[Villages PL]

This is an easy and interesting read, by Jean Carper, a veteran science writer. You'll learn about all the things you should and shouldn't be doing, as Alzheimer's is largely brought about or prevented by lifestyle. As I have said before: We usually (not always) get the health we promote. The only catch is that one needs to be flexable and open to change. In other words, it's not all about taking pills.

[zcaveman]

Originally Posted by Villages PL

This is an easy and interesting read, by Jean Carper, a veteran science writer. You'll learn about all the things you should and shouldn't be doing, as Alzheimer's is largely brought about or prevented by lifestyle. As I have said before: We usually (not always) get the health we promote. The only catch is that one needs to be flexable and open to change. In other words, it's not all about taking pills.

It might be more interesting to read if you post the name of the book.

Z

[pooh]

Originally Posted by Villages PL

This is an easy and interesting read, by Jean Carper, a veteran science writer. You'll learn about all the things you should and shouldn't be doing, as Alzheimer's is largely brought about or prevented by lifestyle. As I have said before: We usually (not always) get the health we promote. The only catch is that one needs to be flexable and open to change. In other words, it's not all about taking pills.

Oh? What about genes? There are genes related to Alzheimer development. There may indeed be ways to help slow or maybe even prevent, late onset of the disease....watch out for head injuries, get plenty of exercise, eat well and stay happy, but have these methods been shown to always work???

[graciegirl]

OH VP. No one has ever proved this hypothesis.

[pooh]

Originally Posted by zcaveman

It might be more interesting to read if you post the name of the book.

Z

Actually, that's the name of the book, Z, 100 Simple Things.........

[zcaveman]

Originally Posted by pooh

Actually, that's the name of the book, Z, 100 Simple Things.........

Thanks!!!

[chuckinca]

10 simple things might be easier to remember!


.

[Barefoot]

Oh dear, I saw the title of this thread, and I decided to stay away from it.
But then I forgot. Oh oh.

[Villages PL]

Originally Posted by pooh

Oh? What about genes? There are genes related to Alzheimer development. There may indeed be ways to help slow or maybe even prevent, late onset of the disease....watch out for head injuries, get plenty of exercise, eat well and stay happy, but have these methods been shown to always work???

What about genes? Good question, pooh. You, and others, might find it interesting to know that the author, Jean Carper, has the gene for Alzheimer's disease. She disclosed this information at the beginning. The book came out in 2010 and she said she was 78 years old. I think it's pretty good that she can still write an interesting and informative book at her age with the gene for Alzheimer's. She may yet get Alzheimer's but so far (as of 2010) everything seems to be okay.

On the 19th I talked to my doctor about Alzheimer's when I went in to get my blood-work results. My blood-work did not include looking for the Alzheimer's gene and he said he thought it would be a waste of time and money to look for it. And I believe he's correct. He said it's only an association and there may be many other genes involved. Most likely you will find a higher rate of dementia among those with the gene but not everyone with the gene gets Alzheimer's. So what does that mean? I believe it means that the gene (or genes) need to be triggered by something in the environment (and that includes diet, exercise etc..).

Have these methods been shown to always work? Nope, sorry, there are no guarantees. Very few people, even with the best of intentions, can follow all the rules. And these rules have to be started early in life. My father had a big waistline at middle age and I believe I read (in another book) that a big waistline (about 40 inches?) will increase your risk by about 6 times. The first symptom he had was the loss of his sense of smell which we discovered when my mother was baking cookies. Everyone said mmmm! those cookies smell good! And he said, "what smell? I don't smell anything." He was somewhere around his mid-fifties at the time and didn't get diagnosed with Alzheimer's until he was about 77 to 78 years old.

I have never been overweight but I did hit my head a couple of times, accidentally. But I would still recommend that no one give up trying to avoid dementia, regardless of what was in their past. I can't be pessimistic; that's not my nature. I may be pessimistic at times about the direction of the country as a whole, but for myself and others around me I would like to offer hope. And the fact that this good book was written by someone with the gene....well, that in itself offers a lot of hope.

[pooh]

It is indeed one of life's greatest mysteries. I have a friend whose family is impacted with familial Alzheimer's. Members of her family have been studied, also. She is beginning to exhibit brain shrinkage, associated with coming down with the condition. As of this date, she has not exhibited Alzheimer's. It's been a few years.

Not sure if I would want to be tested VPl. At this point, if Alzheimer's manifests, actually very little seems to help, actually nothing really does at the moment.
One physician, Dr. Mary Newport reports success with her husband, an Alzheimer's patient, using coconut oil. Is this a cure all? Did it really work? Will it bring about a host of other medical problems?
If prevention through diet, exercise, preventing blows to the head turn out to nip the condition in the bud, you're right, prevention needs to start early. If other factors play some part in Alzheimer's, hopefully continued research will better pinpoint exactly why things happen. We know what happens, but why???

[Villages PL]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

OH VP. No one has ever proved this hypothesis.

