Alzheimer’s Disease: The Thief of a Million Minds

The 65 year old plus population in America is larger than the entire population of Canada. Two-thirds of all the people in the entire history of the world who have survived to the age of 65 years are still alive today. The fastest growing population segment in America is the 85-year old group. Today there are approximately 5 ½ million patients with Alzheimer’s disease in America. By 2010 there will be one-half million patients per year. By 2050 that number will reach one million new patients per year. Globally, there are approximately 26 ½ million patients with Alzheimer’s disease that is roughly 1 in 8! Every 71 seconds today, someone in America develops Alzheimer’s disease! The hopeful news however, is that by delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s disease by just 1 year, would result in 200,000 fewer cases during the next 10 years.
Risk Factors for the Development of Alzheimer’s Disease
The first four risk factors basically are not controllable. The greatest risk for the development of Alzheimer’s disease is age. Ten percent of persons aged 65 have Alzheimer’s disease. That number increases to almost 50% at 85 years. Gender also is a risk factor and that risk falls on females slightly greater than males. This variant probably relates to the phenomena of females outliving males. African Americans and Latinos have the greatest risk factor as far as race is concerned. Genetics or hereditary Alzheimer’s disease is very uncommon. Only 5% or less patients have the hereditary form of Alzheimer’s disease. The hereditary Alzheimer’s disease is usually early onset and usually begins in the patient’s late 50’s. It has also been statistically suggested that persons that have a first order relative, (brother, sister, mother, father) with Alzheimer’s disease have a 5 to 6 times increased risk of developing the disorder.
Somewhat controllable risk factors are obesity, Type- II diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and hypertension. These medical problems encourage development of Alzheimer’s disease earlier that what would have taken place “naturally”. Additional risk factors are low education achievement and low socioeconomic status.
Can Alzheimer’s be prevented?
Probably Alzheimer’s disease cannot be prevented, at least at present. The disorder can however be postponed by controlling our diet, exercise profile, medical risk factors and continuing to “exercise” our brain. The best diet to follow for the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease is a Mediterranean diet. This diet consists of consuming red meat only a few times a month. Sweets, eggs, poultry, and fish can be consumed a few times a week. Finally yogurt, cheese, olive oil, vegetables, beans, nuts, fruit and berries, whole grain bread, pasta, rice, couscous, potatoes, can be consumed daily.
Active exercise could include running, jogging, golf, senior sports, and walking. A brisk walk every other day for 30 minutes is excellent exercise. Of all physical exercise, dancing seems to offer the greatest prevention. This probably is accounted for not only the exercise itself but the musical enlightenment as well as the social interaction. Medical conditions such as heart disease, hypertension, obesity and Type II diabetes may require medically managed pharmaceutical interventions, but as mentioned above, are definite risk factors that can be adjusted.
The last controllable risk factor is the brain exercises. It is important to learn something new each day of the week. This could be learning a poem, new words, new language or even a new way to drive home. Playing board games, crossword puzzles, reading, playing a musical instrument all add to brain exercise.