ALS (Amyotrohic Lateral Sclerosis) -- also know as Lou Gehrig's disease -- represents one of the most challenging disorders for neurologists. Despite the efforts of the best minds in medical research, there is still no cure for ALS. In many cases, the disease is rapidly progressive. In fact, once the...

Stroke is the third leading cause of death and the number one cause of serious, long-term disability in the United States. More common in women, strokes affect close to 800,000 Americans each year killing nearly 150,000. While strokes typically occur in people over the age of 65, they can occur...

In what has been described as a move to build a more nutritious Happy Meal, McDonald's has announced that the popular menu selection will soon not only contain fruit but will also provide less than half the number of French fries. This makeover will result in a reduction of 110...

The most common -- and unfortunately the most aggressive -- malignant tumor arising in the brain is the glioblastoma (GBM). And despite the advances made over the past decade in cancer therapy, the median survival from the time of diagnosis of this tumor remains at about 12 months.

Typically,...

Alzheimer's disease might well be considered an epidemic in our country. With more than 5.3 million Americans diagnosed with the disease and that number expected to double by 2030, it makes sense to ask ourselves what can be done to prevent this devastating disease. According to a recent Medscape

Current estimates report that about 300,000 Americans have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) with an incredible 10,000 new cases being diagnosed each year. While there is a small hereditary component, by and large, most cases seem to just happen without an identifiable cause. Over the past few decades, the...

Last week an advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration unanimously recommended the approval of a diagnostic brain scan for Alzheimer's disease. The new technology is based upon imaging and quantifying the amount of a specific protein, beta amyloid, in the brains of patients suspected of having the disease....

Turn on the television, open a magazine or listen to the radio and in short order you will no doubt be exposed to an advertisement extolling the virtues of some newly discovered exotic fruit juice that has the highest antioxidant content on the face of the earth. You may wonder...

"I'm incredibly stressed out, and this Arizona thing has really put me over the top," complained my patient, just this week, a woman in her mid fifties. "I just can't seem to let it go. It's like I'm always on edge," she lamented. Looking at her intake paperwork, I noted...

The brains of the infant, toddler and preschooler are genetically programmed to develop most effectively when exposed to an environment which has remained essentially unchanged over the past tens of thousands of years. During this period of our evolution, early childhood was characterized by specific types of social interaction, including...

Several years ago, parents of a lovely nine-year-old girl, Karen, brought her to see me because she had poor memory. They indicated that she had difficulty in thinking and focusing, and because of these issues she was falling further and further behind in her school work. Interestingly, they stated that...

"In adult centers the nerve paths are something fixed, ended, immutable. Everything may die, nothing may be regenerated."
-- Santiago Ramon Y Cajal, "Degeneration and Regeneration in the Nervous System," 1928

This long-held tenet, first proposed by Professor Cajal, held that brain neurons were unique because they lacked...