• Question: why do you look at brains when you could do something more helpful such as find a cure for cancer or help save lives?

    Asked by cdawg to Fiona, Jane, Joanna, Michelle, William on 21 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by jess, fostk004, parapassion, therejoseph.
    • Photo: Fiona Randall

      Fiona Randall answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Hi Cdawg, people die from brain diseases too. And people’s lives are wrecked if they get things wrong with their brain, whether it is a result of a disease like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s or depression or epilepsy or because of an accident where they get a brain injury. People also can get cancer in the brain and brain research can help to identify what functions would be lost if the tumour was removed, so someone can have the tumour removed without too much loss of brain functions in that area where possible. Brain research does save lives and is just as important as cancer research-luckily there are lots of scientists concentrating on them all.

    • Photo: Michelle Murphy

      Michelle Murphy answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Hi
      There are lots of people working on cancer and I hope they will be sucessful at finding a cure. However I think working on understanding how the brain works is equally important. Obesity and its related diseases is equally as serious as cancer. Over 30,000 people die sooner then they should due to obesity and its effects. Also obesity (and related illnesses- heart disease, diabetes) costs the NHS alot more than cancer does. Some people think people should snap out of it and eat less and exercise (sounds easy) but its not that simple unfortunately. We need to understand why they eat more because alot of the time its chemical chaos in the brain and they dont have a choice. As for saving lives I am a mamber of the red cross fully first aid trained! Seriously though I do hope my research will be benificial to people and will help understand and perhaps help treatment of obesity.

    • Photo: Joanna Brooks

      Joanna Brooks answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      I can see where you are coming from. Let me try to convince you! Looking at the brain is as useful as curing cancer and it does help us save lives. Think about a person who has a damaged brain – perhaps they have had a stroke or have experienced traumatic brain injury. This person may not be able to communicate with others, make a cup of tea or walk to the shops as a consequence. The research that we do helps us to understand how to repair or at least rehabilitate the human brain and, as a consequence, drastically improve people’s lives.

    • Photo: William Davies

      William Davies answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Around 15 million people in the UK (one in four of us) will experience a mental health problem this year. That’s substantially more than will suffer a heart attack or stroke, or who will be diagnosed with cancer. In England alone, mental health problems cost the economy an estimated £77 billion per year. That’s why I study the brain!

    • Photo: Jane Henry

      Jane Henry answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      I’m looking at mind (brains in bodies). To look for a cure for cancer is a great thing but there are many other important questions to research too. Often people do their best creative work following things that interest them. In my work I do try to cover things that are useful for other people. However you may be right that the planet would be better of if we redirected more money and energy to the really important questions.

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