Could Your Muscles Be The Key To Alzheimer’s Disease?

We have always known Alzheimer’s Disease affects the brain. My grandmother had the horrible disease. At a young age I was exposed to watching her deteriorate- first by forgetting who I was, and then to the point she did not remember almost anything. It was sad to watch the last years of her life pass by knowing I would never be able to make brownies with her again, and she would remember.

The disease that steals memories from loved ones does not come with a how-to manual. It can move rapidly, slowly, and come in waves. Taking away thoughts from patients that almost completely remove past experiences from their brain. Research has been going on for years to find a cure. We have known for quite some time that the disease is influenced by Aβ Protein.

A new study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry in October 31, in an article entitled “Blood-Derived Amyloid-β Protein Induces Alzheimer’s Disease Pathologies” details the 12-month study of the human Aβ Protein in mice. Taking away the medical terminology, the understanding of the study involving the mice is this-

Aβ Protein traveled from other places in the body to the brain, where it became tangled in a sense as twisted protein strands that formed inside the brain cells. As they did this, the normal function of the cells became disrupted and eventually killed them from the inside-out.

Now, it is not news of how the protein damages and eventually kills the brain cells. What is new, is the research by scientists at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Third Military Medical University in Chongqing suggesting Aβ protein outside the brain can contribute to Alzheimer’s disease.

The protein is produced in blood platelets, blood vessels, and muscles. As the blood-brain barrier weakens as we age, the protein could infiltrate the system. UBC’s Weihong Song, Ph.D, stated, “Alzheimer’s disease is clearly a disease of the brain, but we need to pay attention to the whole body to understand where it comes from, and how to stop it.”

Could muscles play a role in Alzheimer’s disease? I think there is a lot we don’t know about the human body and disease, and we are only scratching the surface of the human microbiome.

Source: GEN News — https://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/alzheimer-s-may-start-in-body-not-just-brain/81255112/?utm_medium=newsletter

Originally published at samnewslink.com on December 1, 2017.