11 Practical -What to Know Now — NIHA Washington DC | uxa2.com

November is National Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) Awareness Month! Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disease that slowly robs a person of memory, thinking and language skills, movement, perception, reasoning and judgment.

Alzheimer’s disease is not the same as normal aging

In the United States, 11 percent of people 65 and older and 32 percent of people 85 and older have AD. So while AD is related to aging (80% of people with AD are 75 or older), it is not the same as normal aging!

In normal aging, you may occasionally forget or lose things or have trouble “finding” a certain word, but sometimes you soon remember. With AD, you might forget what day it is or where you are when you’re somewhere that should be familiar. You may have difficulty following familiar routines, recipes or instructions. In short, a normal elderly person can be forgetful at times, but remember things later and function well. A person with AD has memory and thinking problems that keep getting worse and interfere with everyday life.

What causes Alzheimer’s?

AD is not caused by brain aging, but by the accumulation of amyloid-β (sometimes called brain plaques) and tau proteins. In AD, the clearance of these proteins in the brain decreases. Proteins cause inflammation in the brain. Cellular connections disappear and the brain shrinks. There are genes associated with an increased risk of developing the disease; the more copies of the gene, the higher your risk. But genetics does not account for 100% of the risk. There are things we can do to reduce our risk.

Now for the good news. There are drugs that can slow the progression of the disease (by reducing plaques) and others that can help manage the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (for example, memory or behavior problems), but in general, currently approved drugs work better in the early stages of the disease. Plaque-reducing drugs can also have rare but serious side effects, so a neurologist with an interest in Alzheimer’s disease may be best placed to help explore your options.

Help reduce risk in healthy ways

Even better news: by doing all the things we know we should be doing consistently, we are working to reduce the risk of AD progression. Adequate restorative sleep (even sleeping position can matter!), regular physical activity, eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables, staying well hydrated, not smoking, and keeping blood pressure and blood sugar within normal limits help reduce the risk. Even certain supplements have been shown to help, including omega 3 fatty acids (which you get from fatty fish, but also from carefully selected supplements) B vitamins, C and D. It may be that polyphenols, such as those found in commonly eaten foods such as citrus fruits (hesperdin), green tea (catechins), apples and onions (quercetin), grapes (also olive oil)

Take charge of your future and increase the likelihood of healthy aging with good brain function, energy and grace. An integrative doctor has advanced testing techniques to get you a baseline to your current level and create a solid treatment plan for what you need going forward.