Research & Leadership

Hi all!

Since a lot of us went to the pava leadership conference and heard from the Alzheimer's association on 10 healthy brain habits, I figured I should recap what we learned for those of us who couldn't be there.

• The brain is made of 86 billion neurons and probably the same amount (or more) glia cells (helpers)

• Alzheimer's is a progressive dementia that kills neurons, starting in the regions of the brain responsible for making new memories and eventually spreading all over the brain

• We don't know what causes it. However, we do have some compelling biomarkers.

• Neurodegeneration appears to be driven by the complex interplay between misfolded proteins amyloid beta and tau. People also think inflammation driven by overreactive glia cells can contribute to further destruction.

• Alzheimer's can be genetic. The most common late onset Alzheimer's type is often associated with two copies of the apoe4 allele of the apoe gene, which codes for a protein responsible for fat transport. There's other genes too, but nothing that definitively causes ad

• What can we do about this????

• Challenge your mind

• Stay in school

• Protect your head

• Control blood pressure

• Eat well (mediterranean/DASH diets have been shown to help)

• Dont smoke

• Manage diabetes

• Maintain a healthy weight

• Sleep well

• Exercise

It's never too early to start doing these things.