Neurogenesis and protection

Brain health and longevity, sometimes oddly neglected isn’t it? Anyone have good leads on off label use of drugs that have benefit in promoting brain health, particularly neurogenesis/repair factors? Or drugs and new research that’s come to light showing truly neuroprotective effects based on strong evidence (though experimental).

Here’s one thing I found, which may reduce tau protein in the brains of humans (possibly): Carbonic anhydrase inhibition ameliorates tau toxicity via enhanced tau secretion | Nature Chemical Biology

This could potentially be used as a prophylactic against Alzheimer’s and other tau related diseases.

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I know that the feared drugs of the SSRI family are amazing for brain health increasing both BDNF and allopregnanolone. Fluoxetine is great in his kind, vortioxetine is newer but very effective too. These drugs increase neuroplasticity in addition to that. For more edgy stuff, all psychedelics activating the 5HT2A receptors should be very beneficial for brain health.

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I would put Ketamine in there as also possibly beneficial for brain health.

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I don’t think that there is evidence for SSRI in terms of neuroprotection. They could also be neurotoxic. That’s why I don’t take them, otherwise I would be really happy to do so :joy:. The only antidepressant that also seems neuroprotective and pro longevity is selegiline. And even for selegiline the evidence is weak.

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IMO, SSRIs are contraindicated if you have sufficient serotonin. Too much serotonin causes all of the issues (sexual dysfunction, numbing, etc) that cause SSRIs to be vilified. For people with depression, they should probably try a SSRI first and if they experience negative side effects, switch to a non-SSRI with antidepressant effects (Wellbutrin, atypical antipsychotics, stimulants, etc).

A bit of a tangent, but I mention this to say that SSRIs are probably neuroprotective and beneficial if and only if it doesn’t cause you to have too much serotonin. In the same vein, I suspect most psychiatric medications are brain health promoting/neuroprotective if they normalize your neurotransmitter levels. Similar to hormone normalization or even micronutrient normalization. Put another way, neurotransmitters, like most things, have a inverted U shaped curve, too little and too much are a bad thing.

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As an additional note, compared to hormone normalization, neurotransmitter normalization is very tricky because we don’t have measurable biomarkers to indicate which medication might help. Trial and error with subjective experience interpreted by a trained professional is the best we can do right now.

LSD and/or Psilocybin has also been shown to promote neurogenesis.

@Chu_Kim This excellent thread by @DrFraser is definitely worth your attention.

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