What is happening in the world of Alzheimer’s?
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is affecting individuals and families all over the world, and numbers suggest that it is a rapidly growing problem in all of society. Recent studies have found that abnormalities in insulin signaling have some major effects on AD, which is why it has been linked to Type 2 diabetes. But first, we we’ll look at some of the basics.
Why is this happening?
Biochemists have the tendency to scramble the alphabet, pick a few letters, sometimes even add some numbers, put them in a seemingly random order, and at times finish up with Greek symbols. They will then assign these to proteins of various sizes and complicated pathways in our bodies, such as mTOR, Akt, MAPK, Grb, GSK-3β, and so on. Should you want to try and do the same, all you need is a quick PhD and you yourself could easily move from scrambling morning eggs to scrambling those ABCs in lab.
Now, I brought these complex molecules up for a reason, which is the fact that they all participate in the insulin signaling pathways shown above, making up an important part of the disease. When we say Alzheimer’s, what we really think of in a molecular level is lots of cell death and overall neuroinflammation. Sounds awful, right? Let’s take a look at why these two things might be happening:
- buildup of amyloid- β plaques
- neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) present
- overactive MAPK, GSK-3 β
- underactive Ras, Akt, mTOR
- questionable action of Grb
How do we care?
At this time there isn’t a way for us to know who exactly will be diagnosed later on, so much of what science can offer for those concerned is a shot at prevention. The general public is encouraged to try and prevent the disease by making healthy lifestyle choices and training our “cognitive muscles”. Other than prevention, the sad reality is that once symptoms are showing there is little we can do. Here, I am talking to those who are simply curious, or eager to care for their loved ones, but have little idea on how to do it best. I have gathered the top responses to the question “how would you want to be cared for?” from our neurochemistry paper discussion and listed them below.
Top 3 ways to care for Alzheimer’s patients:
-
Have patience
The most common answer in our discussion circle was to have people surrounding you that have lots of patience. Most of us love and need frequent social interactions, even if certain circumstances, such as cognitive and memory impairment, make it harder than usual.
-
Don’t push the newest reality
As an interesting second came the idea of just letting one live in their own world. Some students expressed that sometimes it might be exhausting to be presented with a completely new reality to you than the one you might be existing in inside your head. This idea really just comes down to letting patients rest and go with their own world without challenging it.
-
FAQ binder
For our creative ones we also got a DIY project on the list. I will have to say, it was also one of my personal favorites I sided with, and I mean, who didn’t love the ending of the movie 50 First Dates? Yes, it is a glorified representation of memory struggles, but why not use it to our advantage? Some of us just tend to lean towards logical reasoning and maybe would enjoy having an organized binder full of answers. It could include things such as bullet points of basic information (when/where/who/how), show pictures of close family and friends, and give short summaries of current conditions of the world. For those who question most things in life, this might be a quick relief as they get to have the answers right at their hands all in one place.
