Brain diseases lay waste to their victims in many different ways, most of them fatal. Alzheimer's robs patients of memory. Parkinson's ravages brain regions that coordinate movement. Huntington's unleashes uncontrollable spasms. Lou Gehrig's disease vanquishes the nerve cells that control the muscles. Researchers have long assumed the causes of these and other degenerative disorders are as disparate as their symptoms. But that assumption is being turned upside down, a stunning development with profound implications for the 6 million Americans with these ailments―and the millions more to come as baby boomers age. Many researchers now believe most of these disorders share a common origin: clusters of deformed proteins that pile up in the brain over the years, slowly poisoning brain cells. Like globs of molecular glue, the protein debris wreaks havoc inside brain cells, clogging communication channels and gumming up nutrients and other necessary chemicals.
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