When it comes to health-boosting properties, cocoa content is key. Therefore, the darker you eat your chocolate, the better. Bittersweet chocolate contains up to 75 per cent of cocoa solids. However, some people may find this too bitter to eat on its own. Dark chocolate, which contains around 70 per cent cocoa solids, is tasty […]
Microglia cells, which are the cells in the brain responsible for detecting and fixing minor damage renew themselves more quickly than previously thought, new research has shown. A study, led by the University of Southampton and published in Cell Reports, shows that the turnover of these specialist cells is 10 times faster, allowing the whole population of […]
There has been a strong link between human exposure to aluminium and the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease for half a century or more. However, without definite proof, there is still no consensus in the scientific community about the role of this known neurotoxin in this devastating brain disease. The latest research from my group, published […]
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Multiple sclerosis (MS) affects around 100,000 people in the UK. The lifelong condition affects the brain and spinal cord, and results in nerves being destroyed. The symptoms, and the severity of the illness, vary widely from person to person, but often include fatigue, vision problems, muscle spasms and impaired mobility. At first, patients tend to […]
Alzheimer’s disease is by far the commonest form of dementia, affecting around 1.5 per cent of all people over the age of 65. There is still no cure, but research has shown that loss of higher brain functions is caused when normal amyloid proteins change their shape and settle as coils of fibrous material on […]
Thirty years ago, being diagnosed with breast cancer was seen by many as a death sentence. Look how far we have come since then. According to the latest figures, 78 per cent of women are predicted to survive their disease for 10 years or more. In many other areas of cancer treatment, the improvements in […]
Alzheimer’s is a disease that physically affects the brain, causing the cells to die off. It is named after a German neurologist, Alois Alzheimer who first described it in 1906. Two abnormal structures are prime suspects in damaging and killing off nerve cells. They are plaques and tangles. Plaques build up between nerve cells, and contain deposits of a […]
Bad behaviour may be wired into adolescent brains early in life, according to a study which we published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Young men with persistent behavioural problems, including destructive behaviour and lying and stealing, seem to have brains which differ significantly in structure from those of their better-behaved peers. We used MRI scans to look at […]
On Monday 18th April 2016 the parlous lack of funding for research into brain tumours was the subject of a formal parliamentary debate in the House of Commons. The debate comes after years of lobbying by our partner, charity Brain Tumour Research, culminating in a Government e-petition which gained over 120,000 signatures and the publishing of […]
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How hard it is to say what we mean. “I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, I speak like a child.” So said the distinguished Nobel prize winner, Vladimir Nabokov of his ability to express himself when speaking to others. Think of the amount of ways we have of saying the […]