5 Early Alzheimer’s Clues to watch for

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Losing Ones own Navigation Skills is a top Alzheimer’s Clue

Hippocampus is a complex brain structure embedded deep into temporal lobe. It has a major role in learning and memory. It is a plastic and vulnerable structure that gets damaged by a variety of stimuli.

DEPRESSION AND SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL

People who suffer from depression earlier in life are more likely to develop Early Alzheimer’s as they age. A study by the Multi-Institutional Research in Alzheimer’s Genetic Epidemiology group, led by Robert Fredrick’s  published an article in  the Records of Neuroscience in 2007, found a significant link between Alzheimer’s diagnoses and people who had shown symptoms of depression within the past year. So while doctors have long noted that people with Alzheimer’s tend to become depressed and withdraw socially, recent studies show that the depression predates dementia.

Having Sleep Problems

Another early sign  is sleep disorders such as sleep apnea have been linked to cognitive deficits. Previous studies found Alzheimer’s plaque developing in mice’s brains when their sleeping schedules were significantly disrupted.

A study released in 2012 correlated sleep disruption and Alzheimer’s in humans. The Washington University study, led by Davis Sanders of the college’s Department of Neurology, studied 350 cognitively normal people. Those with markers for Alzheimer’s, as measured in their spinal fluid, were the worst sleepers.

They spent more of their time in bed awake and napped more frequently during the day than those without the Alzheimer’s bio markers. Sleep apnea is also linked to nighttime cardiac events and high blood pressure, both of which also correlate with Alzheimer’s.  Remember, this makes being a caregiver easier.

A FEW LIFESTYLE TIPS TO END ON HOPEFUL NOTE

Despite what he describes about the disease within much of the medical community, Sanders emphasizes that there’s hope. Early Alzheimer’s medications to treat the disease have improved in the past 16 years, he says. The field itself is moving forward very rapidly. Granted, there are lots of frustrations and failures in looking for Alzheimer’s Clues.

However, that doesn’t mean the science has stood still. The are many Alzheimer’s Clues to evaluate. MED-Q recommends making lifestyle changes as a preventative strategy right away. For example, eat your greens. Exercise. Another example, proper medication compliance with a pill dispenser with alarms. Value your social connections, and use your brain power. “You should not wait. The reason, by the time you become symptomatic, the pathology in your brain is.