Greetings life explorers. Today marks a continuation for my blog after a rather long hiatus. To ring in the new year I figured I'd start off on the topic of hope with a new development in the field of neuroscience. Tony Coles is a drug industry guru of sorts. He was able to flip a cancer drug developing company for $10.4 billion after 5 years at it's helm. Personally, he made $60 million off the deal which combined with his powers and understanding of the drug industry could have created another cancer company or take the helm of another large drug company. Instead, Coles has decided to allocate his resources to start a company focusing on harvesting the powers of yeast in order to create drugs that can combat deadly brain related diseases such as Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig's, and Parkinson's. Coles believes that there is a need to focus on brain diseases as the there has been a lack of focus on creating novel drugs within the field of neurology and brain diseases.
In the past decade we've made some discoveries and insights into the field of neurology Here's the kicker. Two insights into this field were found in 2004 that might be considered pretty controversial to say the least. The first insight was found by researches from the National Institute of Health who proposed that a brain receptor known as NMDA that is key factor in the formation of memories can also be related to depression. At the same time, researchers from Yale found that the controversial club drug and widely known anesthetic ketamine blocked NMDA. Both these insights led to a small test trial in what effects ketamine could have on victims of depression. The drug was administered to 17 participants. The results were astounding. Twelve (71%) of the participants immediately had improved conditions and the remaining five (29%) had their depression go into remission. You read that correctly. Ketamine has seemingly found it's real purpose as a fast-acting anti-depressant.
Since this study there have been multiple advances in creating a ketamine derivative that get's rid of the nasty side effects and focusing on being able to rid human kind of one of the most prevalent brain diseases in our world today.
I'm not sure about the current readers here but this article has given me hope in the future of battling the ailments most all of us have encountered in some shape or form in our lifetime. I know personally I struggle with bouts of depression, anxiety and stress. It really feels as if a small burden has lifted knowing that there are significant people in this world who are actively trying to make a change and help humanity for the better. It's just a matter of time now.
