|
The Brain and Alzheimer's Disease
Alzheimer's disease attacks nerve cells in several
regions of the brain.
A. Cerebral Cortex:
- Involved in conscious thought and language.
B. Basal forebrain:
- Has large numbers of neurons containing
acetylcholine, a chemical important in memory and learning.
C. Hippocampus:
- Essential to memory storage. The earliest signs
of Alzheimer's are found in the nearby entorhinal cortex (not
shown).
Hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease
include neuritic plaques,
(outside neurons), and
neurofibrillary tangles
(inside neurons).
Natural Treatments:
Doctors are studying a couple of
nutrients as potential treatments for Alzheimer's disease. Here's what
they recommend, based on very preliminary research.
NUTRIENTS, DAILY AMOUNTS, and APPLICATIONS
MEDICAL ALERT!
- Anyone with Alzheimer's disease should be under a doctor's care.
This amount of thiamine is thousands of times beyond the Daily Value
and caused nausea in some people when it was tested. Make sure you
get your physician's approval before trying this therapy.
If you are taking anticoagulants, you should not take vitamin E
supplements.
Fighting the Memory Thief
Few health problems are as feared as Alzheimer's disease. The fourth
leading cause of death in adults (after heart disease, cancer and
stroke), Alzheimer's affects approximately four million Americans. And
this figure is expected to more than triple by the middle of the next
century.
Alzheimer's is a disease that sneaks up slowly, ever so quietly stealing
away an elderly person's memory and personality, eventually eroding his
ability to take care of himself. Elderly people with Alzheimer's are
then forced to rely on family or health care professionals for survival.
Is there no hope?
Actually, yes, there is. A cure is probably decades away. But even in
the high-tech world of brain research, some of the most promising
treatments on the horizon actually include the use of a few simple
vitamins.
Investigating an Elusive Enemy
A look at what's going on in the brain of someone with Alzheimer's
disease makes the memory loss and other personality problems at least
understandable. Once-healthy brain cells get tangled into knots and die
off. Far less clear is just what's killing those cells. For years,
research focused on microscopic plaques, made of a substance called
amyloid, that slowly build up in the area of the brain responsible for
memory and mental functioning. Once the plaques start hardening, the
havoc begins.
As it turns out, amyloid probably has quite a few partners in crime--and
at least one could be hiding in your family tree. Some forms of a blood
protein called ApoE that normally ferry cholesterol through the blood
also appear to cause more amyloid to be deposited in the brain and may
help it harden. And the evidence implicating one form, ApoE-4, as a risk
factor for this disease is convincing. Folks with two ApoE-4 genes are
eight times as likely to develop Alzheimer's as those who inherit only
ApoE-2 or ApoE-3. In one study of 46 adults with Alzheimer's, 21.4
percent had the requisite two ApoE-4 genes compared with 2.9 percent who
had no ApoE-4 genes.
Other researchers think zinc can potentially increase the amount of
toxic amyloid deposited in the brain. In lab experiments, investigators
at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston found that a slight increase
in zinc caused amyloid "to curdle into gluelike clumps" within
just two minutes. More information is needed on the role of dietary zinc
in Alzheimer's, according to the study's lead researcher. But now there
is enough evidence to warn against megadoses of elemental zinc. Because
increased dietary zinc has been shown to markedly decrease mental
functioning in people with Alzheimer's, they get no more than the Daily
Value of 15 milligrams.
During studies in the 1960s, animals injected with aluminum developed
tangles similar to those found in people with Alzheimer's. Since then,
studies using advanced measuring devices have found increased
concentrations of aluminum in brain tissue obtained from people who had
died from Alzheimer's, we still don't know where the aluminum is from or
what it's doing there, but we're trying to determine whether it has an
active role.
Brain Rust Sets In
No matter what the cause of Alzheimer's may ultimately be, some
researchers are convinced that the oxidative damage your brain suffers
over a lifetime also plays a role in the development of this disease.
When the body burns oxygen to produce energy, the process also spawns
chemically unstable molecules that are known as free radicals. These
molecules steal electrons from your body's healthy molecules to balance
themselves, damaging all kinds of cells, including brain cells, in the
process.
A number of things contribute to the production of free radicals:
pollution, cigarette smoke, alcohol--in other words, living in the late
twentieth century. Oxidative damage is important is that one of the main
risk factors for Alzheimer's is getting old. Oxidative damage
accumulates during aging just from normal metabolism of brain cells.
In fact, 10 percent of people ages 65 and older have Alzheimer's, while
20 percent of those over age 75 have the disease. A whopping 40 percent
of those over age 85 have it.
One theory suggests that the oxidation process might make amyloid even
more damaging--and might kill some brain cells on its own.
Further complicating the search for an Alzheimer's cure: ApoE-4, zinc,
aluminum, oxidation and even inflammation may each play some small role
in causing the disease in all people who have the disease.
Vitamin E
Might Provide Some Protection
While researchers explore different approaches for conquering
Alzheimer's, at least one research team has turned to a vitamin
breakthrough in stroke treatment for answers.
During a stroke, damaged brain cells release a neurotransmitter called
glutamic acid. This chemical causes a chain reaction that destroys more
brain cells, releasing even more dangerous glutamic acid.
Exposing brain cells to vitamin E in the laboratory seems to shield them
from the effects of a stroke, vitamin E actually has a protective effect
on brain cells, limiting the number killed by the glutamic acid.
In another study, bathing brain cells in vitamin E protects them
from a toxic protein found in amyloid plaques.
How? Just as soaking a peeled apple in lemon juice prevents oxidation
from turning it brown, antioxidants such as vitamin E protect brain
cells by neutralizing free radicals.
There's a hitch, however, in using vitamin E to prevent and treat
Alzheimer's. Vitamin E doesn't cross what's called the blood-brain
barrier very well. A natural protective mechanism, this barrier
literally shields the brain from most substances. It's a problem.
Vitamin E is not the ideal compound to use in any type of therapy in
this respect.
In the quest for a cure, however, researchers are attempting to fuse
vitamin E with something like a steroid so that it can cross your
blood-brain barrier more effectively.
It's too early to tell whether vitamin E supplements alone can help ward
off Alzheimer's disease. But there's enough potential to warrant taking
supplements. Vitamin E is pretty hard to get in your diet, because it's
primarily in vegetable oils and if you don't eat enough, the vitamin E
in your blood and brain actually decreases as you get older. That can be
elevated somewhat by vitamin E supplements.
Although you should see your doctor first, about 400 international units
of vitamin E a day should be enough for most people. The Daily Value for
vitamin E is 30 international units.
The Thiamin Connection
While vitamin E researchers try to protect the brain against the ravages
of amyloid plaques, those studying thiamin have taken a different
approach: improving the memory of people with Alzheimer's.
In one study, 11 people with Alzheimer's symptoms were directed to take
either 1,000 milligrams of thiamin or placebos (look-alike dummy pills)
three times a day for three months. (This is a lot of thiamin, as the
Daily Value is just 1.5 milligrams!) Tests before and after the study
showed that memory improved slightly for those taking thiamin.
That might not seem like a particularly impressive finding. But people
in the later stages of Alzheimer's disease generally experience a
significant drop in mental functioning every six months.
In another study researchers at the Medical College of Georgia in
Augusta treated 18 Alzheimer's patients for five months with megadoses
of thiamin ranging from 3,000 to 8,000 milligrams a day, with the dose
changing from month to month.
At the end of each month, the participants took a brief bedside exam
that included questions about the date, the name of the hospital and the
city, county and state. When the results were in, the research team
discovered that some participants improved slightly the month they took
5,000 milligrams of thiamin a day.
Why might something like thiamin help protect memory? It's possible that
thiamin helps make an important neurotransmitter called acetylcholine
more available in the brain. Acetylcholine helps the nerve impulses that
carry thought leap across the gaps between brain cells. And
acetylcholine is lower in people with Alzheimer's. Interestingly,
research shows thiamin deficiency in older folks may run as high as 37
percent.
Does this mean that people with Alzheimer's could benefit from taking
large doses of thiamin? Much more research needs to be done before
answering that question for sure. The effect of the treatment is not
tremendous in and of itself, but it looks like it's an innocuous
treatment and of mild benefit. Taking 5,000 milligrams of thiamin a day
caused only mild nausea in some people. If you or a family member would
like to try this therapy, make sure you discuss it with your doctor.
Research has so far revealed very little about the impact of nutrition
on Alzheimer's. If you are concerned about aluminum, you may wish to
check out your water and cookware.
Watch your water.The possible connection between Alzheimer's and
aluminum is still controversial and hotly debated. While many foods
contain aluminum from leavening agents such as baking powder, concern
over aluminum has often focused on water. Over 50 percent of the
municipal water supplies in the United States use a form of aluminum to
help remove contaminants. Does that mean you have to worry about
aluminum in your drinking water? Perhaps.
If the water is purified
properly, there shouldn't be any problem, the
process removes both the natural aluminum and that used for
purification. But the question is, how much of it is done
properly?
If you are concerned about aluminum in your drinking water, you can have
your water tested. One place to call is the National Testing Laboratory
at 1-800-426-8378 or 1-800-458-3330. The laboratory's Watercheck tests
for 74 chemicals, including aluminum, and for physical factors such as
acidity.
Fix some finger foods. What a difference a meat loaf sandwich can
make! When a dietitian at a Toledo, Ohio, nursing home noticed that the
facility's Alzheimer's patients were losing an unhealthy amount of
weight, she reduced the number of foods in their diets that required
utensils--meats that needed cutting, for example--and added things such
as meat loaf sandwiches, which were easy to handle. A review of the
patients' records, conducted by a food and nutrition professor at
Bowling Green State University in Ohio, found that the dietary changes
helped these people maintain their weight. The new foods also decreased
frustration, increased morale and, as a result, increased consumption of
food--always the best source of important vitamins and
minerals. |
|
|
The
Whole Story