Sometimes we think there is nothing going on between their ears. I've told my son numerous times NOT to overload the washer and clean out the lint tray in the dryer. I've also told him that the end result would be he would pay to get them repaired. But he still does it.
Actually there is a lot going on between teenager's ears and some of the neural contacts laid down in the brain during the teen years, influence the health of their brain during their adult life.
What they eat can affect the health of their brain as well.
There was a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, January 9, 2012 that looks at the adequacy of dietary iron intake during the teenage years and their brain health as adults.
But let's go back a bit. Free iron is toxic to living cells. For that reason, our body produces multiple proteins to bind and transport the iron. The protein that binds and transports iron through the bloodstream is called transferrin (yep that is a real word).
Under normal conditions 2/3 of the transferring in our bloodstream has iron bound to it and 1/3 does not. And that is the ideal ratio of bound and unbound transferrin fro delivery of iron to brain cells and other cells in our body.
Are you still with me?
When our diet is iron deficient (or we have excessive blood loss) the percent of iron saturation of transferrin decreases. The body tries to compensate by producing more transferrin, but this doesn't really help since the problem was inadequate iron supply, not inadequate transferrin supply.
As a result, elevated transferrin levels are generally indicative of an iron-deficient diet.
Back to the study which was lead by Dr. Paul Thompson of the UCLA Department of Neurology. He and his team performed brain scans on 631 healthy young adults with an average age of 23. These particular brain scans measured strength and integrity of the "brain's wiring".
They went back and looked at the amount of iron available to each subject's brain during adolescence by looking at their blood transferring levels from routine physicals performed at ages 12, 14 and 16 (blood transferring levels are often measure as part of routine physical exams).
The results were elevated transferrin levels during the teenage years were associated with reduced brain-fiber integrity in regions of the brain that are know to be vulnerable to the nerves being damaged (which could result in Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, etc).
The individuals did not show any cognitive impairments as young adults, but the concern is that they might be more likely to develop cognitive impairments as they age.
Dr. Thompson summarized his team's finding by saying that "Poor iron levels in childhood erode your brain reserves which you need later in life to protect against aging and Alzheimer's. This is remarkable, as we were not studying iron deficient people, just around 600 normal healthy people. It underscores the need for a balanced diet in the teenage years, when your brain command center is still actively maturing."
Of course it is a balance. The teen years are a time of rapid growth and maturing. It's not just the brain that needs the proper balance of nutrients during the teen years. All of their tissues require proper nutrition.
If you have teenagers, you might want to ask yourself questions like:
- What is your teenager's diet like?
- Is it balanced?
- Are you sure that it meets their nutritional needs?
- Should you consider supplementation to make sure that they are getting all of the nutrients they need?
Mary Beth Potrykus
www.mamabearproductions.net
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