On Monday, September 12 th, 2011, a news article about Alzheimer’s Disease was released in HealthDay News. In this news article, it discussed about a new research that
was recently done. In this research, scientists found out that having high cholesterol levels might increase a person’s risk in developing Alzheimer’s by clogging the brain with tiny bits called plaque. Clogging in specific parts of the brain would result in less brain activity; which can be seen through the PET scans. But researchers have known that high cholesterol does not always increase the risk of Alzheimer’s because they have not found a connection with high cholesterol and tangles in the brain. Tangles can also clog up the brain among individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Previous research on this disease has revealed that insulin resistance can also lead to Alzheimer’s. The Alzheimer’s Association have approximated that about 5.4 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease. A startling statistic shows that by 2050, about 16 million Americans will have Alzheimer’s. The research that was conducted used people who lived in a Japanese town. Clinical examinations were done on them in 1988; their brains were examined. A total of 147 people (76 men, 71 women) were used in these clinical examinations and along with autopsies from 1998-2003. Researchers have found out that almost one-third of the test group was diagnosed with dementia; no earlier signs of dementia was shown in 1988. This research revealed that people with low cholesterol levels were 62% likely to have minuscule pieces of protein inside their brain. On the other hand, people with high cholesterol levels were 86% likely to have minuscule pieces of protein inside their brain, which clogs the brain, and reduces brain activity. From this data, it was concluded that there is a chance that people with higher cholesterol levels are more like to have Alzheimer’s. Dr. Marc L. Gordon, a researcher working for the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research for Alzheimer’s, says that high levels of “bad” cholesterol, increases the likeliness of developing Alzheimer’s later on in life.
The reason why I chose this topic of Alzheimer’s was because I have members in my family that are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. For example, my great-grandmother of age 84 has Alzheimer’s and it is really difficult to deal with those people. If I tell my great-grandmother that I just came back from school, she will forget an hour later. I have showed my great-grandmother where the bathroom was located in my house many times, but even after doing that she would still end up searching for the bathroom by opening every door and checking. I wonder how it would feel if I kept on forgetting things that were done recently. Since I had experience dealing with a loved one that has Alzheimer’s, this influenced me to learn more about this perplexing disease that affects the brain gradually. In addition, I chose this topic because I have always had an eagerness to learn about the functions and dysfunctions of the brain. Out of all the knowledge that humans had acquired over time about the human body, the brain still remains one thing that continues to perplex scientists and researchers around the world.
This article in HealthDay News was both informative and interesting. I have learned from this article that tiny bits of protein are called plaques. Now I know that plaques can form in the brain when a person has high cholesterol levels for a long period of time. These plaques actually end up clogging up the brain in various areas and from the image of the PET scan, it can be seen that this results in less brain activity than in a normal brain without Alzheimer’s. Before, I thought that Alzheimer’s can only happen when brain cells, like neurons, wear out and die. But after reading this article I was able to recognize that Alzheimer’s can also be caused by the buildup of plaque.
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"High Cholesterol Might Be Linked to Alzheimer's Disease: MedlinePlus." National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health . 12 Sept. 2011. Web. 31 Oct. 2011. <http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_116365.html.
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