The brain and what can affect it

 Catherine Valeo 

Biology of Disease 

Dr. Karpel 

6/21/22 

The Brain And What Affects It

The human body is made up of many intricate systems that all work together to make it possible for people to function properly, and when these systems do function right, ideally live long active lives.  Each part of the body is important for carrying out various internal and external tasks, but perhaps the most important of these parts is the brain, the control center of the body.  We want to do what we can to keep our brains healthy and functioning to the fullest capacity we can, but while the brain is incredibly important, it is also very delicate.  There are a lot of things that can put the brain at risk, including head trauma, drug use, missing out on sleep, and daily habits that we may not even realize relate to our brains, which then puts them at risk.  Because the brain is so delicate, but crucial to living, there has been a lot of research and funding put into keeping the brain functioning at tip top conditioning, and understanding what reasons it might not be.

One of the most common occurrences that affect human brains are traumatic brain injuries, or, TBI’s.  A TBI is an injury to the brain that affects its function, these can be caused by a bump to the head or some kind of penetrating injury.  TBI’s are broken down into three classes, moderate, mild, and severe.  What may come as a surprise is that a concussion is considered a TBI, even though concussions are fairly common (Get the facts, CDC).  In fact, TBI’s are “a leading cause of death among children and young adults in the United States.  Each year an estimated 1.5 million Americans sustain a TBI” (Report to congress, CDC).  Of these 1.5 million, 50,000 of them will die due to their injuries, and up to 90,000 will experience long term disability stemming from the injury.  TBI’s can be caused by a number of things, most commonly including motor vehicle accidents, but they are also common in contact sports, and can be caused by something as seemingly simple as a fall. 

TBI’s are costly, especially if they are long term TBI’s.  In a study comparing the costs of a TBI between New Zealand and the US between 2010 and 2011,  it was found that a mild TBI cost the person roughly 5,500$ in one year alone.  However, moderate to severe cases in the US cost the person up to over 65,000$ in one year.  The researchers estimated that the total lifetime cost of all TBI survivors in 2010 was 146.4 million, but they projected that by 2020 that cost would reach 177.1 million in the US.  While for some, 5,500$ may not seem like much, that number is a lot for others, and when spread out over an entire lifetime, plus inflation/changing costs, these factors have likely just made that number go up.  Having a mild TBI could be detrimental to someone’s health and their finances.  That’s not even taking into account the cost of a moderate to severe TBI, which is significantly more costly and ultimately a cost that may be inaccessible for many people.    

Beyond TBI’s, there are many things that can affect the brain, for example, autism.  Autism is a common neurological development disorder which affects 1 in 44 children in the U.S. (Autism speaks), and impacts interactions and behaviors.  Autism can be diagnosed as early as 18 month, but the older the child gets, the more reliable the test results are.  There has been a lot of research done on autism, but less research on the development of autism in the adolescent brain.  However, a study done by Eric Courchesne found that during the first two years of autistic children’s lives, they experience considerable overgrowth in the brain, then between the ages of 2 and 4 brain development either slows down or stops entirely.  This hypergrowth then sudden slowing may disrupt brain signaling, playing into the development of autism (Courchesne, E., 2004).  Autism has considerable economic costs as well, it’s estimated that the medical costs of a child with autism are up to 6.2 times greater than those without, and by 2025, care for adults with autism will be a 461 billion dollar industry (Autism Speaks).  

Autism is congenital, and TBI’s often happen by chance, but there are certain intentional behaviors that put the brain at risk of harm, like drug use.  When the word drug comes up, your mind might automatically jump to things like cocaine or heroin, but one of the most common, accessible, and addictive drugs is alcohol.  Alcohol is especially damaging to the adolescent brain.  When people are growing up, their brains are growing too, this includes building architecture, changes in neurochemistry occuring, and tissue composition changing.  Alcohol, a drink made from sugar fermentation, disrupts all of these processes.  It particularly affects the prefrontal lobe, making for more impulsive decisions, and hinders neuromaturation, including brain volume, structure, and neurochemistry.  Those with early substance abuse problems, which is common in adolescents because of an encouraged binge drinking behavior, are more likely to continue use into adulthood.  Adolescents are also more at risk for behaviors like aggressivity, dangerous driving, and are likely to abuse more substances.  Cognitively, adolescents who drink are more prone to dimunitions in attention span, visuospatial function, memory recall and general learning of both verbal and nonverbal information (Bava, S., Tapert, S. F., 2010).  

