• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Spanish
sb-logo-with-brain
  • Resources
    • Monthly eNewsletter
    • Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle
    • The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness
    • How to evaluate brain training claims
    • Resources at a Glance
  • Brain Teasers
    • Top 25 Brain Teasers & Games for Teens and Adults
    • Brain Teasers for each Cognitive Ability
    • More Mind Teasers & Games for Adults of any Age
  • Virtual Summits
    • 2019 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • Speaker Roster
    • Brainnovations Pitch Contest
    • 2017 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2016 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2015 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2014 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
  • Report: Pervasive Neurotechnology
  • Report: Digital Brain Health
  • About
    • Mission & Team
    • Endorsements
    • Public Speaking
    • In the News
    • Contact Us

Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention

April 9, 2008 by Alvaro Fernandez

We just received these two very thought-pro­vok­ing essays on Alzheimer’s Dis­ease and brain health, as part of a writ­ing work­shop, led by Susan Hill in Lake­land, Flori­da, with a group of grade 9–11 homeschoolers.

With­out fur­ther ado, here you are both Essays:

Essay A. Pre­vent­ing Alzheimer’s at Work

– By Josh H

5,000,000: that is the num­ber of peo­ple in the Unit­ed States alone who are affect­ed by Alzheimer’s dis­ease. Research has shown that those who held jobs such as san­i­ta­tion work­ers or trash col­lec­tors in their 30s, 40s, and 50s are more at risk for Alzheimer’s dis­ease than peo­ple who held jobs such as doc­tors or sci­en­tists at the same age. If every­one knew this, the world would ben­e­fit, and it could impact the lives of everyone.

If every­one in the world knew that cer­tain jobs are more at risk for Alzheimer’s, it could affect them in many ways. First of all, stu­dents would study hard­er so that they will get bet­ter jobs and reduce unem­ploy­ment. This infor­ma­tion could also ben­e­fit peo­ple still in these jobs by demon­strat­ing to them that using their brains can help pre­vent Alzheimer’s. Neu­rol­o­gist David Ben­nett has explained: “This does­n’t mean you should quit your job and go get a Ph.D. Edu­ca­tion prob­a­bly relates to how you use your brain through­out life  your job and leisure activ­i­ties that stretch the mind.”

In addi­tion, it could cause peo­ple who have had sim­i­lar jobs to be test­ed for Alzheimer’s dis­ease ear­li­er and more reg­u­lar­ly, which would be good for them and for the doc­tors treat­ing them. If more peo­ple are test­ed, those who do have the dis­ease will be able to be treat­ed and will be less affect­ed by it. The doc­tors who treat them will also be able to do so more effec­tive­ly if they find out about it ear­li­er. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, this could have a neg­a­tive effect with peo­ple who have jobs which are less like­ly for Alzheimer’s, such as doc­tors and sci­en­tists. How­ev­er, if these peo­ple real­ized they are still at risk but are just less like­ly to get it, it would be pos­i­tive, caus­ing more peo­ple to be test­ed whether they have held a job which is more at risk or not.

In addi­tion to hav­ing a pos­i­tive effect on peo­ple, every­one in the world know­ing that cer­tain jobs are more at risk for Alzheimer’s dis­ease would help pre­vent many cas­es. More peo­ple would prob­a­bly get test­ed if they knew, reduc­ing the num­ber of peo­ple in advanced stages of Alzheimer’s. Also, any­thing known about the dis­ease can help doc­tors find ways to pre­vent it. First of all, this infor­ma­tion could help them bet­ter ana­lyze patients for Alzheimer’s; sec­ond­ly, it could be used as a treat­ment for the dis­ease. This infor­ma­tion, although par­tial­ly relat­ed to jobs, is more relat­ed to brain use. This shows the impor­tance of using our brains, and how men­tal health is relat­ed to it. In addi­tion, if doc­tors and their patients knew that brain exer­cise can pre­vent Alzheimer’s dis­ease, it could pos­si­bly be used effec­tive­ly as a treat­ment or even as a cure for Alzheimer’s dis­ease. Know­ing that brain use affects brain health would also cause every­one around the world to use their brains con­stant­ly, no mat­ter what their age or job. If every­body in the world knew that cer­tain jobs are more at risk for Alzheimer’s dis­ease, the infor­ma­tion would be very help­ful for pre­vent­ing and treat­ing many cases.

5,000,000 peo­ple in the U.S. are affect­ed by Alzheimer’s, but if every­one in the world knew about that cer­tain jobs are more at risk, this num­ber could be reduced sig­nif­i­cant­ly. The infor­ma­tion would ben­e­fit peo­ple, and could cause them to be test­ed ear­li­er. Also, know­ing this would be very help­ful as a way to pre­vent Alzheimer’s and would be a valu­able tool for doc­tors. If every­one in the world knew that cer­tain jobs are more at risk for Alzheimer’s, it would have a major pos­i­tive effect, and would reduce the num­ber of peo­ple who are men­tal­ly crip­pled by this ter­ri­ble disease.

