New Thinking About The Cause and Prevention Of Alzheimer's (daily basis, back pain, kidney)

[Six Foot Three]

Looks like the research coming out now shows that the beta plaques have little to do with alzheimer's and that brain inflammation and the cerebral vascular system has a profound effect on causing this desease.

New Look At Alzheimer's Could Revolutionise Treatments - New Scientist magazine

[Cosmic]

The idea of a pill for Alzheimer's might be too easy.

There was a study done a while back where they used nuns in a convent type setting and looked at the lifestyle of which got Alzheimer's and which did not. This gave a type of controlled study to attempt to get at did using the brain a lot make a difference.

The nuns who where mentality active all their life's, reading, trying new ideas, thinking in a challenging way had a far lower rate of developing Alzheimer's. The ones who were more routine with very set patterns and not seeking mental challenge had far higher rates.

There may be a physical aspect but that may be more the result of how the brain is used over a lifetime. The brain chemistry might be more affected by its use that normally believed. The amount of challenging thinking, general outside the box mental activity might be the best defense, especially in later years.

Older folks who never learn to use a computer can be observed to suffer more quality of life type problems. They seem to age faster, have less mental skills, lose their mental edge at a far younger age.

The same with many organs of the body, use it or lose it. The key may be not just mental activity but mental tasks that really challenge the brain in a way new to the person. As you age it is easy to stop being challenged once the working careers are over. Having many interests and maybe playing games that require much mental thought and concentration, manipulation of data and numbers might be the best defense. Having to solve problems where the prior life experience is not adequate and lots of new solutions require a deeper type of reasoning may be best.

Continuing to develop computer skills and use into the far more advanced years might be the best way to not only enjoy a far longer life but make the brain one of the last organs to fail in any manner.

Pills might be an attempt to do the quick and dirty way what nature intended folks to do as a means of selection for the best of the breed. The new frontier of older age might be best conquered by using brain power on a daily basis for some purpose.

[jtur88]

One needs to be careful about assigning causality. It could be that people who are predisposed from birth to Alzheimers already possess brain function characteristics that makes them disinclined to engage in adventurous mental activity throughout their lifetime.

While it appears that doing crossword puzzled may prevent Alzheimers, it could also be true that people destined to be Alzheimers are not into crossword puzzles.

[Six Foot Three]

Originally Posted by Cosmic

The idea of a pill for Alzheimer's might be too easy.

There was a study done a while back where they used nuns in a convent type setting and looked at the lifestyle of which got Alzheimer's and which did not. This gave a type of controlled study to attempt to get at did using the brain a lot make a difference.

The nuns who where mentality active all their life's, reading, trying new ideas, thinking in a challenging way had a far lower rate of developing Alzheimer's. The ones who were more routine with very set patterns and not seeking mental challenge had far higher rates.

There may be a physical aspect but that may be more the result of how the brain is used over a lifetime. The brain chemistry might be more affected by its use that normally believed. The amount of challenging thinking, general outside the box mental activity might be the best defense, especially in later years.

I remember the ''nun study'' as there is alot of research showing that using your brain keeps the neurons strong and active. There's also so much research coming out about how there's a strong metabolic vascular connection to this disease. Kind of like diabete's in the brain and so i agree if people would eat well, exercise and keep their minds active we could stave off this disease however unfortunately we know that's highly unlikely as type- 2 diabete's along with obesity is exploding and so i do support science moving forward to cure this costly disease.

Getting Diabete's Before 65 More Than Doubles The Risk Of Alzheimer's Diabete's - Science Daily

[Ninjahedge]

One refutation can easily be sited in individuals like Terry Pratchett. If theer was anyone more unusually creative in our time, you would find it hard to name them. He was not a brilliant writer of prose, but what he did, and the associations he mad in his punny and socially acute writings is impressive.

Others would be like the man I had to take care of after school for a few years. A former electrical engineer that built his own radio/TV antenna in the side yard (30+ feet) because of poor reception. To see him unable to feed himself or write his own name anymore was very very sad.....

So while I do believe mental activity helps in this, I do not believe it is a prevention or a cure. Something else happens to trigger the general degradation and some of these things, as mentioned by a previos poster, may only indicate OTHER tendencies that are shown or favored by those at higher risk, not necessarily as any given cause.

[Six Foot Three]

Nice to see a promising Phase-II Gene Therapy trial for Alzheimer's is moving forward that's being performed at Georgetown Medical Center.

Historic Gene Therapy Trial To Treat Alzheimer's Disease - Science Daily

[Doogles31731]

I have posted extensive evidence on this subject in the thread on 'Scientists discover potential cause of Alzheimer’s Disease Existing drugs may offer effective prevention."

[butterflygirlmomof2]

A few months ago, I was listening to a podcast about woman's health after the age of 50 and one of the speakers mentioned that your A1C blood level can be a big predictor of future dementia/Alzheimer's in women. She mentioned that 5.3 really should be the upper limit. Apparently A1C naturally increases with age, so keeping it in the safe zone of 4.8 to 5.3 is best.

Some kidney/liver diseases and supplements can impact A1C levels, so that needs to be taken into consideration.

