A Natural Response to Alzheimer's Disease

It was only a few years ago that most believed amyloid plaques and protein tangles could not be removed from the nervous system. We now know better and recent findings have important implications for our cerebral health. Over recent years there have been a number of studies highlighting that in contradiction to another once well established opinion, age associated cognitive impairment is not inevitable and there exist a wide range of strategies to ameliorate cognitive decline with aging. Achieving that goal, and in these days that is a realistic goal, is no easy task. It requires a variety of strategies but the long term pay offs are potentially enormous. This possibility first occurred to me on yet another afternoon when I had the energy of a bamboo deprived panda, I was flicking through TV stations and caught a glimpse of an interview with BF Skinner. He related that at his age, 85, he felt he was still going work but he stressed that throughout his life he had been very careful about his health. There is a very important for those who wish to live long and prosper: if that truly is your goal you had better start living towards that goal before you are 35 years old.

Inflammation and Alzheimers

For a long time it was believed that inflammation played a critical role in the development of Alzheimer's. This can be true but needs to be carefully qualified because as the below abstract demonstrates "massive gliosis" induced by interleukin 6 actually prevented amyloid deposition. Look at the gliosis link for the wikipedia entry, it is a good example of when not to trust Wiki. Wiki is very useful for a quick overview of relatively mundane and simple concepts but can be very misleading when dealing with cutting edge research. In the abstract overleaf the bods found that inducing gliosis, which is typically associated with inflammation, is actually leading to clearance of amyloid. Clearance of amyloid is the great interest in current Alzheimer's research and this for the simple reason that amyloid aggregation appears to be a key driving factor in Alzheimer's disease. As usual, with more research, what once looked obvious becomes blurred. Inflammation is found in many pathologies but it is a mistake to assume that inflammation is the cause of that pathology. As this study indicates it can play a vital protective role.