How Heat Can Affect the Development of Amyloid Plaques in Alzheimer’s Disease

How Heat Can Affect the Development of Amyloid Plaques in Alzheimer’s Disease

RESEARCH PROPOSAL BY ALEXANDER J. COLÓN

Alzheimer’s Disease?

Alzheimer's disease leads to nerve cell death and tissue loss throughout the brain. Over time, the brain shrinks dramatically, affecting nearly all its functions.

Hypothesis:

Regular and consistent use of a hair dryer can cause Amyloid Plaques to form and indirectly lead to the development of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Reasons:

A conventional hair dryer can reach temperatures between 95 degrees Fahrenheit and 131 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Human Body runs at an average temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

It’s a temperature difference of more than 30 degrees.

How does heat affect the brain?

A fever raises body temp. and can affect the brain.

“Brain damage from a fever generally will not occur unless the fever is over 107.6 °F (42 °C).”

www.nlm.nih.gov

Amyloid Plaques

Alzheimer's tissue has many fewer nerve cells and synapses than a healthy brain.

Plaques, abnormal clusters of protein fragments, build up between nerve cells.

Dead and dying nerve cells contain tangles, which are made up of twisted strands of another protein.

Scientists are not absolutely sure what causes cell death and tissue loss in the Alzheimer's brain, but plaques and tangles are prime suspects.

Method of Investigation:

InterviewsPatient HistoryPolls

Method of Investigation:

MRI Patient BrainsCompare Results

References:

R. Brookmeyer, E. Johnson, H.M. Arrighi et al.

Forecasting the global burden of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimers Dement., 3 (2007), pp. 186–191

D.J. Selkoe

Alzheimer's disease: genes, proteins, and therapy

Physiol. Rev., 81 (2001), pp. 741–766

L. Cruz, S.V. Buldyrev, R. Christie, T. Gomez-Isla, S. Havlin et al.

Aggregation and disaggregation of senile plaques in Alzheimer disease

Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 94 (1997), pp. 7612–7616