Alzheimer’s Disease and Vascular Dementia

Help protect your future

• An estimated 25-29 million people in the world suffer from dementia…vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease contribute the vast majority of cases. (World Health Organization)
• Alzheimer’s disease is the 7th cause of death in the United States and the 5th cause of death for people aged 65 and older. (Alzheimer’s Association)
• Over the next century, experts estimate that Alzheimer’s disease will be more prevalent than AIDS, cancer and all cardiovascular disease. (World Health Organization)

If you know someone who suffers from dementia, you know that it interferes with their ability to work, to participate in usual social activities and to engage in healthy relationships with others.

Dementia, which is the most common cause of cognitive impairment, is defined as significant memory impairment and loss of intellectual functions. Symptoms include:

• Forgetfulness
• Difficulties with familiar activities
• Language problems
• Problems with spatial and temporal orientation
• Impaired capacity of judgment
• Problems with abstract thinking
• Leaving things behind
• Mood swings and behavioral changes
• Personality changes
• Loss of initiative

The vast majority of dementia cases are one of two types: Alzheimer’s disease or vascular dementia.

Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the loss of memory and the progressive decline of cognitive abilities. The slow progressive destruction of nerve cells in the brain leads to Alzheimer’s disease.

While it is natural to lose a certain number of nerve cells as we get older, the loss occurs much more rapidly in people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. As a result, the victim’s brain cannot function normally.

In most cases, the cause cannot be explained.

• Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia in elderly people
• In the U.S., as many as 25% of people over 75 years of age have Alzheimer’s disease…the disease affects as many as 47% of people over the age of 85
• More than 5 million Americans have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease…the health care costs are a staggering $100 billion per year.

Vascular dementia

The second most frequent type of dementia is known as vascular dementia. The condition is not a single disease but a group of syndromes relating to different vascular mechanisms.

Just as vascular disease damages arteries and causes a buildup of plaque – which can lead to a heart attack or stroke – vascular disease can damage the neural nets in the brain and cause cognitive decline.

This is why the risk factors for vascular dementia – high blood pressure, smoking, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, etc. – are also risk factors for heart attack and stroke.

• The prevalence of dementia is nine times higher in patients who have had a stroke than in controls. One year after a stroke, 25% of patients develop new-onset dementia.
• Vascular dementia has been associated with a higher mortality rate than Alzheimer’s disease because of the coexistence of other atherosclerotic diseases.

Because poor vascular health is so strongly correlated to dementia, scientists began to suspect that elevated plasma homocysteine levels – one of the main risk factors for heart disease and stroke – might also be a determinant in dementia.

What in the world is homocysteine?

More than likely, you’ve never heard of homocysteine. Although it was first described in the 1930s and its instrumental role in causing heart disease was discovered in the late 1960s, homocysteine has gone relatively unnoticed and underappreciated by the medical community – until recently. Homocysteine is an amino acid that occurs naturally in your body as it processes protein.

If you don’t get enough nutrients, and especially if you are B-12 deficient – either because you are not getting B vitamins from the foods you eat or because your body is not able to adequately absorb them (which happens as we age) – the process breaks down and homocysteine escapes into your bloodstream. If it does, the homocysteine can eventually become toxic and damage your arteries and brain cells.

The homocysteine/dementia link

The outcome of this toxicity is two-fold:

1. Stroke and/or heart attack (Endothelial cell injury – infarctions)

2. Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia (Neuronal injury – degenerative diseases)

• One study showed that patients with clinically diagnosed dementia of Alzheimer’s type had significantly higher homocysteine levels than control subjects. Folate and vitamin B-12 levels were significantly lower in Alzheimer’s patients than in controls.
• An increase in the plasma homocysteine level of 5 µmol per liter increased the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by 40%
• A plasma homocysteine level greater than 14 µmol per liter doubled the risk of Alzheimer’s disease

Protecting yourself and your loved ones

Early detection is the primary concern for Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia patients because any antidementia treatment – including vitamin supplementation – is not likely to reverse existing neuronal damage. The most we can hope for is to slow the progression or even to alter the course of the cognitive impairment.

There’s no question that preservation of your cognitive abilities, well into old age, is essential to your overall health status. The good news is that nutrition-related behaviors may help you maintain an optimal quality of life – well into your future.

Eat seven to nine servings of fresh fruit and vegetables a day, and augment your diet with a high-quality supplement like Super Sublingual B-12 from TriVita.