This was the second time I've come across the concept of A1C as a factor (for women). There was a book about the female brain I had read earlier this year, and as I recall, the importance of a healthy diet was emphasized as a means of avoiding dementia/Alzhiemer's.

[thinkingandwondering]

Originally Posted by Six Foot Three

Looks like the research coming out now shows that the beta plaques have little to do with alzheimer's and that brain inflammation and the cerebral vascular system has a profound effect on causing this desease.

New Look At Alzheimer's Could Revolutionise Treatments - New Scientist magazine

I don't know if you work for a drug company, or what, but the new Alzheimer's drugs have been reported to have serious side effects.

That article was crap, by-the-way.

And your title has no meaning, because nowhere was "cause and prevention" mentioned (maybe after the paywall?????????????)

[Doogles31731]

Originally Posted by Cosmic

The idea of a pill for Alzheimer's might be too easy.

There was a study done a while back where they used nuns in a convent type setting and looked at the lifestyle of which got Alzheimer's and which did not. This gave a type of controlled study to attempt to get at did using the brain a lot make a difference.

The nuns who where mentality active all their life's, reading, trying new ideas, thinking in a challenging way had a far lower rate of developing Alzheimer's. The ones who were more routine with very set patterns and not seeking mental challenge had far higher rates.

There may be a physical aspect but that may be more the result of how the brain is used over a lifetime. The brain chemistry might be more affected by its use that normally believed. The amount of challenging thinking, general outside the box mental activity might be the best defense, especially in later years.

Older folks who never learn to use a computer can be observed to suffer more quality of life type problems. They seem to age faster, have less mental skills, lose their mental edge at a far younger age.

The same with many organs of the body, use it or lose it. The key may be not just mental activity but mental tasks that really challenge the brain in a way new to the person. As you age it is easy to stop being challenged once the working careers are over. Having many interests and maybe playing games that require much mental thought and concentration, manipulation of data and numbers might be the best defense. Having to solve problems where the prior life experience is not adequate and lots of new solutions require a deeper type of reasoning may be best.

Continuing to develop computer skills and use into the far more advanced years might be the best way to not only enjoy a far longer life but make the brain one of the last organs to fail in any manner.

Pills might be an attempt to do the quick and dirty way what nature intended folks to do as a means of selection for the best of the breed. The new frontier of older age might be best conquered by using brain power on a daily basis for some purpose.

I agree with Cosmic to a large extent in his earlier post especially where he reinforces the adage of “use it or lose it”. This seems to apply to many parts of our physiology, but not all, especially cardio-vascular health.

Up till 7 years ago, I walked every day, did laps of the pool twice a week, went to the gym once a week and did a 2.5 to 3 hour workout, but all of that slowed down when virtually all my leg arteries became clogged with atherosclerosis.

“Using it” did not stop me from “losing it”. At age 82, I had to use crutches to get around because the poor leg circulation resulted in osteoarthritis of the right ankle. I decided to get the bones of that ankle fused together so that I would have club foot. I believed that a club foot would be better than a wheelchair around the house. Fortunately a vascular surgeon had to ensure that I had enough circulation for such an operation to heal. The compulsory ultrasounds of my arteries revealed extensive atherosclerosis of my leg arteries. No health professional had checked my arteries before then. The onset was insidious.

That’s when I researched atherosclerosis and osteoarthritis myself only to find that atherosclerosis had been produced experimentally in animals for decades and that one or two researchers who could successfully do so, found that if they fed experimental rats with high vitamin K at the same time, that they could not reproduce it.

Being a simple thinker, I rationalised that if high vitamin K prevented it, then it just have some therapeutic effect. After much research, I settled on 10 times the recommended daily dose rate (1 microgram per kg body weight), and was walking without crutches within a few weeks. Ultrasounds after 14 months showed that any arteries that were less than 60% occluded had no signs of atherosclerosis, but any that were occluded stayed occluded.

I am currently walking two or three kilometres several times a week without crutches.

I am free of osteoarthritis, heart pains (anginas) and upper lumbar back pain.

The literature shows an extensive range of degenerative conditions are associated with low blood vitamin K concentrations and atherosclerosis.

So a pill just may be the answer.

If any members are serious about information on Alzheimers, type ALZHEIMERS AND ATHEROSCLEROSIS into Google scholar. Then try ALZHEIMERS AND VITAMIN K, followed by ATHEROSCLEROSIS AND VITAMIN K.

You may be surprised at the large extent of the research and the number of decades in which NOBODY appears to have conducted any SATISFACTORY therapeutic trials. It’s an over-the-counter supplement, very cheap and extremely safe (references can be cited).

I’ve been taking 500 micrograms of Vitamin K1 plus 500 micrograms of vitamin K2 daily for the last 7 years, and have just doubled the amount recently because an echocardiograph showed some residual calcification around my mitral valve.

I have found approximately 20 degenerative conditions so far that can be attributed to vitamin K deficiency and atherosclerosis, with dementia and Alzheimers being just a couple.

One of the shocks among the many hundreds of scientific papers I’ve studied, was a 2017 American protocol on the medical handling of hypertension that virtually advises clinicians not to bother diagnosing atherosclerosis, “because we do not have a treatment for it” (or words to that effect).

I can provide evidence for all of the above statements if anyone is interested further.