Alzheimer's disease and relationship to nutrition and hormone - Essay Example

Alzheimer is mostly seen in individuals who are above the age of forty five and it principally develops into dementia in its latter stages. It is characterized by loss of cognitive abilities which occurs due to the loss of normal brain functions. In the latter stages of Alzheimer Disease the sufferer becomes totally disoriented and shows memory loss such that he is not able to recognize his very close family members. (Evans et al, 1989; Gao et al, 1999). The primary feature of Alzheimer Disease is the atrophy of the cortex.

But in some cases it is seen that neuritic processes may accumulate, abnormalities in cerebral nucleus may occur or amyloid angiopathy may be seen. The question now stands as to why Alzheimer disease onsets in an individual. To answer this question many aspects of the disease are analyzed. Nutrition is presumed to be directly related to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Research done on the relation of the nutritional status of an individual has shown that Vitamin D may have a direct relation with the onset of Alzheimer.

A research by Dr Grant proves that Alzheimer’s may be related to low serum levels of Vitamin D. It is said by Dr Grant that old people usually have the deficiency of Vitamin D because of which dental caries, diabetes mellitus and depression may arise in individuals. And all these diseases together are presumed to be a cause for Alzheimer Disease. Relating nutrition to Alzheimer has paved way for many researches to be done on this issue (Drug Week, 2009). Such a research was done to find the relation between folate and the risk of Alzheimer Disease.

It was seen in this research that individuals who consumed folate were greatly reducing the risk of acquiring Alzheimer Disease. The incidence rate was calculated to be 45% as the individuals consuming folate were decreasing their risk of acquiring Alzheimer by 55%. The research compared the individuals who were taking folate regularly to those who were not and it was