5 Steps to Prevent Alzheimer´s

In the United States, there are around 6,200,000 people aged 65 and over with Alzheimer’s disease. Almost two thirds are women. This means that the disease is almost twice as common in women compared to men. But why?

The first reason is that women tend to live longer than men. So more men die earlier and therefore don’t have time to develop Alzheimer’s disease. The main risk factor for this disease is age. The older you are, the greater the chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Check out this data:

• 4 out of every 1,000 people between the ages of 65 and 74 develop Alzheimer’s each year.
• 32 out of every 1,000 people aged between 75 and 84 develop Alzheimer’s each year.
• 76 out of every 1,000 people aged 85 and over develop Alzheimer’s each year.

However, Dr. Buson from Harvard Medical School claims that this is not the whole answer. He says that your chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease later in life are slightly higher if you’re a woman than if you’re a man.

A scientific study followed 16,926 people in Sweden and found that from the age of 80, women were more likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease than men of the same age. Similarly, another study in Taiwan found that the chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease over 7 years were higher in women compared to men.

A meta-analysis (a study summarizing several studies) examining the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in Europe found that approximately 13 women out of 1000 developed Alzheimer’s each year compared to just seven men.

Therefore, says Dr. Andrew, a Harvard neurologist, women living longer than men cannot be the complete answer as to why women are more likely than men to develop Alzheimer’s disease. Because even among individuals who are living to the same age, women are more likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s than men.

One clue to the answer to this puzzle is that your chances of developing dementia from a cause other than Alzheimer’s are no greater if you are a woman. For example, the study that examined dementia rates in Sweden found that women and men were equally likely to develop non-Alzheimer’s dementia as they got older.

Since rates of Alzheimer’s disease differ according to gender, while rates of non-Alzheimer’s dementias do not, this suggests that there must be a specific interaction between Alzheimer’s disease and gender.

Another clue to this puzzle comes from work by Harvard researchers who have suggested that the substance called amyloid, a component of Alzheimer’s disease, may be deposited to fight infections in the brain. If their suggestion is correct, we can think of Alzheimer’s disease as a by-product of our brain’s immune system.

The last piece of the puzzle is that women are about twice as likely to have an autoimmune disease compared to men. The reason for this difference is not entirely clear, but it is known that the immune system is generally stronger in women than in men and many autoimmune diseases are more common during pregnancy. It may be that women’s stronger immune system was designed by God to protect the fetus from infection. So women may end up with more amyloid plaques than men.

Putting the pieces together, by combining all this information, a possible explanation as to why women’s risk of Alzheimer’s disease is higher than men’s, in addition to women living longer, according to Dr. Andry Burton, the Harvard neurologist, is that the amyloid plaques that cause Alzheimer’s disease may be part of the brain’s immune system to fight infection. Women have a stronger immune system than men. As part of their stronger immune system, they may end up with more amyloid plaques than men. As they may have more amyloid plaques than men, this theory may explain why women end up having a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

However, this neurologist explains that although his ideas in this article are logical, coherent and form the basis of a good theory, they have not yet been proven correct. Further research is needed.

So to sum it up, you’re more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease throughout your life if you’re a woman, because women live longer than men and possibly because women have stronger immune systems compared to men. This means that if you’re a woman, you’re more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and there’s nothing you can do about it? Not at all.

You can do many things to reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s today. Here’s what you can do starting right now, today, to prevent it:

1. Engage in aerobic exercise such as brisk walking, running, cycling, swimming or aerobic classes for at least 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.
2. Prefer a vegetarian diet guided by a nutritionist who recommends vegetarianism without extremes. Eat fruit, vegetables, wholegrain cereals, legumes, wholemeal bread, preferring a well-prepared breakfast, a light lunch and a light dinner at least 2 hours before going to bed. Avoid alcohol, caffeine and tobacco.
3. Sleep well in a ventilated, dark, quiet environment, preferably going to bed early. Perhaps no later than 10 o’clock at night.
4. Participate in social activities with friends in your religious community. Read good books, take a course for senior citizens, either at college or elsewhere. You might be interested in tapestry, ceramic painting, embroidery, crochet, handicrafts.
5. Don’t hold on to resentments. Get involved in voluntary, philanthropic help at some institution in your town. Cultivate gratitude. All this helps to prevent Alzheimer’s.

So even though women get Alzheimer’s more often because they live longer, you can prevent it, you can perhaps postpone it, if you have heavy genetics against you. If you practice these habits, natural living, natural food, exercising outdoors and drinking water, helping a community that needs your help, volunteering, cultivating gratitude in your heart, all these positive attitudes in life release certain hormones that God has placed in our bodies such as endorphin, dynorphin and serotonin that help us in our health and will keep you an active person, pushing that Alzheimer’s forward or perhaps not having it in your life at all. Practice this.