For the past 20 years both the focus of attention and hopes for treating Alzheimer's disease have centered on destroying or preventing fatty amyloid plaques in the brain. People with Alzheimer's tend to accumulate plaques in the brain, so it has always been assumed these were a major cause of dementi...
-
avoiding Alzheimer's
Carol Bradley Bursack
Friday, September 18, 2009 at 07:15 AM -
rethinking
N.C.
Friday, September 18, 2009 at 12:18 PMChristine,
Thanks for your post. This is so true. Perhaps the scientists need to use other approaches to find out why.
Maybe this is why sometimes many people including my parents feel that it has to do with the blood flow and heart. We all know if we don't have enough oxygen or blood flow, the brain can be damaged. It seems this way makes sense as the patients are mostly the elderly.
Regards,
Nina
- Font size
- Email This
- Bookmark
- Was this helpful? Yes
- Save
- RSS
- Report Abuse
Thanks for writing about this, Christine. I've been following this issue over the past few years and I find that there is more and more evidence showing in studies that back up this view. There are still so many unknowns, but there seems to be a better sense of "I can do something" when we know taking care of our whole cardiovascular system may help prevent Alzheimer's. The adage, "what's good for the heart is good for the brain" seems to be true. We know that this attitude is not likely to help most people.
Carol