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the memory cure how to protect your brain against memory loss and alzheimer s disease majid fotuhi m.d ph.d mcgraw-hill new york chicago san francisco lisbon london madrid mexico city milan new delhi san juan seoul singapore sydney toronto[close]
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copyright © 2003 by majid fotuhi all rights reserved manufactured in the united states of america except as permitted under the united states copyright act of 1976 no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher 0-07-142601-9 the material in this ebook also appears in the print version of this title 0-07-140924-6 all trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name we use names in an editorial fashion only and to the benefit of the trademark owner with no intention of infringement of the trademark where such designations appear in this book they have been printed with initial caps mcgraw-hill ebooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions or for use in corporate training programs for more information please contact george hoare special sales at george_hoare@mcgraw-hill.com or 212 904-4069 terms of use this is a copyrighted work and the mcgraw-hill companies inc mcgraw-hill and its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work use of this work is subject to these terms except as permitted under the copyright act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the work you may not decompile disassemble reverse engineer reproduce modify create derivative works based upon transmit distribute disseminate sell publish or sublicense the work or any part of it without mcgraw-hill s prior consent you may use the work for your own noncommercial and personal use any other use of the work is strictly prohibited your right to use the work may be terminated if you fail to comply with these terms the work is provided as is mcgraw-hill and its licensors make no guarantees or warranties as to the accuracy adequacy or completeness of or results to be obtained from using the work including any information that can be accessed through the work via hyperlink or otherwise and expressly disclaim any warranty express or implied including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose mcgraw-hill and its licensors do not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the work will meet your requirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free neither mcgraw-hill nor its licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any inaccuracy error or omission regardless of cause in the work or for any damages resulting therefrom mcgraw-hill has no responsibility for the content of any information accessed through the work under no circumstances shall mcgraw-hill and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect incidental special punitive consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages this limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract tort or otherwise doi 10.1036/0071426019[close]
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to my father with love and gratitude he planted in me a fascination with the human brain and a passion to become an author a doctor and a professor ever since i was a child and to the families taking care of patients with alzheimer s disease i salute their dedication and admire their patience.[close]
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for more information about this title click here contents foreword ix x acknowledgments introduction xii part i the aging brain 1 perfect memory for life 3 how memory works 3 perfect but slower memory skills 8 sight sounds and memory 10 teenagers versus retirees 11 memory lapses and laughter 12 variation in memory performance 12 there s hope 13 copyright 2003 by majid fortuhi click here for terms of use.[close]
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vi contents 2 understanding the aging brain your brain and your behavior 15 your brain at work 18 navigating through your brain 20 brain cells talking 24 brain potential 26 brain reserve 27 aging and your brain 30 a balancing act 31 15 3 a lifetime of memory 33 memory problems across ages 33 cognition 34 characteristics of alzheimer s disease aami mci or alzheimer s?¿ 44 39 4 a journey inside an alzheimer s brain the discovery of plaques and tangles 50 alzheimer s disease and strokes 55 piece of a puzzle 58 49 5 if it s not alzheimer s disease what is it common causes of memory loss 62 less obvious causes of memory loss 69 looking for answers 71 61[close]
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contents vii part ii the memory protection plan 6 protect your brain against memory loss and alzheimer s disease risk factors 75 memory protection plan 10 steps to better memory in your seventies 80 taking the first steps 127 75 7 new medications for alzheimer s prevention and treatment 129 preventing alzheimer s with vitamins drugs herbs and hormones 130 drugs for treating alzheimer s disease 135 future treatment of alzheimer s 137 part iii on the horizon 8 diagnosing alzheimer s disease 143 who should do an evaluation¿ 144 memory lapses or alzheimer s disease¿ 145 specific steps in making a diagnosis 145 who makes the final diagnosis?¿ 148 neuropsychological tests 148 why there s no definitive test 154[close]
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viii contents 9 heredity and alzheimer s 159 late onset alzheimer s 159 early onset familial alzheimer s 161 the heredity link to alzheimer s 162 alzheimer s disease and women 165 alzheimer s and african americans 166 how common is alzheimer s disease in north america?¿ 167 afterword exciting and engaging your memory exercises to help you remember 170 169 appendix a resources appendix b clinical trials appendix c alzheimer s disease centers endnotes index 217 229 209 201 179[close]
