Brains and Guts at the End of October

Connor Mooney

The world we live in today requires those in it to push to be excellent in their fields of endeavor. It isn’t surprising, then, that there is a big focus on physical and mental wellbeing. It also surprises few that these parts of our lives are intimately connected. It’s a popular science project that elementary age kids do for science fairs (personal experience: I’ve judged several science fairs, and this one always seems to pop up) where they give math quizzes to kids who finished playing outside and compare their performance to when they didn’t go outside. The kids who had just finished exercising (recess) always perform better on their math quiz. It is also well known that mental illness and brain injury have varied systemic effects as well. The purpose of this article is to explore the effects that mental and gastrointestinal (or GI) issues has on those in various fields of endeavor.

The first field of endeavor to look at is that of a drunk. I know not many in our society would endeavor to be a drunk, but in certain circles of friends, the ability to drink more than others is celebrated and grounds for gloating. One of the issues with alcohol, though, is that it is a poison. Fortunately for drunks, though, mammals have what’s called the area postrema, a part of our brain stems that has no blood-brain barrier that monitors the contents of our blood and induces vomiting when an emetic compound is present. Mothers also may have cause to hate their area postrema because it interacts with hormones and is thought to cause morning sickness

In addition to the drunks, we all use connections between our brains and our guts to maintain regular flow of food through the GI tract. It’s modulated by the brain through the Vagus (Li & Peng, 2014) nerve that connects to a cluster of nerves that is referred to as the pancreatic brain which is the head of the Enteric Nervous System that governs much of GI function.

One field of endeavor that we often overlook is the role of a stay-at-home parent. This role is all the more important if there is a disabled child in the family. However, the connection I’m looking to make here is between a stay-at-home parent and Huntington’s disease. There’s a lot of things that can happen that change a family dynamic, and any chronic disease or illness is a clear and present threat to many families. It can tear families apart as I discussed in the last group of entries, or it can bring them together. Every family is different, and counseling or, at the very least, education is often offered (Wagner et al., 1996). Unique challenges present themselves. Massive lifestyle changes are associated with diagnoses, especially that of Huntington’s disease. The diagnosis is almost a death-sentence. The patient has a limited amount of time to spend before he/she loses his/her mind and ability to control their own movements. How would they spend this time? Vacationing with family? Pursuing other avenues of pleasure? Continuing to work and spend time with their children? Drop everything and start cooking meth a la Walter White? It’s ultimately the patient’s choice how to spend their last cognizant years, but with Huntington’s, due to its normally late diagnosis, it’s more likely that they will have a family that they unknowingly dragged into the mix. There could very well be warning signs to prepare the patient for this lifestyle crossroads. The fact that it’s autosomal dominant means that if they have a parent who had the disease, they have a 50-50 chance of getting it, too. They could get tested and make the preparations necessary for their future. What effect does this have on the stay-at-home parent? It means that the patient can no longer provide the services for his/her family, and somebody has to work and provide for the family as well as pay the medical bills which are substantial (Divino et al., 2013). Stay at home parents can’t stay at home anymore when their spouse reaches the later stages of the disease, and if it is the stay-at-home parent who reaches that point in the disease development, measures must be taken to fulfill the roles he/she played in the home. It’s often a nightmare for the family due to the psychological decline that comes with the disease (Vamos et al., 2007), and we ought to find out how we can better treat this disease that is so traumatic to family members.

Educators, especially those of young children, have a very important role in our society, and it is a position that many endeavor to have. An issue that we have recently had a boom in is that of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). It has been a bit of a controversy in that some believe that the disorder is now being recognized more often in children while others believe that it is an excuse for poor parenting technique and relying on the drugs treating it to make their job easier. There are a huge amount of factors that contribute to the advancement of ADHD. These indeed include poor parenting (pre-, peri-, and postnatal care), a number of gene alleles, and anatomical variation (Curatolo et al., 2010). It is unfair to the parents of afflicted children to assume that it is their fault, but it shouldn’t be completely ignored as a possibility for making it worse. Teachers have a unique challenge of maintaining order in a classroom full of many children who tend to be active regardless of whether they have ADHD or not. Children come from a variety of backgrounds and home environments, and sometimes, unfortunately, these kids may suffer from several different issues that may manifest themselves in various manners. ADHD, being one of these, may be one of the most problematic and frustrating. The disorder is treated with stimulants which may seem counterintuitive, but the explanation stems from arousal theory. When under-stimulated, patients with ADHD tend to move or distract themselves to raise their arousal by focusing on several different things. So when the children take the drugs, such as Adderall (an amphetamine), their minds are aroused to the point where they can focus much better on schoolwork.

