Neuro Note 2

Retrieved from https://emedmultispecialtygroup.com/2018/03/20/alzheimers-disease-symptoms-care/

"What you can do to prevent Alzheimer's"
Genova, L. [Lisa Genova]. (2017, April) What you can do to prevent Alzheimer's. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_genova_what_you_can_do_to_prevent_alzheimer_s

I chose to do Alzheimer's because it has greatly impacted my family in many ways for many years. This nasty, neurodegenerative disease took the life of my great-grandmother and is currently consuming the life of my grandmother and uncle. My mom has often wondered if she was next in line for it and what it meant for my sister and I as well.

For years, we have heard many theories on what the cause of Alzheimer's is. It's in your DNA. Don't drink diet drinks they contain aspartame. It's an exaggeration of normal aging. Don't wear deodorants that contain aluminum. You name it, we have heard it. But what we don't hear is that we can play a role in changing our brain's destiny.

Lisa Genova, author of "Still Alice", talks about what we can do to prevent how Alzheimer's affects us. She talks about the synapses in our brains and where the neurotransmitters are released. Where their signals are transmitted is where the communication happens. In this synapse is where Alzheimer's happens affecting our ability to think, feel, see, hear, desire, and remember. In these synapses, a small peptide called amyloid beta is released. When too much amyloid beta builds up or not enough gets metabolized by microglia, it begins to pile up and bind to itself forming aggregates called amyloid plaques. These plaques accumulate and become hyper-activated, releasing a chemical that causes inflammation and cellular damage in the brain. This is what causes the molecular cascade of symptoms of the disease.

By making sure we get an adequate amount of sleep, aerobic exercise,  maintaining good cardiovascular health, and eating right, we can help counter the tipping scale of Alzheimer's and its affects on our body. We must pave the way for new neural roads by reading books, forming new hobbies, or learning a new language. By constantly learning new things, we are creating and strengthening new neural connections, new synapses. High levels of cognitive reserve and engagement in mentally stimulating activities can cause an abundance in neural connections and prolong our diagnosis of Alzheimer's.