Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages PL
Got a 40-inch waistline? Beware!
The above link provides a list of diseases for men who have a waistline above 40 inches and women with a waistline over 34 inches. Notice that the list includes Alzheimers.
I forgot to mention: If you decide to measure your waistline, for the purpose of determining your health risk, you're not supposed to hold your stomach in. Stay relaxed and let it all hang out. :-)
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One size does not fit all, apparently.
After caring for my mom in this home (after her husband died) for six years and seeing the progression of early onset alzheimers disease to the middle stage when I could no longer care for her as far as getting her in and out of the bath tub nor the shower, at which time she went to live in an assisted living place and right to the ending stage when she was in a skilled nursing care facility for 18 months until passing at age 91.....
I have to say that she had no belly fat. That is a hangup of yours , but one size does not fit all.
When visiting the assisted living facility, all of the dementia and Alzheimer patients were stick thin...........ditto for the skilled living facility, however, as a great credit to the latter facility, they spoon fed their patients and put the weight back on the people.........they were truly angels of mercy.
My mom was 4 feet 11" and petite her entire life. Never was fat.
She weighed under 100 lbs. Then, when she got forgetful and forgot to eat, she went down to 85 pounds. After we got her, and she ate my good home cooking.......we got her back to a little over the 100 lbs. and she looked good. So, again, not everyone is the same.
We know plenty of skinny people who got alzheimers or dementia or were severely demented with alzheimers..........
In fact, I cannot think of one fat person we know who got that disease.
Unless you've got experience in caring for such a person, do not believe every single thing that you read. I realize you are concerned that you yourself do not end up like some of your relatives........but you know something, I never worry that I'm going to get alzheimers as we are all different.............my mom was "confused" long before she ever was diagnosed...........
Rather than belly fat, I'd look for symptoms such as early onset "forgetting where one puts the keys to the house"; "locking oneself outside the house".......plus loss of sense of smell. She always worried that she wouldn't be able to smell the GAS.......and I'd assure her (this is when she was living alone with my stepfather) that, "Mom you do not have gas in this house. " (She was thinking back to New Jersey)......but she couldn't smell anything...........perfume, food cooking, nothing.
She probably had it long before age 80......but hid it well.
The nurses all said that the difference between my mom and others in the early stages was that she knew she was confused.....whereas some do not.
She'd forget what day mass was and walk to church in the middle of the week. She'd forget what day her hair appointment was and go down every single day. The hairdresser, a man, was so kindly and understanding and would tell me, "Your momma is confused"........but she still functioned.........it wasn't until her husband died that we knew the full extent of this confusion........when she came to live with us and the rest is history.
One of the reasons we moved back "home" after relocating to Florida twenty years ago was that "Life is what happens when you are making other plans"........so believe me, I can speak from experience about people with NO BELLY FAT getting Alzheimers disease.
She passed in 2003........thus lived pretty long after diagnosis.
The end is not a pretty sight. It is really THE LONG GOODBYE.
That six years in our home was quite an education.........
Not to mention the next three plus years in the assisted living and then skilled nursing facility.........so we've seen a lot of such patients.
We befriended many of them and they would look forward to our visits.
Just saying............don't believe every thing you read unless you've been down that road personally and can vouch for it.............
P.S. Also, when she was still in the home she had shared with my stepfather, we gave her BIG CALENDARS and would mark the dates for things..............the calendars would literally DISAPPEAR. We gave her African Violet Plants to tend to; they would disappear. We TRIED EVERYTHING to help her cope........finally, it was easier to have her move in with us.........only once did she "wander away"......as I've told that story before. She seemed content living with us as she no longer had to THINK or MAKE DECISIONS..........so that might have extended her first stage of the disease.
But when the geriatric specialist tried to administer the cognitive test, he couldn't.....we were not in the room with them.
I have no idea what she did or said to him........but he came out and told me, ".......I am so sorry for you, your mom is severely demented with Alzheimers Disease"...........when people would visit us, she was quite sociable and people would say, ".........there is nothing wrong with your mother". My elder brother would say, ".......you read too much". Of course, he was in New Jersey and not experiencing her "NIGHT TIME WANDERING" called Sundowners' Syndrome.
Go figure.
All I'm saying is unless you have first hand knowledge, not all of them have belly fat.