Brain Science:
White matter disease is the wearing away of tissue in the largest and deepest part of your brain that has a number of causes, including aging. This tissue contains millions of nerve fibers, or axons, that connect other parts of the brain and spinal cord and signal your nerves to talk to one another. As mentioned in the previous blog, a fatty material called myelin protects the fibers and gives white matter its color. White matter helps you problem-solve and focus. It also plays an important role in mood, walking, and balance. As you may recall white matter in the brain helps you think fast, walk straight, and keeps you from falling.
When it becomes diseased, the myelin breaks down. The signals that help you do these things can’t get through. Remember white matter is the connecting and routing part of the brain. Your body stops working like it should, much like a kink in a garden hose makes the water that comes out go awry.Many different diseases, injuries, and toxins can cause changes in your white matter. Doctors point to the same blood vessel problems that lead to heart trouble or strokes: Long-term high blood pressure,ongoing blood vessel inflammation, smoking.
It may be worse for women than men.White matter disease happens in older or elderly people. The following health issues sometimes leads to white matter disease:Diabetes,High cholesterol,Parkinson's disease,History of stroke. Genetics may also play a role.
Brain Facts:
White matter disease is common. It's present in more than half of the population of people who are 60 years old.
Abnormalities in white matter, known as lesions, are most often seen as bright areas or spots on MRI scans of the brain. They can reflect normal aging; white matter deteriorates as people age.
Studies have found that white matter lesions appear in some degree on brain scans of most older adults but less often in younger people.
White matter lesions are among the most common incidental findings—which means the lesions have no clinical significance—on brain scans of people of any age.
A large and significant number of white matter lesions may indicate significant damage to the white matter that can disrupt neuronal (nerve signal) transmission. This significant damage can lead to alzheimer's, MS. stroke, migraines.
.Lesions may also be created by genetic diseases, toxic disorders, infections, inflammatory conditions, metabolic disturbances, traumatic brain injury, cancer, neoplasia, and hydrocephalus. (Can anyone tell me who showed evidence of hydrocephalus at one time?)There are ways to prevent or even reverse this condition, but you need to start now.
So What:
Very often the lesions themselves don't cause any noticeable problems. But sometimes they may indicate significant damage to white matter that can disrupt neuronal (nerve signal) transmission and interfere with the way the brain works as it processes information and enables activities such as thinking, feeling, coordination, and walking.
.There are ways to prevent or even reverse this condition, but you need to start now.There is increasing evidence that white matter lesions may be an early component of neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and stroke.
Neurologists order brain scans—which might show white matter lesions—for a wide variety of motor symptoms (such as weakness, incoordination, and gait disorder), sensory symptoms (such as numbness, tingling, and visual loss), and neurobehavioral problems (such as memory loss, language impairment, and personality changes).
The effectiveness of a treatment for a particular disease may be assessed by monitoring its influence on white matter lesions. In MS, for example, the newer disease-modifying therapies may lessen the number of demyelinating lesions, known as plaques, or keep them from getting larger. There also is emerging evidence that treating high blood pressure may reduce white matter lesions associated with vascular disease.
One way to avoid getting lesions is to keep your brain as healthy as possible by preventing or controlling high blood pressure, diabetes, and other vascular risk factors. It's also important to exercise regularly, follow a healthy diet, get enough sleep, not smoke, stay socially engaged, reduce stress, and seek cognitive stimulation.
The bottom line is that white matter disease in the early stages is very treatable.Very few people who are identified early enough and stabilized, succumb to the disease. Very few of us have brain scans. If we perceive significant instances of symptoms we should.
Comments