Laboratory of Neuroscience and Functional Medicine, International Center for Biomedicine and Faculty of Sciences, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine North, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
J Alzheimers Dis. 2021;82(s1):S51-S63. doi: 10.3233/JAD-201059.
One of the major puzzles in medical research and public health systems worldwide is Alzheimer's disease (AD), reaching nowadays a prevalence near 50 million people. This is a multifactorial brain disorder characterized by progressive cognitive impairment, apathy, and mood and neuropsychiatric disorders. The main risk of AD is aging; a normal biological process associated with a continuum dynamic involving a gradual loss of people's physical capacities, but with a sound experienced view of life. Studies suggest that AD is a break from normal aging with changes in the powerful functional capacities of neurons as well as in the mechanisms of neuronal protection. In this context, an important path has been opened toward AD prevention considering that there are elements of nutrition, daily exercise, avoidance of toxic substances and drugs, an active social life, meditation, and control of stress, to achieve healthy aging. Here, we analyze the involvement of such factors and how to control environmental risk factors for a better quality of life. Prevention as well as innovative screening programs for early detection of the disease using reliable biomarkers are becoming critical to control the disease. In addition, the failure of traditional pharmacological treatments and search for new drugs has stimulated the emergence of nutraceutical compounds in the context of a "multitarget" therapy, as well as mindfulness approaches shown to be effective in the aging, and applied to the control of AD. An integrated approach involving all these preventive factors combined with novel pharmacological approaches should pave the way for the future control of the disease.
在全球范围内，医学研究和公共卫生系统面临的主要难题之一是阿尔茨海默病（AD），目前该病的患病率接近 5000 万人。这是一种多因素脑疾病，其特征是进行性认知障碍、冷漠、情绪和神经精神障碍。AD 的主要风险因素是衰老；衰老这一正常的生物学过程与一个连续不断的动态过程相关联，该过程涉及到人们身体机能的逐渐丧失，但同时人们仍保持着良好的生活体验。研究表明，AD 是一种与正常衰老不同的疾病，神经元的强大功能能力以及神经元保护机制发生了变化。在此背景下，人们提出了预防 AD 的重要途径，因为营养、日常锻炼、避免有毒物质和药物、积极的社交生活、冥想和压力控制等元素都可以实现健康衰老。在这里，我们分析了这些因素的参与情况以及如何控制环境风险因素以提高生活质量。预防以及使用可靠的生物标志物进行早期疾病检测的创新筛查计划变得至关重要，以控制疾病。此外，传统药物治疗的失败和新药的研发也刺激了营养化合物在“多靶点”治疗中的出现，以及被证明在衰老控制中有效的正念方法，这些方法都适用于 AD 的控制。一种涉及所有这些预防因素的综合方法与新型药物方法相结合，应该为未来疾病的控制铺平道路。
