Aren't Canadians playing enough bridge?

[Hanoi5]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100104/wl_can...ada_us_dementia

 

What causes Alzheimer? Doesn't bridge (or chess or doing the crossword puzzle on a daily basis) help fight it, prevent it?

[kfay]

Maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong but from what I remember from my Physiology and Cell Biology is:

 

There are several proteins in your nervous system whose malfunction is a possible cause of Alzheimer's Disease. Proteins are made of long strings of amino acids that, when folded in a particular way, produce a sort of machine. In general, structure defines function, so a protein that folds into the shape of a pair of biological scissors might be well equipped to cut things that need to be cut (e.g. spliceosomes cut unwanted code from transcribed mRNA strands before the end result is translated into other proteins).

 

Proteins like to 'fold' acording to the laws of thermodynamics, but are also influenced by other proteins and molecules in the interior of cells. They will try to take the shape that holds the least amount of energy, so hydrophobic chemical groups will tend to be 'folded' into the interior of a protein where water molecules are scarce at best, and hydrophillic molecules will be more common on the exterior, since the protein will be surrounded by water.

 

Sometimes, proteins fold incorrectly, and don't fuction. Usually there are proteins (called chaperones) that come in and kind of give strange-looking proteins a 'kick' in the rear end to put them into the proper configuration. However, the risk proteins ascociated with Alzheimer's Disease, for reasons that are not fully understood, will fold incorrectly then cause other copies of the same protein that are being produced to fold incorrectly as well. These incorrectly folded proteins crystalize, in a sense, and form aggregates or plaques, which can't be altered by chaperones since they're too big (or possibly because the chaperones don't even realize something is wrong). You can think of it as crystals forming in general. If you make a super-saturated sugar solution in a smooth cup... no crystals form, even though there is more dissolved than should be. But put a piece of string in the syrup to give it an irregular surface and the next day... rock candy! The incorrectly folded proteins pull other proteins out of solution in their physiological-detrimental state.

 

Nerves are basically electrical conductors. And these plaques really impede electrical conduction and so make nerve conduction slower and impede the ability to obtain an action potential (electrical potential difference) necessary for the nerve to realize it has to fire. They also remove important proteins from the cytosol and could (though this isn't proven... like anything else that I've said :P) destroy memories themselves. Memory and the brain are obviously a very vague areas of science. But from what I can recall some nerve cells are able to receive input signals and become 'programmed' to 'fire' more easily when the same input is reproduced... so when many factors come together to stimulate nerve cells in a particular way they produce a programmed output and bingo! Recall. You could imagine that aggregates of a semi-foreign substance may destroy this delicate balance... just as a blow to the head might.

 

In answer to your question, it's possible that if you 'exercise' your brain cells and keep pathways firing that it might impede the formation of these plaques. But I can tell you for sure, that no one knows for sure :)

[onoway]

A couple of links which might be of interest;

http://www.csiro.au/news/Alzheimers-breakthrough.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/health/r...&pagewanted=all

[jjbrr]

Nominating Kfay's post for POTY award.

 

clappingman.gif

[barmar]

The filename of the article was canada_us_dementia, but it never compared Canada's dementia rate with the US (or even mentioned the US rate). It described global dementa rates, but the timeframes were different, so they weren't easily compared, either. So I'm left wondering: Are Canadians more or less demented than the rest of us, eh?

[babalu1997]

low dementia rates in india

 

let them eat curry

[PassedOut]

Kevin's post was great!

 

Lately I've become quite interested in this whole topic (not saying why!). Here is a recent piece from the NYT: How to Train the Aging Brain

 

Recently, researchers have found even more positive news. The brain, as it traverses middle age, gets better at recognizing the central idea, the big picture. If kept in good shape, the brain can continue to build pathways that help its owner recognize patterns and, as a consequence, see significance and even solutions much faster than a young person can.

 

The trick is finding ways to keep brain connections in good condition and to grow more of them.

 

“The brain is plastic and continues to change, not in getting bigger but allowing for greater complexity and deeper understanding,” says Kathleen Taylor, a professor at St. Mary’s College of California, who has studied ways to teach adults effectively. “As adults we may not always learn quite as fast, but we are set up for this next developmental step.”

 

Educators say that, for adults, one way to nudge neurons in the right direction is to challenge the very assumptions they have worked so hard to accumulate while young. With a brain already full of well-connected pathways, adult learners should “jiggle their synapses a bit” by confronting thoughts that are contrary to their own, says Dr. Taylor, who is 66.

So playing against a forcing pass system should help. And I suppose counting hands is always a useful exercise.

[blackshoe]

So playing against a forcing pass system should help. And I suppose counting hands is always a useful exercise.

I have two.

[Winstonm]

So playing against a forcing pass system should help. And I suppose counting hands is always a useful exercise.

I have two.

Or you could simply count to eleven over and over until arrested.