Dementia not inevitable

A brief communication published in the August, 2008 issue of Neurobiology of Aging reported a case of a 115 year old woman who was found to have a normal brain with little or no evidence of Alzheimer's disease upon her death.
Prof. dr. Gert Holstege of University Medical Centre Groningen, The Netherlands and colleagues examined the brain and body of a Dutch woman who had willed her body to research at the age of 82. The woman had lived independently until the age of 105, when she moved to a residential care home because of poor eyesight. Neurological and psychological examinations conducted at age 112 and 113 determined that the woman had no memory or attention problems, and that her general mental performance was considered above average for someone between the ages of 60 to 75. She remained mentally alert until her death as the world's oldest woman at the age of 115.

Upon examination of the brain, the number of brain cells found was estimated to be that of a healthy person 60 to 80 years of age. Of the signs of Alzheimer's disease, almost no beta-amyloid deposits and only a mild degree of neurofibrillary tangles were found, considered to be too early to cause mental impairment. No evidence of atherosclerosis was observed in the brain or body.

In a commentary published in the same issue of the journal, Joseph L. Price noted several similar findings in nondemented individuals aged 85 to 105.

"Are there limits to the duration of high quality of life? Are there limits to healthy life for a human brain?" the authors ask in their introduction. "Our observations indicate that the limits of human cognitive function extends far beyond the range that is currently enjoyed by most individuals and that brain disease, even in supercentanarians, is not inevitable," they conclude.

RESOURCE/SOURCE: http://www.lef.org/ on June 23, 2008.