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Two Alzheimer Links
10/2/07
10/2/07
10/1/07
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Tuesday, October 2, 2007
12:48:00 PM EDT
Hearing Try Some, Buy Some -- David Bowie
Want to avoid Alzheimer's? Keep active and focused:
A surprising study of elderly people suggests that those who see themselves as self-disciplined, organized achievers have a lower risk for developing Alzheimer's disease than people who are less conscientious.
A purposeful personality may somehow protect the brain, perhaps by increasing neural connections that can act as a reserve against mental decline, said study co-author Robert Wilson of Chicago's Rush University Medical Center.
Astoundingly, the brains of some of the dutiful people in the study were examined after their deaths and were found to have lesions that would meet accepted criteria for Alzheimer's — even though these people had shown no signs of dementia.
I think this last part is interesting, and I wonder if it doesn't have something to do with the possibility that an active mind finds a way to "re-route" around damage. Bear in mind I'm just blue-skying here, I don't claim to know anything substantive about Alzheimer's. Or maybe it's just that they have more brains to spare before the Alzheimer's becomes noticeable.
Also on the Alzheimer's front: Alzheimer's Disease Could Be A Third Form Of Diabetes. The article at this link is a bit technical, but if the study here is correct it certainly puts the disease into a new light. Science is fascinating stuff.
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12:48:00 PM EDT
Hearing Try Some, Buy Some -- David Bowie
Two Alzheimer Links
Want to avoid Alzheimer's? Keep active and focused:
A surprising study of elderly people suggests that those who see themselves as self-disciplined, organized achievers have a lower risk for developing Alzheimer's disease than people who are less conscientious.
A purposeful personality may somehow protect the brain, perhaps by increasing neural connections that can act as a reserve against mental decline, said study co-author Robert Wilson of Chicago's Rush University Medical Center.
Astoundingly, the brains of some of the dutiful people in the study were examined after their deaths and were found to have lesions that would meet accepted criteria for Alzheimer's — even though these people had shown no signs of dementia.
I think this last part is interesting, and I wonder if it doesn't have something to do with the possibility that an active mind finds a way to "re-route" around damage. Bear in mind I'm just blue-skying here, I don't claim to know anything substantive about Alzheimer's. Or maybe it's just that they have more brains to spare before the Alzheimer's becomes noticeable.
Also on the Alzheimer's front: Alzheimer's Disease Could Be A Third Form Of Diabetes. The article at this link is a bit technical, but if the study here is correct it certainly puts the disease into a new light. Science is fascinating stuff.
Written by johnmscalzi Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | digg this
10/2/07 1:08 PM
Yes, there's almost certainly a link between diabetes (type 2 - the obesity-linked form - rather than type 1, the autoimmune and early-onset form; the two are almost completely distinct, linked by hyperglycemia) and Alzheimer's. Your risk of AD goes way up if you're T2 diabetic - one of the defining features of the disease is systemically high levels of circulating insulin, which compete for breakdown paths with amyloid; too much amyloid unable to be broken down is likely one of the proximal causes of AD.
There are also other, more complex links between insulin's actions at a bunch of different molecular points and regulation of both amyloid and tau (another protein which is abnormal in AD).
Short form: not only do both mental *and* - even more so, really - physical exercise keep you happy and generally fit, they also protect your brain from all kinds of problems. Go work out :-).