Medical Minute: What causes dementia?
Almost 50% of dementia is preventable according to the latest research published in the Lancet, a leading medical journal.
Research also shows it is possible to reverse or slow down the changes through lifestyle habits.
What causes dementia, if it’s preventable and can be slowed down?
This article explains the causes of dementia from two perspectives:
What happens at the cellular level in the brain and,
What happens at the holistic level of the “whole person”
The science reviewed in this article underpins what we do at aldora and our belief in the immense power of prevention.
What Happens in the Brain?
Forgetfulness - or other “cognitive” concerns like trouble with speaking, personality changes, or decision-making - happen due to the build up of certain proteins in the brain that shouldn’t be there.
Different types of dementia have different kinds of protein build-up, which is why it has been so hard for researchers to find a cure.
For example:
Alzheimer’s disease is caused by beta-amyloid plaques and phosphorylated tau
Parkinson’s dementia and Dementia with Lewy Body is caused by alpha-synuclein
Frontotemporal dementia is caused by phosphorylated tau
LATE is caused by TDP-43
etc….
Eventually, this build-up causes damage to your brain cells, followed by death of the brain cells and shrinking of the brain (called “atrophy”).
On top of this, you can also have something called “vascular dementia”, which is caused by lack of blood flow to the brain from mini-strokes or strokes.
When this happens, cells die not from the build-up of protein, but from the lack of oxygen.
What happens at the holistic level?
Researchers have made a shocking discovery - you can have extensive protein build-up or stroke damage without symptoms of dementia.
In fact, for many people who have beta-amyloid in their brain, they will never go on to develop Alzheimer’s Dementia.
This is believed to be due to something called “cognitive reserve”.
At the holistic level, dementia symptoms are caused by an imbalance between the strength of your brain and the amount of damage that has happened (both protein-damage and stroke-damage).
Strength and damage is made up from a combination of brain health, emotional health, and heart-health factors.
This. Is. Huge.
The cellular changes are important for researchers and the pharmaceutical industry looking for an ultimate cure to the disease.
For you and I, what matters right now is whether we have symptoms or not. It doesn’t really matter if we have protein build-up if we never see any signs of it in our day-to-day lives.
This brings us to the obvious question - how can we strengthen the brain and/or prevent damage?
the aldora 18 for dementia prevention
The aldora 18, covered in this article, can help you avoid dementia symptoms by both building up the strength of your brain and reducing things that cause damage.
Stroke-damage is primarily caused by heart-health risk factors (like smoking, cholesterol, and high blood pressure, blood sugar, or weight), which were discussed here.
Alzheimer’s protein-damage is more common in those with a genetic link (eg. ApoE ε4 allele), making it even more important that those with the gene or strong family history build strength and reduce other forms of damage.
Timing Matters
As we discussed in the medical minute on neuroplasticity, you can change and heal your brain.
However, the best time to do it is when the damage is just starting.
Once the damage has caused cell-death and atrophy, it becomes harder and harder to build strength that is strong enough to overcome those changes.
This is why starting early is ideal. This includes when you have:
No damage (normal cognition)
The inklings of damage (mild cognitive impairment)
Early damage (early dementia)
Once you are in moderate stages of dementia, the focus shifts to managing the changes and planning for the future, as unfortunately there is very little we can do at this time to stop the spreading of damage throughout the brain.
In Closing…
Dementia is caused at the cellular level by stroke-damage and protein-damage, which both cause cell-death and shrinking of the brain.
However, you may never actually experience symptoms of dementia if you are able to build enough strength or reduce the damage before it gets out of hand.
The aldora 18 can guide you through all dementia prevention targets.
Read the evidence:
Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2024 report of the Lancet standing commission (Livingston et al, Lancet, 2024, found here).
Combining modifiable risk factors and risk of dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis. (Peters et al, BMJ Open, 2019, found here).
Healthy aging and dementia: findings from the Nun Study. (Snowden D, Annals of Internal Medicine, 2003, found here).
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