World Alzheimer’s Day: Too much stress is toxic, can damage your brain

Along with stress, hypertension also play an important role in Alzheimer’s. You may be losing as much as 1% of your brain mass every year. By Dr Suryanarayana Sharma Even if you seem perfectly healthy, you may be losing as much as 1% of your brain mass every year. The rate of brain shrinkage increases with age and is a major factor in early cognitive decline and premature death. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. Common age of onset of the disease is above 65 years. Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease occurs between a person’s 30s to mid-50s. There are several factors influence when Alzheimer’s disease begins and starts to progress. A host of factors beyond genetics may play a role in the development and course of Alzheimer’s disease. There is a great deal of interest, for example, in the relationship between cognitive decline and cardiovascular conditions such as heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure, as well as metabolic conditions such as diabetes and obesity. When a person has Alzheimer’s, his brain changes. It has fewer healthy neuron controlling memory, and it gets smaller over time. Plaques damage the healthy brain cells around them. The damaged cells die, and the brain shrinks. These changes cause the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, such as memory loss, speech problems, confusion, and mood swings. With Alzheimer’s disease there is great individual variability as to the nature of symptoms experienced and the speed at which deterioration occurs. The types of behaviour change and the length of time symptoms are present are different for each person. The symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease typically develop quite slowly. Stress and hypertension play an important role in Alzheimer’s. Whenever an individual feels stress, the body releases stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol to cope with the situation causing […]

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