Message Forum

Mr. Hamilton:

I may have slowed down a bit physically but what reassures me is that my mental faculties haven't diminished one whit.

By the way, have we met?

01/06/23 03:11 PM

#12025

Mike McL.,

Hmmm.... Keep that mind intact and don't get any commotio cerebri injuries from falling frozen iguanas!

Jim (You remember, from IC and BWHS)

01/07/23 12:57 PM

#12026

Seriously Dr. Hamilton. (Something told me I should address you as such). You seem nice so I'm happy to continue this conversation with you.

I have no issues physically apart from tiring more easily.

But I am forgetful. I understand changes in the hippocampus have something to do with that. I've been told to simply start backing things up - writing things down, get more organized, provide written reminders to myself. Other than that I can't think of anything other than practical steps - cutting down on alcohol, good nutrition and exercise - that will delay the disintegration.

I'm not sure how a lifetime of writing for a living factors into the brain I've got now that I'm trying to slow it down a bit, become more practical, do less daydreaming. That's a hard trick for an old horse to pick up.

As to memory I've done some reading and you may or may not care to explain what educated hippos have to do with any of this. Pink elephants, sure, but educated hippos I do not get.

01/07/23 05:33 PM

#12027

this just in,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Matt Gaetz apparently will NOT win the "Miss Congeniality" trophy after all.

But watch out folks, this new group of (my) GOP guys wants to void the recent Democrat increase in IRS funding, which is already so woefully understaffed they are letting billions in tax revenues slip through the system un-audited* and un-challenged.

*(kinda like our "Orange Jesus" buddy from "Mara-hide-in-the-closet", who paid less than I did for a couple of recent years while raking in many millions)

Good work guys! And by all means, let's don't ever have a simplified, fair, honest and just Tax system.

01/07/23 10:59 PM

#12028

Mike,

In med school back in the early '70's, most of us would surely agree that neuroanatomy was the most difficult and complicated topic to master. Looking back and realizing what we have discovered in the past 50 years, that was like addition and subtraction compared to differential and integral calculus.

Memory is stored and chemically/electrcally transported among many places in the brain via neurons to synapses where several chemical neurotransmitters such as epinephrine, norepinephrine, glutamate, seratonin, gamma aminobuteric acid, dopamine and others are secreted. The hippocampus, whose major neurotransmitter is acetylcholine, is sort of the processor (akin to a computer processor) for the memory. Anatomically close to hippo are the two amygdalae nuclei which are also important in the memory processes.

Bottom line, many other brain structures participate in this train of chemicals which carry on various memory functions like recognizing taste, smell, faces, tasks, locations, knowledge and just about everything from long ago to what we did five minutes ago.

Neurotransmitters, of course, have other functions in the brain (and other organs) and medications are often used (especially in psychiatry) to modulate their amount in order to treat certain diseases and disorders.

Like all chemicals, I suspect that stored neurotransmitters that are storing information ("memory") eventually degrade and maybe that is why we forget certain things. Renewing those pathways on a regular basis may keep them supplied with fresh neurotransmitters. I guess this would be what I would call "use it or lose it".

As a medical/neurology/psychiatry/neuroscience arena of understanding we are probably not any longer in a state of infancy, but we are probably only in our pre-teen years. And as for therapeutic intervention (treatment), we are newborns.

Jim

01/08/23 12:28 PM

#12029

Thanks Jim. Whoever you are.

And a larger thanks, in all seriousness, for all of the times you have responded to my med questions in a way that was as clear as you could make it without a) dumbing it down too much and b) sounding patronizing. This area of modern science - the very fabric, the miraculous cerebral cross-weave of our thoughts - is particularly, fabulously fascinating.

I really do appreciate it.

01/08/23 01:09 PM

#12030

Mike and Others,

And I thank you and several of our classmates who have brought up medical topics on this forum and through personal email correspondences which allow me to reload my memory's store of neurotransmitters as well as add some new pathways regarding issues that have occurred in recent times 🧠.

Jim

01/08/23 01:23 PM

#12031

Jim,

In all of your medical posts on this Forum I do not recall one time that you ever mentioned the health benefits of the four basic food groups - Cheeseburgers, French Fries, Ketchup, and Coke.

