alzheimers news-taking these increases your risk

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-TAKING THESE INCREASES YOUR RISK

that is according to this article from the british medical journal

acetylcholine is used in the brain nerve cell connection to transport signals
across from cell to cell

if acetylcholine levels drop in these connections
a persons memory will be affected

in alzheimers disease the destruction from beta amyloid and tau
accumulation leads to the brain nerve cells damage and destruction
which leads to a drop in acetycholine
which leads to the short term memory loss you see in alzheimers disease
early on

the drugs like aricept (donepezil) that i have been on for almost
8 years and exelon (rivastigmine) increases the acetylcholine in the
nerve cell connections in the brain so that the nerves fire or work better
leading to an improvement in the alzheimers patients memory

eventually as alzheimers progresses there is so much destruction
in the brain that these meds lose their effects

the earlier in the disease you start these meds the better their effects
eg
i was started much earlier that most folks and its possible that the
aricept (donepezil) may be why i havent deteriorated yet

a couple of years ago a study was published that anticholinergics
which includes allergy antihistamines
increased your risk for developing dementia
this new study showed that these antihistamines many of us take
for allergies may not have that effect

however
those of us who take aricept (donepezil) or exelon (rivastigmine) are told
not to take these allergy meds since they may interfere with
the aricept or exelon by blocking their effects

they do this by interfering with the uptake of the acetylcholine
in those nerve connections
less acetylcholine less nerve firing
means less memory

so i dont take allergy antihistamines for that reason

for those not on aricept or exelon
you non dementia folks
the drugs that affect these acetycholine levels
eg are used for
bladder control or urinary incontinence eg oxybutynin ditropan
parkinsonism eg procyclidine kemadrin
depression eg amitryptylline elavil

long term use of these can lead to a 30% increase in dementia
other things
eg smoking can increase the risk well over 50%
not controlling diabetes and blood pressure and or cholesterol
and or weight and or lack of exercising  and or proper diet
increase the risk dramatically

in fact
a population as shown in european studies who stop smoking
and do all those healthy things may decrease the risk
of developing dementia by 40%

so
like with all meds
you have to way their side effects vs their benefits

the secret
take real good care of your health

i was recently contacted by someone who has short term
memory issues who is about to undergo memory testing
at a large alzheimers research center
i explained what testing was going to be done and
how it would probably feel to do the testing

after listening to their story
the best thing they can do for their memory is not meds
its
controlling their weight diabetes blood pressure cholesterol
improve their diet stop smoking control their cholesterol
fix sleep issues control their depression

uh 20 years ago would have been nice for them to have
done all that
but its never to late to start

the organicgreen doctor