Alzheimer’s can be prevented through anti-aging therapies, study says

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: Alzheimer's, anti-aging, health news

(NaturalNews) Researchers from the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences have come to the conclusion that studying the way people age rather than the diseases they develop is the key to preventing disease. Particularly with Alzheimer's Disease, the group believes that the toxic clumps of beta amyloid plagues that build up in the brain are slow to develop and can be prevented through anti-aging therapies.

Dr. Ehud Cohen, author of the study, explained that the IGF-1 growth hormone that is present in all people can be slowed down to prevent aging and the onset of Alzheimer's. Utilizing this approach, Cohen and his team claim that life can be extended by 35 percent or more when IGF-1 signaling is properly limited.

Beta amyloid plaques are said to be present in everyone's brain, however healthy cells are able to control them and regulate their growth when a person is young. It is when a person becomes old that the plaques take over and lead to severe neurological disorders like Alzheimer's.

What was found as a result of the study was that mice whose IGF-1 hormones were reduced remained biologically young even in their old age. The mice who aged normally didn't get Alzheimer's until late in their lives but, unlike the treated group, their brains slowly became overridden with plaques.

Researchers consider the findings breakthrough as they give further understanding to the aging process and how the growth of amyloid plaques is able to take place. Prevention of the normal degenerative results of aging was found to be both possible and effective for preventing Alzheimer's.

Comments by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

I'm always fascinated by western medicine's fixation on "amyloid plaques" to explain Alzheimer's disease. The preoccupation of western medicine with physical explanations of disease seems childish and ignorant. The real truth about Alzheimer's disease is that amyloid plaques are just the side effect of the underlying cause which is inflammation of the brain.

This inflammation, in turn, is caused primarily by the consumption of a highly inflammatory diet of processed foods, processed dairy products, cooked foods and junk foods. If you do this over a lifetime, you'll experience all sorts of inflammatory diseases including Alzheimer's.

Remember this: Before the age of processed foods (from the 1950's on), Alzheimer's was an extremely rare condition. It was so rare that doctors traveled long distances just to study the brains of people who died with the condition. A century ago, Alzheimer's disease was an oddity; today it's the norm. And our processed food diets are largely to blame.

Sources for this story include:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-...