Brain Disorders and Diseases

Brain Disorders and Diseases: The Ins and the Outs

Every animal you can think of- birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish, mammals- has a brain. However, the human brain is unique, it gives us the power to imagine, communicate, problem solve and acknowledge the environment around us in unbelievable depth.

The brain performs many significant tasks, including the following:

• It controls body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate and breathing.
• It accepts and translates constant information, from your senses, about the world around you.
• It controls your physical movement
• It lets you think, dream, reason and experience emotions

All of these tasks are co-ordinated, controlled and regulated by an organ about the size of a head of broccoli. 

The complexity and importance of this organ is seen in the fact that neurological diseases are some of the most deadly and least explained disorders. 

Most brain disorders are related to age-related brain decline. Many neuroscientists believe that the regions of the brain that develop first are the ones that are lost during the normal stages of ageing. However, many researchers have also proposed the reciprocal of this theory; that the brain regions that develop late may be the first to deteriorate. We can link age with deterioration by comparing regions that deteriorate due to age, with regions associated with diseases such as Schizophrenia and Alzheimers.  Researchers have conducted statistical analyses to identify the regions that overlap.

Researchers came to the conclusion: “This network of brain regions not only showed mirroring of healthy developmental and aging processes, but also demonstrated heightened vulnerability to etiologically distinct clinical disorders linked to abnormal adolescent and aging trajectories (schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease) and recapitulated the pattern of macrostructural abnormalities seen in both disorders.” - http://www.neurologytimes.com/alzheimer-disease/brain-aging-development-and-disease-explained. 

Alzheimers

In terms of brain diseases, Alzheimers is everest: Alzheimer's disease is a neurological disorder in which the death of brain cells causes memory loss and cognitive decline. A neurodegenerative type of dementia, the disease starts mild and gets progressively worse. 

Alzheimers is defined as: 

Just over a tenth of people aged over age 65, have the disease in the US. In the over 85 region the percentage goes up to about a third of people suffering with the disease. Although there are many types of dementia Alzheimers is the leading cause of memory loss and cognitive decline. Also, the Alzheimers Association says it accounts for 60-80% of all cases of dementia.


What are the causes? 

Like all types of dementia, Alzheimers is caused by brain cell death. It is a neurodegenerative disease which means that there is progressive brain cell death over time. The total brain size shrinks with Alzheimers as there is a decline in the number of nerve cells and connections. Additionally, accumulation of protein between dying cells and brain neurones, called plaques and tangles, can cause disruptions in brain activity.

Symptoms?

• Difficulty eating or swallowing (dysphagia)
• Difficulty moving around or changing position without assistance 
• Considerable weight loss
• Urinary and bowel incontinence
• Gradual loss of speech
• Significant problems with short-term and long-term memory

Treatments?

There are no drug treatments available which can provide a cure for Alzheimers disease. However, medicines have been developed which can symptoms or temporarily slow down the progression.

ALS

Another disease which stands out to me in the category of neurological diseases is ALS. 

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease," is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurones carry impulses from the brain to spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles. 

The progressive degeneration of the motor neurones, in ALS, eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurones die the ability for the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease can become totally paralysed.

As motor neurones degenerate they can no longer send impulses to the muscle fibres, this can result in the muscles becoming progressively weaker and wearing away.

What are the causes?

Researchers are studying numerous possible causes of ALS, including:

• Gene mutation can lead to inherent ALS
• Chemical imbalance- higher levels of glutamate, a chemical messenger in the brain, can accumulate in nerve cells and spinal fluid. Glutamate can be toxic to some nerve cells, if exposed to increased amounts
• Disorganised immune response can cause a persons immune system to attack their own cells causing damage to nerve cells 

Symptoms?

Early symptoms of ALS often include increasing muscle weakness, especially involving the arms and legs, speech, swallowing or breathing. When muscles no longer receive the messages from the motor neurones that they require to function, the muscles begin to atrophy (become smaller). Limbs begin to look "thinner" as muscle tissue atrophies.

Treatments?

Although the cause of ALS is not completely understood, the recent years have brought a wealth of new scientific understanding regarding the physiology of this disease. While there is not a cure or treatment today that halts or reverses ALS, there is one FDA approved drug, riluzole, that modestly slows the progression of ALS as well as several other drugs in clinical trials that hold promise. Importantly, there are significant devices and therapies that can manage the symptoms of ALS that help people maintain as much independence as possible and prolong survival. 

With neurological diseases it is important to remember they are quite variable diseases; no two people will have the same journey or experiences.