While alcohol use has heavy cognitive and developmental costs, it also comes with financial cost.  There are a lot of factors that go into the financial cost of alcohol, including law enforcement involvement in situations pertaining to alcohol, doctor visits, vehicle crashes, and workplace productivity.  In 2010 the cost was a quarter trillion dollars for the U.S., and even in a state with strict alcohol laws, like Utah, the yearly cost was about 1.7 billion dollars.  This average national cost averages out to roughly 807$ per person spent in one year on alcohol, with binge drinking making up for 77% of that cost (Excessive Drinking, CDC). 

It is important to care for our brains, and that can be done by limiting or avoiding substances that will hurt them, like alcohol, but also by making sure to take care of our bodies as well.  One thing that I think is particularly interesting is the effects that eating disorders can have on the brain.  Anorexia nervosa, for example, has clear effects.  There was an experiment where two groups were faced with both verbal and nonverval tasks.  One group was composed of participants with anorexia, the other was composed of participants who did not.  The researchers found a clear distinction between the two groups, in that the participants struggling with anorexia had considerable latencies in reaction and recall when faced with both the verbal and non verbal tasks, but the other participant group did not.  They concluded that anorexia nervosa was negatively impacting cognitive function, and it was causing long term impacts as well.  The participants with anorexia nervosa were brought back after they had been in treatment, and were deemed to be a healthy weight and retested.  However, when tested, they were still displaying similar recall latencies, indicating that the effects of their condition on the brain were long term, even though their bodies were considered recovered (B, S. J., et al., 1997). 

As I said at the beginning, the brain is a powerful control center, but ultimately it is also very delicate.  Great care should be taken in making sure that the brain stays safe.  For congenital conditions that affect the brain there should be continued research going into the development of these conditions, and what can be done to help cognitive function in those cases.  Treating the body with care will also protect the brain, like not picking up alcohol habits or other drug habits knowing that they can cause harm, or not putting ourselves into dangerous situations unnecessarily.  Our bodies are a machine, damage or change to one part can seriously affect another.  So in our day to day lives, it is important that we think about our actions and how certain behaviors, while appealing in the moment, may have more serious effects than we realize.

Sources 

“Alcohol and Depression.” Alcohol Rehab Guide, 24 Feb. 2022, https://www.alcoholrehabguide.org/resources/dual-diagnosis/alcohol-and-depression/#:~:text=Abuse%20And%20Depression-,Individuals%20who%20suffer%20from%20depression%20are%20more%20likely%20to%20abuse,feelings%20of%20sadness%20and%20hopelessness. 

“Autism Statistics and Facts.” Autism Speaks, https://www.autismspeaks.org/autism-statistics-asd#:~:text=Autism%20Prevalence,)%2C%20according%20to%202018%20data.&text=Boys%20are%20four%20times%20more,diagnosed%20with%20autism%20than%20girls. 

Bava, Sunita, and Susan F. Tapert. "Adolescent brain development and the risk for alcohol and other drug problems." Neuropsychology review 20.4 (2010): 398-413

Bradley, Susan J., et al. "Assessment of brain function in adolescent anorexia nervosa before and after weight gain." Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology 19.1 (1997): 20-33.

Courchesne, Eric. "Brain development in autism: early overgrowth followed by premature arrest of growth." Mental retardation and developmental disabilities research reviews 10.2 (2004): 106-111.

“Excessive Drinking Is Draining the U.S. Economy.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14 Apr. 2022, https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/features/excessive-drinking.html. 

“Get the Facts about TBI.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 21 Mar. 2022, https://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html#:~:text=TBI%20is%20a%20major%20cause%20of%20death%20and%20disability&text=There%20were%20over%2064%2C000%20TBI,the%20United%20States%20in%202020.&text=That's%20about%20176%20TBI%2Drelated,of%20people%20of%20all%20ages. 

“Report to Congress: Traumatic Brain Injury in the United States.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 22 Jan. 2016, https://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/pubs/tbi_report_to_congress.html#:~:text=Traumatic%20brain%20injury%20(TBI)%20is,people%20are%20hospitalized%20and%20survive. 

Te Ao, Braden, et al. "Cost of traumatic brain injury in New Zealand: evidence from a population-based study." Neurology 83.18 (2014): 1645-1652.