Brains of woodpeckers contain protein found in humans with brain damage

a reply to: dreamingawake

Yeah, but woodpeckers are not commonly kept as pets, so basically, you are looking at a very limited captive population - what would be in zoos - from which to possibly draw any conclusion from this. Regular birds may get dementia, but the exercise here is to see if woodpeckers are either more susceptible because of how they live (relentless head trauma related to daily living) or have found a natural way to stave off the dementia potentially caused by the relentless daily trauma.

At this point, all that has been discovered is that woodpeckers basically peck themselves into head trauma and not much else.

a reply to: ketsuko

Wildlife rescues, not just zoos. Could see studies coming from rehabilitation programs, although they are not as common as other animals admitted to the clinics. It's probably more likely that they have the protective form of the protein or at least the majority of the protein present.

I am still studying these birds.

Seems they have a sweettooth for suet.(fat)

I am guessing they are using the fats to form a unique bond structure of the cell walls in the brain.

It does not look like we have yet to narrow down the differences in golgi apperatus involved in the formation and structure found in these birds vs other structures

a reply to: howtonhawky

Thanks for sharing, would make for a good thread as a future update about this.

This is coming from one who has taken too many hard blows to the head.
I feel impaired to some degree.
There is numbness and uncomfortable tingling in my feet and hands.
My cognition processes seem a little gummed up.
I am much more inclined to defend myself with violence if threatened with like-wise.
You and your couple of buddies want to beat me down...I'll send the bunch of you to the E.R.
I'm too old for this game.
Leave me in peace. I will walk away.
Otherwise, it is going to get real ugly real fast.

a reply to: skunkape23

That mentality is not a bad one to have as long as logic still seeps through as shown by your post history.

Now i am back full circle to my first take on the subject and that is that bbq is the answer.

Seems that the peckers really do not have a way to repair the damage but they do have a way to avoid the damage in the first place. So imo this will not led to healing of scar tissue but by ingesting fat from the animal and plant realm can keep one from having the damage occur in the first place.

So game day bbq is helpful

refined fat and tree sap in ones favorite combination and a positive attitude will help the headbangers in this world.

a reply to: howtonhawky

Interesting you mention fat and woodpeckers.

I have a thick branch, about 15 inches long with round indentations for suet.
The birds there the most are the Downy Woodpeckers...in fact I think they set up housekeeping in the next door tree.
They eat a LOT of suet....all year round.
Fat [cholesterol] is something our brains need to function properly.