Alzheimer’s begins with a protein called “amyloid beta”. It’s a sticky protein,it’ll bind to itself and form “amyloid plaques”.
阿茲海默氏症是由一種稱為 “β-類澱粉蛋白” 的蛋白質而產生，他是一種黏性蛋白質，會與自身結合變成異常蛋白質塊 “類澱粉蛋白斑塊”。
And if enough “amyloid plaques accumulate” in your brain, at some point it reaches a tipping point that causes neurofibrillary tangles, neuroinflammation, cell death, and all of the symptoms that we classically know of as Alzheimer’s.
如果大腦中在某個時間積累到一定數量的 “異常蛋白質斑塊” 時，就會導致神經元纖維纏結、神經炎症、細胞死亡，以及阿茲海默氏症的所有症狀。
Prior to that tipping point, you’re symptom-free, but when after the tipping point, the glitches in memory formation and retrieval are different, because Alzheimer’s begins in your hippocampus,the very place in your brain that’s responsible for forming new memories.
在達到臨界點之前，不會出現任何嚴重的症狀，但在臨界點之後，記憶力和回憶部分就會開始出現與之前很大的差別，這是因為阿茲海默氏症是先從海馬體開始蔓延，而那邊是大腦中負責形成新記憶的地方。
So, the very first symptoms of Alzheimer’s will be not remembering what someone said a few minutes ago,repeating yourself over and over,because you don’t remember what you just said,not remembering what happened last week even if it was really emotional, meaningful,new, surprising or repeated.
所以，阿茲海默氏症的第一個症狀是不記得幾分鐘前某人說的話，還會不斷的重複說同樣的事情，因為不記得剛才說的話，也不記得上週發生的事情，即使他帶有情緒、意義、新的、舊的或令人驚訝的等等。
Alzheimer’s will move,it doesn’t just stay in your hippocampus, it invades your frontal lobe,so you’ll have problems with problem solving,decision making, it invades parts of your brain that have to do with where things are in space,so you might get lost in the neighborhood you’ve lived in your whole life.
阿茲海默氏症會移動，他不會只停留在您的海馬體中，他也會侵入額葉，所以會在解決和決定事情時遇到問題，接著就換到大腦中與空間認知有關的部分，所以有可能會在你生活很久的地方迷路。
It will invade the parts of your brain that have to do with language,so you’ll start having trouble coming up with words more and more, the disease will move on to your limbic system and cause changes in emotion and personality.
他還會侵入大腦中與語言有關的部分，所以會越來越難以想出單詞，然後在轉移到大腦邊緣系統，並引起情緒和性格的變化。
This accumulation of “amyloid plaques” takes 15 to 20 years,and can be influenced by how we live, so what are the things that influence those amyloid plaque levels?
這種 “類澱粉蛋白斑塊” 需要 15 到 20 年的時間積累才會病發，並且會受到我們生活方式的影響，
那麼影響類澱粉蛋白斑塊水平的因素是什麼？
1.Sleep睡覺
While you sleep, there are cells in your brain called “glial cells”, they get really busy clearing away all of the metabolic debris that accumulated in your brain while you were in the business of being awake, and one of the things it critically clears away is amyloid beta.
當在睡覺時，大腦中的 “神經膠質細胞” ，他們會清理在清醒期間所累積的所有新陳代謝殘留物，而最關鍵清除的東西之一是 “β-類澱粉蛋白”。
So if you don’t get enough sleep,the glial cells won’t have enough time to do their jobs and you’ll wake up at the morning with some extra amyloid in your brain that wasn’t cleared away, If this happens over decades ,you are increasing your risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
所以如果睡眠不足，”神經膠質細胞” 就沒有足夠的時間來完成它們的工作，當在早上醒來時大腦中就會有一些額外的類澱粉蛋白沒有被清除，如果這種情況持續幾十年時，就會增加患阿茲海默氏症的風險。
2.Diet 飲食
Being on a “Mediterranean” or “MIND” diet can reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s from anywhere from a third to a half.
採用 “地中海” 或 “MIND飲食” 可以將患阿茲海默氏症的風險降低三分之一到一半。
This means eating the rainbow,The green leafy vegetables,the brightly colored fruits and berries, fatty fishes,nuts, beans, olive oils, that’s the food that’s gonna support your brain health and help you prevent Alzheimer’s.
這代表多吃彩色、綠葉蔬菜、顏色鮮豔的水果和漿果、魚類、堅果、豆類、橄欖油，可以幫助你大腦健康和預防阿茲海默氏症。
MIND飲食計畫: 建議食用大量的蔬菜、莓類水果、堅果和魚，並限制摄入肉類、奶類和甜食，可以用來在幫助人們減少患上老年痴呆症和其他形式的認知障礙的風險。
3.Exercise 運動
It works to reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s.A brisk walk for 30 minutes,four to five times a week is enough to decrease your amyloid plaque levels and reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer’s by a third to a half.
運動可以降低患阿茲海默氏症的風險。每週快走 4 到 5 次，每次 30 分鐘，就足以降低異常蛋白斑塊水平，並將罹患阿茲海默氏症的風險降低三分之一到一半。
4.Ruduce Chronic stress 減少慢性壓力
With chronic stress, your cortisol levels remain elevated,You’re in a constant state of fight or flight,This is really bad for your hippocampus, because It will actually shrink the size of your hippocampus by inhibiting ‘neurogenesis’ it will inhibit the birth of new neurons there.
在慢性壓力下，皮質醇水平會持續升高，且如果一直處於緊張或是戰鬥狀態，那會對海馬體造成非常不好的影響，因為他會通過抑制 “神經再生” 來限制神經元的產生，並導致海馬體變小。
Yoga, meditation, mindfulness, exercise,and being with people,All of these have been shown to restore your cortisol levels and it will restore the size of your hippocampus.
瑜伽、冥想、正念、運動和與人相處，這些都已被證明是可以恢復皮質醇的水平，和恢復海馬體的大小的方法。
5.Learning new things 學習新事物
If I have some Alzheimer’s disease pathology present in my brain,amyloid plaques are gunking up the connections between a certain number of neurons,blocking some synapses.
如果大腦中存在一些異常蛋白質塊的話，他們會破壞一定數量神經元之間的連接，來阻斷突觸傳遞訊息。
Every time you learn something new,you’re building new synapses,you’re building new neural connections, I’ve got an abundance and a redundancy in connections,I can dance around those roadblocks,I can take detours and still get to the memory I’m trying to get to,so learning new things gives us a way to build an Alzheimer’s-resistant brain.
每次學習新東西，都是在建立新的神經突觸和新的神經連接，即使擁過於豐富和多餘的連接，我們也有辦法從這些路線中找到想要的記憶，因此，學習新事物為我們提供一種對抗他們的方法。
以上內容參考_Lisa Genova.