"GENETICS LOADS THE GUN, DAILY HABITS OVER TIME FIRE IT."
I have the Alzheimer's gene, ApoE4 (mine is actually ApoE4/4) which means both parents contributed the gene. This topic is always in the back of my mind because my father has manifested significant symptoms and my mother also shows signs.
Perhaps you or someone you care about is struggling with this same issue and you may think as often as I do...how can I avoid manifesting this horrid brain disease?
I fully believe that genetics is not an absolute guarantee for a disease expressing itself. Our bodies are brilliant at adapting and solving complex issues and healing. With that in mind, I want to know everything I can about how NOT to fire the loaded gun.
These are ALZHEIMER notes I wrote a long while ago. I just came across them in my "STUFF I RESEARCH" folder. I've included the questions to myself even though flash forward to today, there is information continuing to become available that is answering some of those questions(yay!). I truly hope you find something useful here as a starting place in your search to learn. There are links included.
1. Why is the body triggering amyloid protein build up in the brain?
2. How are inflammatory processes contributing to the accelerated build-up of these plaques?
3. How are disruptive functions in other body systems influencing the situation aka; immune reactions, dietary habits, psycho-emotional patterns, and trauma, life-long thought & belief habits/tendencies, physical injury influences (**especially head trauma which impairs cerebral spinal fluid motility/motion), and full-body trauma (particularly whiplash because it is an indirect head trauma causing impairment of cerebral spinal fluid motility).
4. Why is the otherwise innate self-preserving function of the body not recognizing and correcting for the overproduction and build-up of amyloid plaques? I saw my first hint somewhere, wish I had made a reference note of it... ***One study suggested that the body’s natural inflammatory defense response goes into overdrive thinking it’s protecting neurons from infection.***
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Information and Resources the above questions led me to:
* Predisposition to AD due to a genetic mutation is rare (1)
* The majority are later onset and suspected to be more related to chronic environmental stress factors (stress increases cortisol levels, out of balance cortisol alters the bodies ability to regulate inflammation)(1)
~ The immune system responds to stress the same way it responds to a foreign invader (such as a virus), it turns on and goes to work to protect the system. When the immune response is constantly activated by psycho-emotional stress, there is little left to fight off disease (2)
~ “...a major study Dr. Mah published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry (first posted online in October 2014), which found some of the strongest evidence yet that anxiety may accelerate conversion to Alzheimer’s disease in people diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment.” (3)
~ “We are saying there is incontrovertible evidence that Alzheimer’s Disease has a dormant microbial component, and that this can be woken up by iron dysregulation. Removing this iron will slow down or prevent cognitive degeneration – we can’t keep ignoring all of the evidence,” Professor Douglas Kell said. (4)
~ Researchers Identify Virus and Two Types of Bacteria as Major Causes of Alzheimer’s
~ Tai Chi and Qi Gong may help (5)
~ “The causes of late-onset Alzheimer disease are less clear. The late-onset form does not clearly run in families, although clusters of cases have been reported in some families” (6)
~ “Following completion of the 3 month intervention period, the meditation group showed significantly greater increases in a key beta-amyloid peptide (Aβ40) than did the music group. Rising beta-amyloid levels were correlated with improvements in memory and cognitive function, as well as with those in mood, sleep, and quality of life at both 3 and 6 months; these positive associations were substantially more pronounced in the meditation group.”(6)
~ Interestingly, CB1 receptors are highly enriched at presynaptic and axonal compartments, restricting their function to sites of synaptic activity (Straiker and Mackie, 2005; Wu et al., 2008). (9)
~ It’s a double-edged sword. The protein plaques in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease could be created as our immune system fights off invading microbes.
1. [Frontiers in Bioscience E4, 214-229, January 1, 2012] 214 Chronic psychosocial stress exposes Alzheimer’s disease phenotype in a novel at-risk model Karim A. Alkadhi, Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA
2. Healing and the Mind, Bill Moyer (interview with Dr. Margaret Kemeny)
3. Anxiety and Chronic Stress May Increase Depression and Alzheimer’s Risk
Neuroscience News NEUROSCIENCE NEWS JANUARY 21, 2016
10. (of interest in general related to hippocampus role in objective memory, sure, it's in rats but Neuroscience research starts with rats) http://psycnet.apa.org/PsycARTICLES/journal/bne/mostdl
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