to schizophrenia, it's only fair to point out that
the acne drug Accutane, used by millions, has been linked to
Alzheimer's, depression and schizophrenia. And we're supposed to
trust those approving or not approving our medications?

But to end on a more positive note, keeping our brains working well
to the end involves a lot more than a diet rich in the right kinds
of fats and antioxidants, and these are fun, conventional and
completely safe things: mental stimulation such as reading, writing,
debating or venting; physical stimulation such as dancing, walking,
biking or any sport you enjoy; socializing, laughing, drinking tea
and red wine.

The things to avoid? Depression and stress-chronically elevated
levels of the stress hormones I talked about last week, in addition
to making us fat, damage our brains.

I'm thinking we're wired for less work and more of the good stuff,
and that I might have to take a sabbatical or something. Or at least
a bunch of mini sabbaticals, like leaving room in the everyday for
health-giving pleasure, tea and brownies maybe.