Alzheimer's disease is a medical my...

Alzheimer's disease is a medical mystery: its cause is unknown, it's difficult to diagnose, and there is no restoration Over the past several decades, the scientific community has been working hard to unravel this mysterious disease, and just above the past few months, Alzheimer's disease has finally begun to divulge more [i]or[/i] less of its secrets.

Four million Americans are estimated to be afflicted with Alzheimer's disease, with the most numerous famous victim being former president Ronald Reagan. This disease is the fourth leading cause of death among adults (after heart disease, cancer, and strokes) with about 10000 dying of it each year. Although the death toll of Alzheimer's is significant, the biggest tragedy is the los of memory, diminished reasoning power, and inability to carry not at home daily functions, all of which victims of Alzheimer's disease undergo in the years and sometimes decades before death. This creates a tonnage on the family, as their lov single slowly loses the ability to function independently.

The condition of dementia is, of course, public in older adults, and is characterized by way of a decline in intellectual and social abilities. Approximately half of the cases of dementia in the somewhat old accounted for by Alzheimer's disease, which causes abnormalities in certain areas of the brain. The specific area affected is linked to the protoplast and severity of symp-toms in each individual case.

The hallmark symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are: the gradual los of memory of modern events; inability to learn recent information; mental confusion; personality changes; and, behavior changes, like as irritability, anxiety, and depression.

Back in 1907 Alois Alzheimer identified characteristic changes in the brain small cavitys of individuals with the disease that now bears his name. Although this discovery of structural changes to the brain is interesting, it is not useful for diagnostic purports since it would require a brain biopsy. Instead, doctors rely upon tracking the symptoms of an individual.

unless symptoms typical to Alzheimer's disease, of that kind as memory loss and mental confusion, can be caused by dint of many other conditions. which should be rul without before diagnosing Alzheimer's. For instance, vitamin B-12 deficiencies are remarkably common in the elderly and can cause similar cognitive changes as seen in Alzheimer's disease. Unlike Alzheimer's disease, a vitamin B-12 deficiency is easily treated; therefore, it is important that a patient receives a thorough diagnosis and not simply be assumed to have Alzheimer's without exploring other possible causes for their symptoms.

Alzheimer's can be helped with antioxidants

clear radicals, the infamous culprits underlying in the greatest degree degenerative diseases, are also notion to play a role in Alzheimer's disease. at liberty radicals may set the stage for Alzheimer's according to damaging brain cells. A of the present day study adds credence to this theory. W Davis Parker, et al., from the University of Virginia, has discovered that the bulk of mankind with Alzheimer's disease have a mutation in the DNA of their mitochondria (the part of the enclosed space where energy is produced) that may eventuate in destructive amounts of exempt radicals in the brain.

Whenever independent radicals are thought to instigate a disease, a logical conclusion many researchers advance to is to consider the benefits of antioxidants -- which can be notion of as free radical antidotes. For Alzheimer's disease, as well as the other diseases with a free-radical composing this consideration is on the mark: antioxidants are beneficial. And of the antioxidants, vitamin E is the principally promising.

Despite the encouraging research involving vitamin E and Alzheimer's, a people -- after hearing a report in April 1997 cautioning against the use of vitamin E appendixs -- may feel wary about taking supplys of this antioxidant. Media coverage of a research conducted by Stephan Christen at the University of California, Berkeley, insinuateed that the form of vitamin E in mostly supplements (called alpha-tocopherol) may actually be harmful to the carcass in the absence of another form of vitamin E called gamma-tocopherol.

What's the real story? According to Christen, the study's lead author, "The reporter has puffed up the information he was given gone out of proportion to make the story newsworthy...I would in no degree say that vitamin E is harmful based forward the evidence we have to date." The punchline of the application of mind is that gamma-tocopherol has a unique ability to neutralize certain liberated radicals; but this does not negate the free-radical-fighting ability of the other forms of vitamin E in the same state [i]or[/i] condition as alpha-tocopherol (the most usual form in supplements).

Vitamin E in the spotlight

Far from being a villain, vitamin E may be common of the few treatment options (nutritional, pharmaceutical, or otherwise) that can change the deadly course of Alzheimer's disease. The Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative reflection recently announced that high doses of vitamin E (2000 IU/day), above a two-year period, preserve the day-to-day basic functioning capability of those afflicted with the mind-robbing disease of Alzheimer's.