We returned from Seattle this evening, having gone over for a brain MRI, an appointment with an ENT specialist, and to go trick-or-treating with our 5-year old granddaughter.
The trick-or-treating was great. Josie's Mommy, Daddy, and10-month old baby sister all came along. Unlike our neighborhood, their neighborhood was just packed with little children in all manner of costumes. We came home with a substantial haul of candy.
Sunday afternoon, I went for my first MRI since 2018 and my sixth since 2013. I was again lying in a tiny tube for 45 minutes or so listening to all manner of strange, very loud banging sounds. When we arrived home, an email told me that the results were now available.
As I mentioned before, I have been very anxious to see what the results would be because I'm looking for evidence that my brain has actually been recovering some brain cells. As we said in Beating the Dementia Monster, some research has shown actual increase in brain volume from physical exercise. The idea is that the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), generated during aerobic exercise, prompts stem cells in the hippocampus to form new neurons. And the brain grows. So has this been happening with me?
Maybe so. I have the radiologist's report (that was quick), but I haven't discussed it with my neurologist. I can just get a preliminary sense of it by applying my uneducated intuition. But it looks pretty positive to me.
They can find all kinds of stuff in a brain MRI, but for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease, two areas of interest for the radiologists and neurologists are the volumes of the hippocampus and the ventricles. The hippocampus is a key structure in the formation of long-term memory, and the ventricles are a proxy for overall volume loss in the brain. So measuring the ventricles measures overall brain atrophy.
The ventricles are void spaces that expand to compensate for tissue loss. The volume values are normalized for age and then represented as a percentile with respect to other men my age. In my 2015 MRI, they measured my hippocampus volume to be < 33 percentile, and my lateral ventricles were > 99 percentile. In my 2017 and 2018 MRIs, they said that my hippocampus volume was < 1 percentile for men my age, and the ventricles were > 99 percentile for men my age. So in a room of 100 men my age, I would have the smallest hippocampus and the largest ventricles. That's not good.
So what did they find on Sunday? They said my ventricles were > 99 percentile -- similar to 2018. But my hippocampus volume was now "within normal limits for age." They have it at the 52 percentile! Smack dab in the middle of normal!
Again, I'll need to discuss with my neurologist, but it looks to me like BDNF generated on the treadmill at the gym every day has lived up to its promise and generated new brain tissue. It also explains why my cognition remains as well as it has.
I came here after reading about the possible increase of hippocampus volume by 2% (in your book), and was curious what that might translate to in terms of percentiles. But WOW, up to the 52nd percentile?! What an amazing result.
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