A healthy lifestyle may help you sidestep Alzheimer ’ s

January is an inspiring time to make resolutions about eating a healthy diet and exercising more, maybe because you want to look or feel better. Personally, those reasons aren’t always enough to keep me from skipping a workout if I have too much on my schedule. I guess I’m a typical mom, putting my family and my job first. But this year, I have plenty of renewed inspiration to put my health first, and it’s the kind that will keep me up at night if I don’t stick to it: evidence suggests that adopting healthier lifestyle habits may help you thwart or even prevent the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Dementia runs in my family. About Alzheimer’s Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, is characterized by the accumulation of two types of protein in the brain: tangles (tau) and plaques (amyloid-beta). Eventually, Alzheimer’s kills brain cells and takes people’s lives. What causes Alzheimer’s? We still aren’t sure. “For 1% of all cases, there are three genes that determine definitively whether you will have Alzheimer’s, and all three relate to amyloid-beta production, which in these cases is likely the cause of Alzheimer’s,” says Dr. Gad Marshall, associate medical director of clinical trials at the Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “For the other 99%, amyloid and tau are closely associated with Alzheimer’s, but many things may contribute to the development of sympto...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Alzheimer's Disease Behavioral Health Brain and cognitive health Healthy Aging Memory Prevention Source Type: blogs