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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (June 24, 2015)
16 Wednesday, June 24, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon New storage facility slated for Sisters In March the Rumgay family purchased property in Sisters on Barclay Drive. The family’s plan is to build a new storage facility named Sisters Self-Storage. The storage facility will be approximately 350 new units, and approximately 130 exte- rior RV car storage sites. The sizes of the units will provide more options than the other current locations in Sisters, Jon Rumgay said. The facility plans will be submitted to the City for approval in June and will be constructed after the per- mitting process is complete. The plan will provide larger spaces that will be able to store motor homes and larger boats and trailers. The loca- tion has easy access along Barclay Drive. “We are looking forward to serving Sisters in the future,” Rumgay said. The family plans a 2015 opening. Diet may relate to loss of cognitive function By david Stauth Correspondent CORVALLIS — A study at Oregon State University indicates that both a high-fat and a high-sugar diet, com- pared to a normal diet, cause changes in gut bacteria that appear related to a significant loss of “cognitive flexibility,” or the power to adapt and adjust to changing situations. This effect was most seri- ous on the high-sugar diet, which also showed an impair- ment of early learning for both long-term and short-term memory. The findings are consistent with some other studies about the impact of fat and sugar on cognitive function and behav- ior, and suggest that some of these problems may be linked to alteration of the microbi- ome – a complex mixture in the digestive system of about 100 trillion microorganisms. The research was done with laboratory mice that consumed different diets and then faced a variety of tests, such as water maze testing, to monitor changes in their mental and physical func- tion, and associated impacts on various types of bacteria. The findings were published in the journal Neuroscience, in work supported by the Microbiology Foundation and the National Science Foundation. “It’s increasingly clear that our gut bacteria, or micro- biota, can communicate with the human brain,” said Kathy Magnusson, a professor in the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine and principal inves- tigator with the Linus Pauling Institute. It’s increasingly clear that our gut bacteria, or microbiota, can communicate with the human brain. — Kathy Magnusson “Bacteria can release com- pounds that act as neurotrans- mitters, stimulate sensory nerves or the immune sys- tem, and affect a wide range of biological functions,” she said. “We’re not sure just what messages are being sent, but we are tracking down the pathways and the effects.” Mice have proven to be a particularly good model for studies relevant to humans, Magnusson said, on such top- ics as aging, spatial memory, obesity and other issues. In this research, after just four weeks on a high-fat or a high-sugar diet, the perfor- mance of mice on various tests of mental and physi- cal function began to drop, compared to animals on a normal diet. One of the most pronounced changes was in what researchers call cogni- tive flexibility. “The impairment of cog- nitive flexibility in this study was pretty strong,” Magnusson said. “Think about driving home on a route that’s very familiar to you, something you’re used to doing. Then one day that road is closed and you sud- denly have to find a new way home.” A person with high levels of cognitive flexibility would immediately adapt to the change, determine the next best route home, and remem- ber to use the same route the following morning, all with little problem. With impaired flexibility, it might be a long, slow, and stressful way home. This study was done with young animals, Magnusson said, which ordinarily would have a healthier biological system that’s better able to resist pathological influences from their microbiota. The findings might be even more pronounced with older ani- mals or humans with compro- mised intestinal systems, she said. What’s often referred to as the “Western diet,” or foods that are high in fat, sugars and simple carbohydrates, has been linked to a range of chronic illnesses in the United States, including the obesity epidemic and an increased incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. the impairment of cognitive flexibility in this study was pretty strong. — Kathy Magnusson “We’ve known for a while that too much fat and sugar are not good for you,” Magnusson said. “This work suggests that fat and sugar are altering your healthy bacte- rial systems, and that’s one of the reasons those foods aren’t good for you. It’s not just the food that could be influencing your brain, but an interaction between the food and micro- bial changes.”