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foreword scientists around the world are studying the causes of memory and cognitive impairment in late life and they all agree that aging is not associated with significant memory loss they also agree that significant decline is related to brain disease thanks to dramatic advances in research scientists have a much better understanding of the molecular changes that occur in the brains of older people and believe that these discoveries will lead to better treatments cures and preventions in our lifetime in the memory cure dr fotuhi reviews recent discoveries in the field of memory research he describes how memory works and what degree of forgetfulness can be expected with normal aging he also describes the characteristic features of alzheimer s disease and gives an up-to-date account of our current understanding of the brain changes that accompany the disease in the past two years scientists have discovered a number of risk factors for developing memory loss and alzheimer s disease dr fotuhi presents these recent discoveries and discusses the role of high blood pressure high cholesterol and other vascular risk factors in memory loss and the possibilities of developing alzheimer s he also discusses the role of diet exercise and vitamin e in prevention of the disease outlining the diagnosis process he explains the kinds of tests used to distinguish alzheimer s from other causes of memory loss and he explains how heredity is connected to cognitive decline finally he shares a memory protection plan that explains what individuals can do to keep their memory function at its maximum dr fotuhi has performed a real service in pulling together this information and he presents it in a way that is understandable logical and usable this book epitomizes the phrase user-friendly and will benefit many people peter v rabins m.d professor of psychiatry johns hopkins university school of medicine ix copyright 2003 by majid fortuhi click here for terms of use.[close]
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acknowledgments i am grateful for the help of dozens of my friends family and colleagues who have inspired guided and assisted me in writing this book during the fifteen years of my postgraduate research and neurology training i had the honor of working alongside some of the sharpest minds of our time at harvard doctors michael rosenblatt and anne young at hopkins doctors solomon snyder and david zee they inspired me to develop a deeper understanding of how the brain works the idea for writing this book arose from my conversations with my dear friend najeeb khalid i thank him for his intelligent questions support and assistance along the way i also appreciate the kind support and love of vijay mathur and elaine newman who always believed in me and in my future ever since i was an undergraduate student at concordia university s science college in montreal in 1983 at johns hopkins hospital i have the privilege of working with and learning from outstanding alzheimer s experts they include doctors jason brandt maria corrada barbara crain catherine diaz-asper barry gordon argye hillis claudia kawas constantine lyketsos lauren moo cynthia munro richard o brien donald price peter rabins ola selnes juan troncoso and sevil yasar i am particularly thankful to doctors jason brandt john griffin and richard johnson for their feedback and encouragement to dr ola selnes for teaching me about neuropsychological testing and to carol gogel helen karagiozis mark macek sean o donnell and erica taylor for helping me with the evaluation of patients at the alzheimer s disease research center above all i thank dr peter rabins for giving me considerate and thoughtful suggestions from the very initial stages of the manuscript his book the 36-hour day has touched the lives of thousands and thousands of families around the world he inspired me to write a book that would do the same i thank my friends moona alidoost barbara crain anjali deshmokh andy and sheila hofert amir kashani saeed tavazoie sohail tavazoie hassan velashjerdi and tanya turner for their positive feedback i also thank my friends sandy kilada for her assistance in editing and preparing x copyright 2003 by majid fortuhi click here for terms of use.[close]
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acknowledgments xi the initial draft of the manuscript and sevil yasar for her expert and thorough review of the final manuscript i thank my very dear friend dr alice flaherty at harvard medical school for always helping me at every step of my career she referred me to the best literary agent in new york ms anna ghosh at scovil chichak and galen literary agency i thank ms ghosh for her intelligent recommendations for working on this book even when she was on vacation and for her continued interest in promoting it around the world i was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with ms nancy hancock executive editor at mcgraw-hill she is extremely knowledgeable and experienced her previous book the wrinkle cure remains a best-seller i thank her for her passionate enthusiasm about my manuscript and for her patience as we improved it through a dozen revisions i also very much enjoyed working with her assistant ms meg leder who also worked tirelessly with a personal interest and contributed a great deal to improving it it was also a pleasure to work with the marketing and production teams at mcgrawhill especially ms lynda luppino and ms jane palmieri and our illustrator ms wendy jackelow i feel i have the most wonderful family in the world the love i share with hamid maryam vahid omid saeed and my parents is the driving force for me to move forward in life i especially thank my beautiful brilliant and charming wife bita for giving me her full unconditional love and support every minute of every day majid fotuhi[close]
