ADHD Insights: Glia Matters

ADHD Details Matter
August 26, 2012
ADHD: SPECT Brain Imaging Evidence
September 2, 2012
Show all
0
Published by admin at
Categories
Tags

ADHD Evolution: Understanding the Other, Glial Brain   

B0007683 Ion channels

Douglas  Fields PhD is the author of The Other Brain, a book that will change how we think about brain function, how we think about glial ion channels in addition to our past singular preoccupation with [from about 1905], the Neuron Doctrine.

Listen up: 85% of our brains are glial cells, only 15% are neurons. Think about it.

What's so exciting about this new brain material? – Fields adds remarkably applicable new information on brain communication systems managed by those glial cells – through, get this, gliotransmitters. Glial cells don't use the action potential of neurotransmitter activities, they use ion channels to communicate and communicate differently, more diffusely through the brain. And glial cells can inhibit or help ordinary neurotransmission.

Think trace elements, trace element balance , and nutrition – you'll begin to see the enormous implications.

Who cares? Well if you're a person with ADHD, a physician treating ADHD patients, an ADHD coach or a parent you will be hearing very soon [yes in our lifetimes], about these other exceedingly important communication systems that exist in the brain. If we understand them we can work with them.

Just listen to this TED talk by Fields and you can jump right in with both feet. If you don't get it on this brief posting, do stay tuned, as this glial subject will be one of the topics I'll be covering on Sundays [ADHD Brain Details] and Fridays [ADHD Trace Element Balance] for ADHD Insights postings.

Doug Fields on TED

Take 18.33 min sometime this week or next weekend to prepare for the basics of new brain thinking as it applies to ADHD. Notice how Fields starts right off with the issue of working memory and stored memories. Does working memory sound important to someone focused on ADHD recovery?

This is the beginning of many new conversations. Remember better science yields more predictable outcomes.

cp

Related articles

3 Comments

  1. This Changes Everything: Cutting Edge Brain Info « ADD . . . and-so-much-more says:
    September 6, 2012 at 9:01 AM

    […] out in front with the latest, his recent article – ADHD Insights: Glia Matters (subtitled, ADHD Evolution: Understanding the Other, Glial Brain) – includes an eighteen and […]

  2. Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CMC, MCC, SCAC says:
    September 1, 2012 at 5:29 PM

    WOW, cp – I am SO glad to see this article! (I found it testing the link to CorePsych I added to my reply to your comment on “ADD/ADHD and TIME: will ANYthing work?”)

    I have been saying for well over a year now, that understanding Glial cell functioning is the next new frontier in brain science – some of the most exciting news to come down the neuro-path EVER, IMHO. I’m not at all suprised to learn you are ON IT!

    Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CMC, SCAC, MCC
    – cofounder of the ADD Coaching field –
    (blogging at ADDandSoMuchMore and ADDerWorld – dot com!)
    “It takes a village to educate a world!”

    • Dr Charles Parker says:
      September 1, 2012 at 8:18 PM

      Hey Madelyn,
      Just wait: the book is simply outstanding. I’m listening to it on from audible.com on my iPhone app to and from work — and feel like I really should stop and write so much down. Buying the hb is the only answer! The real deal is the connection between trace elements and gliotransmission [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliotransmitter].
      cp