Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a common age-related and progressive neurodegenerative disorder. It leads to thinking, communication and memory loss issues. Based on the magnitude of these symptoms, these problems could have a dramatic impact on people’s quality of life, daily activities and independence. The scientific community has raised many hypotheses and studied multiple scenarios around the potential causes of Alzheimer’s disease for the last 30 years. No cure or truly effective treatments have been found to date. The common consensus is Alzheimer’s is a complex and multifactorial disease that is hard to treat.
There are many risk factors of developing Alzheimer’s disease that need to take into accounts such as genetics, age, lifestyle choices (nutrition, sleep, exercise), and chronic health disorders like heart problems, high cholesterol or blood pressure, diabetes or obesity. Recent research findings have connected neuroinflammation and Alzheimer’s disease and showed that inflammation is a major player in disease occurrence and progression.

Potential Risk Factors of Alzheimer’s Disease

There are reasons why some people develop Alzheimer’s disease and others do not. It all depends on many factors that put the individual at risk of developing the disease, such as:

• Age

• Genetics

• Family history

• Head or brain injury

• Vascular conditions, e.g., high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, or stroke or brain vascular changes

• Lifestyle choices, e.g., unhealthy diet, smoking, alcohol drinking, and physical inactivity

The Good and Bad About Inflammation

The body’s immune system makes acute inflammation to protect it from germs and viruses that cause infections and diseases. Short-term inflammation is beneficial because it also helps the body heals after injury or infection. Inflammation becomes harmful when the system stays on and is no longer needed by our body.  This is usually not obvious and not as active as the acute/ short-term inflammation.
This process is known as chronic, low-grade inflammation. Doctors call it an overactive immune system, which can be a consequence of bad genes, lifestyle choices and environmental factors. Some examples of bad genes are associated with autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, type 1-diabetes, and multiple sclerosis.

Connection Between Neuroinflammation and Alzheimer’s Disease

Neuroinflammation is an inflammatory response within the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system) that can be triggered by factors such as infections, exposure to harmful agents or misfolded proteins, and aging. This review reports many scientific findings showing that neuroinflammation, and more specifically the brain immune cells (microglia), plays a central role in the disease and its progression. Neuroinflammation impacts the progression of Alzheimer’s disease by increasing the level of toxic amyloid-β and tau protein aggregates in the brain that leads to the death of brain cells and damage to nerves.
Inflammation seems to play an important role early on in people suffering from a condition called mild cognitive impairment (MCI), an early version of Alzheimer’s disease. About 8 of every 10 people having MCI progress to Alzheimer’s disease.

Preventing Chronic Inflammation and Alzheimer’s

First and foremost, a healthy lifestyle is crucial to reduce chronic inflammation, to keep your brain healthy and to prevent or delay diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. Following the SHIELD plan proposed by Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, a Harvard professor, and Deepak Chopra, an author and alternative medicine advocate, maybe a good start for maintaining your brain health. SHIELD is an acronym that stands for:

• S-Sleep

• H-Handle stress

• I-Interact with others

• E-Exercise

• L-Learn new things

• D-Diet

To reduce risks of chronic inflammation, you also want to reduce or avoid consumption of alcohol, tobacco or drugs. To complement these positive lifestyle changes, and probably as important is to nourish your brain with anti-inflammatory brain and memory supplements such as ginkgo Biloba, Omega-3 fatty acids, or Memowell Memory Support. Inflawell™ contains natural active ingredients from the plants Boswellia serrata and Bacopa monnieri.
These ingredients have been tested in a clinical study and shown to support brain and memory health.

Memowell Memory Support by Kondor Pharma

Memowell Memory Support is a botanical product that is approved by Health Canada. Learn more on how it may help prevent neuroinflammation and Alzheimer’s disease by visiting our website. You can also speak to an expert at Kondor Pharma by calling 1-800-892-6981.