Hey there!
Welcome to Life Noggin!
Imagine waking up and not knowing what day of the week it is.
Or the month, or even year.
The room you wake in is unfamiliar and you can’t remember what you were supposed to
do today.
You go to the kitchen to make coffee, but can’t remember where it is.
You go to feed the cat, but can’t remember if you already have.
Then someone comes in and says “Good morning”, but you have no idea who they are.
This is what it's like to have Alzheimer’s disease.
This brain disorder slowly destroys memory, thinking, and eventually the ability to complete
simple tasks, have conversations, or respond to stimuli.,
In the United States, it's the 7th leading cause of death, affecting about 5.6 million
Americans 65 years and older and 200,000 under 65 with younger-onset Alzheimer’s.
Scientists are still working to determine the cause, but believe it’s due to a combination
of genetics; health, environment, and lifestyle factors; and age-related changes in the brain.
Two key features of Alzheimer’s disease are plaques and tangles that develop in the
brain.
Plaques are deposits of the protein beta-amyloid that build up between nerve cells, or neurons,
and tangles are twisted fibers of the protein tau that build up inside cells.
Most experts believe that they block connections, and therefore communication, between neurons
causing cell damage and death.
While most people develop some of these as they age, those with Alzheimer’s develop
a lot more, starting in areas important in memory, like the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus,
before spreading to the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for language, reasoning, and
social behavior.
Currently, there is no cure, though there are several treatments to manage symptoms.,,
But newer medications are being developed to prevent or delay the progression of the
disease, including the recently approved drug aducanumab.
This medication is a monoclonal antibody, which are believed to be able to prevent beta-amyloid
from clumping into plaques or remove these plaques after they’ve formed.
Other therapies under investigation include drugs that could help restore synapses and
reverse memory loss, keep tau from tangling, and reduce inflammation.,, Scientists believe
that future Alzheimer's treatment will involve a combination of these and other types of
medications.
Research has also found that music can benefit Alzheimer’s patients both in terms of behavior
and cognition.,, This is particularly true with music that the patient is familiar with.
You can use, I don't know, something right off the top of my head, Kate Bush's "Running
Up That Hill"
While there haven’t been many studies on this yet, some have demonstrated that, while
unfamiliar music leads to minimal improvements, playing music that the patient liked significantly
relieved symptoms of anxiety and depression and improved self-awareness, memory, language,
and psychosis.
This could be because listening to music reactivates areas of the brain linked to memory, reasoning,
speech, and emotion, and areas associated with musical memory are relatively undamaged
by Alzheimer’s disease.
If you’re not understanding the reference in the background, go watch stranger things
Season 4.
This episode was amazing.
Our team members here at Lifespan, which is Life Noggin’s larger team, are also working
on a treatment.
They’re using a combination of light and sound to reverse the effects of dementia like
Alzheimers.
Click on the link in the description if you want to support their work.
And if you’re interested in learning more about it, be sure to like this video and we’ll
make more videos on this topic.
So do you know someone who is struggling or struggled with Alzheimer's?
If you’re comfortable with sharing, let us know your /and or their experience with
this disease.
Let's keep the replies as supportive as we can be.
As always my name is Blocko, this has been Life Noggin, don't forget to keep on thinking!