Keeping Alzheimer’s Away Prevent this Devastating Condition

Alzheimer’s disease is an increasing concern in the U.S. To date, it’s estimated that 5.3 million Americans suffer from it, 5.1 million of whom are over the age of 65. The Alzheimer’s Association reported that every 70 seconds, an individual develops Alzheimer’s. That accounts for one out of every eight Americans and 13% of the population.
Women are more vulnerable to Alzheimer’s than men are; however, men are not immune. Unfortunately, there’s no known cure, so as the number of those inflicted with the disease continues to increase, the need to get it under control becomes more pressing.
Alzheimer’s is a disease that affects the brain. As it grows, it weakens its victims’ brain tissues. The result is often memory loss, an inability to interact properly and loss of mental skills. Of those who develop Alzheimer’s, 50% to 70% get dementia, which can damage their social and intellectual capacities. The most common symptom is forgetting well-known things, such as a route that you’ve traveled many times. Eventually, Alzheimer’s could lead you to forget your friends and family.
While there’s no specific known cause of Alzheimer’s, there are factors that are believed to contribute to it, such as genetics and environmental factors. An individual will get Alzheimer’s when the brain cell “beta-amyloid” and the protein “tau” are damaged by those factors. Beta-amyloid can interfere with communication between brain cells, and the tau protein can be twisted. Each issue will slow down the brain’s regular functions.
Preventing Alzheimer’s
Suffering from Alzheimer’s is a fear that many have as they grow into the later years of life. To be sure, Alzheimer’s is a devastating condition that can affect your memory and your perception of the once-familiar world all around you. Fortunately, there is a lot that you could do to protect yourself against the disease.
Researchers have discovered in recent years that omega-3 fatty acids are very important to the health of your brain. They’ve also found that many foods are full of powerful antioxidants, and when they are eaten regularly, they could protect your brain from the damage caused by “free radicals.”
Could Exercise Protect & Heal the Brain?
The message seems to be “eat right, exercise and hope that your genes don’t predispose you to dementia.” Researchers have looked at how well people do when they follow healthy diets. Generally, those who are eating healthy foods on a regular basis have higher scores on cognitive tests.
Exercise also seems to score high when it comes to cognitive function. Those who are sedentary tend to have the lowest levels of cognitive function and higher rates of decline over the long term. Now, a new study says that exercise could go a long way to improving the symptoms of Alzheimer’s—even after someone is diagnosed with the condition.
A research team did a systematic review of studies that analyzed the effect of physical activity on cognitive performance in elderly individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. They searched for studies dated 1990 to 2008, using specific keywords such as “physical activity,” “physical therapy,” “exercise,” “fitness,” “aerobic,” “strength,” “intervention,” “cognition,” “cognitive performance,” “Alzheimer’s disease,” “Alzheimer’s dementia” and “Alzheimer’s.” They found eight studies that met the inclusion criteria.
The research team found that “systematized” physical activity contributed to at least a temporary improvement in the cognitive function of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The areas that improved significantly were attention, primary functions and language. The research team concluded that the practice of regular systematized physical activity appears to contribute to the preservation or improvement of cognitive functions in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.1 Yet more incentive to keep active and to exercise your body!
A Drink a Day Could Keep Alzheimer’s Away
Having a drink a day is getting more positive press. Researchers are now saying that older adults with no history of dementia could cut their odds of Alzheimer’s and other cognitive difficulties by regular, moderate drinking. How much could you expect your risk level to drop? By as much as 40%!
Researchers found that for cognitively normal older adults, the lowest risk of dementia was for those who drank an average of one to two alcoholic drinks per day. The research team had looked at 3,069 dementia-free adults over the age of 75 who were living in their community.
All of the participants were white and all had testing to identify those who already had a mild form of cognitive impairment. The study lasted six years. Each participant reported their drinking behavior. Researchers then divided everyone into “abstinent,” “light” (one to seven drinks a week), “moderate” (eight to 14 drinks a week) and “heavy” (more than 14 drinks a week) alcohol-consumption groups.
The research team reported that 482 of the participants had mild cognitive impairment when the study launched, and by the end of the study, 523 new cases of dementia were diagnosed. After accounting for other illnesses, depression, activity levels and cognitive health, results showed that moderate alcohol intake resulted in a 37% drop in the risk for dementia for those whose cognitive health was normal when the study began.2
The research team feels that these findings are consistent with previous study results. Moderate alcohol use has been shown to protect against heart disease, which makes it likely that it might also protect against brain health.
Alzheimer’s has a strong overlap with cardiovascular disease. There are a number of studies that have associated reduced cardiovascular disease risk with a rise in HDL levels—the “good” cholesterol—that can come with consuming small amounts of alcohol.
The research team wanted to caution, however, that those with a history of even moderate brain-health issues did not appear to benefit from any amount of alcohol consumption and appeared to face a significantly greater risk for dementia if they were heavy drinkers.
This Fat Could Protect Against Alzheimer’s
Today, medical experts tell us that Alzheimer’s is a progressive and fatal brain disease. It destroys brain cells, causing a lot of cognitive problems. These symptoms can be severe enough to affect work, lifelong hobbies or social activities.
Alzheimer’s can get worse over time, and it is sometimes fatal. In fact, it is the seventh-leading cause of death in the U.S.
Just like the rest of your body, your brain changes as you age. Everyone notices some slowed thinking and occasional problems remembering certain things. However, serious memory loss, confusion and other major changes in the way your mind works should not be a normal part of aging. In fact, these symptoms may be a sign that brain cells are failing.
Here’s another thing that you could you do to protect your brain cells from dying. Researchers think that a substance called “phosphatidylserine” could be able to help.
Phosphatidylserine is a kind of fat. It is the main component in the membranes that surround your nerve cells. In Alzheimer’s disease and similar disorders, nerve cells degenerate. No one yet knows why this happens, and that’s where phosphatidylserine comes in. The theory behind treatment with the fat is that its use may shore up cell membranes and (possibly) protect cells from degenerating.
The first clinical trials with phosphatidylserine were conducted with a form that was derived from the brain cells of cows. Some of these trials had promising results. This line of investigation came to an end in the 1990s because of concerns about mad cow disease.
A report was published in 2000 about a clinical trial with 18 participants with age-associated memory impairment who were treated with phosphatidylserine. The research team concluded that the results were encouraging, but that there would need to be large, carefully controlled trials to determine if this could be a viable treatment.3
Researchers have once again started to look at phosphatidylserine. In a recent animal study, mice were given phosphatidylserine to see what effect it had on their cognitive ability. The research team found that supplementing with the fat reduced “reactive oxygen species” in normal mice by 57% and prevented an increase in these harmful substances. They concluded that supplementation with phosphatidylserine prevented the cognitive decline that was observed in mice that were being fed a normal diet. They also concluded that dietary supplementation could delay the progression of age-related cognitive decline in humans.4

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