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introduction newdisc ov eries newhopes memory is an integral part of all your daily activities everything you do requires either a memory of something you learned before or learning something new you may not appreciate the thousands of things you do remember every day.as you wake up you remember simple things such as how to brush your teeth prepare breakfast get dressed drive to work and park your car you also remember more complex things such as your goals for that day the deadlines you have to meet in the next few weeks and how you can improve your job performance.you remember a dozen phone numbers and web sites by heart and you keep track of news in politics or sports on any given day you remember the names of a dozen people including family members and a few things about each of them such as their age the color of their eyes their interests in life and what you do or do not like about them you can name a dozen cities and say something about each one of them on a more philosophical level you need your memories for your continued happiness and success you use your memory of mistakes you ve made in the past to achieve better results today remembering how you pleased your spouse and had a more satisfying relationship you now do more of the same things that keep him or her happy remembering how you lost money on the stock market you may now stay away from certain stocks the more careful you are to learn from your daily experiences and try to improve on them the more likely it is that you ll succeed in your personal and professional life even your dog remembers the things that are important to him he knows how to get your attention and convince you to take him out more or feed him better food he too learns new things especially if you learn how to train him well like humans all animals have the brain capacity to acquire new information in order to improve their chances of survival in nature xii i i copyright 2003 by majid fortuhi click here for terms of use.[close]
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introduction xiii on a daily basis you also forget a great deal you may not remember what you had for lunch yesterday or what outfit you wore last wednesday this is indeed a blessing most people don t appreciate how fortunate they are that they can forget all the daily trivial things in their lives imagine how cluttered your brain would be if you could store memories of every meal you ever ate every person you ever called and every piece of news you ever read your brain has a way of storing most of the information that matters to you in the long run and discarding all the rest if you re like most other people you often complain about your memory you recall vividly how you forgot the name of an acquaintance at a dinner party or how you sometimes blank out on where you parked your car in a garage you remember the few occasions your memory failed and take for granted the thousands of times that it served you well as you grow older you have a tendency to forget things more often and thus you may worry that your memory loss could be serious in the back of your mind you may wonder if you re going to develop alzheimer s disease you are not alone millions of americans share these concerns with you i have the opportunity to see many such individuals at johns hopkins hospital in the majority of cases i determine that they do not have alzheimer s disease the mild forgetfulness they experience is often a normal part of aging by the end of this book you too will find that not all memory lapses are necessarily signs of serious brain disease many memory problems can be minimized through actions outlined in this book you will also learn how to protect your brain against age-associated memory loss over the past five years we have witnessed an explosion of new discoveries in the fields of aging memory and alzheimer s disease the results are encouraging they all point to the conclusion that normal aging is not associated with disabling memory loss and that you can reduce your risk of developing alzheimer s just as you can minimize your chance of developing a heart attack these breakthroughs have also shed light on many of the popular misconceptions that surround aging and alzheimer s disease you can ease your fear of alzheimer s by increasing your understanding of these concepts misconception 1 becoming senile is a normal part of aging twenty years ago people thought it would be normal for those older than sixty-five to become senile and lose their mental faculties this was attributed to loss of memory cells in the brains of older individuals however,[close]
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xiv introduction dozens of research studies have shown that although healthy older people may be slower to learn new things or may forget minor details they don t lose their mental abilities to acquire new information write recognize friends or plan a weekend scientists have also established that contrary to previous beliefs you do not lose thousands of brain cells every day with aging there is some shrinkage of your brain which is for the most part due to the thinning of some brain cells as we will see in chapter 2 this shrinkage translates into a slower processing ability not an inability to form new memories the actual number of cells in your brain does not drop significantly as you grow older experimental research in animals has shown that parts of the brain involved in memory actually develop new cells the exact role of these cells remains to be established but the fact that new cells continue to sprout inside an adult brain is encouraging the birth of new cells has also been shown in adult human brains and is an exciting area of research misconception 2 older people with memory problems must have alzheimer s currently many people old or young worry that the mild forgetfulness they experience must be a sign of alzheimer s disease however research in this field has shown that patients with alzheimer s do not have just memory problems they lose many of their other mental faculties too they can t balance their checkbook they can t find their way in their own neighborhood they can t recognize their grandchildren and toward the end of their disease they can t even take care of their basic needs such as showering or getting dressed forgetting a few things during the day and being disabled by the memory loss and confusion associated with alzheimer s disease are completely separate entities some people develop a great deal of anxiety and stress over their risk of developing alzheimer s disease and yet have no serious disease misconception 3 alzheimer s disease is very common walter rocca m.d ph.d professor of epidemiology and neurology at the mayo clinic in minnesota believes that alzheimer s disease is not as widespread as people and the media think it is only one in every one hundred individuals between the ages of sixty-five and sixty-nine has this disease he reported at the third aging of the brain and dementia conference in november 2001 the numbers are much higher only for people in their eighties and beyond however these individuals may also have[close]
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