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What are Neuritic Plaques?

About 5.3 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Neuritic plaques are one of the signs and causes of Alzheimer's disease.

  1. Identification

    • Neuritic plaques are an accumulation of a sticky substance made of amyloid protein on brain tissues. Amyloid proteins are a substance found naturally around structures of your body.

    Risks

    • In patients with Alzheimer's, the amyloid found in neuritic plaques divides and forms a substance called beta amyloid, which is toxic to nerve cells.

    Effects

    • As your brain becomes exposed to the harmful effects of beta amyloid from neuritic plaques, your nerve cells become damaged. This leads to poor conduction of electrical currents throughout your brain and causes the memory loss of Alzheimer's.

    Causes

    • Doctors do not fully understand why the neuritic plaques in patients with Alzheimer's divide into beta amyloid, according to the Memory Disorders Project at Rutgers University.

    Solution

    • A 2009 study at UCLA (see Resources below) found that a combination of vitamin D and a chemical found in the spice tumeric called curcumin may help your immune system destroy the accumulated neuritic plaques that contribute to Alzheimer's disease.

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