Alzheimer’s Disease – Understanding this Condition

The Brain and Alzheimer’s Disease

The brain has 100 billion specialized nerve cells called neurons. Each nerve cell communicates with many others to form networks. Nerve cell networks have special jobs. Some are involved in thinking, learning and remembering. Others help us see, hear and smell. Still others tell our muscles when to move. In Alzheimer’s disease, as in other types of dementia, increasing numbers of brain cells deteriorate and die.

Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease

There can be memory loss that disrupts daily life. This common sign of Alzheimer’s includes forgetting important dates, events and recently learned information over and over, and relying on memory aids such as notes. Age related change is sometimes forgetting names or appointments but remembering them later.

There can be a mental decline and difficulty thinking and understanding. This can be confusion, delusion and disorientation. It can be Forgetting the right words to use calling a watch a hand-clock, etc. Age-related forgetfulness is sometimes forgetting the right word.

Planning and problem-solving challenges. They can take a long time to complete familiar tasks. There can be an inability to do simple math or inability to recognize common things.

Behavior can change: A person can become aggressive, or can be agitated, irritable, meaningless repetition of words, personality changes, lack of restraint, wandering off and getting lost. Person can be angry, apathetic, general discontent, lonely or have mood swings. They can become depressed, have hallucinations or become paranoid.

The person can loss their appetite or become restless.

They can lose the ability to combine muscle movement and can have jumbled speech.

The role of plaques and tangles in Alzheimer’s Disease

Two abnormal structures called plaques and tangles are believed to be damaging and killing nerve cells. Plaques and tangles were among the abnormalities that Dr. Alois Alzheimer saw when he first named the disease, although he called them different names.

• Plaques build up between nerve cells. They contain deposits of a protein fragment called beta-amyloid (BAY-tuh AM-uh-loyd).
• Tangles Tangles are twisted fibers of another protein called tau (rhymes with “wow”). Tangles form inside dying cells.

Though most people develop some plaques and tangles as they age, those with Alzheimer’s tend to develop far more.

The plaques and tangles tend to form in a predictable pattern, beginning in areas important in learning and memory and then spreading to other regions.

Scientists are not absolutely sure what role plaques and tangles play in Alzheimer’s disease. Most experts believe they somehow block communication among nerve cells and disrupt activities that cells need to survive.

Factors likely to cause Alzheimer’s include heavy metal poisoning, environmental influences, genetics, hormone imbalances, impaired blood flow, and nutritional deficiencies.

What can be done about Alzheimer’s Disease?

Drink vegetable juices: These juices have tons of beneficial antioxidants.

Minimize eating sugars & carbs:

Why would eating lots of sweets and carbohydrates increase your risk of dementia? Well, there are three scientific reasons:

Reason 1: Sugar dramatically increases your metabolism, and high rates of metabolism become a major source of free radical production which damage your cells and impair their function.)

Reason 2: High levels of sugar in your body cause the sugar to react with various critical proteins, including enzymes that repair DNA damage caused by free radicals.

Reason 3: Continued high sugar consumption prevents your cells from absorbing the sugar needed to produce energy — a condition called insulin resistance. Another recent study found a high incidence of insulin resistance in those with Alzheimer’s dementia. The worst form of sugar is high Fructose corn syrup.

Study on Insulin Resistance and Alzheimer’s Disease

What Causes Alzheimer’s Disease?

Other Dietary Risks for Alzheimer’s Disease – Studies say that three dietary components are shown to promote dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. They are sugar (especially processed fructose), grains and trans fats

People in the highest group using trans-fat levels were 74% more likely to develop dementia. Those in the second-highest group had a 52% higher risk

Therapy with B Vitamins such as B6, B9 (follate), and B12 (methylcobalamin) that lower homocysteine levels. It is thought that a high homocysteine level in the brain causes neuronal damage leading to progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

People who eat an average of 180 mg or more a day of DHA, a fatty acid found in fish oils have a lower incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia, compared with people who consume less DHA, according to epidemiologic data collected in the Framingham Heart Study. Dietary supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids may protect cognitive function in patients with mild, early-stage AD.

Exposure to sunlight in the morning and sleep pattern restoration

Other things that might help with Alzheimer’s Disease

Acetyl-L-carnitine protects against amyloid-beta neurotoxicity and may be helpful in combination with medical drugs, if that is chosen to be used. The dose should not be more than 100 to 300 mg a day a few times a week. You can find an Acetyl L-Carnitine/ Alpha Lipoic Acid combo here

Use of ginkgo biloba should certainly be considered.

Use of curcumin, the yellow compound found in turmeric. Curcumin supplements are now available. Curcumin is lately getting more attention and appears to be a good preventive spice.

Blocking the breakdown of acetylcholine with supplements such as huperzine.

Improving blood flow to brain cells

Mood improvement through nutrients and herbs

Drinking herbal teas, including green tea

Best diet for Insulin Resistance

Dr. Dale Bredesen, M.D.a neurologist.  specializing in the treatment of Alzheimer’s

In 2014, Dr. Dale Bredesen published a paper demonstrating healthy lifestyle choices could reverse Alzheimer’s in 9 out of 10 patients. His team is now launching a new randomized, controlled trial at six sites. Biological aging, brain aging, and epigenetics will be included in this trial, using newer blood tests that weren’t available even a few years ago.

The glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) test can be a valuable tool. This test basically looks at brain changes associated with astrocytosis. Astrocytes respond when there’s a problem in the brain, so it can give you a heads-up that something is afoot up to 10 years before symptoms set in

Supporting energy production and reducing inflammation in the brain are the two most important factors to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s.

The entire family of herpes viruses is associated with changes in the brain and neurons. Left untreated, chronic infections put your innate immune system into overdrive. Alzheimer’s is an innate immune system mismatch with the adaptive system. You’re not clearing the pathogen, so you’ve got a continued onslaught of cytokines causing damage in your brain.

Valuable adjuncts that can help improve mitochondrial energy production include methylene blue, niacinamide, NAC and glycine. Learn abuot imporoving you mitochondrial.  Study:  The Brain Gut Axis

HOW TO BUILD HEALTH – Getting educated in nutrition and how the body works will take you on the road to good health. We found a great science-based program to learn the basics so you know what you should be eating and what you shouldn’t be eating and WHY

Go to Eat Well Nutritional Education Course – Learn to Understand Nutrition

See also Signs of Dementia

STILL HAVE QUESTIONS? EMAIL AND GET YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED.