Reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s disease

To answer this question we need to discover why these proteins accumulate in the brain. It can be because the protein is not cleared away or it’s produced in large amounts. Both these processes may be connected to inflammation. In a vicious cycle, protein plaques and tangles are identified as invaders by immune cells in your brain, sparking off inflammation, further encouraging the development of more plaques.

Acute inflammation serves a useful purpose: it helps repair your body after some sort of threat. It’s temporary and subsides after a short time. But chronic, low levels inflammation damage your body, smouldering away in the background to some perceived ongoing danger which doesn’t go away.

This type of inflammation tends to increase with age, contributing to the ageing process, and because if this it’s known as ‘inflammaging’.

There is a genetic association with Alzheimer’s, although if you have the gene predisposing you to develop the disease it’s not inevitable you will go on to suffer from it. Whether or not the gene becomes switched on depends on lifestyle and environmental factors.

Strategies to reduce Inflammation and support brain health:

• Nurture your gut. Inflammation is closely connected to your gut health because it’s home to a huge variety of bacteria all releasing messenger molecules. These can be pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory, and some even act directly as brain cell irritants. If your gut lining, the key to keeping damaging molecules out of your body, becomes permeable, toxins and partly digested food can access your blood, creating an inflammatory reaction.
• Look after your dental health. Bacteria causing gum disease are strongly associated with increased inflammation.
• Manage your stress. Don’t forget stressors on your body include too little exercise and lack of sleep. Your body heals damaged cells, including brain cells, during the night.
• Feed your brain: nutrient deficiencies, food sensitivities and too few antioxidants in your diet can all contribute to inflammation. Meanwhile, toxins like heavy metals, environmental pollutants and mycotoxins, substances produced by moulds, act as brain irritants.