Posted Thanksgiving Week, 2024!
It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” -Matt 13:32
This has been a very hard year for me and my family and, I expect, if you are reading this, for you as well. Dementia is a pre-loss that keeps on giving and giving and giving before the loved one is gone…then it finds its ultimate loss. Dementia itself makes it easy to focus on loss and hardship. I mean, it is the natural human response to the kinds of stuff that make up our everyday caregiving lives. So, what I am asking for here is a lot. I get it.
My request: Be thankful. Even on the worst days we have something to be thankful for. We have beautiful memories even if sprinkled less liberally over the dark memories of hardship and loss. There are nuggets of joy to be found even in the deep mine of the times, so we need our picks and shovels (or sometimes tweezers) to find them, but find them we must. Romans 8:28 reminds us that “all things work for good” somehow even when the good doesn’t feel that way. It also reminds believers that the good that all things work for may or may not always be completely about us at the time, but in the end we get the ultimate good: heaven. Don’t let that slide by in small letters in your mind: HEAVEN is a big deal. In heaven there is no dementia, pain, loss, etc.. In fact, I believe strongly that even our Microglia will be returned to the superstars that are shadows of today.
(Screech sound) (Googling sounds apparent everywhere.)
Microglia??? Whaaa. Is that a super small harmony-singing group of teens? Nope…that is Micro-Glee. I can see the ease of mistake there. 😉
Microglia are the brain’s little crud vacuums. They fight pathogens and other harmful things, they produce a chemical that helps with inflammation, and they provide other services that help regulate the brain and keep it in order. They even shape neural networks. A lot of work for a little bitty thing, but they do great for healthy brains and they (and their failure) are involved in those with dementia. As I told my support groups today, they are kind of like the sweet little lady at church that does lots that nobody realizes and fully appreciates, and, when she passes away, suddenly everyone realizes and appreciates what was done. We have lost a couple of employees at my office that way over the last few years too. Need something for which to be thankful this year? The Microglia are a great little goodie for which to be thankful. 🙂
Here is a fun video that highlights this marvel:
Impressed? Thankful? Me too! Amazing! It also makes sense why they need to work right and when someone had dementia it is easy to see that if these are NOT doing well, they could be a huge factor if not the cause! Take this slide from the above PsiShow video:
Amazing! The Blood-Brain Barrier, itself, is also a tremendous reason for which to be thankful. If it failed…even a little, something disastrous like…uhhh…pretty much anything including catching a cold…could start killing our brains and the Microglia may or may not be able to stop the onslaught. It provides a barrier that the microglia can usually work quite well in, thank you very much!
I sent out a WashU Tuesday webinar invite to all of my support group friends today titled “An orexin receptor antagonist modulates microglia function to reduce amyloid pathology“. Lots of big words there (some of which I had to use ChatGPT to understand). But get this cool thing about which to be thankful:
“Blocks orexin receptors” stop certain signals in the brain from being received. Orexin receptors are like tiny locks on brain cells, and orexin is the key that fits into them. When the drug blocks these locks, it prevents orexin from sending its signals, which can affect processes like sleep, energy, or brain inflammation. It can turn them on or off somewhat so that the environment is right.
Still confused?
Orexin is the sleep/awake switch in the brain. It is likely part of the reason we don’t act out our dreams and punch and kick those sleeping next to us, for one thing. Another thing that is cool is our time in deep, dark sleep is when we clear excess/malformed Beta Amyloid and other junk from our brain. I say WE lightly.,..our buddies the microglia star in that show. Therefore, if we can enhance the environment in which they are working, they do a better job clearing junk out of our brain. They can call out the white blood cell National Guard as needed, they can eat, they can hug, and they can sort neurons all they need to (This just got weird…watch the video above if you don’t get the hug reference).
I chatted in the above webinar and probably drew some smirks and groans in the process when I asked “Using the Thanksgiving analogy, how can we be sure enhancing the environment doesn’t make the microglia so ready to “eat” that they eat the platter, the spoon, and the table?” Kind of like fasting for a week before the big day…then diving in headfirst. The neurologist, with an IQ 70 points higher than mine, felt confident that they would only eat the food programmed, but said it was a great question worth further investigation. 🙂 I was thinking of how Chemotherapy kills cancer cells and everything but the kitchen sink sometimes…especially in the old days…
So, friends, rejoice in our fearfully and wonderfully made brains and every little part. Know this as well…and this is from the Mark Applegate school of Theology…that when we get to heaven we will have glorified bodies and our Microglia won’t over or under eat. We will be functioning back like we were before the Fall….and we will live there forever joyful with no fear dementia or its ilk ever entering our mind again.
#EndALZ
Source of picture and another article: LINK
Here is my Longest Day fundraising page for 2025! I plan on releasing more info and perhaps letting you partially decide what feat of ignorance I try this year! 😉 It will be multitasking and it will likely last 36 hours or similar. Details in the works, but if you have followed the blog the last 4 years you know it will be a lulu! 😉
https://act.alz.org/site/TR?pg=personal&px=14575499&fr_id=18274
I am very, very, very, very thankful for each of you!
