Neurodegenerative diseases- Why they are increasing every day?

Neurodegenerative diseases- Why they are increasing every day?

Neurodegenerative disease is a generic term that indicates a series of conditions that mainly affect the neurons of the human brain.

Neurons are the building blocks of the nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord.

Neurons do not normally reproduce, therefore, when they are damaged or die, they cannot be replaced by the body. Neurodegenerative Diseases include Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and Huntington's disease.

Neurodegenerative diseases are debilitating and untreatable diseases that cause progressive degeneration and death of nerve cells. This results in movement disorders or in mental functioning (socalled dementias). Dementia has the greatest weight of these diseases, with Alzheimer's disease accounting for around 60-70% of cases.

The neurodegenerative diseases on which efforts are concentrated are:       

Alzheimer's (AD) and other dementias Parkinson's (PD) and related disorders Prion disease Motor neuron diseases (MND) Huntington's disease (HD) Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA)

Earlier diagnosis As told by the National Institute of Health and Medical Research, Alzheimer's disease and related syndromes will probably affect 1.3 million people in 2020. Today, 6% of over 65 years are affected by Alzheimer's disease and 20% after 80 years. As for Parkinson's disease, it affects 1% of the population after age 65 and 3-4% of over-70s. The number of patients, however, has also increased with diagnostic capabilities.

Pesticides and sedentary lifestyle There is a second reason for this increase, according to Luc BuĂŠe: the impact of pollutants such as endocrine disruptors. Parabens, bisphenol A or phthalates are known to interfere with the hormonal system, but experts from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and WHO (World Health Organization) also involve them in the development of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Pesticides are also on the dock. Parkinson's disease has been clearly identified as an occupational disease for farmers. A link is also suspected between pesticides and Alzheimer's disease, without the number of studies still limited, allowing scientists to decide.

Finally, lifestyle plays an equally important role in the prevalence of Neurodegenerative Diseases. A sedentary lifestyle, an unhealthy diet, and a bad lifestyle generally make cardiovascular diseases progress. But cardiovascular risk factors (diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia or tobacco), as well as disorders that impair brain irrigation, promote the appearance of degenerative diseases. It is important to take care of your lifestyle if you do not want to suffer from Alzheimer-type diseases years later.

What are the causes of degenerative diseases?

Unfortunately, we still do not know the intimate cause of these diseases, but they have much to do with the changes that occur during the aging process of the brain. This depends, on the one hand, on the genetic load of each one of us, but also a large scale, on our habits of life.

Today we know that genetics is not unalterable and that we can redirect our predisposition to suffer diseases by modifying our unhealthy habits. A person who inherits a favorable and protective genetic load against these diseases can be deprived of it if he submits his brain to practices that are not "brainhealthy".

The most frequent "is not to inherit the disease itself but the risk of suffering it." Inheriting the risk means that for the disease to manifest it is not enough to receive the gene or set of genes, but also an added factor, which, most of the time, is environmental.

How do habits such as diet, sleep, or sports affect our brain?

They affect a lot. On the one hand, there is food. Excessive consumption of food, particularly saturated fats, induces an increase in oxidative stress generating irreparable damage to neurons. Limiting calorie intake to 30-40% delays aging and lengthens life expectancy.

As for physical exercise, moderate aerobic, such as walking or cycling, improves neuronal synaptic functions, increases the levels of neurotrophic factors and the number of neurons in the hippocampus; which improves learning, memory, and anxiety.

On average we allocate 1/3 of our life to sleep. Among the multiple functions of the dream, one of the most important is the consolidation of memory. During the dream, the memories are sorted and saved.

In addition, it has been proven that during sleep, the neurons are cleaned of toxic products generated during mental activity.

A deficient sleep in quantity or quality, for example, that which occurs in people suffering from obstructive sleep apnea, irremediably damage our brain and favor the appearance of brain diseases, both neurological and psychiatric.

On the other hand, activities such as mental, never stop learning; or the social, avoid isolation, suffer dislikes or worries, and help prevent these pathologies.

It is very common that during retirement, mental activity decreases a lot. This is an excellent breeding ground for neurodegenerative diseases to invade us. We must continue doing things that allow our brain to stay in shape. The brain is a muscle, it requires to constantly receive stimuli, and if it is not exercised, it atrophies. The worst thing that can appear to a retiree is to stay at home watching TV. And stress, how does it affect our brain in the long term?

Stress has dire consequences on our brain. As a result of sustained stress, day after day, the brain is "bathed" glucocorticoids, a hormone produced by the adrenal glands and, at high levels in the nervous system, has deadly consequences on neurons.

In addition, corticoids produce atrophy of the hippocampus, a brain structure that plays a key role in both memory and neuroendocrine regulation of stress; as well as in the production of new neurons. In conclusion, stress favors the premature aging of our brain.

Currently, we live in a sick society that generates diseases because we do not know how to give life its true meaning. In general, people live without thinking about whether they are doing it right or wrong and if they know how to distinguish the fundamental from the accessory. Not knowing how to distinguish this generates a lot of stress.

What are the first symptoms or signs to detect these diseases?

Nature is wise and always warns. Many of these diseases start with things as subtle as alterations in smell or sleep; other times with changes in mood. The problem is that they are very nonspecific and are not always the beginning of the neurodegenerative disease. We must be on alert when an adult, older, with no history, begins with a depressive syndrome or changes in his character because often these alterations can be the beginning of dementia.

To this day, we have no curative treatment but only symptomatic for these diseases. Hence, the importance of learning to prevent them. Read more about such diseases via the documentary research series produced by Jonathan Otto.