The Latest on Alzheimer's Disease Research
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- Опубліковано 28 січ 2014
- When is a Senior Moment Just a Senior Moment?
Each of us experiences changes in memory and thinking as we age. Exciting new research opens windows onto early and accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and brings hope for new therapies that may help.
Speaker: Geoffrey A. Kerchner, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford Center for Memory Disorders, Stanford University School of Medicine
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I have had experience with the Alzheimer's' disease for about 20 years now since I first lost my father to the
disease. Actually, based on the fact that his brain wasn't examined after death it could have very well been just dementia,
he was 82 when he passed and it was a hard long road of 14 years. I'm going through a similar situation with my
wife now, she is 62 and she was diagnosed with Primary Progressive Aphasia by Shands Hospital at Gainesville, Florida in March of 2014. For all these years I have been learning and researching and being the primary care giver and health advocate for my family
members. I simply wanted to express my appreciation to Dr. Kerchner and his dedication for such an informative
video. To the family members of those who are unfortunately hit by the cognitive impairment health issues this video
can bring answers to many of the questions you may have. Having lived with the related cognitive impairment issues for so long and experienced them first hand I can attest the information in this video is very helpful and real. It is a difficult situation to say the least and finding help and common sense answers even more of daunting task. Acceptance is the most difficult to swallow, but I believe planning and education is key as Dr. Kerchner indicated. And once you get through the horrible pain of accepting reality there is a lot of work to be done. I live in Tallahassee, Florida and not sure how much longer I have to where my wife will lose her independence. With what I learned from my father's case and the wife’s recently learned illness is that we all need the support of an informed medical community that is willing, and equipped, to educate us and provide guidance. We should be the advocates for our family members to make sure that they are afforded the best nutritional health regiment possible to either bring improvement to the illness or to comfortably manage the challenges as the disease evolves. It is a very difficult overwhelming challenge, but I believe there are those out there that will help you plan so that you can afford your loved one knowledgeable and quality care until the end. Last, one of the most important and difficult things you deal with as a patient is the lack of knowledge in this area and the many types of misdiagnosis that can cause you pain and anguish. As it is very clearly stated by Dr. Kerchner going to your primary care doctor and working with the medical community is necessary as the symptoms which most likely seemed to be caused by Alzheimer's/dementia could be related to some other illness. I would love to have someone like Dr. Kerchner on my side locally as I battle this complex illness.
This is few years ago, any update?
It's a pleasure to hear you speak. I'm of the mind because I'm whole food-plant based that we can do things to reduce our risk factors, which I have done for LDL, for example. Lowered from 210 mg/dl (high) to 125 mg/dl (ideal) and it has stayed there for 5 years so I'm in the groove to keep the food program. It can only lower the risk but not eliminate it imho. People like hope, though and there are great benefits, many, to eating healthy. :-)
I totally agree with the exercise benefit for memory! I need to get with the program but at least I do something so I have a start.
I like this Doctor. He is Avant-garde.
are there physical manifestations interms of body structure and behavioral characteristics related to the disease?
movies and music. are these detrementary causes in maintaining the normal functions of the hypocampus?
This is so interesting. Both of my grandmothers had Alzheimer's, and from stories one of my grandmothers tell, I think her grandmother may have had it as well. I'm twenty-nine and one of my fears is that I'll eventually develop Alzheimer's myself. I try to exercise regularly and one of my reasons for doing so is to reduce my risk for Alzheimer's.
I was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome when I was twenty-one and I'm kind of forgetful and spacey anyway, and sometimes I worry that that will somehow increase my risk, although hearing you say that you don't worry about symptoms that have remained stable over time makes me worry about that less. I also have tremendous difficulty making friends and I sometimes worry that my reduced amount of socialization will increase my risk for Alzheimer's.
I wonder if it would be a good idea for me to get my amyloid levels checked regularly, like every five years or something, so that I can establish a baseline level for myself and track changes over time.
Over the past few years, I've noticed that my mom, who is 68, has trouble remembering words for things, and when I visited her a few weeks ago, she told me the same story twice in an the space of an hour. This is new behavior; I wonder if I should be concerned, or if I should assume it is just because she is getting older.
Thank you for posting this video. I've been afraid of educating myself about Alzheimer's because it causes so much anxiety for me. I have sometimes thought that if I ever get diagnosed with Alzheimer's, I'll commit suicide because I don't want what my grandmothers went through to happen to me. It's great to hear that research is being done and that we may someday be able to prevent or slow the disease.
My advice is to definitely go check yourself no matter how afraid you are. The importance of early intervention is emphasized by many scientists. Even if they find something, you will have enough time to prevent it. Nothing can be done yet for people that are in a later stage, but people in their 20s and 30s have good chances. Only the fact that you have it in your family means that you should do something and not try to avoid it.
So encouraging to know we're drawing ever nearer to a cure! For those providing care for a loved one with Alzheimer's, some helpful and educational materials are available here: heartsathomeusa.com/category/dementia-care/
Exercise - very interesting!
What about dietary factors? As pointed out here (YT search "Cholesterol and Alzheimer's disease"), there seems to be a connection between vascular health, which strongly depends on diet, and Alzheimer's disease.
My guess is that lifestyle improvements (high quality plant based diet + regular exercise) might have the potential to reduce Alzheimer's incidence by maybe an order of magnitude... has this possibility been looked at by anyone yet?
+HighCarb Schwabe A healthy diet and life style can help anyone feel better. My father who died of Alzhimers had perfect blood test results. He excersiced daily. I learned that there were certain things common to my dad's habits, which have been claimed to have some effect on cognitive impairment. For example, he drank New York tap water which is treated with chlorine and fluoride, he used antiperspirant with a aluminun derivative which is also a suspected element in contributing to toxicity. He also received electrical brain shock treatment early in life and I have read these can be detrimental to the brain as well. In addition, he retired at 64 and don't know if he challanged his brain enough. If had to conclude anything it would be that everything had to do with it, but age was a significant contributing factor. I'm sure they were all factors, but none of them the cause. I hear some rumbles about brain nutrition as it degrades with age being a very important area of study, and a reason to suspect or go back to the diet aspect. I'm not a doctor, just a family member of patients affected with brain related disorders.
Jose Martinez
Thanks for sharing this with me! My mother's oncologist once told her to stay away from aluminium (deodorants included). She also said that there is evidence that aluminium based antacids promote neurodegenerative diseases.
I recently heard (I think it was on Nutritionfacts) that there is a connection between chronic inflammation and Alzheimers. So most likely it is a good idea to eat an anti inflammatory diet for prevention.
I totally agree! On inflammation, I have been taking natural anti-inflammatories for over 18 years, they also have antioxidant properties as well. What has astounded my eye doctor and my mother(she is also a retired eye doctor) is how is it that I managed to still wear the same prescription glasses I wore 32 years ago. My eye defect should have progressively gotten worst and tapered off when I reached the age I'm now, 60 years old. Additionally, I used to catch viruses and stayed ill for days, since I started this anti-inflammatory regiment no more getting sick. There is obviously significance to this and I wish more was done to help others in this regard, but I understand it is not an easy thing educating humanity especially when everyone is looking for a silver bullet and not the changing of habits that are not healthy for us.
Cholesterol does have a pretty strong connection to Alzheimer’s and we know that eating diets higher in greens, nuts, olive oil and fish decreases the risk. Exercise and exercising the mind also seems to reduce the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s. Unfortunately, using Statins (medications to reduce cholesterol) and anti-inflammatories seems to have little effect when used to treat Alzheimer’s. Aducanumab is showing promise, maybe the future is in beta-amyloid inhibitors and tau inhibitors?