From Nausea to Plaques and Tangles: Traumatic Brain Injuries and Alzheimer’s Disease
You might have suffered a concussion playing football as a high school or college student, and because you felt nauseous and dizzy, you rested for a few days, just as your doctor advised. Those few days passed and you felt like your old self again, ready to return to the field.
Fifty years later, your family is concerned about your memory: you don’t know what month it is, and you can’t recall the conversation you had with your son two hours earlier. Your wife eventually takes you to a neurologist, who diagnosis you with Alzheimer’s disease. You’re surprised. After all, you have no family history of Alzheimer’s, and you’ve worked hard to keep your brain sharp: you’ve been an avid reader and crossword puzzle fanatic for years. The neurologist must be wrong, you think. Or maybe you haven’t considered the concussion you sustained half a century earlier.
A brain injury is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s. It’s possible that all it takes is one concussion. On autopsy, an Alzheimer’s brain reveals beta amyloid deposits – proteins that collect between nerve cells. Tau, tangled fibers of proteins, collects within the cells. As we age, it’s not unusual to expect protein build up within our brains, but in Alzheimer’s, they accrue in greater amounts, impeding communication between nerve cells, causing memory impairment and personality changes.
In autopsy studies of those who have died in the acute phase of a traumatic brain injury, researchers have found amyloid deposits in thirty percent of people, including children, and increased tau levels in the spinal fluid of those who died of a severe traumatic brain injury.
But studies have proven that amyloid is a mysterious protein as it relates to head trauma. Researchers have learned that individuals with mild cognitive deficits, who reported a history of brain trauma, showed brain changes consistent with Alzheimer’s. But those with no cognitive impairment, who also reported a history of brain trauma, did not show any changes.
So, at least there is hope – if you have suffered a brain injury, maybe you’ll be among the lucky and will escape the sticky plaques and fibrous tangles.
I must hope to be among the lucky then. I thought my cognitive issues (post three concussions due to sports, chronic and transformed migraine, now cluster headache) were due to the medication Topamax, which I’ve been told has a nickname dopamax among nurses, for the lowering IQ side effect. I’m glad to know what you’ve written here, my doctor tells me little. It is best to know of possibilities and be prepared and think like a scientist about variables at hand that can factor into one’s life and decision-making.
Vicki, I’m glad my post was helpful. You mentioned the medication dopamax as having a side effect of lowering IQ. Am I reading that correctly? If that’s the case and you’re still taking it, maybe there’s another medication you could try. Those of us living with TBIs struggle enough with our altered, slowed brains, so why add a medication that will only slow down our brains that much more? Again, thanks for reading my post. Please stay in touch. All the best to you.
Hi Melissa!
I also have a traumatic brain injury , and have worked on the Special Care Unit of a nursing home. Most of the residents have Alzheimer’s type dementia or another severe form. For the first 5 years after my car accident, I was terrified of the likelihood of acquiring Alzheimer’s after my injury, but all you can do is hope and pray. Your post is indeed very informative, although I believe that while acknowledging the possibilities of this happening, it is best to keep a positive outlook, keep your mind sharp (as you stated) by being an avid reader and doing crossword puzzles. What good will it do to sit and worry about it while doing nothing? I have written a post on this subject as a reply to another post that I read on someone’s blog site, http://tbitriumphs.wordpress.com/2014/09/25/why-worry/
And I hope that we can keep contact through correspondence also.
Thanks, Danielle, for commenting. Yes, I agree, it’s “best to keep a positive outlook.” Also, keeping one another informed does not mean we should drown ourselves in worry.
All the best.