The Multiple Factors Leading Into Neurodegenerative Disorders

It’s so complex that a single piece of writing cannot suffice as a thorough analysis of the situation.

The human brain, as we do know it to be, is one of the most crucial organs in the body for the human being to experience life with. There are so many different functions that the brain has to control and regulate, and so much more about the brain that medical science has not yet been able to elucidate or discover.

However, what we do know is that there are more people who do end up experiencing a degeneration of their brain functions to a point where they are unable to function as how normal humans ought to be functioning.

For example, Alzheimer’s disease cases are on the rise. US statistics estimate 6.5 million people aged 65 and over living with Alzheimer’s, and that number is projected to hit 13 million by 2050.

Parkinson’s disease cases are also on the rise too, and these 2 neurodegenerative disorders are things that affect one’s cognitive abilities (Alzheimer’s) or motor abilities (Parkinson’s).

Interestingly, we do tend to describe both of them as “neurodegenerative” disorders. But we have to understand the general idea behind this neurodegeneration by first making sense of a few things:

1. The brain is an organ that comprises tissues, and these tissues comprise live cells.

2. These living cells in the brain are capable of sending out various signals to engage other cells to carry out specific functions. For example, we have the frontal lobe of the brain that controls our motor movements, while the cerebellum section in the brain further “fine tunes” that movement. That’s how some people can train to the point of being fine tuned Olympic champions, while others cannot.

3. A degeneration of specific parts of the brain leads to a loss of function that those parts would have controlled. Of course, there are multiple reasons why that could happen. An accident could have severed the signalling lines that are used for transmitting signals, and that’s how people in car accidents can end up as quadriplegics, for instance.

4. Whereas in degenerative disorders, cells in the brain may either survive but end up doing nothing to support their function, or they may just end up dying prematurely. This is how a corporate organisation also ends up dying from the inside — their employees either end up not doing anything and becoming dead weight sucking out salaries, or they pack up and move out to greener pastures.

So let’s get down to the analysis of neurodegenerative disorders.

We have to consider that the brain is made up of live cells.

Every cell in the body is a live microorganism that can be counted on to perform specific functions. We do have to feed them the necessary inputs for them to work at a baseline level, and add in even more enhanced support if we were to want them to work more effectively.

Oxygen, for example, is what we take into our body when we breathe. Carbohydrates and fats are found in our daily diets, which are used as feedstocks for energy generation:

There is a whole network of biochemical reactions that occur in the oxidation of these carbohydrates and fats, which result in the formation of carbon dioxide gas that we breathe out.

Electrons are continuously being transferred and shunted into oxygen molecules to form water during the energy generation process, aided by Coenzyme Q10: