| In the world of conjecture, when it comes to Alzheimers, I've always been a proponent of the idea that a more active brain has a lower perpensity to land Alzheimers Disease. After all, if you were to spend your life laying in bed, your muscles would atrophe, become sickened and inevitibly useless. Much the same, in my mind, if the brain is not regularly exercized, it too, might become sickened and inevitibly useless - much like Alzheimers.
Research in the last few years seems to be narrowing down on exact causes of Alzheimers. A particularly excellent study I read a while back enabled researchers to study the lives of a select group of Catholic nuns, some of whom ended up with Alzheimers, some of whom did not. This case study was an ideal test bed because it eliminated many of the questionable gray areas for Alzheimers research in terms of finding the commonalities in life-long habits such as routine exercize, dieting, mental disciplines, etc. This advantage was not only because the nuns lives were well documented, but also because many of those life-habits are pre-ordained, and very few external stresses come in to play making for a nearly clean-room life-term experiment. In fact, I'd recommend this approach for future studies in genetics of many kinds!
Anyway, it came down to them being able to focus intensely on dietary & health habits and genetics and lo & behold, they found some genetic connections between the patients. As I recall they ALSO found evidence supporting the idea that I've always supported: active mental health.
Further, a recent study seems to real yet another piece to the puzzle - between genetics and mental health, there lies another variable: cholesterol. Yep, you heard it right, cholesterol is back to haunt us again! Supposedly some of the genes involved in the links to Alzheimers have direct relationships to enzymes that help to dissolve excessive levels of cholesterol within the brain itself.
Interesting reading! | |
