This essay has to do with Alzheimer's Disease( AD) which has been described as just one of 50 or so dementias. Factually, A D is found in up to about 50% of people aged 85 and older . And,an A D pathology is found in 60-85% of all dementias in the US.. World Health Rankings had the US ranked 8th for AD and Dementia .
AD is a complicated degenerative disease . A University of Washington study of 3400 autopsies of older men and women, taken from the normal population, found that 45% had plaques and tangles associated with AD Additionally, 33% had evidence of tiny strokes from vascular multi--infaret dementia and another 10% had Lewy bodies that are found in both Parkinson's and Lewy body dementia. Also, many had a combination of two or more of these brain pathologies present at autopsy.
Other autopsy studies found that older people get dementia with 65-85% of plaques and tangles of A D in the brain. However, only 30% of these people had pure AD. The rest had evidence of Alzheimer's pathology, vascular dementia or stroke. 30-50% had Lewy body dementia ;and 20 to 30% had Parkinson's disease. Also, 48% had more than one type of dementia which appeared to accelerate the deficits and speed of decline. However, the famous Nun-studies showed that having the plaques and tangles of AD. in the brain ,did not necessarily mean someone will become mentally disabled with dementia .In other words, a thorough understanding A.D. is limited at this time and is one possible explanation as to why there's no effective treatment..
It's been stated that only 5 to 10% of all A.D. cases run in families of the early onset familial type and 90 to 95% of all A.D. cases typically do not run in families, in the late onset sporadic type. Yet ,it has also been stated that risk factors for A.D. is about 50% genetic and about 50% lifestyle.
Listing of lifestyle risk and risk reduction factors for A.D includes 1. Genetics and family history(50% of risk). 2. Age and sex(more women than men) . 3. High blood pressure. 4. Cardiovascular disease 5. Insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and diabetes. 6. Traumatic brain injury. 7. Low educational achievement ,low mental stimulation and smaller brain size . 8 Poor diet, toxins, lack of exercise and obesity. 9.Smoking and excessive alcohol consumption. 10. Chronic inflammation, hearing loss, low social support. 11. Chronic stress, anxiety, depression and sleep disorder .12. History of caregiving for family members with dementia.
The high number of people in the US with an AD diagnosis is not surprising based on lifestyle risk factors. On the other hand, people who live to 100 years old( centenarians) have remarkably low levels of dementia. This is especially true for the 50% of centenarians who live independently. There are over 70,000 centenarians in the US. Although there are genetic factors involved, centenarians are having a long and healthy life. The most important predictor, for them, is the lifestyle they had led. To repeat, brain health is associated with lifestyle. Protect your brain. Smart centenarians have the know how!
A few statistics pertaining to the brain. The adult brain weighs about 3 pounds; the size of a medium cauliflower; 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses. Essentially, there are three brains of a human being. There is the archaic brain , the old brain and the new brain. The Archaic Brain is involved in the pathophysiology of dementia such as Alzheimer's.
The Old Brain has a number of functions pertaining to A.D. These functions include 1. Mood, memory, and hormone production control . 2. Anterior cingulate structure primarily responsible for cognitive, emotional and attentional processing. 3. Hippocampus functions related to memory formation, spatial memory and navigation. 4. The amygdala is primarily responsible for fear, fight or flight responses and anger. 5. Hypothalamus is the major controlling organ of the autonomic endocrine system regulating temperature, hunger thirst, sexual arousal and the sleep-wake cycle .6. Hippocampus and other limbic areas are selectively destroyed in dementias like A.D.
The New Brain is where most dementias destroy areas of the cortex and or white matter connective tracts to produce cognitive impairment. With that being said, it's no wonder there's been inadequate treatment for dementias because of the complexity and workings of our miraculous brain.
Although memory doesn't encompass all cognitive abilities, it's an important facet of cognition. And, different types of memories are related to different parts of the brain. Memories are classified according to length as short-term and/or long-term. Short-term memory encodes information into the cortex to hold onto for approximately 30 seconds. An example might be remembering a phone number long enough to call that number . Also, short-term memories are forgotten unless they are consolidated into long-term memory.
Long-term memory consolidates information into long term storage so that information can be retrieved at a later time. The hippocampus, of the limbic system, is heavily involved in storing long-term memories. Long-term memories can be retrieved at a later time with free recall being less effective than cued or recognition recall.
Declarative memory is a conscious recall of facts and information such as who is the President of the United States. Episodic memory includes facts and events tied to specific time which they occurred. Example: what happened on your 21st birthday, the day you graduated from college .This type of memory is first impaired in A.D. Procedural memory is unconscious knowing of how to do actions, operations ,tasks and skills. Examples include how to ride a bicycle, and how to drive a car.
Warning signs for A.D. includes 1. Memory loss that disrupts daily life. 2 Difficulty with planning or solving problems. 3 Difficulty completing familiar tasks. 4 Confusion with time or place. 5 Trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships. 6 New problems with words and speaking or writing. 7 Misplacing things and losing ability to retrace steps. 8 Decreased or poor judgment. 9 Withdrawal from work or social activities, 10, Changes in mood and personality.
Billions of neurons die as a result of A.D. pathology. These neurons die from several different interrelated causes which makes it very difficult to develop drugs that will significantly alter the course of the disease. There are at least seven mechanisms for neuron death in A.D. Will there ever be appropriate and meaningful treatment for A.D. in my lifetime? I don't know but certainly the current GOP policies regarding AD funding ,cutting grants and witnessing the brained drain is making things worse for too many individuals in our Republic. And, maybe the GOP motivation is just that they don't care.
In summation 1. The US has high rates of A.D. 2.Lifestyle factors are responsible for about 50% of A.D. pathology. 3. The human brain is remarkable and complex. And A.D. functions interactively between the archaic brain, the old brain and the new brain . 4. A.D. Is progressive; accompanied with aging ,and exhibiting a weakening in a changing body. 5.Psychologically ,psychic energy that was previously directed towards meeting ego needs of achievement, aggression, dominance, independence , self reliance and so forth is now directed towards affiliation by pleasing and cooperating with another with dependency and attachment coupled with insecurity, anxiety and fear in the direction of the end. 6..There is no effective treatment for A.D.7. The GOP has drastically cut A.D. research funding .
Reference
Brain Injury: Alzheimer's, Stroke And Head Trauma. Institute for Natural Resources.
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