Ref­er­ences

- “Cog­ni­tive Reserve and Alzheimer pubmed.com. 12 Feb. 2008 .

- “Cog­ni­tive Reserve and Lifestyle pubmed.com. 12 Feb. 2008 .

- Elias, Mar­i­lyn. “Want a Sharp Mind for Your Gold­en Years? Start Now. usatoday.com. 12 Feb. 2008

- Grif­fin, Kel­ly. “You’re Wis­er Now. aarpmagazine.org. 12 Feb. 2008 .

Essay B. A Slip­pery Slope to Senility

– By Amber­lyn E.

Gray hair, glass­es and mem­o­ry loss? This stereo­type of a typ­i­cal aging indi­vid­ual is not inevitable. A fast spread­ing epi­dem­ic, Alzheimer’s has many aging peo­ple under­stand­ably scared. How­ev­er, there is an alter­na­tive to becom­ing senile, and men­tal exer­cis­es can help pre­vent it. In addi­tion, lifestyle changes can help keep minds sharp and work­ing at their best. Seniors must not wait until the world becomes a con­fus­ing blur and names fly out the back door like birds from a cage!

Alzheimer’s is a pro­gres­sive degen­er­a­tive dis­ease of the brain result­ing in demen­tia; symp­toms include rest­less­ness, inabil­i­ty to rec­og­nize faces, bad hygiene, for­get­ful­ness, and dif­fi­cul­ty with dai­ly func­tions. This fast-spread­ing dis­ease has claimed 26 mil­lion vic­tims world­wide, with a new diag­no­sis every 72 sec­onds. The world must know how to pre­vent this dis­ease! If no cure is found by 2050, sci­en­tists esti­mate Alzheimer’s will claim 106 mil­lion peo­ple. Ten to twen­ty years before symp­toms are evi­dent, changes to the brain asso­ci­at­ed with Alzheimer’s have already occurred; even some­one who believes he is very healthy could be slid­ing down a slip­pery slope to senil­i­ty unaware. But pre­vent­ing Alzheimer’s could change the world.

Many peo­ple won­der how to pre­vent this degen­er­a­tive dis­ease. The answer could rev­o­lu­tion­ize the world, dras­ti­cal­ly decreas­ing the num­ber of indi­vid­u­als who Alzheimer’s reduces to a fee­ble state of depen­dence. Alco­hol, drug abuse, and smok­ing con­tribute to Alzheimer’s, so avoid­ing these sub­stances would be one pre­ven­tive mea­sure. Inter­est­ing­ly, heart and brain health are close­ly con­nect­ed, so things that improve the heart, such as exer­cise, also improve the health of the brain. Anoth­er way of pre­vent­ing Alzheimer’s is found in the diet: fish oils have been shown to help pre­vent this dis­ease. In addi­tion, the Omega 3 fat­ty acid docosa­hexaenoic can also help pre­vent it by increas­ing the pro­duc­tion of LR11, a pro­tein that clears away enzymes that make beta any­loid plaques thought to cause Alzheimer’s. Stud­ies have shown that although mem­o­ry is not lost, it can­not be accessed due to plaques in the brain. So if the Omega fat­ty acids could clear away the plaques, mem­o­ry would be restored. If indi­vid­u­als act­ed on these sim­ple pre­ven­tive mea­sures, they could dras­ti­cal­ly the future of the entire world by elim­i­nat­ing numer­ous cas­es of Alzheimer.

Many peo­ple have fall­en prey to believ­ing the lie that noth­ing can pre­vent Alzheimer’s. Actu­al­ly, the star­tling out­break of Alzheimer’s is in part because our cul­ture makes peo­ple lazy and reluc­tant to use their minds. Due to a rumor that the mind can­not make new brain cells after reach­ing adult­hood, most peo­ple believe they can­not improve their brains. On the con­trary, though, the mind can always cre­ate new brain cells. Many com­pa­nies recent­ly began mar­ket­ing prod­ucts such as video games tar­get­ed at adults, mind games, and sudoku hand­helds to pro­mote brain growth. In addi­tion, sim­ple ways of exer­cis­ing the brain and cre­at­ing new neu­ropath­ways exist, such as doing nor­mal rou­tines in a dif­fer­ent way or learn­ing new skills. Play­ing sim­ple but chal­leng­ing games, learn­ing a new lan­guage, or sim­ply mem­o­riz­ing things are oth­er pos­si­bil­i­ties. The world has to hear about these pre­ven­tive mea­sures so that they can escape Alzheimer’s. If not exer­cised reg­u­lar­ly, brain cells actu­al­ly die; but if the cells are used, they stay healthy and even grow. Obvi­ous­ly, many ways exist to improve one’s brain that pre­vent the dev­as­tat­ing dis­ease of Alzheimer.

