Prevention of Alzheimer's

Hello, I am JT, a master's of occupational therapy student at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. I was given the task of gathering information about a topic that would be discussed in my Neurological Aspects class. I chose to learn more about the prevention of Alzheimer's. This disease has a specific meaning to me as my wife's grandfather has it. It is a very unique experience to be close to someone with Alzheimer's. My wife and I have been together for around 10 years, and he has had this diagnosis since before I met him. Sadly, I never knew him without it, and I have seen the progression of this horrible disease. However, most people progress much quicker than he has. In addition, I have learned a lot about myself as well as techniques to make him happy. I would say that throughout this experience for me, I have learned to be grateful for my health and the time that I have known him, specific trigger points to avoid for him, and amazing stories that will last a lifetime. I completed this task by watching a ted talk titled "What you can do to prevent Alzheimer's" by Lisa Genova. 

In the video, Lisa first talks about the causes of this disease. In short terms, your brain has connections called synapses. These connect with one another and share all types of information (neurotransmitters). During Alzheimer's, amyloid plaques build up between these connections causing other information to, simply, be blocked. So, the question is how do we cure it? Well, Lisa stated that most of the medicine available is either to get rid of or stop the amyloid plaque buildup (2017). That is good, but the problem is most people have already hit the max level of amyloid plaque they can have before being diagnosed with Alzheimer's. So, the medicine is really acting like a preventative measure (Genova, 2017). 

In addition, when thinking about the medicine this way, it is only reasonable to think about other ways to prevent the disease. I think most people would say that you need to eat right, exercise, and keep your mind tested at all times with new information. This is true, but there are things that most people would not think about. The main one to me is sleep. Lisa said that one bad night of sleep can cause you to have a much higher chance of being diagnosed (2017). In addition, when thinking about keeping the mind challenged, we need to think about neural plasticity and cognitive reserve. These two aspects of memory can allow us to have more new synapses. They are accomplished by learning new things like new language as well as learning in general (Genova, 2017). Basically, neural plasticity and cognitive reserve can allow you to technically have Alzheimer's but not show symptoms. This is all due to the new connections in the brain. 

Overall I would say that I learned a lot from this video. I hope you have learned some valuable information from me. Alzheimer's is a terrible and scary disease to think about. However, we have a small amount of control as to whether or not we get it. I believe we should try our hardest and treat our bodies right and take the preventative measures to decrease our chances. I would also like to add that trying to prevent this disease will not interfere with your daily routine in a negative way. I hope that we can show improvements down the road and squash this thing. 

Reference: 

Genova, L. (2017, May) What you can do to prevent alzheimer's [Video]. TED           Conferences https://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_genova_what_you_can_do_to_prevent_alzheimer_s