Baby Boomers Beware ? Silent Strokes Linked to Memory Problems

[BABY1]

TweetThere are over 11 million silent strokes in the United States every year, affecting up to 30% of the population over age 65. Silent strokes affect areas of the brain involved with thinking, but not areas of the brain involved with motor functions. Thus, the physical symptoms are not so problematic as a traditional stroke; however, damage to the brain does occur and can be seen as a trail of scar-tissue damage in brain regions with current imaging technology. A new study shows that silent strokes are a significant factor in memory loss.

A new study involving 658 patients ages 65 and older, without dementia or Alzheimer’s, used high-resolution MRI to study their brain for the signs of silent stroke as well as to measure the size of key brain parts such as the hippocampus, which is known for its vital role in memory and learning. Additionally, the participants were given numerous types of cognitive and memory tests, and those results were compared to the MRI findings.

The researchers found evidence of silent stroke in 174 of the participants (26%). As expected, a smaller sized hippocampus was correlated to poorer scores on memory. And those with smaller hippocampus were more likely to have had a silent stroke. However, even when the size of the hippocampus was accounted for as a variable, those with silent stroke had worse memory. This means that both the size of the hippocampus and the condition of the vascular system within the brain predicted memory problems.

It is noteworthy that a person does not go from optimal brain health to silent stroke, like night and day. Rather, it is a sliding scale of thousands of shades of gray. It is common, especially under high stress, to have mini regions of your brain deprived of oxygen and to have micro-strokes that would not show up as accumulated damage reflecting a larger silent stroke. Many such micro-strokes occurring over time would lead to decreased mental capacity, loss of computational ability, and memory loss. I would expect such problems would be far more common than not and will be easy to see as imaging technology continues to improve.

The key finding of this study is that memory issues relate to more than what has been considered the key memory structure in your brain, the hippocampus. This is consistent with other emerging brain science showing that as brain cell damage accumulates brain speed slows down, brain plasticity is compromised, and cognitive ability is reduced. For example, inflammation from micro-strokes in the brain’s circulatory system would be highly inflammatory to glial cells and result in impaired function (the theme of yesterday’s article).

Thankfully, the new science is also showing that nutrients can protect your brain from stroke of all types. Top choices include DHA, tocotrienols, grape seed extract, resveratrol, lipoic acid, carnosine, acetyl-l-carnitine, pantethine, blueberries, curcumin, vitamin C, folic acid – just to name a few. If these nutrients are present in your brain and there is a problem, there is less damage and faster recovery. It is reasonable to assume that the same nutrients help prevent such problems in the first place.

In addition to nutrients, aerobic exercise, including walking, has been shown to boost brain size as well as increase oxygen flow within your brain, not to mention helping to stimulate brain rejuvenation. With an aging baby boomer population facing an epidemic of dementia and Alzheimer’s, this information is of the utmost value to any person wishing to not go down the wrong path.



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[Dzone]

TweetYikes. Good to take those supplements and exercise. At every age

[BIGMOFO]

TweetMy dad has had 3 and did not know until tests were ran.