A recent study by the scientists has revealed that slow starvation of the brain from glucose may lead to Alzheimer’s disease.

The study of human and mice brains shows a reduction in blood flow robs the brain of energy. This results in setting off a process that produces the sticky clumps of protein.

According to the researchers this is a major cause of the disease.    

Robert Vassar and colleagues at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago said that the finding could help in formulating strategies such as exercise, reducing cholesterol and managing blood pressure to decrease the chances of Alzheimer's disease.

In the Dec. 26 issue of the journal Neuron, Vassar and his colleagues have also discovered a protein called elF2alpha that changes when the brain does not get enough energy in the form of glucose. This in turn produces more of an enzyme. This enzyme produces sticky protein clumps, called amyloid plaques.

Further experiments will establish if blocking the pathway could be used as a therapeutic approach to prevent and treat Alzheimer's.