Neuro Note on Preventative Actions that Can be Taken to Avoid Alzheimer's

The name of the Ted Talk I watched for my fourth Neuro Note was titled “What You Can do to Prevent Alzheimer's” by Lisa Genova. I chose this video because I have heard accolades about the speaker. The title also caught my attention because I was unaware of any strategies that might help prevent Alzheimer’s. While I was watching I took detailed notes and tried to relate the information being discussed to what I have learned in Neuro Aspects and to what I know about occupational therapy.

In the beginning of the video, the speaker discussed how the risk of Alzheimer’s increases with age and that there is no disease modifying medication or cure currently. She then simplified how Alzheimer’s is caused in the brain by saying that amyloid beta accumulates due to microglia not “cleaning up” like the typically do, which then results in plaques that block synapses and prevent neurotransmitter communication. Once the amyloid beta reaches a certain threshold, the microglia get turned back on and sent into overdrive in efforts to try and clean up the plaques. Despite their efforts, the microglia can actually then damage then synapses themselves, which leads to further complications. One interesting thing that she mentioned was that people can have evidence of plaques as early as 10 to 15 years before they become symptomatic and get diagnosed. She then discussed that most medications that have been or are being developed are preventative – meaning that they aim to prevent amyloid beta plaques reaching that threshold. She then proceeded to discuss alternative ways in which the plaques created with Alzheimer’s can be worked around by increasing one’s cognitive reserve. A cognitive reserve is about someone having more than one pathway to a given topic, this increases the odds of that topic not being forgotten, or blocked by plaque, because there are multiple routes to get to the given topic, rather than just one. In addition to this, Lisa discussed criteria that places people at a higher risk for Alzheimer’s like not getting enough sleep, obesity, cardiovascular problems and smoking.

By watching this video and writing this Neuro Note, I gained a deeper understanding of what Alzheimer’s is and how it is caused. In the future, it would be helpful to use the information I learned in order to help explain things to potential client’s and caregivers for people who have Alzheimer’s. In addition to this, my knowledge can help me inform my potential clients about the preventative actions, they can take to decrease their risk of getting the disease – like working on creating a cognitive reserve, prioritizing sleep and improving cardiovascular health. I would recommend this video because it is informative, interesting and the speaker did a great job presenting!  

A hyperlink to the video is provided here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twG4mr6Jov0

Reference

Genova, L. (2017, May). What you can do to prevent Alzheimer's [Video file].

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twG4mr6Jov0