ALZHEIMER
It steals our conscience of being alive without killing us.
The fatal disease that results in a progressive atrophy of the brain as a consequence of the uncontrollable death of neurons and the invasion of grey matter by a white and sticky substance called amyloid deposited between neurons and that destroys them.
Alois Alzheimer (1864-1915), a German psychiatrist and pathologist, was the one to identify the disease in 1906 along with his colleague, the psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin, upon discovering the white amyloid plaques that characterize and destroy the brain of the victims.
The brain is still a mystery. So far, we know that there are two risk factors: one is as simple as aging, the other one, a specific kind of protein that transports cholesterol in the nervous system, which, however is a condition that is not necessary to develop this dementia. In whichever case, in Alzheimer's there are two areas of the brain mainly damaged: the hippocampus (linked to memory) and the cortex, after the decaying of which the dementia appears.
Information emotionally charged is better remembered than information emotionally neutral. Luis Rojas Marcos, You are your memory.
With the exception of a 1 per 100, the population's memory performance decays moderately with time. The decrease of memory usually starts in the forties and advances slowly with the passing of time, until it is obvious in memory tests, at around seventy years old.
The most weakened memory type is that of mental operations, the type that helps us keep and handle several data in our conscience simultaneously.
It doesn't affect that much the semantic memory (where we archive meanings of words, concepts or just symbols) or muscle memory (for tasks that we perform regularly like using the phone, driving, etc...)
But the capacity to learn new things is determined by our educational and working history, and how often we have practiced learning. The harder we try to acquire new knowledge throughout the years, the less we will lose our aptitude to learn and the easier it will be to remember new things.
Memory's natural decay due to aging is often worsened by the effects of diseases such as diabetes, arteriosclerosis or depression and also by some medications regularly consumed, especially tranquilizers.
From 50 years old onwards the risk of suffering Alzheimer's increases every year. On a global scale, every year, 1 out of 100 people between 60 and 70 is diagnosed with Alzheimer. On elders of 85, that percentage increases to 6 out of 100.
In Spain, a country with a high life expectancy, the proportion is of 30 per 100 on the elderly above 80.
There is a family tendency of genetic nature that seems to affect the genes responsible for the proliferation of the amyloid substance that invades and destroys neurons.
It is a silent disease, difficult to detect, that starts between 10 and 15 years before showing any symptoms. The goal is to learn a lot more about these asymptomatic stages, because we presume that someday new strategies will be developed to prevent it. Doctor Jordi Camí, director of the Pasqual Maragall foundation.
The goal is to discover which people are at risk of suffering dementia in a few years, and to arrive at an early stage of the neural destruction. Because, when we analyze a brain now, we know that something has happened, but we don't know what, when or how it started. Pablo Martínez, scientist director of the research unit of Alzheimer's in the Reina Sofía center in Vallecas (Madrid).
On April 2011, a new definition for Alzheimer's was published that divides the disease into three consecutives stages:
1st stage: silence. No symptoms can be appreciated but there are some changes already happening in the brain. The size of some areas starts to shrink and the presence of amyloid material is detected, which, with the passing of time, will perform its destructive effects over grey matter.
The diagnostics can be obtained through tests of the brain or CT scans, and analyzing the cerebrospinal fluid, a transparent fluid that washes the encephalon and the spinal cord and is extracted by means of a small punction between two vertebrae in the lumbar area or the area of the spine between the last rib and the kidneys. The presence of high levels of tau protein in the brain or the cerebrospinal fluid, which is produced as a result of the destruction of neurons, and the presence of the amyloid substance, besides the shrinking of the hippocampus and the cerebral mass confirm the diagnostic.
2nd stage: similar to the mild deterioration of executive functions. A decrease in memory efficiency is observed, and also in other faculties such as language, attention and spatial orientation. Patients show some difficulties to understand abstract concepts or to follow a reasoning process when making decisions. The intellectual decline is accompanied by mood changes.
