Take Care of that Lettuce!

I’m sure you’ve heard the iconic analogy between brains and Jell-O, or hesitantly reached a hand into a brown-paper bag containing “brains” only to find that it must have been mislabeled since it is just spaghetti! But the brain is a bit reminiscent of lettuce as well! The meninges, delicate layers of tissue that bear hug the brain, enfold the brain in much the same fashion as each leaf in a head of lettuce wraps around and looks out for those beneath it. When this tight-fitting, multi-piece lettuce suit gets rumpled or agitated, meningitis takes the stage!

 

Image of Jell-O brain by Angel Schatz.

And young adults between 16 and 25 (i.e. us!) happen to be one of the most affected groups! Just since we’re young and healthy, does not mean we can’t get meningitis. In fact, living in dorms and with roommates boosts our chances of being a not-so-lucky winner of this uber-contagious “vacation.”

Meningitis is just inflammation of the brain’s lettuce layers. This disease takes the “your greatest enemy is yourself” idea to heart, as the immediate antagonist is your own immune system! When the immune system, our own microbial Ghostbusters, replies to a call for help, it loosens up our capillaries and makes them ultra-leaky. This means that more blood can find the problem area quicker and more fluid gushes from capillaries into afflicted tissues. This slackening of TSA for our blood allows more white blood cells and other fighter cells to report to the battlefront asap! But this excess fluid and blood causes swelling, reddening, and heat and the immune system booby traps the area with pain signals to ensure that you baby that body part.

In other words, the immune system is the puppeteer behind inflammation! Now before you call mutiny, the immune system is on your side! Inflammation, although inconvenient, is a sign that your body is fighting back against an invader and is typically helpful. But in meningitis, it is a reckless move.

For one, the brain and its meninges room together in our one-bedroom skull, so when the meninges swell up, the brain gets squished, meaning it is under more pressure. This compression, although slight, of perhaps our single most important, and certainly irreplaceable (imagine a brain transplant!), organ is dangerous. Plus, since capillaries now lose fluid left and right and blood pressure has eased, less blood and consequently less oxygen is getting to the brain. A brain hungry for oxygen throws temper tantrums in the form of seizures and can also have nerve damage.

But as usual, the true culprit for meningitis is a microbe. Bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, and even amoebas (tiny, single-cell organisms that thrive in geothermal pools) can cause meningitis. But so long as you keep from dunking your head in hot springs (because we have so many in State College), I’d say you’re fairly safe from amoebas.

While viral meningitis is the most frequent, bacterial meningitis is direr, and on some occasions, even fatal. Bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumoniae (yep, the same big bad behind pneumonia!) and Neisseria meningitides tend to infect the respiratory tract before spreading via the blood to the brain.

Neisseria meningitides, in particular, causes meningococcal meningitis, the highly contagious form we face as college students. Scarily enough, some meningococcal cases cause severe, adverse side effects including brain damage, and 10-15% wind up being fatal. If that’s not incentive to always wash your hands, I’m not sure what is!

So how do we avoid getting our lettuce layers all rumpled?

Foremost, get the meningitis vaccine. Most of you likely have it already since Penn State requires it to live in undergraduate housing. But there is an additional vaccine for another type of meningococcal bacteria that is not required.

Plus, even if vaccinated, be sure keep an eye out for any symptoms that might peek out. And if you have any reason to believe that you might have meningitis, seek medical attention as soon as possible. Cases caught early tend to lack severe side effects and nerve damage.

Just look at Haemophilus meningitis, once the leading type, but today it is no more than a footnote in most meningitis articles. Why? Thank the Haemophilus Influenza B vaccine!

In other words, get vaccinated, be aware, and you’ll be a-okay!