Julien's Journal November 2015 (Volume 40, Number 11) | Page 36

health, wellness& lifestyle

November is Alzheimer’s
Awareness Month

Alzheimer’s disease is currently
ranked as the sixth leading cause
of death in the United States, but
recent estimates indicate that the
disorder may rank third, just behind heart disease and cancer, as
a cause of death for older people.
Scientists continue to unravel the complex
brain changes involved in the onset and
progression of older people.
It seems likely that damage to the brain
starts a decade or more before memory and
other cognitive problems appear. During
this preclinical stage of Alzheimer’s disease, people seem to be symptom-free, but
toxic changes are taking place in the brain.
Abnormal deposits of proteins form amyloid plaques and tau tangles throughout
the brain, and once-healthy neurons stop
functioning, lose connections with other
neurons, and die.
Memory problems are typically one of the
first signs of cognitive impairment related
to Alzheimer’s disease. Some people with
memory problems have a condition called
mild cognitive impairment (MCI). In MCI,
people have more memory problems than
normal for their age, but their symptoms
do not interfere with their everyday lives.
Movement difficulties and problems with
the sense of smell have also been linked to
MCI. Older people with MCI are at greater
risk for developing Alzheimer’s, but not
all of them do. Some may even go back to
normal cognition.
The first symptoms of Alzheimer’s vary
from person to person. For many, decline
in non-memory aspects of cognition, such
as word-finding, vision/spatial issues, and
impaired reasoning or judgment may signal
the very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers are studying biomarkers
(biological signs of disease found in brain
images, cerebrospinal fluid, and blood) to
see if they can detect early changes in the
brains of people with MCI and in cognitively normal people who may be at greater risk
for Alzheimer’s. Studies indicate that such
early detection may be possible, but more
research is needed before these techniques
can be relied upon to diagnose Alzheimer’s
disease in everyday medical practice.

34  ❖  Julien’s Journal  ❖  November 2015