Never before I have heard so much about Alzheimer disease than in the last few years. My first encounter with this disease was two years ago when one of my best friends from college has been diagnosed with this debilitated and devastating disease.
This year while I attended a dinner with old friends I asked one of them for specific business information. He looked at me with blank eyes and could not speak for few moments. His wife stepped in to help. Quite an awkward moment and in an instance I realized something was terribly wrong, that he could not explain something he knew well. To my painful surprise a few days later I found out that he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer. He is under 60.
Alzheimer’s disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disease that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, even the ability to carry out the simplest tasks of daily living. In most people with Alzheimer’s symptoms first appear after age 60. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia among older people.
Now, how this terrible disease has any connection with heart disease? Doing all the research I am doing for health and wellness I came across valuable information on this issue in an article written by Dr. Brenda Watson which I like to share with you. Dr. Brenda Watson is saying:
“It’s never too early to start thinking about heart health, even as a young adult. Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, and as a mother and a natural health educator I have always stressed the importance of promoting good diet and lifestyle habits early in life to support ongoing cardiovascular health. Now, a new study out of the University of California, San Francisco has found that being heart healthy as a young adult may pay off in another way: a healthier brain later on”.
More than 3,000 participants between the ages of 18 and 30 took part in a 25 years study which was among the first to look certain heart disease risk factors in young people – primarily blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol levels – and their effects on cognitive function as early as midlife. Interestingly, better heart health early on was linked to better thinking, memory, learning and decision making skills later.
Specifically, those participants with high blood pressure and high glucose levels at the onset of the study performed poorly across the board when asked to undergo a series of cognitive tests in the final year. With regard to cholesterol levels, although no significant differences were noted, some participants with higher cholesterol scored lower when tested for learning and memory function.
“We know these risk factors are important later in life but what is new is that they seem to be important for cognitive health even going from young to mid adulthood” the study’s lead author Dr. Kristine Yaffe said in a recent article. This is the first time anyone has shown this correlation.
Yes, this is one of the first studies of its kind, and yes, we still have a lot to learn about the far-reaching effects of heart health throughout life.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to start developing good habits early in life. In this regard LifeBotanica launches a product which fights anti- aging through the tremendous concentration of Resveratrol, grape seeds extracts, CQ10 and Lutein Zexatne. All these ingredients help your blood pressure, lower cholesterol level and slow down the aging gland – SIRTI gland – and in addition help fight Alzheimer.
I find out that the more we know the better we have the power to prevent illness, and the more we know (and the more we pass on relevant information) the closer we are to having all a healthy heart.
