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While it is not yet clear if Alzheimer’s can be prevented, there is increasing evidence that you can take specific steps to help reduce your risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease.

Head First

Good health starts with your brain. It’s one of the body’s most vital organs and it needs care and maintenance.

Ongoing mental and physical exercise

Exercise keeps the brain healthy. Either use it or lose it. Regular physical activity increases the blood flow to the brain and provides the nutrients necessary to render its tissues resistant to Alzheimer’s. Exercise also increases the number of connections among the millions of brain cells needed for normal mental function. Get into the habit of walking for thirty or sixty minutes a day as briskly as possible. Stair climbing is particularly effective, so take the steps when going up or down one or two flights and leave the elevators and escalators to the kids.

Education

Several population studies have shown that the more schooling you have, the greater are your chances against Alzheimer’s. That may be because the educated are more likely to eat more nutritiously and receive better medical care throughout their lives. However, like physical exercise, ongoing intellectual challenges stimulate the formation of nerve connections. Even if you are destined to develop Alzheimer’s, the more neutrons you develop when you are young, the more you can afford to lose before symptoms set in.

Many retired seniors sign up for classes in accounting, law, art, music, economics, or whatever else interests them to stay mentally active, and not necessarily to start a second career. The longer you continue your education at any age, or keep your mind busy in some other way, the more likely your neurons are to connect with each other later on.

Reduce stress

Chronic stress (as well as anxiety and depression) raises your body’s production of the adrenal hormone cortisol. High levels of cortisol have been shown to lead to memory impairment and atrophy of memory centers in the brain. Stress reduction techniques such as exercise, meditation, yoga, Tai Chi and biofeedback may help to combat chronic stress, anxiety and depression.

Diet

Eat as little animal fat as possible to reduce your vulnerability to Alzheimer’s. The incidence of Alzheimer’s in different countries correlates with the consumption of total fat. Fro example, in the United States, 5 percent of all persons over the age of sixty-five have the disease, while in China and Nigeria, where the fat intake is much lower, the incidence is only 1 percent. Japanese who move to America and double the amount of fat in their diet have twice the incidence of Alzheimer’s than do those who do not emigrate and presumably maintain their old eating habits.

Nicotine

Nicotine is a prime example of how new research data can supersede and negate previously acquired information. We used to believe that smokers were less likely than non-smokers to develop Alzheimer’s. But the anti-tobacco community is now breathing easier because more recent studies indicate that smoking doubles the risk of getting Alzheimer’s.

Vitamin E

Hardly a day does by without some favorable report about vitamin E. I can’t think of any downside of this vitamin, with the possible exception of its raising blood pressure and causing some extra beats in some people. Vitamin E increases fertility in rats; it’s good for the heart; and many doctors prescribe it for the treatment of vascular disease, particularly for narrowing the arteries in the legs. Now comes word that vitamin E may also delay the onset of Alzheimer’s, presumably by virtue of its antioxidant properties. Antioxidants, of which there are many, are said to neutralize the harmful effects of free radicals, the byproducts of bodily process that involve oxygen. These radicals carry an extra electron that can damage the protein in the brain and other organs and accelerate the aging process. The body’s own antioxidant normally neutralizes these free radicals, but this defense can be enhanced by supplemental vitamin E.

Hold off on heavy metals

Heavy metals such as mercury and lead are known to cause brain injury that may not be reversible. Sources of heavy metals include large fish (such as swordfish, tuna steaks, tilefish, king mackerel, shark, halibut and mahi-mahi), which are high in mercury and “silver” dental fillings. Lead exposure may occur from old paint and some calcium supplements, which have recently found to be contaminated with lead.

Along the way, neurologists have discovered that the brain is much more adaptable as it ages than they realized. They have determined that the so-called plasticity of the brain, which allows the formation of new neurons as well as new connections between those neurons, can last a lifetime. “As far as our brains are concerned, learning something new or even retrieving something from memory is a plasticity response,” says Molly Wagster of the National Institute on Aging

About the author: Read out for Alzheimer’s treatment. Check out blood pressure and stress
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Jane woke up one morning and was astonished to find a strange man in bed with her. “Who are you and what are you doing here?” she shouted as the man looked on with surprise and shock. Jane, aged 71 is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. The intruder in her bed is her husband of 60 years and is someone who dearly loved her and has shared the bed with her all the while they were happily married.

Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia named after the German physical Alois Alzheimer (1864 to 1915). Sufferers of this disease gradually lose their memory. As one of the worst form of memory loss, those afflicted can remember events that happened 20 years ago but not what they ate for breakfast half an hour ago.

