ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — If you forget your keys, can’t think of word or a name in the middle of a sentence or have to return home to get your cellphone – and you are in the over 50 crowd – the thought of early Alzheimer’s might cross your mind. Those thoughts become more frequent as you and your parents age.
Unless you are in your 80s, you may be catastrophizing about a very unlikely problem. Alzheimer’s disease develops in only 1 in 100 people in their 60s and only 2 or 3 in their 70s.
Neuroscience research leads me to believe that Alzheimer’s is not inevitable and your lifestyle plays a definite role in your risk. The key is developing what neuroscientists call cognitive reserve or the ability of the brain to function at a high level despite serious anatomic changes.
The concept is supported by autopsy studies performed in the 1990s on cognitively normal older women’s brains. The researchers discovered the same distorted brain wiring indistinguishable from the brains of severely demented individuals.