Chronic, low-level cellular inflammation left unchecked can develop into a disease.

I gave a short talk today on Alzheimer’s disease (AD). I have written extensively on it over the past few years – nearly three dozen articles. So I gave thought to a spreadsheet listing the various causes of AD at the top and a list of natural nutrients that apply to each section.

My rough draft spreadsheet had nearly a half-dozen causes on top and almost two dozen natural nutrient options going down the side. I could not cover that much material in a fifteen-minute presentation. As a result, I will give another five, six, or seven presentations concentrating on one cause at a time.

I am not a medical doctor, nor do I work in the pharmaceutical industry. I research the human body at the cellular level looking for cause and effect relationships. Treat a cause and solve/cure a problem. Treat symptoms, and you will always treat symptoms. My research is made available to my audience first as awareness, then education.

Alzheimer’s Disease

https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/what-is-alzheimers AD is a progressive mental disease that destroys memory and other mental functions. Neuronal connections degenerate and die. Memory loss occurs over time. Initially, AD patients have confusion – finding the right word to describe a situation. Reasoning and judgment are impacted as the disease progresses. There is no cure presently.

Primary Causes of AD

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alzheimers-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20350447. It is interesting to note that when I Google ‘causes of Alzheimer’s disease,’ the answer comes back that AD is thought to be an abnormal buildup of proteins – primarily amyloid-beta and tau. Some articles reference the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene. Mostly, everything centers on plaque buildup.

People with the APOE gene are at greater risk, but it does not mean you will come down with AD if you have that gene. People without that gene also get AD.

Other Causes of AD

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/159442#causes. It seems that I must know what causes AD to get a Google response that confirms it. When approaching the general question of ‘what causes…,’ the answers are mostly pharmaceutically related.

When I ask about inflammation being a cause of AD, I get a response that says –new research suggests that inflammation may be more widely implicated in dementia than was previously thought. Without knowing ahead of time what to ask, the challenge to determine the ‘other’ causes of AD are very challenging!

My research indicates that AD is (can be) caused by inflammation, oxidative stress, amyloid-beta proteins, tau proteins, excitotoxicity, acetylcholine imbalance, and a few others. My talk today focused on inflammation as a cause of AD

Inflammation and AD

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6214864/. Chronic, low-level inflammation is the genesis of nearly every disease. Free radical damage, left unchecked, can cause a cascade over time that allows a disease to grow anywhere in the body – the brain, the lungs, the liver, the kidneys, anywhere!

Free radicals rip electrons off stable molecules to become stable molecules. The attacked molecule becomes a new free radical. Free radicals come from our metabolism, food, exercise, personal care products, our environment, toxins, and more.

Antioxidants neutralize free radical damage by providing an electron without becoming a free radical molecule. Some molecules can provide multiple electrons and act as more than one antioxidant. For example, vitamin C can provide up to six additional molecules – acting as if one molecule of vitamin C were really six molecules. PQQ (pyrroloquinoline quinone) can be manifested up to 25,000 times.
Inflammation can be measured with a CRP (c-reactive protein) blood test. It will give you a quantitative assessment of whole-body inflammation, but it will not tell you where the inflammation is in the body. I get a CRP test at every annual physical.

Brain inflammation

https://bebrainfit.com/brain-inflammation/. Diabetes, high blood sugar, poor circulation, lack of exercise, chronic stress, heart failure, respiratory failure, anemia, head trauma, gluten, alcohol, drug abuse, inflammatory bowel disease, leaky blood-brain barrier, and more can cause inflammation in the brain.

Foods that cause inflammation are sugar, cooking oils, trans-fats, dairy, commercially produced meats (from feedlots), refined grains, processed meats, food additives and preservatives, mushrooms, grapes, etc. Some anti-inflammatory foods are berries, fatty fish, broccoli, avocadoes, green tea, peppers, turmeric, olive oil, tomatoes, dark chocolate, and cherries.

Reduce Brain Inflammation

https://thefnc.com/research/do-you-have-brain-inflammation/. Depending on how you ask Google about reducing brain inflammation, you could get answers that address hyperbaric oxygen therapy, ketogenic diets, transcranial low-level light therapy, and other regenerative therapies.

Natural nutrients that provide anti-inflammatory help to the brain to address inflammation as a cause of AD are resveratrol (ensure added piperine for more bioavailability), ferulic acid, omega-3 fatty acids (primarily DHA), vitamin D, vitamin E (all eight tocopherols and tocotrienols), vitamin B6, vitamin B9, vitamin B12 (do not take any vitamin B12 that does not dissolve under your tongue), curcumin (again, make sure it contains piperine), gamma mangostin (mangosteen fruit), grape seed extract, green tea catechins (especially EGCG – epigallocatechin gallate), magnesium, apigenin, luteolin, baicalein, rutin, and several others.

Conclusion

There is probably no single cause of AD. Like heart disease, headaches, high blood pressure, and other disorders, single causes are rare. However, inflammation is a building block for disease. Shut down inflammation, and you should have a reasonable chance of reducing the risk of AD. Is it guaranteed? No, but it cannot hurt.

Live Longer & Enjoy Life! – Red O’Laughlin – RedOLaughlin.com

 

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