Notable dignitaries afflicted by Alzheimer’s disease include the late US President Ronald Reagan. Once the disease has progressed, sufferers don’t even recognise their closest relatives. They suffer huge interference in orientation and also severe depression. In recent years, it has been determined that this disease is hereditary.

At present there is no cure for the disease although pharmaceutical companies all around the world are trying to develop and effective form of medication. Sadly, current medication are only effective if the disease is detected in it’s early stages.

Memory loss in old age is a natural part of the aging process and even for old people who become forgetful, very few are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Although memory techniques, mental or memory training cannot be of any help once Alzheimer’s has taken root, it is still the best form of defense to stave off the disease for as long as possible. Therefore, to prevent memory loss and to maintain mental fitness as long as possible, it helps to start memory training early.

The bad news is that brain cells cannot be replenished once they die. Every person is born with about 100 thousand million neural cells. As you get older, more and more of these cells will die off as part of the growing and aging process. But the good news is that older our mental resource seems to be getting less and less as we grow older, many people remain very alert and creative in their old age. This is especially true of creative minds that remain mentally alert for a long time.

The French feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir (1908 – 1986) continued to write books at the age of 75 and the Nobel prize winning Irish dramatist George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) did the same at the age of 93. The Polish born pianist Artur Robinstein (1887 – 1982) was still performing at concerts at the age of 89 and the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer lectured at the age of 98. And who can forget the delectable American George Burns with a smoking cigar in hand? Burns continued to act in movies and on television right up to his death at the age of 100.

Mentally active people appear to be more likely to maintain their mental faculties much longer. The examples of these people show that if you continue to work your brain and keep mentally fit, you can counteract the inevitable loss of the brain’s neural cells in old age and continue to live a fulfilling life.

About the Author: Martin Mak has developed a program to help people improve their memory and learning experience. Find out how with his popular and free ecourse at : http://www.mightymemory.com/memoryarticle.html
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Alzheimer’s disease has been a serious illness affecting our population throughout the globe for a long, long time. Many professionals just cannot put their finger on precisely what causes this illness. However, recently there has been some impressive research done on personality types and how they affect the likelihood of acquiring the disease. When researching Alzheimer’s and how to prevent and/or slow down the onset of the illness as we age we usually hear things such as controlling your blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Also, maintaining a healthy weight and diet rich in omega-3s has shown effective. Most of all we hear to maintain healthy mental exercise doing such things as puzzles and even socializing with others. All of these preventative measures have been shown effective towards slowing Alzheimer’s, but what about those people who never even have a bout with it at all? How do they do it?
Research has shown that more ‘driven’ personality types, or more conscientious and goal-oriented individuals, appear to have reduced their risk of Alzheimer’s. Now this is all based on tests done on around 997 priests and nuns at the age of 75. Out of all these individuals, 176 developed Alzheimer’s over 12 years. It seems that the individuals who are the ‘go-getters’ and the ones who really have a need to get things accomplished throughout each day are less prone to the disease through constant stimulation in their brains. Just like a crossword puzzle you can’t put down, so is life to many of us human beings. So, an individual’s level of motivation seems to be directly linked to their health. But, there are different kinds of stimulation which can be considered.
One form of stimulation and though is that of positive, goal-oriented thoughts as I just mentioned earlier. Those are the ones we want, as opposed to negative thoughts. Even worse that negative thoughts is worry. Worry not only manifests more negativity in your future, but it also appears to bring on potential dementia related illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease. Getting back to the recent studies of the 997 individuals, those with the highest scores for the “conscientious” personality trait were a whopping 89% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s as compared to those with lower scores of that personality type.
It appears as though what we think has a lot to do with our mental health not only in the present, but also in our future. What we think most definitely can and will manifest itself in different ways and most of us would more than likely prefer a more positive manner. So, maybe we should begin to reconsider how bad a ‘bad day’ really is. In order for us to live a healthy life, we need to focus on more positive things and not so much on what we don’t want or what the careless individual just did to us on the freeway. Getting upset about most of the things in our lives really only hurts ourselves. So, the one thing to remember as we all move forward is to keep our minds stimulated with positive thoughts and activities. Be more social, set more goals. Never forget you’re your passions and what you are here for in the first place. And most importantly, never forget your dreams. As they are the goals that will always keep you going.

About the author: http://www.TheWindsorExpress.com S. Michael Windsor is currently publisher and a writer for The Windsor Express. Taken directly from the most popular search results on the Web, ‘The Windsor Express: The Internet’s Top News and Search Result Coverage’ features a daily dose of articles, tips and community based on the hottest topics of the day. Visit us today!
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