Think of the brain cell damage as a deep cut in your hand. After the stiches (5-htp and other supplements) and the healing, there is a scar. IT'll never heal back to the way it was. Now, with more and more cuts, your hand will look more and more scarred. If you cut a recently cut area that place will take longer to heal...Ok, this is losing sense, but u sort of get it.
About memory loss- I try to roll once every two months. Before and after I roll I take 1000mg of Vitamin C, 250 mg of alpha lipodic acid and 100 mg of 5-htp. (pre-loading, post-loading)
Also, after I roll I begin to do shit that works your mind. Crossword puzzles,
http://games.yahoo.com/games/texttwist.html (text Twist),
http://games.yahoo.com/games/collapse.html (Collapse), chess with friends, debate club, debating with friends, writing short stories, writing articles for zine, writing in my xanga, martial arts, meditation, reading books, going to dance (sober), playing sporty, all these activities keep your mind active and actually exercise your brain. Brain exercises are very good for you, and may benefit you more than you know.
I remember hearing somewhere that with every brain related activity (which is everything, I know, shut up, I'm talking about like the shit I mentioned above) that new brain stems are created or something like that (I'm probably really off)
Anyway, post-and pre-loading is not it, you have to exercise your mind.
Sometimes I do this exercise where I'm in a car and I look at things, and try to capture snapshots of what I just saw and hold it in my head as long as I can, when it's over I take another snapshot and hold it in my head. Just concentrate to work on your memory in a car at a really fast speed.
After you're really good at this, look at something, capture it, and then process your thoughts on what you just saw, or create a scene for characters in a movie that takes place in the snapshot, really fast, and do it over again, with different people, situations, create a history for the snapshot you took. (like you see a sign, and you wonder, who built that sign, how long did it take for someone to make that sign. Wonder about how the owners of the sign saw that sign and how you see it now. It's a very different perspective, think of this, then move to the next snapshot)
I heard brain exercises are just really good overall, would help prevent memory loss for a Mormon. Even if you dont' take xtc, I suggest you guys do them.
