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:
- Has large numbers of neurons containing acetylcholine, a chemical important in memory and learning.
- 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!
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.