3. Heart Health = Brain Health
Prevent heart disease and
stroke
– Watch for high blood
pressure in mid-life and
manage
– Control high cholesterol
Weight
– Obesity increases risk of AD
Diabetes
Smoking
4. What Can You Do?
Exercise
– Persons who walked five
times a week for 20-30 min.
had reduced risk.
– Get a pedometer – set goals!
Monitor and control your
numbers
– BP, blood glucose, weight
Quit smoking
5. Actions for maintaining
brain health
•
Watch your medical numbers
•
Take care of your heart
•
Maintain a healthy weight
•
Get some exercise
•
Eat more veggies, less fat
Stay mentally active and socially
connected
•
6. Eat Right
Diets rich in:
– Anti-oxidants
• Vitamin C and E
–
–
–
–
Omega-3 fatty acids
Dark green leafy vegetables
Folic acid and folate, B vitamins
Red wine? Dark chocolate?
Diets low in saturated and trans fats
Read labels!!!
7. Brain Smart Nutrition
Antioxidants: Vitamin E and C. Foods such as
blueberries, strawberries, nuts
The B Vitamins: B6 and B12 (B6 foods such as
potatoes, bananas, chicken breasts, white turkey,
brown rice, rainbow trout. etc.) Folic acid and folate
(Vit. B9) cereal, broccoli, bananas, peas, asparagus,
spaghetti, bread, oranges, and nuts
Vitamins as needed in response to our body needs
and to supplement what some medications may take
away. Check with nutritionist or dietitian.
The Mediterranean Diet
8. Psychological and
Social Well-being
Lower stress and decrease
stress hormone cortisol
Recognize and treat depression
Seek out social connectedness
Keep a purpose in life
9. Increase Mental Stimulation!
Exercise your mind
Develop a system of
reminders and cues
Take time to remember
things
Learn relaxation techniques
Keep a positive attitude
Check your levels
Keep your perspective
- Dr. Paul Takahashi
10. Ways to Exercise Your Mind
Use your non dominant hand one day a week for the
entire day.
Try doing an everyday activity with your eyes closed.
Take a new route to work, home, or the supermarket.
Move items around in a room to “shake things up a bit”.
Take a class at the local college on a new subject.
Play word games or use a new word everyday.
-Keep Your Brain Alive, Lawrence C. Katz Ph.D. and
Manning Rubin
11. Memory Enhancement
Techniques
Focus your attention
Use associations
Write things down
Repeat information
Rely on placement
Review photo albums or yearbooks
12. Summary: Prevention of
Alzheimer’s
No proven strategy. Best evidence points to:
Keep physically active
Control heart disease risk factors
High blood pressure and cholesterol
Excess weight
Type 2 diabetes
Smoking
Be intellectually and socially active
Participate in research, advocate for
Alzheimer’s research funding
Hinweis der Redaktion
The Alzheimer's Association is the world leader across Alzheimer's advocacy, research and support. To enhance and strengthen this global leadership position, as well as expand the depth, breadth and pace of the Alzheimer's movement, we must do more. We have local chapters across the nation, providing services within each community.
From fiscal year 2012 through 2014, the Association's strategic plan aims to aggressively advance the mission of the Alzheimer's Association.
The Alzheimer's Association 2013 Alzheimer's Disease Facts & Figures report reveals that 1 in 3 seniors dies with Alzheimer’s or another dementia.
Ambiguity about the underlying cause of death can make it difficult to determine how many people die from Alzheimer’s or another dementia. The true number of deaths caused by Alzheimer’s is likely to be somewhere between the officially reported number of those dying with Alzheimer’s (450,000) and those dying from Alzheimer’s (83,494).
Seventy-year-olds with Alzheimer’s disease are more than twice (61%) as likely to die within a decade as 70-year-olds without Alzheimer’s (30%).
Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S., more than prostate cancer and breast cancer combined.
In 2000, there were an estimated 411,000 new cases of Alzheimer’s disease. For 2010, that number was estimated to be 454,000 new cases (10% increase).
By 2050, it is projected to be 959,000 new cases (130% increase from 2000).
By 2025, the number of people age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s disease is estimated to reach 7.1 million – a 40% increase from 5 million aged 65 and older currently affected.
