Preventing Alzheimer’s disease
As with many other diagnostics that people receive, there are many things that can be done in order to prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. This disease is currently getting a lot of the specialists’ attention, because at this point there isn’t an available cure for it. Nevertheless, as the number of people that are diagnosed with Alzheimer is getting bigger and bigger every year, there are countless efforts directed toward finding a cure, or at least delaying its onset. The good news is that after several years of research, analyzing the patients and their symptoms, there are several things that can be done in order to prevent (or at least delay) the very first signs of dementia.
Alzheimer’s disease is responsible for about half of the dementia cases which are diagnosed every year. And out of these cases, about forty percent are persons diagnosed with vascular dementia.
All the specialists agree that the brain needs to be constantly stimulated; when this happens, the risk of suffering from the Alzheimer’s disease is diminished a lot. There are some factors, like the genes, which are out of our control, of course, but still there are many other aspects which we can influence in a positive way, thus helping our brain fight this terrible disease.
A healthy brain is a result of regular physical exercise, a healthy diet, a stimulating environment, good sleeping, a healthy way of managing stress and an active social life. When a person starts targeting each and every one of these six aspects, there are big chances for the brain to function well, keeping dementia at bay.
Regular physical exercise is responsible for reducing the stress levels in the body, improving the general mood of the person, improving the memory functions and increasing the energy levels. Statistics show clearly that exercise reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s by fifty percent, which is a huge number. In fact, physical exercise can prove to be useful even when cognitive deteriorations have already occurred; the brain will actually start to work better due to the special physical exercises.
There are special gymnastics programs especially designed for older people, or persons that have not been doing exercises at all. This means that no one should be afraid of starting to exercise on a regular basis. People that are interested in helping their brain work better should try to do about thirty aerobic exercises, five times a week. Gardening, cleaning or simply doing the laundry in the house are also useful and can count as physical exercises. Weight and resistance training has proved to be very useful for the brain at any age; people older than 65 should add two strength classes to their weekly physical program.
Changing the diet may also prove to be useful. Specialists advise to opt for the Mediterranean diet, which means that you should add fish, nuts, whole grains, olive oil and a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables to your daily diet. Trans fats and saturated fats are to be completely avoided. Add omega-3 fats and drink green tea, as it has proved to be directly related to memory boosting and alertness. White and oolong teas are also very good for the health of your brain. Specialists have discovered that the glial cells in the brain should be protected as much as possible; their role is to remove the debris and toxins. Ginger, green tea, fat fish, soy beans and blueberries play a very important role in protecting the glial cells in the brain.