WEEK 4: brain disease Flashcards
dementia =
Umbrella term for loss of memory and other thinking abilities severe enough to interfere with daily life.
What happens when you have alzheimers in your brain?
- Neurofibrillary tangles: inside the cell
- Amyloid plaques: outside the cell, impairing neuronal communication
Symptoms alzheimers?
- Memory loss
- Disorientation to time
- Difficulty with day to day tasks
- Confusion and disorientation
- Difficulty speaking and writing
- Repetitive questioning
- Decreased social interaction and withdrawal
- Hallucinations and paranoia
Prevalence/Incidence dementia?
Incidence: every year about 10 million new cases (one every 3 sec)
Prevalence: 50 million people worldwide
Increasing from 60 onwards, high income countries highest cases.
What distinguishes dementia from many other diseases in terms of health care?
Economic burden of social care incredibly high
Why is finding a treatment so difficult?
Blood/brain barrier
Lot of side effects
Exact underlying mechanisms still unclear and heterogeneous
20 or more years before symptoms appear, brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease may begin.
Risk factors cognitive decline and dementia?
Non-modifiable:
Age
Gender
Genes
Modifiable:
Smoking
BMI/obesity
Physical activity
Cognitive activity
Diabetes/CVD
Sleep
Stress
Diet
Genes and dementia: explain? Also protective gene PLCG2?
If you have early- or late onset dementia genes, the chance you will get dementia is high.
However, there is also a rare genetic variant in the protective gene: PLCG2
Role in immune system signalling
Associated with reduced risk of Alzheimer’s
Influence of gender on dementia?
Gender: predominance in women
(They become older)
Related to cardiovascular disease in men, they die from that sooner
Why is more hearing loss associated with dementia?
Mechanism similar for hearing loss and Alzheimer’s
Being obese/overweight?
Being obese: Risk factor. Being overweight, not.
