What are you doing to prevent Alzheimer's?

I recently watched a TedTalk given by Lisa Genova about ways to prevent Alzheimer’s. I honestly love watching TedTalks, and we are about to learn about dementia, so I figured that would be a good topic to look into. Then when I saw it was Lisa Genova giving the talk, I knew that was the one to pick. During the talk, Genova first talks about what Alzheimer’s is at a cellular level, then she discusses the advances in medicine that may potentially be a cure for Alzheimer’s, and finally she talks about different ways to prevent Alzheimer’s without taking the medication. The medications that are being invented are mainly preventative drugs, so individuals would need to be taking the medicine before being symptomatic, but the strategies Genova gives are things that any individual can do without costing hundreds of dollars or really changing their lifestyle. Some things she suggests are sleeping, avoiding cardiovascular diseases, and increasing neural plasticity through learning new, rich and meaningful things, learning a new language, or reading a book.

After this video, I think I really gained a better appreciation for my education. Not because it is going to keep me from getting Alzheimer’s in the future, but because it showed me what a difference education has on the body. I think that I have been under the assumption that it has been slowly killing me due to the high levels of stress, but it actually is just pushing my brain to adapt, grow, and strengthen. I also realized how important it will be to continue learning after I graduate. Whether that is pursuing a certification/specialty or just reading occupational therapy articles, every new chance to learn something new will help to create strong neural pathways in my brain. I think that once I become an occupational therapist, I will be sure to educate clients or parents of clients the importance of expanding and strengthening neural pathways. There were several that Genova talked about that I feel could be implemented into an individual’s daily life with almost no sacrifice. One is meeting new people and making new friends, learning interesting facts about them. For me, I feel like this one will be easiest for me to teach others because I want to work in a children’s hospital, so it will be crucial for parents to make friends for many reasons, not just to prevent Alzheimer’s. Another was just watching TedTalks or reading a book. Learning new things is something that has always been really interesting for me, I love learning, which is why I really love to read and probably why I love TedTalks. After watching this video, I am very grateful that I love these things because not only do I have a reason to increase my time spent on reading or watching TedTalks, but I have a greater appreciation for all the classes and people who sparked this interest in me. I would highly recommend watching this TedTalk to anyone because we all could potentially have Alzheimer’s one day.

TedTalksDirector. (2017, May 19). What you can do to prevent Alzheimer's | Lisa Genova. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twG4mr6Jov0