UNTANGLING THE MYSTERIES OF THE BRAIN Scientists also have discovered that genes
affect the way brains develop during an individual’s life, and are one of many fac- tors affecting chances of either retaining a very good memory over time, or develop- ing dementia. Various normal age-related changes to brain mechanisms can lead to shorter attention spans and slow the speed at which we process information, but the rate depends on many factors within indi- viduals’ lives affecting their physiology. The ability to use memories is just one component of brain function. When brains age well—or maintain most of their func- tionality as time goes by—it means an indi- vidual should be able to maintain the ability to temporarily store information necessary to complete a task. People lose these and other capabilities in a dramatic fashion over time when disease damages and kill their neurons—for example, when abnormal levels of proteins known as amyloid-beta and tau accumulate in brains as a result of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia. Researchers describe amyloid-beta accu-
mulating into clumps outside of neurons, and tau forming “tangles” inside of them. When they eventually kill enough neurons, capabili- ties diminish—initially in the hippocampus. This part of the brain shrinks, and that’s when the classic symptoms of Alzheimer- related memory loss start to manifest. The example that actress and activist
Marcia Gay Harden described in a con- gressional hearing on Alzheimer’s disease last June and in her memoir “Seasons of My Mother” illustrates this. She describes a scene in the early 2000s on a flight to Can- ada to attend a celebrity ski charity event. Harden’s mother Beverly kept putting her passport away when she was seated in the airline cabin next to her daughter, forgetting where she put it, and then started searching for it, repeating the process over and over again. Beverly refused help from her daugh- ter. Harden said her mother realized that something was wrong, but that she herself didn’t think anything of the incident at the time. The younger Harden then described another later incident in 2007 while pre- paring for an awards ceremony where her mother repeatedly forgot which dress she had picked out to wear. A doctor diagnosed Beverly with Alzheimer’s disease in 2011 at the age of 74. She died over the 2018 holi- day season at age 81.
Actress and activist Marcia Gay Harden with her mother, Beverly. Photo courtesy of Marcia Gay Harden.
Life’s Complex Tangle of Causes “When did the Alzheimer’s tau weed plant itself in the fertile mind of my mother?” wondered the younger Harden in her mem- oir. “And why my mother? She was the poster child of what to do to keep a healthy brain. She was always active, ate well, drank rarely, brushed her teeth, and kept her brain sharp with teaching and creating and learn- ing new languages and travel.” Scientists can’t answer all those questions, although they’re making progress. “Nobody's getting Alzheimer's when
they're a teenager,” noted Stanford Medi- cine Pathology Professor Thomas Montine. “There is something about us getting older that lays the fertile soil for getting this, and other neurogenerative diseases. And what, we just don’t know.” What’s becoming clear is there is no one
culprit. A complex interplay between envi- ronment, lifestyle, and genetic programming seems to lead to the disease processes that cause dementia. Age is associated with it, but researchers disagree on whether they should characterize the simple lapse of time as a cause. A growing body of evidence suggests that conditions like obesity, diabetes and high-
18 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019
blood pressure—conditions often associated with overly sedentary lives and unhealthy eat- ing habits—are big contributing risk factors for Alzheimer’s. Research also has suggested factors ranging from exposure to mold, vi- ruses, environmental pollution, brain inflam- mation, and unhealthy levels of gut bacteria. Changes in estrogen levels in menopausal women, and not getting enough quality sleep also have been suggested as sparking the dis- ease process. It is unclear how precisely these factors interact with each individual’s genetic makeup to do this. Researchers have even cited chronic periodontal disease. A study on published in June 2018 from researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago found that bacteria from infected gums travelled to the brains of mice and set off an inflamma- tory response in the brain, generating exces- sive production of the amyloid beta plaques. Social isolation also can be a health risk. Brigham Young University professor Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad, who spoke at Ar- gentum’s 2018 conference, said Americans are experiencing shrinking social networks and while social disconnection can present a health risk, senior living communities en- courage interaction and engagement.
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