What is going on in the brain 20-30 years before the first symptom of Alzheimer’s?

Defeating Dementia is the life story of a lady who progressed through all three stages of Alzheimer’s.  Mrs. Dell was her name.  As you read her progression, you will also read from a medical literature point, what was going on in her brain as the disease worsened. The question is: when did Mrs. Dell initially begin developing Alzheimer’s?  Most people think Alzheimer’s is something that starts around the age 65 and progressively becomes worse as you age.  Did Mrs. Dell’s problem with her memory and her thinking and planning begin just within the past few weeks?

Or months?

Or did it start twenty years ago?

Or even thirty?

Reports and studies now reveal that the initial cellular damage in the brain begins twenty to thirty years before the first symptoms start to show. Recent advances in brain-imaging technology give us new ways to see what is going on inside your skull.  A basic understanding of what these studies show will make it easier for you to realize there are certain factors you can control to help prevent such a dreaded disease as Alzheimer’s.  There are three lifestyles which you control that will determine which road you are on.  The course you are on determines your destination. Understanding what you can be doing will help convince you that there are certain lifestyles you will emphatically want to embrace, as well as certain factors you will run from as fast as you can.

Could anything have been done in the twenty-plus years before she had any symptoms which could have prevented Alzheimer’s from stealing her life?  Was there anything she could have been doing earlier in life that would have significantly lowered the chances of developing any of the initial symptoms of Alzheimer’s?  Or, for her ever developing the full blown mental disaster that ended with being completely dependent on someone else in her latter years?  Was there really anything that she could have done?

The medical literature thinks so. You can’t prevent what your genes do but there are harmful causes you can counteract by simply changing some of your lifestyles.  An article in the medical journal Lancet stated that up to half of Alzheimer’s cases can be attributed to preventable factors and 87% of Alzheimer’s have at least one such preventable factor. 

Now, more and more studies show that action can be taken; many things can be done to help with prevention.  More risk factors are being identified that are associated with people who have Alzheimer’s.  Specific brain imaging studies now show, even prior to any symptoms, the plaques and tangles that are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s.  And even more important, the same brain imaging studies reveal that there are certain individuals who live specific healthy lifestyles that end up not having those plaques and tangles of Alzheimer’s dementia.  Just remember: Controlling your lifestyle is the only “preventive medicine” available.

Now is the time to commit to learning what you can do differently about your eating, your weight, and an exercise program that will place you into the proper group of people who fall into those that actually do something to markedly increase their odds of never getting the most dreaded disease in America – Alzheimer’s.