Preventing Alzheimer's Neuro Note

Lisa Genova is a well known author and neuroscientist. In 2017 Genova gave a TED Talk on what can be done to prevent Alzheimer's. During her presentation, she goes over the physical cause of Alzheimer's and mentions that there are several factors that play a role in a person developing the disease. Some factors are: age, DNA, lack of deep sleep, poor cardiovascular health, and lack of aerobic exercise. So lets say you are over the age of 65, you are genetically predisposed, don't sleep a lot, have poor cardiovascular health, and don't exercise. Is there anything else you could do that could reduce your chances of developing Alzheimer's? Genova says that through learning new things our brains are creating new synapses and strengthening synapses, a process called neuroplasticity. Individuals who have more years of formal education, high degree of literacy, who take part in mentally stimulating activities, have more cognitive reserve, which is more functional synapses. So if a person who has all the factors that play into the development of Alzheimer's, if they have a high level of cognitive reserve, they have many more synapses that can act as back up synaptic connections, which leads them to not notice that something is wrong with their memory. She goes on to say that by knowing more about a subject creates more neural pathways, so if some are damaged due to Alzheimer's, you can take a detour and are still able to remember a topic/person/place. But simply knowing more things about a subject is not enough, the meaning behind the new learned item needs to be rich in the recruitment of sight, sound, associations and emotions. This means that doing crosswords isn' going to prevent the development of Alzheimer's, it means that activities like learning a new language, meeting new people, reading a book, etc. Genova concludes her presentation with three things she has learned from the people she knows that are battling Alzheimers "Diagnosis does not mean you are dying tomorrow. Keep living. You won't lose your emotional memory. You'll still be able to understand love and joy. You might not remember what I said five minutes ago, but you'll remember how I made you feel. And you are more than what you can remember."

Prior to watching this TED Talk, I knew that one way to prevent Alzheimer's was to do mentally stimulating activities. I thought mentally stimulating activities were things like crosswords and puzzles. I now know that a mentally stimulating activity is much more than that. Mentally stimulating activities are new experiences, things that you might have a little bit of knowledge about but taking it a step further and learning all about that new activity. This TED Talk made me realize that I need to read more books instead of watching Netflix and I should meet more people instead of napping with my dog Noodle. As a future OT, it is encouraging to know that there is something I can encourage my client's to do to "keep their minds young" and that being old and forgetful does NOT have to be part of the aging process. 

I chose to do a neuro note on Alzheimer's because I have a personal connection to the disease. My great-grandmother had it and my grandmother is beginning to show signs of it. This means that my dad, my sisters and I could also one day develop this disease. While it is too late for my grandmother to be proactive about preventing Alzheimer's, if my dad, sisters and I started to do some of the activities that Genova recommends, while it would not completely guarantee that we would not develop the disease, it would be better than doing nothing. Learning this new information is exciting and frustrating to me. I'm excited that there is something that can be done that can possibly prevent  this terrible disease, but I'm frustrated that it is too late for someone I love. I wish I could turn back time and get my grandmother to read more books, meet more people, and learn a new language, but I can't. Instead I choose to look at the positive points Genova pointed out at the end of her presentation. It does not mean that my grandmother will die tomorrow and that she needs to keep living her life. It means that even though she might one day forget who my family and I are, that she will still feel love and joy from doing things with us. At the end of the day I have to love her in the stage of life she is in and understand that she will remember that love.



Here is the link to Lisa Genova's TED Talk if you are interested in watching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twG4mr6Jov0


T. (2017, May 19). What you can do to prevent Alzheimer's | Lisa Genova. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twG4mr6Jov0