Protecting Yourself Against Alzheimer’s Disease

I have a keen interest in healthy aging, and we have talked before about some of the strategies that can help protect you against developing cognitive decline.

New research now shows for the first time that, of all lifelong activities, only a high level of mental or cognitive activity protects against the devastating memory loss of Alzheimer's disease. High levels of social or physical activity are not enough.

Researchers from the Byrd Alzheimer's Institute bred mice that are genetically predisposed to developing the pathological changes of Alzheimer’s diseases in their brains.

They then kept the mice in one of four housing environments -- high social activity, high physical activity, high cognitive activity, or a single housing control environment and watched them from young adulthood through old age.

When the researchers tested the mice in a battery of memory tasks in old age, only the mice given a lifelong high level of cognitive activity were protected against memory impairment. In fact, these "high cognitive activity" mice performed as well as normal mice that do not develop Alzheimer's disease. However the Alzheimer's mice raised in one of the other three environments performed poorly in multiple memory tasks.

Not only was memory protected in Alzheimer's mice by a high level of cognitive activity, but also brain levels of the abnormal protein beta-amyloid were substantially reduced. This protein, thought to be key for Alzheimer's development, remained at soaring levels in the brains of Alzheimer's mice raised in social or physical activity environments. Moreover, the researchers found that only the Alzheimer's mice raised with high cognitive activity had an increase in connections between brain cells. Alzheimer's mice raised in one of the other three housing environments had much fewer connections between their brain cells.

The new study is published in the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory Journal.

The lead researcher is Gary Arendash, and he had this to say:

“Our results call into question the earlier human studies suggesting social or physical activity provides protection against Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's begins in the brain several decades before any symptoms´ show up. That means adults in their forties and fifties need to make lifestyle choices now to decrease their risk of getting Alzheimer's disease later."

This is all correct, but there is still an important question: can we really extrapolate from mice to humans? Mice are social creatures, but not to the same extent as humans beings. The lion’s share of the human brain is dedicated to social activities, so you would expect that social activities will be particularly important in the maintenance of the human brain.

Comments

[Reg Adkins]

Dr. Petty,
My mother suffers from Alzheimer's and a form of geriatric onset dementia. My eldest brother and my sister decided to join together several years ago to care for her rather than move her to assisted living or enlist medical assistance. The result has devastated my family. The ill will has become unspeakable. I don't believe anyone is benefiting from this arrangement. I would appreciate it if you would write about the ramifications of such a choice for any who are considering this option of care for their own parent.
Thank You,
Reg Adkins of www.elementaltruths.com

[Jerry Waxler]

I found your blog through a roundabout journey on Amazon. I love your book reviews and exploration of consciousness. One of the best mental exercises, in my opinion, is memoir writing. By organizing all those memories, you are dusting off old parts of yourself. Like taking a machine apart, cleaning it, and putting it back together. Thanks for all of your writing. I hope to read a lot more.

Jerry Waxler
http://www.memorywritersnetwork.com/blog

[Margaret Couper]

It is interesting but I would like to say that my mother who is 82 and is now suffering from mid-stage alzheimers, received a masters degree in adult education when in her seventies. People are fond of telling me "my grandperent.....or parent....likes to do the crossword every day this protects her from alzheimers" It is an interesting idea but I am really not convinced.

[Richard Petty]

Dear Reg,

You are highlighting an incredibly common issue.

Like most people of our generation, as relatives got older we would just take them in. My own grandmother lived with us in a tiny house for more than thirty years, and the strain was enormous.

These arrangements were usually the consequence of duty, culture tradition, and sometimes a tacit assumption that nobody else could look after the relative as well as we could. hat is to say nothing of the financial considerations.

You may have seen my recent comments about some of the resources available to caregivers. Most are very helpful, but I see them as tactical rather than strategic solutions.

The strategic question, of "How will the whole family be best served, not only the sufferer?" is the most important and often needs outside help, so that someone impartial can help in arriving at the correct decision.

Having an outside person can also help us to understand out own motivations. How many of us have taken in a relative because of a sense of duty or guilt, and then become overwhelmed by the situation? So the motivations of the would-be carers, as well as the long term physical, psychological and financial consequences all have to be laid out very clearly form the outset.

It can be very difficult to back out and to make alternative arrangements later on.

I do wish you and your family well.

Kind regards,

RP

[Richard Petty]

Dear Jerry,

Thank you so much for you kind comments. I am sorry for the delay in responding. You will have noticed that I have been away from my blog and from Amazon over the last few weeks as we launch my latest book.

It just so happens that I strongly agree with you!

I am about to put a recommended reading list at Amazon, and I have just reviewed a wonderful book on the topic by Sheppard Kominars called Write for Life.

With kind regards,

RP

[Richard Petty]

Dear Margaret,

Thank you so much for your comment.

You have pinpointed an important issue.

The advice about mental exercise, nutrition and so on is derived from population rather than individual studies. I always try to be at pains to point out that there are genetic, environmental, psychological and emotional contributors to an individual's chance of developing cognitive impairment. There are well-known examples of genetic forms of these diseases that can hit people in their forties and fifties, and no amount of mental arithmetic, B12 or folate is likely to have much of an impact on the trajectory of the illness, though even then we can never be certain.

The mental activity is one factor amongst many.

I do hope that your mother does not deteriorate, and I wish both of you well.

Kind regards,

RP