I have given talks for about ten years to senior groups about living passionately even as people age. At that time, my wife and I called ourselves The Passionate Retirees––though we aren’t retired.
One of the significant concerns in the older demographic is the onset of various forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s. We cited predictions at that time that it would be a leading killer. In Australia, there are currently 401,000 people who have dementia. It has overtaken heart disease as the leading cause of death.
As you can see by the following graph, the prediction is it will keep accelerating.
In the USA, while not the top killer, it is still a leading cause of death and will continue to accelerate.
Conditions like Alzheimer's can be devastating. My mother suffered from Alzheimer's, and its effects eventually took her life. When I think back, I first saw the early signs when she was in her 60s though she died at 88. The emotional cost to families can be significant, but also to society; the required care is enormous. As people live longer, dementia has gained prominence.
There are physical signs in the brain of dementia and Alzheimer's. Neurons constantly communicate with each other through electrical charges which travel along nerves. The gaps between the nerves release chemicals neighbouring other cells in the brain. Alzheimer's disease––the most basic form of dementia––destroys the healthy even decades before the first signs of dementia.
Researchers believe this process involves two proteins called beta-amyloid and tau. Bet-amyloid forms plaques while abnormal tau forms tangle tangles inside neurons, which slowly build up between neurons, a tipping point. Over time these changes become progressive.
Scientists also believe that the vascular system may fail to deliver sufficient blood and nutrients, such as glucose which powers the brain. Eventually, chronic inflammation causes the death of cells, resulting in brain shrinkage and neurons losing their ability to communicate with one another. A person with Alzheimer's gradually loses the ability to think, remember, make decisions and function independently. That is the current thinking that will likely change as time goes on.
Scientists used to believe that Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia were predetermined and––other than alcoholic dementia––there was nothing we could do to prevent it. We now know that this is only partially true. We no longer have to wait to be victimized by dementia. There are things we can do to minimize the risk. Many of these are simple, and we can proactively institute these strategies.
While the brain controls our physical well-being, our physical well-being has a feedback mechanism that can affect and change our brain. That is the process of Neuroplasticity––your brain is not fixed but can change and adapt.
Here we outline seven strategies for prevention. Some may be obvious; others are not so.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Truth Patrol to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.