What Are Tangles and Plaques?
Neurofibrillary tangles and beta amyloid plaques are found in abnormal amounts in the brains of people who die from Alzheimer’s, but to some extent, everyone eventually has some of these structures in their brains. • Tangles are twisted fibers that build up inside your nerve cells. • Plaques are dense and insoluble deposits of sticky proteins outside and around your neurons. Both tangles and brain plaque cause the nerve cells in your brain to stop working, lose connection with other nerve cells, and eventually die. Tangles and plaque build up in areas of your brain that control memory, personality, and day-to-day functioning. But getting older does not mean that you will develop a dangerous amount of tangles and brain plaques, lose your memory or develop Alzheimer’s. In fact, your choices may affect your brain’s health years from now. Activity for Alzheimer’s New studies are showing that you may be able to prevent and slow down the development of tangles and brain plaque with changes i
