Do you remember what you ate for dinner two days ago?

1. Do you remember what you ate for dinner two days ago?

2. How to Turn the Clock on Your Mind: Reducing the Risk of Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease Christine Lee G/T Independent Research Howard High school Dr.Celise Elliott and Dr.Samir Sauma, NIA

3. Objective • Gain understanding of the Alzheimer’s disease • Causes and Symptoms • Statistics • Explore the various preventive methods of Alzheimer’s and the ways they can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s • Explore how to incorporate the methods into your lifestyle

4. Alzheimer’s Statistics • 6th leading cause of death in the U.S. • the number of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s will triple by 2050 • Dementia (including Alzheimer's) is the most expensive disease in the nation- caring expenses costs the nation billions annually • 2/3 people diagnosed with the disease are women • Every 67 seconds someone in US develops the disease

5. What is Alzheimer’s Disease? • discovered by Dr.Alois Alzheimer in 1960 • neurological disease that affects memory, behavior, and emotions due to the degeneration of the brain • characterized by amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain tissue • mental symptoms: unpredictable behavior and memory loss • often mistaken for dementia which is a broader category of cognitive decline characterized by loss of memory and mental abilities due to physical deterioration of the brain • cure for AD is yet to be discovered

6. Risk Factors of Alzheimer's • Neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques- damage in the neurons that inhibit neural signals • Common pathology in Alzheimer's patients • Inheritance of apolipoprotein gene- gene commonly found in Alzheimer's patients • Brain atrophy- decrease in the mass of the brain due to the degeneration of neurons • Vascular diseases- vascular dementia is the result of the lack of blood flow to the brain • Mild Cognitive Impairment- slight decline in cognitive abilities such as memory and thinking skills

7. PET Scan of Decline in Brain Activity

8. Preventive Methods • Mediterranean diet • Physical exercises • Cognitive activities

9. Mediterranean diet • fish, vegetable, fruits, whole grains, legume (beans) moderate amounts of alcohol, unsaturated fat • Low consumption of saturated fats and meat • Some omega-3 fatty acids in fish have the ability to reduce beta-amyloid plaques • Mostly supported by studies- continuing research

11. Physical exercises • Increase the amount of blood supply carried to the brain • Carries oxygen and other nutrients • Washes away metabolic wastes such as amyloid-beta protein • Increase number of connections between nerve cells- stimulates various parts of the brain • Able to maintain old network connections while making new ones

12. Cognitive activities • solving puzzles, playing mentally challenging games, reading, planning, etc. • Studies reveal relationships between greater performance of cognitive activities and lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease • Can possibly increase the number of brain networks and brain plasticity

13. Your Turn! • Lock ----Piano • Ship ---- Card • Tree ---- Car • School ----  Eye • Pillow ----  Court • River ---- Money • Bed ---- Paper • Army ---- Water • Tennis ---- Noise • Key • Deck • Trunk • Pupil • Case • Bank • Sheet • Tank • Racket

14. Research Process • Analyzed primary documents of studies on the various factors that contribute to the development of the Alzheimer’s • Organized the information in a graphic organizer • Compared the relationship of the preventive methods and the risk factors of Alzheimer’s disease • Analyzed patterns revealed in the relationships

15. Recap • Alzheimer’s is one of the nation’s most common and most expensive illnesses today • There are various risk factors of Alzheimer’s that can indicate or predict the development of Alzheimer’s • There are preventive methods that can be utilized in order to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s by reducing the presence of risk factors of Alzheimer’s

16. Conclusion • Educate others about Alzheimer’s • Let other’s around you know about how they can take part in preventing the disease • Adults can reduce the risk of late-onset Alzheimer’s by incorporating the Mediterranean diet, physical exercises, and cognitive exercises • Early diagnosis is an important process of the treatment of the disease

17. Questions?

18. Work Cited • http://washu.spoonuniversity.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2014/04/Question-Mark-made-of-Food_Borders2.jpg • http://sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/02/09/brain-teaser-words-in-your-brain-learn-as-you-exercise/ • http://www.womensheart.org/content/nutrition/mediterranean.asp • http://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2014/01/train-mind-analytical-thinking/ • http://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publication/preventing-alzheimers-disease/search-alzheimers-prevention-strategies • http://washu.spoonuniversity.com/food-thought/5-foods-with-freaky-origins/ • https://dribbble.com/krislamchin • http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/07/14_alzheimers.shtml • http://www.noonlife.com/7-not-so-obvious-benefits-of-physical-exercise/