3rd stage: clear and progressive memory loss and therefore of the capability to learn new information. The serious deterioration of intellectual aptitudes including introspection and the ability to reason, makes daily activities impossible. There are evident changes in personality and behavior (impulsive and inappropriate behaviors that interfere in social and family relations). Gradually, mental faculties including language, orientation, thinking and emotional identification capabilities are disintegrated.
Patients finally lose control of their basic body functions, their conscience is turned off from themselves and they go into a vegetative state. Given that no vital organ is damaged, the affected stays alive for an average of 9 years.
The wish for healing has always been half our health. Seneca. Fedra 50 B.C.
It has been proven that working our mental, physical and social faculties regularly reinforces our memory and prevents or postpones its erosion. There are proven mnemonic strategies and drugs that improve blood flow to the brain and strengthen the transmission of the nervous impulses between neurons and delay the grey substance decay. Also some vitamin supplements and medicinal plants in some cases provide temporary benefits.
Effort and the necessary time have to be invested to benefit from these remedies. To take advantage of these remedies to bad memory we need a good dosage of motivation, perseverance, enthusiasm and discipline.
It has been proven that intelligence, talent for music, dance and sports, curiosity, tendency towards positive thinking and the ability to adjust depend, to a great extent, on our genetic baggage. Memory does not escape from this influence either. It is believed that genetic baggage determines around a 30 per 100 of the potential of our memory.
Human beings are not just born, we are also made.
Better safe than sorry.
The main goal of prevention regarding this vital human ability is focused in protecting the neural circuits in charge of its functions: record, conserve, reconstruct and forget.
It is advisable to reduce the consumption of toxic substances, prevent the risk of traumatic brain injury (lesions, trauma in the brain due to accidents, etc.) and to avoid or treat early and energically, the diseases than harm the brain. Besides, vascular diseases of the brain due to arteriosclerosis (hardening of arteries due to the accumulation of fat deposits on its walls), diabetes or hypertension are diseases that can be prevented and controlled and that often interfere with the flow and nutrition of neurons. The detection of the symptoms prior to these diseases, such as high levels of cholesterol, sugar in blood and excessive increase of arterial pressure, must trigger immediately an alarm.
Memory is a good example of this ancient biological principle: In the animal kingdom, a frequent use of any organ gradually strengthens it and gives it a power proportional to the length of time it has been so used, while the permanent disuse of any organ weakens and deteriorates it until it disappears. Zoology philosophy in 1809 of the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) creator of the term biology to define life sciences and one of the pioneers of the evolutionary theory.
The effects that most fortify and protect are those produced by activities that require mental effort, such as studying or learning new concepts, writing about interesting topics or even a biography, learning a new language or focusing in analyzing problems and making reasoned decisions, considering methodically the advantages and disadvantages of those.
After the fifties, regular exercise has a protecting effect against dementia. Among leisure activities, it has been proven that regular reading of books and articles that require effort, card games where memory plays an important role, to intervene actively in debates and discussions about topics that engage reasoning, learning to play a musical instrument and dancing in groups help memory and other intellectual functions.
Keeping intellectual resources active creates some sort of mental reserve that softens brain damage caused by emerging dementia and delays the appearance of the symptoms. Mental activities reinforce the connections between neurons and stimulate the creation of new circuits, which could circumvent or compensate for a while the damage produced by brain diseases.
Physical activity increases the production of serotonin in the brain, a neurotransmitter that performs an antidepressant effect and enhances intellectual functions. Half an hour of vigorous exercise 4 times per week is enough to harvest important benefits.
Simone of Beauvoir: The solution is to establish goals that give meaning to our existence, which is, to dedicate ourselves selflessly to people, groups or causes. To dive into social, political, intellectual or artistic work, and to have passions that prevent us from closing up inside ourselves. To appreciate others through love, friendship and compassion. And to live a life full of dedication and projects, in such a way that we can keep ourselves active in a path with meaning, even when our dreams have disappeared.
Gratifying relationships, independently of the type, constitute an efficient antidote against any kind of adversity.
In emotional topics, elder people maintain a good memory. They remember events that they wouldn't remember otherwise without the emotional component.
