TAKE SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT

With life expectancy on the rise, Alzheimer’s is becoming a serious cause for concern. Even as medical researches keep giving prescriptions, observations suggest that this degenerative disease of aging is still not being tamed. Let us talk about how the disease develops. The one popular assumption about Alzheimer’s is that the brain cells gradually degenerate and die with aging.

A commonly offered analogy is of a large and heavily illuminated room in which hundreds of bulbs are glowing. As these bulbs cannot last forever, they gradually lose the strength to glow and get blown off. Naturally, the illumination level of the room will slowly decrease till it turns completely dark. To a certain extent this analogy does explain the onset and rise of Alzheimer’s. Aging brain actually resembles this phenomenon.

But there is a difference between electric bulbs and the brain cells. And this difference is important. Human cells are organic and living systems and they don’t follow the law of entropy. That is, they draw stimulation and inputs from the external environment and thus can continue to charge themselves as long as they are able to interact with the environment and draw energy. Of course, this ability is also limited, but it certainly can give longer sustainability.

The boundaries of these living cells are permeable and usually draw more than what they dissipate. So in medical terms they have a self-regenerating mechanism as they are dynamic and in continuous interaction with the external environment.

Simply stated with the help of this dynamic interaction, the cells will be able to prolong their life. In most cases, the problem arises due to disuse atrophy, that is the capacity to regenerate will decline and finally end if the living system is not put to use. It is something similar to what happens in the case of a fractured limb that is plastered and immobilised. That is the reason why doctors advise patients to keep moving the open parts of the plastered limb.

There have been cases of aged people who could delay and sometimes defy Alzheimer’s. There are researches that suggest that reading, thinking and keeping the mind active may have positive contributions in keeping Alzheimer’s at bay. A study at Wisconsin Medical School conducted on 2,000 aged people has found that studying is good for health. Another New York doctor has opined that brain activity has an overall salutary effect on health, particularly mental health. Such activities keep the permeability of cells agile and ensure longevity.

Normally, it is assumed that studying is a passive activity, but the fact is that it activates the whole system. Our sense organs become vibrant and are charged. For the aged, studying can have miraculous effects on health, both mental and physical. Studying is also a kind of exercise, and a useful one. The best way to defy Alzheimer’s is to continuously let the brain cells remain active.

It is, of course, important to understand that aging is a genetically determined activity and biology will be an important moderator, but the crucial importance of psychology cannot be denied. Thinking positive is good for the head and heart. So let ‘think more and live more’ be your slogan for life. This food for thought can help in giving strength and life to the brain cells and thus help them remain alive and kicking.