1. Take Fish Oil Supplements
2. Exercise Daily
3. Do Sudoku’s & Crossword Puzzles
4. Read Something Challenging Daily
5. Eat Healthy
6) Engage In A Debate

read the rest of the 30 ways here…

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Ways to help prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

Their aim is to make people more aware of the connection between healthy living and healthy brains.

Ways of making this commitment include…

- choosing activities that challenge your brain
- being socially active
- choosing a healthy lifestyle
- protecting your head from injury

The Alzheimer Society of Canada has launched BrainBooster, an online gym to help Canadians maintain their commitment to brain health. The gym offers challenging games and puzzles, brain boosting recipes, and exercises. Canadians can access the gym by visiting the Alzheimer Society of Canada website.

Wonder if this idea will spread further than Canada ?

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Alzheimer Society of Canada’s campaign for Brain fitness.

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Video: How to prevent Alzheimer’s and other dementias.

According to this article ‘ The antiperspirant finger-pointing began more than 40 years ago with new discoveries about Alzheimer’s, a progressive dementia that affects more than five million Americans. Antiperspirants use compounds—such as aluminum chloride, aluminum chlorohydrate and aluminum zirconium—to form a temporary sweat duct plug. Researchers back then found that exposure to aluminum caused rabbits’ brains to develop nerve cell damage—thought to be a precursor to Alzheimer’s at the time—and long-term dialysis patients with high levels of the metal developed dementia’.

Fact or Fiction?

The article goes on to say…

William Thies, vice president of medical and scientific relations at the Alzheimer’s Association in Chicago, calls the notion that antiperspirants could cause Alzheimer’s disease an old legend. “One of the things that happens in Alzheimer’s brains is that they shrink,” he says. “So, you have accumulated a certain amount of aluminum in your brain, and as your brain shrinks, the concentration is going to appear high.”

This is not a new debate. Other articles over the years include:

Aluminum and Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease (1998)

Aluminium and Alzheimer’s disease (2002)

No link between aluminium uptake from food-contact articles and Alzheimer’s disease (2005)

Can Antiperspirants Cause Alzheimer’s? An Expert Answer (2006)

Alzheimer’s & Aluminum Toxicity

What’s your take on this debate?

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Fact or Fiction ? Do antiperspirants cause Alzheimer’s Disease ?

A recent study, the Rush Memory and Aging Project, focused on the connection between engaging in mentally stimulating activities and how that is related to the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

More than 700 participants with the average age of 80 were involved in this longitudinal study over a period of five years.

The results:

“The study found a cognitively active person in old age was 2.6 times less likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer’s disease than a cognitively inactive person in old age. This association remained after controlling for part cognitive activity, lifetime socioeconomic status, and current social and physical activity.” (Brightsurf.com)

So start working on the daily crossword. Take up chess or bridge. Exercise the brain.

Further reading:

Chess: A Treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease?

Brain exercise works: crossword puzzles stave off Alzheimer’s

Mind Games May Trump Alzheimer’s

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Work the brain and reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s.

Want to know more? Check out these articles:

Green tea compound Alzheimer hope

Antioxidant in Green Tea May fight Alzheimer’s

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Go Green To Protect Against Alzheimer’s.

This from Reuters UK:

“While many studies have assessed alcohol consumption and cognitive function in the elderly, this is the first study to look at how alcohol consumption affects the rate of progression of mild cognitive impairment in dementia,” study authors Dr Vincenzo Solfrizzi and Dr Francesco Panza, from the University of Bari in Italy, said in a statement.

“The mechanism responsible for why low alcohol consumption appears to protect against the progression to dementia isn’t known. However, it is possible that the arrangement of blood vessels in the brain may play a role,” Solfrizzi and Panza conclude.

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A Drink a Day May Help Those With Mild Alzheimer’s Disease.

After doing lung capacity tests on these patients, the researchers followed up 5 years later and conclude there may be a possibility of using lung funciton as a predictor for dementia risk.  They also indicate that prevention of lung disease might be a factor in decreasing this risk. 

Additional information on the study as presented at the conference can be found at the Alzheimer’s Association site above.

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Does Lung Function Predict Alzheimer’s?