Our world is often dealt with unfortunate diseases that are very harmful and untreatable. Alzheimer’s is a good example of one of those particular diseases. Alzheimer’s is the number one form of dementia and is a growing disease. Through extensive research and continuation of knowledge, scientist have still not been able to come up with a treatment. Although research is in process to find a cure, there are prevention steps one can take to help their odds from preventing the disease.
Prevention of Alzheimer’s disease is not an easy task and, for some it may be impossible to achieve. However, living a healthy lifestyle can always prove to be beneficial especially when it comes to Alzheimer’s. One area of a healthy lifestyle that should be focused on is their diet. As an American, I am constantly reminded of having a better diet because implications may take place if it is unhealthy. I am guilty of not really listening to those saying this. For much of America we do not realize this until it is too late. So how does a healthy diet relate to Alzheimer’s? In class we recently discussed the correlation between Type II Diabetes and Alzheimer disease. We know that a bad diet and obesity is a main risk factor for Diabetes. To no surprise, findings also indicate Diabetes is a risk factor for Alzheimer.
When one thinks of Type II Diabetes, obesity is often a term that comes to mind. Fat cells cause inflammation which is a problem that often occurs in the brain during Alzheimer’s. Inflammation of the brain can be caused by fat cells which brings us back to our diet. We also see insulin resistance as a pre cursor for Alzheimer’s which relates identically to Diabetes. While knowing these implications, the human population continues to have increasement in obesity problems.
Seeing how Alzheimer’s may relate to our diet, we continue to put most of our focus towards a vaccine. Unfortunately, there is not enough effort put towards the controllable. We know that a bad diet can cause Inflammation. Inflammation is present in Alzheimer’s and leads to Amyloid Beta (AB) plaque formation which is ultimately the wrong in Alzheimer’s. AB formation comes from a chain of events brought upon by insulin resistance and inflammation.
As you can see inflammation is not a good thing. Although it may be unknown whether a diet would have helpedcertain indiviuduals with the formation of their Alzheimer’s, it is safe to say that it would not hurt. The world needs to start focusing on what we can control. Yes, progress is being made towards medications but why not provide more education on a healthy living. We know the harm that bad nutrition and obesity plays into our lives. Knowing this information, we still struggle to change. As the human body, we all need to become better educated within these certain controllables and then perhaps we can put a halt to the devastating disease that Alzheimers is.
