Alzheimer's Disease

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I chose to watch the TED talk titled, "What you can do to prevent Alzheimer's" given by Lisa Genova because this is a disease I have personally witnessed but never really understood or knew much about until starting occupational therapy school. My boyfriend's grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. I remember they had an "out of order" sign on the microwave because he would try to use it but couldn't quite remember the purpose of a microwave or how to. Lisa Genova talks about the neuroscience behind Alzheimer's and how, without any medication or other treatment, we can possibly prevent the disease in our own bodies.

Genova says neuroscientists believe that Alzheimer's begins because of the accumulation of amyloid beta in the synapses, which in turn bind together to become amyloid plaque, and eventually destroying the synapse. This accumulation can occur for 15-20 years before symptoms are present. With this information, Genova believes the treatment of Alzheimer's will be a preventative medicine that stops the build up of amyloid beta in the synapse. Some other ways she said we can hopefully prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer's without medication are: aerobic exercise, getting enough sleep, and eating right. But the most important thing we can do to prevent Alzheimer's is to constantly create new pathways also known as neuroplasticity. This can be done by reading, learning new languages, higher education, and constantly challenging our brains to create and strengthen neural pathways. Genova learned about this in a study where 600+ nuns were followed for 20 years and they had regular check ups and went through cognitive tests throughout this time. When they died, they donated their brains to science, and scientists found that many of the brains showed all the signs of Alzheimer's present but during their lifetime there were no symptoms and they were never diagnosed. In the TED talk, Genova says the scientists believe it was because of the high level of "cognitive reserve" or more functional synapses. Because of this, it evened out and also "outnumbered" the amount of synapses they may have been losing during their lifetime. 

This TED talk was extremely interesting and beneficial. I learned more about Alzheimer's and the science behind it and became updated with some of the latest research. With a lot of things I've learned in school so far is that many diseases are preventable without medication and it's just by taking care of our body. It's important to exercise, to eat right, and sleep but even sometimes that isn't enough. It's also amazing that by constantly learning and creating and strengthening our neural pathways we can try to prevent a terrible disease like Alzheimer's. I recommend any and everyone to watch this TED talk because it is information many of us can relate to.


Reference: 

TED. (2017, May 19). What you can do to prevent Alzheimer's | Lisa Genova. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twG4mr6Jov0

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