Psychiatry has come a long ways since the hospitals were taking care of the mentally ill by using corporal punishment and other inhumane treatment. It used to be that the mental hospitals were filthy areas used to babysit people who were considered ill in the mind. I first learned of the reality of this dark piece of our history in my Sociology 1010 class, and ever since, the media has reminded me in movies such as Sucker Punch, 12 Monkeys, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and TV shows like American Horror Story: Asylum. These shows misrepresent mental illness by showing that the afflicted are mostly dangerous, scary or evil. The reality is that there are several severities of various mental illnesses, and the lack of treatment that often accompanies the portrayal of these scary asyla can make the condition much worse. My sister works in a Long-Term Care wing of my hometown’s hospital. She refers to her patients (most are mentally ill) with great affection as though her patients are her friends, which many of them are. One of the sad things that she has expressed to me is that there are things that the nurses and aids need to do that would embarrass anyone involved in such procedures. Naturally, said procedures are met with any level of resistance. It’s a sad conflict that results in more than blushing, and sometimes as much as a feeling of violation in the patient. Some media have taken advantage of such situations by making the caretaker seem like a mean spirited or evil individual when in fact they are doing their job. I propose that Hollywood ought to make an unbiased real and true account of our modern psychiatric hospitals. In doing so, the public may be more thoroughly informed about the state of our country’s psychiatric field. I think we would see that we have advanced quite a ways from the beginnings of institutionalization of the “disturbed” in decaying buildings that facilitate the corporal punishment of anyone not behaving.

My sister often discusses the irritation that she feels when dealing with the mentally ill, and I know she’s a good CNA, but sadly there are many that aren’t. A psyche nurse in a large hospital spoke to the writers of Cracked.com and told his story of how he was pressured into mistreating the residents of the psyche ward in the hospital. The sad part is that by the time he stood up and reported the mistreatment, the people he worked with who mistreated the residents more regularly felt betrayed by him, and refused to help when the residents began to get violent. This is something that really shouldn’t be happening at all in places entrusted with the care of people’s family members. Not only this, but really there ought to be legislature to prevent this from happening or, at the very least, elevated security and counseling for hospital employees.

Moving on to the gastrointestinal tract, the food industry is often the butt of many jokes when it comes to the health of consumers. Whether it be complaints about the lack of healthy options at McDonald’s or the hippie jokes regarding Whole Foods, there’s always a quip to elicit a giggle. However, the beauty of the free-market system that we have is if you don’t like something about the establishment, you don’t have to eat there. Consumers drive the quality and the diversity. My point in saying this is the fact that unhealthy fast foods like McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, and the like are so popular is because we made them that way. The big mac, whopper, and that sandwich that used fried chicken as the buns, all became hot button because of the consumers at the time of its coming out. More recently, there has been a movement (likely due to earlier generations feeling the effects of their unhealthy lifestyles and the rise in childhood obesity) to make the fast food healthier. Wendy’s has salad choices, McDonald’s offers milk and apples in place of soda and fries in their Happy Meals, and KFC got rid of that God-awful “sandwich”. So we’re moving in the right direction, but is it enough? Several studies have shown that red meat tends to contribute to the development of colon cancer (Harvard Health Publications, 2008). If people get mad about their obese children, it’s only a matter of time until customers ask that they reduce the number of beef options in these popular restaurant chains. At the same time, beef has been shown to have a number of redeeming qualities: high iron content, folic acid, Zinc, Vitamin B­₁₂, and a whole lot of protein. In the end, I think it’s still up to the consumer to choose a healthy lifestyle. In a world like today’s it’s a tough road to take, but really, if we want to shed the problems associated with overeating and poor diet, it is a case by case issue where each person must choose the healthier option.

