Take care of the vessels of the brain!
Despite the fact that Parkinson's disease is registered only in 5% of elderly people, at least half of people aged 85 years and older show moderate symptoms associated with this disease, such as tremor of the hands, balance disorders, difficulty walking, etc. Researchers at Rush University in Chicago have suggested that there is some other reason for such a deterioration in the physical condition of the body.
In search of this reason, in 1994 they began to examine 1,100 elderly nuns and priests annually for symptoms of aging. The participants also signed a consent form for a post-mortem examination of their brain.
Analysis of 418 postmortem samples of brain tissue (61% of women, average age 88 years) showed that 30% of elderly people who had not been diagnosed with a heart attack or stroke, revealed microscopic areas of damage to blood vessels. These injuries are so small that they cannot be detected during a person's lifetime using existing diagnostic methods. Moreover, it turned out that people with a large number of such injuries had great difficulty walking. Taking into account the fact that macroscopic signs of vascular infarction were detected in more than 35% of the analyzed samples, it can be argued that almost 70% of elderly people have blockade of blood vessels of the brain of varying severity. This indicates the existence of a possible relationship between blood flow disorders (often undiagnosed) and the symptoms of aging.
According to the head of the study, Aron S. Buchman, the symptoms described above are often considered as signs of the normal aging process. However, this opinion is erroneous and the data obtained indicate the need to improve existing methods for diagnosing circulatory disorders of the brain and develop new approaches to the prevention and treatment of blockage of small blood vessels.
Article by Aron S. Buchman et al. Cerebrovascular Disease Pathology and Parkinsonian Signs in Old Age was published on September 1 in the journal Stroke.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal Youth" based on Rush University Medical Center materials:
Signs of Aging May Be Linked to Undetected Blocked Brain Blood Vessels.
02.09.2011