A Trigger of Alzheimer’s
By admin ~ December 26th, 2008. Filed under: Uncategorized.
Hello all,
Apologize for not posting in some time, I’ve been working 14 hour days and then the holidays came. I hope everyone had a happy holidays and a Merry Christmas. Came across an interesting article on Alzheimer’s on the social news site Digg today. Apparently, “starvation” of the brain over time will trigger the biochemical reactions that lead to Alzheimer’s. In this case, “starvation” refers to when the brain doesn’t get enough glucose as a result of a decreased blood flow to the brain. Link here and excerpt/thoughts below:
Robert Vassar of Northwestern University, the study’s lead author, found that when the brain doesn’t get enough of the simple sugar called glucose — as might occur when cardiovascular disease restricts blood flow in arteries to the brain — a process is launched that ultimately produces the sticky clumps of protein that appear to be a cause of Alzheimer’s.
Working with human and mice brains, Vassar discovered that a key brain protein is altered when the brain’s supply of energy drops. The altered protein, called eIF2alpha, increases the production of an enzyme that, in turn, flips a switch to produce the sticky protein clumps.
“This finding is significant because it suggests that improving blood flow to the brain might be an effective therapeutic approach to prevent or treat Alzheimer’s,” Vassar said.
The best ways to improve blood flow to the brain and thereby reduce the chances of getting Alzheimer’s is to reduce cholesterol intake, manage high blood pressure and exercise, especially entering mid-life.
One point I want to highlight again is at the end of the excerpt. As I’ve been advocating from this blog, its very, very important to exercise regularly which will improve blood flow to the brain. The article also encourages a health diet (reduced cholestorol). So please, those of you that are out there, exercising regularly is a great new year’s resolution.
And for those of you who think that by simply ingesting more sugar you can get away from exercise? Excerpt:
We need to improve our cardiovascular health, not eat more sugar,” Vassar said. “What is coming out in terms of the epidemiological studies is that exercise during mid-life is one of the best prevention strategies for Alzheimer’s disease, so people should stay active physically, and they should watch their diets and reduce cholesterol intake, because cholesterol contributes to atherosclerosis, and that is true for the heart and the rest of the body as well as for the brain.”