The anti-gluten movement in my personal opinion is being taken a little overboard since it was brought to everyone’s mind through publicity of Crohn’s and celiac disease. One question that I have concerning the movement is what is its effect on the agriculture industry? In The New Yorker (Specter, 2014), Michael Specter explains a shift in wheat consumption by the masses. He explains the vast amount of wheat that is produced by wheat farms across the nation are used in far more than just breads, cereals, and pastas. Some of it, including proteins isolated from it (like gluten) or starch, has become a big part of the other foods we eat (Specter says almost a third of our food contains these components of wheat). According to one of his sources, Joseph A. Murray (a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic), consumption of wheat has been decreasing over the past 50 years. This doesn’t necessarily mean wheat farmers’ families are going hungry. It’s more likely that the farmers simply shift crops. Wheat is a grass, after all, it may change the soil, but I imagine that growing another grass-like plant (corn for example) would be a relatively simple switch. The backlash against the gluten madness may be greater than just agriculture, though. His article is a little blog-ish, but Hank Campbell (the president of the American Council on Science and Health) posted his comments on the issue on his site, Science 2.0 (Campbell, 2013). He worries that there are many people adopting a gluten-free lifestyle despite the fact that they don’t have celiac disease. He also brings up the fact that many in the food industry may be going “gluten-free” or at least offer gluten-free alternatives while they replace it with ingredients like “extra sugar, extra fat, hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose and xanthan gum.” He also brings up the fact that politicians are ever eager to shove their noses into businesses with unnecessary regulations such as the prospective ban on trans-fats, GMO’s, and perhaps the staple of people’s food, gluten. It’s up to us to decide what’s good for us. We don’t need others dictating our home menus.

It’s important that everyone educate themselves a little bit on what possible issues will arise in their field of endeavor. Everyone works in either their dream job or some other job that they have to get money to do the things they want to do. The problem is that we fall into a routine and we don’t take into account possible things that could happen as we wait for our next coffee break. The beauty of a scientific mind is that it gives the opportunity to open your mind to other possible explanations and issues. I think everyone would benefit from a little science in their life and consider what can go wrong.

References

Campbell, H. (2003) The Gluten-Free Fad is Dangerous – So is the Backlash. Science 2.0 URL: http://www.science20.com/science_20/glutenfree_fad_dangerous_so_backlash-124085

Curatolo, P., D’Agati, E., & Moavero, R. (2010) The Neurobiological Basis of ADHD. Italian Journal of Pediatrics. 36:79

Divino, V., Dekoven, M., Warner, J.H., Giuliano, J., Anderson, K.E., Langbehn, D., Lee, W.C. (2013) The Direct Medical Costs of Huntington's Disease by Stage. A Retrospective Commercial and Medicaid Claims Data Analysis. Journal of Medical Economics. 16(8):1043-1050. doi: 10.3111/13696998.2013.818545.

The Family Health Guide. (2008) Red Meat and Colon Cancer. Harvard Health Publications. URL: http://www.health.harvard.edu/family-health-guide/red-meat-and-colon-cancer

Li, Q., & Peng, J. (2014) Sensory Nerves and Pancreatitis. Gland Surgery. 3(4):284-292 doi:  10.3978/j.issn.2227-684X.2013.10.08

Specter, M. (2014) Against the Grain: Should You Go Gluten-Free. The New Yorker. November 3, 2014 issue.

Strusiewicz, C.J., & Anonymous (2016) Things I Saw as a Psych Ward Nurse Too Dark for Horror Films. URL: http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2365-i-was-psych-nurse-who-abused-patients-with-chokeholds.html

Vamos, M., Hambridge, J., Edwards, M., Conaghan, J. (2007) The Impact of Huntington’s Disease on Family Life. Psychosomatics. 48(5):400-404 doi: 10.1176/appi.psy.48.5.400

Wagner, E.H., Austin, B.T., Von Korff, M. (1996) Organizing Care for Patients with Chronic Illness. The Milbank Quarterly. 74(4): 511-544