says. He predicts there will be “an epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease” when baby boomers enter their 70s, about a decade from now.
Intervention must begin in middle age, Zec says. By the time clinical symptoms like memory impairment appear, the disease has already been in the body for 10-20 years. Because there is currently no cure for the disease, once clinical symptoms begin, it is too late to effectively treat the disease by slowing or stopping the progression.
“If baby boomers are going to do anything to try to decrease the risk, they need to make those lifestyle changes right now,” Zec says.
Lifestyle changes that may reduce risk of Alzheimer’s include lowering high blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, controlling or preventing diabetes, exercising regularly, maintaining a healthy weight and engaging in socially and mentally engaging activities.
Intellectual stimulation strengthens cognitive reserve, the brain’s network that is grown and exercised through activities like learning a new sport, language or hobby. Cognitive reserve acts as a kind of backup battery, as it’s built during the second and third decades of life, and spent as the brain ages.
According to Zec, if people build their cognitive reserve during middle age, it can decrease their chances of developing Alzheimer’s as they enter their 70s and 80s. If people have larger cognitive reserves, their brains will be less damaged even as they lose neurons and synapses.
“It may not be about how much you’ve lost, but how much you have left,” Zec explains. “Even if you get the disease, you can stay cognitively intact several years longer. You’ve increased your health and mental health span.”
Staying physically active is equally important, says Dr. Jeffrey Burns, an associate professor and director of the Alzheimer and Memory Program at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City. Burns presented his research on the impact of exercise and fitness on Alzheimer’s disease during SIU’s May 11 conference.
“If baby boomers are going to do anything to try to decrease the risk, they need to make those lifestyle changes right now. ”
According to Burns, a majority of adults do not achieve recommended levels of physical activity, which includes two and a half hours per week of moderate aerobic activity (such as walking briskly, dancing and canoeing) per week along with strengthening activities (like push-ups, sit-ups and lifting weights) two times a week. Less than one-third of older adults achieve this goal, with one third reporting no physical activity at all, Burns says.
“Being sedentary is a significant risk factor for any health problem,” Burns says. “We need to understand the importance of exercise in promoting health and preventing disease.”
Exercise can act as medicine, he says, because it promotes healthy brain aging. The brain begins to shrink when people reach their late 30s and 40s, and an Alzheimer’s brain shrinks at twice the normal rate. Individuals with higher fitness levels have less brain shrinkage, Burns says.
The physical and mental health of the caregiver (the person who helps an Alzheimer’s patient with daily life) is just as important as the person with the disease, says Dr. Tom Ala, associate professor of neurology and interim director for SIU’s Center.
Ala is in the process of developing a study that would focus on Alzheimer’s caregivers, examining their stress level, physical fitness and psychological health. There are 386,207 caregivers in Illinois, and most have difficulty grappling with the mental and physical challenges of caring for an Alzheimer’s patient at home.
The study would be the first of its kind, Ala says, as clinical research has not focused on anyone besides the patient.
“So far, studies have been patient-driven, but we’re being proactive and looking at the caregiver from the start,” he says. “We’d like to assess and follow the health of both the patient and the caregiver, from the time they contact us until the patient enters a nursing home.”
Keeping the patient in the family home is better than an assisted living facility or nursing home, Ala says. It saves money and improves
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