A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Concurrently, a mind is also a terribly thing to have waste away, as is the case with most people who are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. According to the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH), Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia among the elderly and affects nearly 4.5 million Americans. If that wasn’t bad enough; there is no cure. However, research continues and there may be some hope which suggests that this disease can be prevented.

According to an article published in the New York Times in May of 2008, director of the U.S. National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center, Walter Kukull, explained how Alzheimer’s might be preventable stating:

There are other [ways possibly to mitigate risk] if we think about dementia generally- of which Alzheimer’s is a part- that are a little controversial. A lot of the time there are vascular and metabolic diseases or processes that could somehow modify Alzheimer’s pathology. The evidence that these things contribute to dementia is pretty solid, but how it works exactly with Alzheimer’s disease still needs a little bit of research. [There is an association between hypertension and Alzheimer's, for example.] So if you have hypertension, treat that. Exercise is still good for a lot of different things and may provide some benefit against Alzheimer’s disease, although we don’t know exactly what the mechanism might be. You should probably [also treat[ other metabolic conditions, like diabetes and obesity and so on. It’s the usual advice, but it probably will somewhat decrease the overall occurrence of dementia.

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Tags: Health, Health News //