MEDICATION & RESEARCH


Rethinking Alzheimer's Disease


Thomas Owens of Webster Wheelchairs, analyses the latest research on the biggest neurological condition of our age.


If there is one diagnosis that people dread more than cancer, it is probably Alzheimer’s disease. This neurological ailment is one of the great challenges of modern society: economically, emotionally and scientifically.


In the United States alone, it is estimated that the friends and family members of those suffering from Alzheimer’s spend in excess of 18bn hours of unpaid work caring for them every year. Care that the sufferers of Alzheimer’s themselves may not even be aware of.


Scientists are working around the clock to find a cure. Over the past 20 years, more than 73,000 studies have been published on the disease — or about 200 a day. But because Alzheimer’s attacks the neuron networks in the brain itself, a 'cure' is still a long way off — if possible at all.


ALZHEIMER’S AS THE 'HEART DISEASE OF THE HEAD'


The good news however, is that we are learning more about the disease all of the time. The growing consensus is that Alzheimer's is a form of vascular disease. Meaning that, like what causes heart disease, Alzheimer’s becomes a problem when too much cholesterol builds around the walls of the blood vessels in the brain — restricting flow to the parts that regulate memory function.


Cholesterol also encourages the building up of amyloid plaques in the brain and may even help to spread them about to more problematic areas.


The good news is this means that, like heart disease, Alzheimer’s can largely be prevented with a low-cholesterol diet. And that is exactly what this study recommends: that to prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s, we should all be consuming mostly vegetables, legumes, fruits and whole grains. Whole- plant foods should take up most of our plates, and we should cut down on meat and dairy.


This new understanding is also eroding away at what was previously thought to be a sad fact of life about Alzheimer’s — that it was inevitable in those who had the genes for it. Studies have shown that the prevalence of the disease varies massively in-between different populations with different


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diets, suggesting that poor diet is almost always the cause of neurological decline.


Furthermore, other studies have shown that when migrants move from an area with a traditionally low-cholesterol diet to a high- cholesterol one, their tendency to develop Alzheimer’s spikes.


THE BEST PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE


We live in a society where people tend to eat poorly and when the consequences of bad eating come home to roost, the doctor prescribes a few simple drugs. But drugs can have nasty side- effects, which may require even more drugs as treatment.


But food is the best medicine, and has no bad side effects (only positive ones). It appears that the best medicine is to avoid meat. Cutting meat out of the diet may slash your chances of developing Alzheimer’s by as much as 50%. And the longer you stop eating meat, the less your chances are of developing it.


Some research suggests that a diet of largely whole-plant food is the answer, but some whole-plants are more effective than others. For example, dark-green leafy vegetables and bright, coloured berries — such as blueberries, strawberries and blackberries — are thought of as 'brain foods' because they work to prevent 'brain rusting'.


Berries are rich in micronutrients called ‘polyphenols’ which seem to be the magic trick here. Not only are they thought to stop amyloid plaques from building up in the brain, they may even actively remove them.


Even fruit and vegetable juices seem to work — despite them sometimes getting bad press for being overloaded with sugars. A study involving over 2,000 people found that regular juice consumption cut Alzheimer’s risk by an astonishing 76%.


The cut was more dramatic in those who were thought to be more 'prone' to developing the disease later in life. The data so far, seems clear. Eat the right food. Whole-plants in, meat out. And no matter how genetically inclined you may be, Alzheimer’s does not have to be your destiny.


www.websterwheelchairs.co.uk/ www.tomorrowscare.co.uk


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