More than likely, you have heard of Alzheimer’s
disease and understand how it affects memory. But chances are the majority of
people don’t know much beyond that. Jeremy Stierwalt understands the challenges
of Alzheimer’s disease. Jeremy Stierwalt has spent many hours fundraising for
research and to support the care of Alzheimer’s patients.
“There are treatments for Alzheimer’s. The
disease is degenerative and cannot be stopped but symptoms can be slowed down.
Like many diseases, the best chance of mitigating the progression of the
disease comes from early detection, but there is lots of promising new research
for treatments,” says Jeremy Stierwalt.
For years, Alzheimer’s research has focused on a
protein believed to be the main cause of the disease. According to Jeremy
Stierwalt, the name of the protein is amyloid beta and forms the clumps of
plaque recognized in the brain scans of Alzheimer’s patients. The problem is,
even though the protein recognized as a contributing factor, it may not be the
only contributing factor of the disease, says Jeremy Stierwalt.
An additional problem is that plaque buildup in the brain is a long process and
doesn’t start once Alzheimer’s symptoms start.
“There is a new idea about Alzheimer’s disease
that deals with the brain’s synapses,” says Jeremy Stierwalt. A new idea to
come out of research is that diseases afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease lose
synaptic communications and neurons die. Jeremy Stierwalt says that the failure
of synaptic connections is critical because it is synapses that retain
memories.
“More research is going into what is called
synapses pruning. This is the idea that, while the brain naturally prunes
synapses, an Alzheimer’s brain goes into overdrive and starts pruning many more
synapses than in a healthy brain, thereby causing memory loss,” explains Jeremy Stierwalt.
One reason a cure for Alzheimer’s has not been
found comes from its lack of public outreach. “More is being done now to push
research and recognition of Alzheimer’s as a problem than ever before. Thirty
years ago, we didn’t hear nearly enough about it or other diseases. Now, people
are talking about it, but the funding for research hasn’t caught up,” says
Jeremy Stierwalt.
For now, research involves studying a brain
already afflicted, but to know more, the early stages of the disease need to be
studied. “Research has started to look for genetic risk factors. Researchers
need to study the brain before symptoms start. There is still much to be
learned before a cure can be made,” says Jeremy Stierwalt.
For more on Alzheimer’s research, Jeremy
Stierwalt invites you to read more at:
No comments:
Post a Comment