Whose Brain Is It?
by Leena Prasad

“Maybe you should start smoking pot,” her daughter says and laughs.

“Does it help?” Patricia says, not laughing.

“Well, the THC in cannabis has been shown to be useful.”

“THC?”

“I couldn’t tell you what it stands for; it’s a very long name. It’s an active ingredient in marijuana and has been shown to help delay the onset.”

“But smoking can cause so many other problems,” Patricia says.

“Well, you can ingest medical marijuana in other, safer ways.”

They are talking about prevention for a type of brain disease. The Scripps Research Institute found a possible link between THC and the prevention of plaque formation in the brain. But, more recent studies at the Brain Research Center in Canada and the Maudsley Hospital in Denmark, have refuted this claim. Cannabis has not been scientifically vetted as a preventive method for this disease.

Leena Prasad has a journalism degree from Stanford University. Her writing portfolio is available at www.FishRidingABike.com and she can be reached at leena@fishridingabike.com.

“By the way, that French class you are taking is also good. I’ve heard that learning a second language, later in life, is good for the brain,” says her daughter.

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Patricia says. “I saw on the internet that being intellectually and socially active is helpful. I just got a Sudoku app on my iPhone.”

“Good. Anyway, I don’t think you are at risk, mom. You read so much!”

It’s a common myth that people with higher brain activity are not at risk. Brain activity may reduce risk but does not eliminate it because some brilliant and intellectually engaged people have been known to get this disease.

In addition to mental exercises, physical activity has also been noted to be associated with lower risk. The blood flow increase created by aerobic exercise has the same effect on the brain as it does for other parts of the body.

Based on some information she found in books and on the internet, Patricia has added a daily ritual of drinking coffee in the morning and red wine with dinner. She has changed her diet back to the Greek diet that she grew up with which includes bread, wheat, olive oil, fish, and a lot of fruits and vegetables. There are a lot of speculations on possible measures for prevention of this disease and it’s easy to find information that might not be scientifically substantiated.

What brain problem is Patricia trying to avoid? Can you guess? Patricia is 51-yrs-old. A close friend of hers, Anna, who is only ten years older, has been diagnosed recently with this disease and Patricia is guarding her own brain. They were both enrolled in the same French class but Anna had to drop out because she was having a lot of trouble learning new vocabulary words. Later, Anna started having trouble forming clear sentences in English. At first she waved it off as memory loss associated with old age. She finally had to get herself checked out when she got lost one day on her daily walk and someone from the neighborhood had to take her back home.

Her family doctor was very concerned with this change in Anna’s behavior. After he ruled out potential causes for forgetfulness like stress, history of neural problems, and stroke, he did a special PET scan. He found some indications of plaques and tangles in her brain. Anna did not understand the doctor’s explanations but Patricia, who was with her, did.

Plaques and tangles are terms for biochemical accumulations in the neurons (brain nerve cells). There are abnormal proteins, called beta amyloid, that are eliminated in a healthy brain. When they do not break and dissolve, they form plaques of dead and dying cells and can cause interference with normal neural functions. Tangles are an abnormal twisting of tiny structures within nerve cell called microtubules. Microtubules aid in transporting nutrients and other necessary substances from one part of the neuron to another. They become twisted or collapsed in a diseased brain.

Plaques and tangles indicate the possibility of Alzheimer’s. Anna is probably in the moderate stage of the disease based on some of the behaviors she is exhibiting.

There are seven specific states of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) as identified by experts but there are four distinct stages of AD: pre-dementia, early, moderate, and advanced. A definitive medical diagnosis cannot be made in the “early” stage. The symptoms range from forgetfulness, to subtle changes in personality. At the “moderate” stage of Alzheimer’s, the skills of memory, speaking, reading, and writing become impaired. Long time memory, which at this point had been intact, is likely to be impacted also. The person might wander aimlessly and get lost. They might cry for no reason or act aggressively or be unusually irritable. At the final, “advanced” stage, the person is unable to speak much even though their comprehension might be somewhat preserved. They could become bedridden and also become unable to feed themselves.

There is no definitive cure for AD although there is a huge amount research that is being done. The currently available medications only work for about half the patients and even among those the results are not significant and usually only temporary. Scientists are considering many different approaches ranging from looking at the effect of genetics, food, vitamins, lifestyle, exposure to certain metals, and so forth. New discoveries are being made every day regarding preventive measures.

Several studies, documented by the National Institute of Health, have found that curcumin in the turmeric spice, widely used in India, has shown to prevent brain damage in mice. Researchers believe that it’s the anti-oxidant properties of curcumin which is responsible for this result. More research will be required to make a direct correlation to the human brain and the prevention of AD. Alzheimer’s is less common in India than it is in other countries. But, this could potentially be due to other factors such as lifestyle choices or simply that the disease is not tracked with the same scientific rigor as in other countries.

It is possible that no amount of caution will prevent AD but it is also possible that all the things that Patricia is doing might keep her safe and help her friend Anna in mitigating the impact of the final stage. Until there is a definitive cure, the best that can be done is to use the information that is currently available, even if it’s not fully vetted by scientific research.

Many cases of Alzheimer’s disease are not familial although there is genetic predisposition in some cases. So, the question can be asked as to whether the plaques and tangles are formed because of lifestyle choices or is it the other way around? There are no easy answers when it comes to the brain and its biochemical components. It is always good to be aware, however, of potentially preventive measures.

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Dr. Nicola Wolfe is the neuroscience consultant for this column. She earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychopharmacology from Harvard University and has taught neuroscience courses for over 20 years at various universities.

References for this article: alz.org, health.nih.gov, 100 Simple Things You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer’s and Age-Related Memory Loss by Jean Carper.