| Alzheimer's Disease This illness is the most common of the dementia type processes. Dementia is a condition where cognitive impairment develops into an all encompassing process over the years of the illness. There is no loss of consciousness while all this loss of memory and thought processing develops. Alzheimer's Disease was first described in 1907. The clinical features of this illness are: Memory Decline Paranoid Delusions Auditory Hallucinations Aphasia (difficulty talking) Apraxia (difficulty with voluntary skilled movements) Agnosia (loss of perceptive ability related to recognition) Abnormal Thought Processing It wasn't until the 1960's that Alzheimer's was definitively separated from the atherosclerotic type dementia. Today we have a much better understanding of the molecular mechanism of this illness. We should also be able to speculate about the cause of this process with the realization that it was never described before 1907. Could it be related to the onset of our "toxic world" with an insufficiency in the quality of the food supply. There are many illnesses that can cause similar symptoms to Alzheimer's. They are: Drug Toxicity Depression Brain Blood Clots Cerebral Infections Brain Tumors Metal (e.g. Iron or Mercury) Toxicity Nutritional Deficiencies (B12, B1, B6 and folio acid) Thyroid and Parathyroid Abnormalities In the last 90 years the number of cases of Alzheimer's has risen from 1 person to 4 million people. Surely this is either an infectious, toxic or free radical process. Infections have been pretty well ruled out. The criteria that are used in diagnosing Alzheimer's are: Documentation of dementia by neuropsychologic testing Deficits in two or more areas of cognition Progressive worsening of memory and other cognitive functions like: abstract thinking, judgement,language, ability to learn new skills, ability to use skilled movements etc. No disturbance of consciousness Onset: 40-90 years of age Absence of other systemic illness that could account for the progressive loss of memory and cognition. Other supportive criteria are: impaired daily living activity, altered behavior, family history of similar illness, associated depressive symptoms, insomnia, incontinence, delusions, illusions and verbal and emotional outbursts. One typical picture of Alzheimer’s begins with difficulty in remembering names and repeating things as well as misplacing objects. The individual reacts slower with poorer judgment. They have difficulty in making decisions and prefer to not be in surroundings they don't know. This is a progressive downhill course over years. The end stage of Alzheimer’s has the following characteristics: loss of speech, inability to walk, smile or sit-up. Death ensues shortly thereafter. There are neurochemical abnormalities seen in Alzheimer’s - it is a multineurotransmitter deficiency disease including abnormal levels of acetylcholine, serotonin and the catecholommes. These abnormalities are responsible for part of the symptomatic cerebral symptom complex seen in Alzheimer’s. The basic etiology possibly leads to damage to these cells that are involved in neurotransmitter production. The basic pathology reveals neuronal cell degeneration and death. There is an over production of a protein.called Amyloid-beta. This protein seems to have neurotoxic properties. It has provided a possible connection between amyloid accumulation and neurodegeneration. The mechanism of toxicity is not totally understood. Two areas that seem to be important relate to free radical activity and calcium homeostasis. This certainly seems to relate to the role of oxidative stress (damage) in this disease. It has been shown recently that both melatonin and Vitamin E have ameliorating roles in the treatment of Alzheimer’s. There is a definite genetic relationship in Alzheimer’s. Recently, chromosome 12 revealed the strongest positive correlation. This was independent of the Apo-E gene that has been found in 50% of late-onset Alzheimer’s patients. In some way these genetic abnormalities lead to an increase in free radical activity, possible related to an increase in the production of SOD (superoxide dismutase) as is seen in Down's Syndrome (all Down's syndrome patients develop Alzheimer’s at some point in life). This illness is undoubtedly a combination of a genetic and environmental process. Since it never existed pror to 1907, it can't be purely genetic. Our genetic characteristics just don't change in 90 years. The toxic environment may have brought this genetic characteristic into the "light." That is the only way it could have "exploded" in epidemic proportions over 90 years. I think that creating an environment in the brain where there is reduced oxidative stress is very important in decreasing the progression of the disease process. This can be done by removing catalysts to free radical reaction (copper and iron), improving blood supply (using EDTA and various drugs and nutrients like ginko and Picamillon), and finally to detoxify the body and brain of all heavy metals (especially mercury and aluminum) that might be playing a role in this process. Lastly is to be sure that Alzheimer’s patients have an optimum level of all the body's nutrients including the precursors to all the neurotransmitters. |
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