In David Snowdon's book, _Aging with Grace_, one of his more surprising findings of his autopsies of the Notre Dame nuns was that almost all of the brains of the elderly nuns had plaques and tangles even though many had not shown any symptoms of Alzheimer's. What he concluded is that for many who did exhibit Alzheimer's, it was the combination of undetected strokes combined with plaques and tangles. A relevant medical parallel is the bafflement physicians have about why some people experience severe back pain without being able to locate the source/cause of the pain .
(http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/back-pain/DS00171/DSECTION=causes). Also, many studies comparing the X-rays of people with degeneration of their spine revealed that they had only a slightly higher chance of experiencing pain compared to those who revealed no spinal degeneration and those who revealed a stress fracture or displacement of a vertebrae were no more likely to experience pain than those who did not. http://www.rtwknowledge.org/article_print.php?article_id=43 So the appearance of plaques and tangles in aging brains might be part of the natural aging process as might be abnormalities found in x-rays of the spinal cord without either necessarily resulting in serious medical complications. This is not to say that I'm not taking every action to enhance the health of my spine (pilates; yoga) or my brain (aerobic exercise and diet). But it would appear that in some medical conditions, pre-clinical symptoms might not be indicative of future medical problems. Joan [email protected] Pollak, Edward wrote: > > > > The appearances of the amyloid plaques & dendritic tangles would > constitute a pre-clinical stage. Neural pathologies are present but > obvious behavioral symptoms have not occurred. > > > > I see it as no different than saying that I have coronary artery > disease even though I have not yet developed angina pectoris or a > myocardial infarction. And no different than being diagnosed with > type II diabetes because my blood glucose is high even though I have > not developed any other symptoms. > > > > > > /Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D./ > > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=10191 or send a blank email to leave-10191-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
