Viruses May Affect Memory Decades Later
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic’s Molecular Neuroscience Program recently published research that suggests common picornaviruses, including rhinoviruses (e.g., common cold) and enteroviruses, may infect the brain and lead to ongoing damage to areas of the brain involving memory.
The study was an animal study that infected mice with Theiler’s encephalomyelitis virus, which is an enterovirus similar to the human polio virus. Mice were then tested using a maze test. Some mice were not affected much at all, while others had great difficulty in navigating the maze. When researchers dissected the mice, they found that the performance on the test directly correlated to the amount of viral damage to the hippocampus, which is the brain structure primarily responsible for learning and memory.
The researchers hypothesize that some cases of human cognitive impairment and memory loss may be the result of the cumulative effect of multiple viral infections over the course of one’s lifetime.
Obviously, more research remains to be done to prove this hypothesis, but the general idea of reducing one’s viral load is a good one. Both prescription drugs (e.g., Valtrex) and natural substances (e.g., olive leaf extract) can be very effective in doing just that.
