From a society standpoint, the “company line” is that we don’t know what causes Alzheimer’s and we don’t know how to prevent it. Untold dollars go to finding a cure. A recent approach was geared towards vaccination against amyloid plaques (AP) that accumulate in Alzheimer’s. The results were disappointing.
The AP accumulate as a result of the process. They do NOT cause Alzheimers, but are merely the side effect. So a vaccination to get rid of the APs, which did work at lowering the amount of plaques in the brain, did nothing to affect the symptoms of Alzheimers in these patients.
The reality is that we have a very good grasp on what causes Alzheimers. It starts with breakdown of the ability of brain cells to produce energy (in the form of ATP from the mitochondria if you happened to stay awake in high school biology). The brain cell can no longer survive and begins to die off. Great if it’s just a single brain cell. But what if this is a pattern that occurs over the course of decades and in specific regions of the brain (in the case of Alzheimers this region is the hippocampus and neocortex)? You slowly lose function and at some point the diagnosis of Alzheimers is on the table.
So anything that harms the mitochondria (stress, toxic chemicals, heavy metals, processed foods, smoking, excess calories etc..) is to be avoided. Anything that protects the mitochondria (high quality diet w/ lots of fruits/veggies/spices, less calories, healthy fats, mutlivitamins, etc..) is good.
Using this template, seeing in this particular study that a diet low in saturated fats and refined carbs led to better markers of AP, while a high saturated fat and refined carb diet clearly showed an increase in these markers.
Bottom line is that it is NOT genetic, it is lifestyle. The research is well beyond the point where any sane person concerned about Alzhemiers disease would definately adopt healthier lifestyle changes to lower their risk rather than wait for the “experts” to de