Barring the development of medical breakthroughs to prevent, slow or stop the disease, by 2050, the number of people age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s disease is projected to reach 13.8 million. Previous estimates suggest that this number could reach as high as 16 million.
We know that whatever triggers AD begins to damage the brain years before symptoms appear. Damage can start as early as late 30s and early 40s.
Heart and brain have always been connected, especially in our vocabulary. Aristotle thought that the brain was a cooling mechanism for the body.
Heart associations we have made for centuries are really functions of the brain!
The repository of one’s deepest and sincerest emotions and sentations: A SUBJECT DEAR TO HER HEART
Character, disposition: A PERSON AFTER MY OWN HEART
Love, affection: THE CHILD WON MY HEART
Courage, fortitute: THE SOLDIERS LOST HEART AND RETREATED.
Firmness of will: I DIDN’T HAVE THE HEART TO TURN HER DOWN.
Some more: LEARN BY HEART, TO BE NEAR TO ONE’S HEART, TO ONE’S HEART CONTENT, WITH HALF A HEART, WEAR ONE’S HEART ON ONE’S SLEEVE, HEART AND SOUL.
What do you do?
Exercise increases the number of neurotransmitters. Increases gray matter (neurons) and white matter (connections).
Exercise – You don’t have to work out for hours on end. Start slow and do something you enjoy.
Monitor your numbers – If your doc doesn’t check, ask to have it checked. These areas can be important signals for silent problems.
PRESENTER - OPTIONAL
Deep breathing exercise –
Have you ever watched a baby breathe? They breathe with their abdomen. This is the way we were meant to breathe.
Have everyone interlace their fingers.
Put fingers over belly button.
Breathe in through your nose and feel your stomach push your fingers out.
Breathe out through your mouth.
Repeat a few times.
Use this as a chance to relax and send additional oxygen to your brain.
Foods high in folic acid – cereal, broccoli, bananas, peas, asparagus, spaghetti, bread, oranges, and nuts
Red wine and dark chocolate in moderation.
Check with your doctor before starting red wine to make sure it does not interfere with medications or conditions.
The Mediterranean Diet
The most commonly-understood version of the Mediterranean diet was presented by Dr. Walter Willett of Harvard University's School of Public Health in the mid-1990s.
Based on "food patterns typical of Crete, much of the rest of Greece, and southern Italy in the early 1960s",
this diet, in addition to "regular physical activity" (e.g. farm labor), emphasizes
abundant plant foods (including fruits and vegetables, breads and grains, beans, nuts, and seeds)
fresh fruit as the typical daily dessert,
olive oil as the principal source of fat,
dairy products (principally cheese and yogurt), and fish and poultry consumed in low to moderate amounts,
zero to four eggs consumed weekly,
red meat consumed in low amounts, and wine consumed in low to moderate amounts".
Total fat in this diet is 25% to 35% of calories, with saturated fat at 8% or less of calories.
Drinking red wine, in moderation, for some
The diet is often cited as beneficial for being low in saturated fat and high in monounsaturated fat and dietary fiber. (SOURCES: wikipedia.com, mediterraneandiet.gr, mayoclinic.com)
The Mediterranean diet is thought to reduce your risk of heart disease. In fact, a 2007 study conducted in the United States found that both men and women who consumed a Mediterranean diet lowered their risk of death from both heart disease and cancer. (SOURCE: MAYOCLINIC.COM)
Think about stress and how you can reduce it!!
What do you do for stress reduction? Do you do it everyday? Do you recognize when you are under a lot of stress?
Dr. Paul Takahashi is an assistant professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and has written numerous articles on the importance of brain health.
There’s no proven way to prevent Alzheimer’s disease
There are strong preliminary data to guide our efforts while we support more research
Regular exercise should be part of everyone’s overall wellness plan
Proven cardiovascular benefits
Growing evidence links heart health and brain health
Maintains bone strength and joint flexibility
May help mood
Everything you do to protect your heart may also protect your brain. Evidence—including Dr. Alzheimer’s first observation of Auguste D.—suggests that many people with Alzheimer pathology also have brain vascular changes.
Intellectually and socially stimulating activities help make life more satisfying, and may help preserve mental function.