For­tu­nate­ly for every­one, there is an alter­na­tive to los­ing their minds. Although Alzheimer’s is spread­ing fast, many brain-stretch­ing games and exer­cis­es along with lifestyle changes will keep the brain alert and func­tion­ing at its best. So although gray hair and glass­es may be hard to avoid, rest assured that senil­i­ty is avoid­able. Start today and keep your mind sharp and mem­o­ries safe.

Ref­er­ences

- “About Alzheimer’s.” Fis­ch­er Cen­ter for Alzheimer’s Research Foun­da­tion. 14 Feb. 2008 . Gor­man, Christine.

- “Can You Pre­vent Alzheimer’s?” Time. 14 Feb. 2008 . Shute, Nancy.

- “New Research Sug­gests Ways to Slow–or Prevent–Alzheimer’s”. U.S. News. 14 Feb. 2008 .

- “Fish Oil May Help Pre­vent Alzheimer’s.” The Wash­ing­ton Post. 14 Feb. 2008 . Dayan, B..

- “Pre­vent­ing Alzheimer’s Dis­ease Ear­ly On.” Sci­ence Dai­ly. 14 Feb. 2008 . Hill, Car­rie. “How to Devel­op Your Per­son­al Plan for a Healthy Brain”. About.com. 14 Feb. 2008 .

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pock­et

Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health Tagged With: aging, Alzheimers-disease, brain-cells, Brain-health, dementia, diet, exercise, fish-oils, heart, jobs, Learning, lifestyle-changes, memory-loss, Mental-Health, plaques, Preventing-Alzheimer's, Senility, work

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jon Emerson says

    April 10, 2008 at 9:38

    fan­tas­tic cou­ple of arti­cles! now, is it true what they say?

  2. An Over-Thinker says

    April 11, 2008 at 5:28

    Yeah.. jog­ging your mind as impor­tant as jog­ging your body.. got­ta keep think­ing and cog­nat­ing or else your mind drifts off into a daze and becomes lazy like an over­weight body.. Good arti­cle.. We need more peo­ple jog­ging their minds..

  3. Helene Zemel says

    April 11, 2008 at 10:44

    There is def­i­nite­ly some­thing to the “use it or lose it” prin­ci­ple. As a piano teacher, I have had many adults come to me for lessons real­iz­ing how impor­tant it is to learn new skills to pre­vent the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Primary Sidebar

Top Articles on Brain Health and Neuroplasticity

  1. Can you grow your hippocampus? Yes. Here’s how, and why it matters
  2. How learning changes your brain
  3. To harness neuroplasticity, start with enthusiasm
  4. Three ways to protect your mental health during –and after– COVID-19
  5. Why you turn down the radio when you're lost
  6. Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle Is the Key to Self-Empowered Aging
  7. Ten neu­rotech­nolo­gies about to trans­form brain enhance­ment & health
  8. Five reasons the future of brain enhancement is digital, pervasive and (hopefully) bright
  9. What Educators and Parents Should Know About Neuroplasticity and Dance
  10. The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains
  11. Six tips to build resilience and prevent brain-damaging stress
  12. Can brain training work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions
  13. What are cognitive abilities and how to boost them?
  14. Eight Tips To Remember What You Read
  15. Twenty Must-Know Facts to Harness Neuroplasticity and Improve Brain Health

Top 10 Brain Teasers and Illusions

  1. You think you know the colors? Try the Stroop Test
  2. Check out this brief attention experiment
  3. Test your stress level
  4. Guess: Are there more brain connections or leaves in the Amazon?
  5. Quick brain teasers to flex two key men­tal mus­cles
  6. Count the Fs in this sentence
  7. Can you iden­tify Apple’s logo?
  8. Ten classic optical illu­sions to trick your mind
  9. What do you see?
  10. Fun Mental Rotation challenge
  • Check our Top 25 Brain Teasers, Games and Illusions

Join 35,320 readers exploring, at no cost, the latest in neuroplasticity and brain health.

By subscribing you agree to receive our free, monthly eNewsletter. We don't rent or sell emails collected, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

IMPORTANT: Please check your inbox or spam folder in a couple minutes and confirm your subscription.

Get In Touch!

Contact Us

660 4th Street, Suite 205,
San Francisco, CA 94107 USA

About Us

SharpBrains is an independent market research firm tracking health and performance applications of brain science. We prepare general and tailored market reports, publish consumer guides, produce an annual global and virtual conference, and provide strategic advisory services.

© 2022 SharpBrains. All Rights Reserved - Privacy Policy