01/08/23 02:24 PM

#12032

Dave,

Seems to me that all of us who are reading this Forum today are in their mid 70's and were likely raised eating a lot of these things (often at Sandy's across from Watterson on High Street) before the world discovered what a "normal" cholesterol level should be. Of course, as kids we actually played physical games and sports as opposed to exercising our fingers on a keyboard or control stick. Perhaps that played a protective role.

I am also a fan of almost anything in moderation 🍔!

Jim

01/09/23 08:28 AM

#12033

dave: with that knack for getting straight to the heart of a subject you should have been a journalist.

01/09/23 02:31 PM

#12034

Random High School Memory:

I think this is from a production of Tammy Tell Me True," which was some lame-ass production I was in, and for some bizarre reason I remember another actor's line:

"She's a caution."

It stuck in my mind because it's an odd, old-fashioned saying - I think it just refers to somebody with an outgoing personality - but also because of the way the actress, whoever it was, delivered that line - with a hammyemphasis on "she's" that extended it for longer than a single syllable word deserves.

I know. Bizarre, right?

But I'm just in the realm of memory at the moment and I was wondering if anybody else has particulary odd, random memories of relatively inconsequential or downright meaningless things.

01/09/23 03:52 PM

#12035

Mark Schweickart

Hey there fellow wordsmiths. This caught my eye recently and I "thought" you mIght appreciate it:

Which reminded me of this Dr. Suess title, struggling to find a rhyme:

Oh, and Mike – I would venture to say that the majority of my memories would fall into your category of being random and mostly meaningless. Now ain't that a caution?

01/09/23 06:04 PM

#12036

Mark: synchronicity. somebody gave me a coffee cup with that through thing on it just last week.

01/10/23 02:09 AM

#12037

Mark,

Curious to know if any of the rain and flooding has hit your area?

----------------

And Mike, I remember that play. I was a courtroom lawyer and had all of maybe two lines. I seem to recall that I was questioning Clare (playing Tammy - the lead) on the "stand" in the courtroom and she was talking abut her pet turtle. My big line was (questioning her statement)

"I see, Myrtle the Turtle?"

I thought Clare had posted some of the photos from that play somewhere here on the Forum -???

01/10/23 07:31 AM

#12038

Theresa Zeyen (Kucsma)

Our Eglish language is a phonetic puzzle for sure.
Ghoti could spell fish. Anyone want to explain how?

01/10/23 11:21 AM

#12039

Theresa! Thank you for this!

It is indeed a very strange fish in the c.

You have hooked me on this one.

If nobody else bites on it I will.

Meanwhile, have you noticed how people are starting to use exclamation marks as decoration for otherwise lame-ass declarative sentences?

Like, "We will respond to your inquiry as soon as possible!"

I honestly think it's a form of illiteracy. Or something worse. Also:

It makes me so mad!!!!

01/10/23 03:33 PM

#12040

Mark Schweickart

Dave – Although the weather has been ferocious throughout California, luckily the area in which I live has been spared from anything serious happening. A lot of rain, to be sure, but no flooding or trees uprooting, etc. But then again, as soon as one storm passes, another appears on the weather radar maps. So this may go on for a while yet. Thanks for asking.

Also, regarding your "Tammy Tell Me True" reminicence, I too was in the courtroom scene. I was a cab driver called to testify named "Cruickshanck," or something like that, but unlike you, no memorable lines have stuck in this old brain.

Theresa – regarding your Ghoti = fish, I could see that "f" in fish could be the "gh" in "tough or cough" as in the Dr. Seuss title I posted. And I could see that the "ti" could be like any word ending in "tion" like "action" or vacation" etc., but I could not think of a word where an "o" has the same sound as the "i" in "fish." So I had to cheat and ask Jeeves on the interweb (i.e. Google) where I am told there is only one word that has this peculiarity. So you stumped me. And not to give it away, I will leave it at that. Thanks for the word puzzle.

01/10/23 10:38 PM

#12041

Okay, I'm lost!

01/11/23 08:07 AM

#12042

Theresa Zeyen (Kucsma)

Good job, guys and I will refrain from using an exclamation point.
To spell it all out
gh is like the gh in tough = f
o is like the o in women = i
ti is like the ti in action = sh
Our language is less than 50% phonetic so it's a wonder we all learned to read. If you know anyone who teaches reading, especially to struggling readers, hug him/her well.

01/11/23 01:53 PM

#12043

Thanks Theresa!

The Love Of My Life is a Montessori grades 1-3 teacher!

I will do as you say!

Have a nice day!

01/11/23 03:05 PM

#12044