# Bees can turn back time and reverse brain ageing.



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Reprinted from the Hindustan Times
Older honey bees effectively reverse brain aging when they take on nest responsibilities typically handled by much younger bees, scientists at Arizona State University have found. While current research on human age related dementia focuses on potential new drug treatments, researchers said that these findings suggest that social interventions may be used to slow or treat age-related dementia.In a study, a team of scientists from ASU and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, led by Gro Amdam, an associate professor in ASUâs School of Life Sciences, showed that tricking older, foraging bees into doing social tasks inside the nest causes changes in the molecular structure of their brains.âWe knew from previous research that when bees stay in the nest and take care of larvae â the bee babies âthey remain mentally competent for as long as we observe them,â said Amdam.âHowever, after a period of nursing, bees fly out gathering food and begin aging very quickly. After just two weeks, foraging bees have worn wings, hairless bodies, and more importantly, lose brain function â basically measured as the ability to learn new things. We wanted to find out if there was plasticity in this aging pattern so we asked the question, âWhat would happen if we asked the foraging bees to take care of larval babies again?â he noted.
During experiments, scientists removed all of the younger nurse bees from the nest â leaving only the queen and babies. When the older, foraging bees returned to the nest, activity diminished for several days. Then, some of the old bees returned to searching for food, while others cared for the nest and larvae. Researchers discovered that after 10 days, about 50 percent of the older bees caring for the nest and larvae had significantly improved their ability to learn new things.
Amdamâs international team not only saw a recovery in the beesâ ability to learn, they discovered a change in proteins in the beesâ brains. When comparing the brains of the bees that improved relative to those that did not, two proteins noticeably changed.
They found Prx6, a protein also found in humans that can help protect against dementia â including diseases such as Alzheimerâs â and they discovered a second and documented âchaperoneâ protein that protects other proteins from being damaged when brain or other tissues are exposed to cell-level stress.
In general, researchers are interested in creating a drug that could help people maintain brain function, yet they may be facing up to 30 years of basic research and trials.
âMaybe social interventions â changing how you deal with your surroundings â is something we can do today to7/5/12 Bees can turn back time and reverse brain ageing - help our brains stay younger,â said Amdam.
âSince the proteins being researched in people are the same proteins bees have, these proteins may be able to spontaneously respond to specific social experiences,â he added.
But Amdam noted that further studies are needed on mammals such as rats in order to investigate whether the same molecular changes that the bees experience might be socially inducible in people.
The study was published in the scientific journal Experimental Gerontology


 Al


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## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

So I can see this research used in two ways...
1) Use older humans to take care of babies or become more productive and interactive with others. Give them a purpose. OR.
2) Create a chemical to give them while they live out the rest of their lives... longer lives mind you.... in the nursing homes...

I think I'll opt for 1) above... I hope to always keep busy and productive. Never retire!! Ever notice how folks that work at keeping active their entire lives seem to just dwindle to nothing when they 'retire' to doing nothing? I'm hoping to work as long as my body will allow me, and then continue doing something .... anything .... until the brain gives out as well.


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## springvalley (Jun 23, 2009)

I`m right there with ya Jo, keep doing something, anything. Don`t know about takin care of babies, but maybe baby animals, and that would be fine. > Thanks Marc


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I'll take the bees over a crying baby. When they used to ask about seatting at resturands I always said the childless section.

 Al


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## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

"the childless section".... LOL!!!! Yea, I know it can be obnoxious to have wild kids at restaurants. I've even heard that there are restaurants out there that are now banning kids!! Or kids under a certain age... the naughty age!! LOL...


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## farmerstac (Mar 16, 2005)

Well its one thing when the parent is trying to deal with child and its noisy but its a whole different ball of joy when the parent just sets there and lets their kid run wild.


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## mare (Aug 31, 2006)

no naughty kids just lazy parents--nothing worse than trying to eat when some strange bugger faced kid is standing by your table watching you.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Try a little snot nose in the booth behind you dumping a coke down the back of your neck or a slimmy fork full of spagetti on top of your head.

Give me the bees in a tipped over hive, two today at the same time :run::run: Don't ask.


 Al


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## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

You managed to tip over TWO hives and the same time??? Now that's tallent!! I'll take a stab at this and say you backed up the truck without looking first and knocked them over with the tailgate?? Sorry, but I think I'd rather deal with the snotty nosed kids. I can always ask for a new table!! How many stings did you get?? Or were the girls just so happy to have their hives set back up that they didn't care?? Hope the windows were up on the truck!! Buzzzzzzz..... YOUCH!!!


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Truck didn't do it. A dumb bee keeper with a floor jack in sand with out a base did it. Only one sting right on the right butt cheek.

I can see it now as a 16 OZ coke runs down your back and into the back of your pants, OH watress could I have a different booth/table. NoT My style more like gre:gre:gre:gre:As i'm telling the parents what worthless human beings they are. Beat your kids butt once in a while and you will never again have to tell your kids for the i millionth time it is the last time you tell them. I never had to tell my kids but once. No means no, stop means stop.
They were not abused kids either. I think as I remember now warmed the butt of my son about 4 times. once he hit his sister in the head with a board ,Just one day after he was told by Kare to come get one of us if she was picking on him. once at grandmas he broke chicken eggs in the pen with the chicks to see what they would do (that one was for grandma) once when he was shooting the horse with the bb gun (lost his bb gun for over a year on that one too.) And the last time I remember was his leaving a gsallon of milk he was told to take in the house in the hot truck to sour.

 Al


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