What hypothesis? Duh! Oh, you mean the hypothesis that Alzheimer's can be prevented through lifestyle?

It all depends on how much "proof" you want. How much proof do you want?
Put in your order now and I'll try to get some.

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by Villages PL

What about genes? Good question, pooh. You, and others, might find it interesting to know that the author, Jean Carper, has the gene for Alzheimer's disease. She disclosed this information at the beginning. The book came out in 2010 and she said she was 78 years old. I think it's pretty good that she can still write an interesting and informative book at her age with the gene for Alzheimer's. She may yet get Alzheimer's but so far (as of 2010) everything seems to be okay.

On the 19th I talked to my doctor about Alzheimer's when I went in to get my blood-work results. My blood-work did not include looking for the Alzheimer's gene and he said he thought it would be a waste of time and money to look for it. And I believe he's correct. He said it's only an association and there may be many other genes involved. Most likely you will find a higher rate of dementia among those with the gene but not everyone with the gene gets Alzheimer's. So what does that mean? I believe it means that the gene (or genes) need to be triggered by something in the environment (and that includes diet, exercise etc..).

Have these methods been shown to always work? Nope, sorry, there are no guarantees. Very few people, even with the best of intentions, can follow all the rules. And these rules have to be started early in life. My father had a big waistline at middle age and I believe I read (in another book) that a big waistline (about 40 inches?) will increase your risk by about 6 times. The first symptom he had was the loss of his sense of smell which we discovered when my mother was baking cookies. Everyone said mmmm! those cookies smell good! And he said, "what smell? I don't smell anything." He was somewhere around his mid-fifties at the time and didn't get diagnosed with Alzheimer's until he was about 77 to 78 years old.

I have never been overweight but I did hit my head a couple of times, accidentally. But I would still recommend that no one give up trying to avoid dementia, regardless of what was in their past. I can't be pessimistic; that's not my nature. I may be pessimistic at times about the direction of the country as a whole, but for myself and others around me I would like to offer hope. And the fact that this good book was written by someone with the gene....well, that in itself offers a lot of hope.

I can attest to the "lack of smell" as one of the earlier "symptoms" of Alzheimers. Not only have I read about that symptom but my own mother displayed it for decades when everything else seemed "normal".

She knew that she couldn't smell things baking, cooking, flowers, perfume, etc. .....most of the things we take for granted as being able to notice the scent of.........but she worried most about NOT BEING ABLE TO SMELL A GAS LEAK. I kept telling her that she had NO GAS in her home, but guess she was using her "long term memory" to recall the gas heat in her childhood, as well as the gas stoves......

She always talked about her "lack of smell".

The other interesting "POSSIBLE LINK" to Alzheimers is aluminum.
They do tend to find large aluminum deposits in the brain after doing autopsies.

She used a lot of I.A.D. and Kaopectate on her senior bus trips.
Immodium is an antidiarrheal, just as Kaopectate is. Both products have aluminum in them.

She also cooked in aluminum pots her entire life, but the jury is out on that. Ditto for her generation having lots of food from aluminum cans.
World War II era.

I thought you didn't believe in genetics???????????

You've always said that the health of my long lived relatives was not attributable to their genes.

Alzheimers is very very very insidious as it sneaks up on the unsuspecting family and friends of the person who has it.

They may seem quite normal for say 84 and 85 and actually be in top PHYSICAL CONDITION..........but sooner or later someone will notice that "things go missing" like calendars, plants, pocketbooks, checkbooks, all types of things and the person cannot remember where they put them.

This is much MORE than a simple "senior moment".

They begin to forget to send a birthday card or forget that there is a war going on in the Gulf.........or do not know , all of a sudden, who the president of the U.S.A. is........even though their spouse watches the evening news every night.

They go to mass on the wrong day. They go to their hairdresser appointment every day of the week, forgetting it is only one day a week.
The hairdresser tells the adult daughter, "Your momma is confused".

They forget to write their bills out.

All of their house plants disappear. Their clothes disappear.

This really isn't funny.........but as it's happening, it's difficult for the family members.

Some become beliggerant; others become docile. Definite personality changes.

How we noticed it was when the spouse died, and we went to clean the house, all of the EXPIRED food in the frig.........have heard this story over and over again from others in the same boat..........food in there for 2 to 3 or more years.........expired dates. Sour milk, etc.

Usually they get malnutriton as they FORGET TO EAT.

They begin to "wander" and end up in strange places.

She'd tell me she walked to the supermarket and when she got there she'd forget what she went for.
If she wrote it down, she lost the note.

I'd drive her to the supermarket and she'd say "I don't really need anything".

Then I'd find out she walked all the way back later.

In another post you said you didn't know what a KINDLE was????
Plus you've never had a charge card. Are you sure????
You just said you've hit your head a few times.

When my mom was finally administered the cognitive test by a doctor who specialized in Alzheimers, he said he could NOT administer it.
That's how far gone she was........and yet with us, she still had her social skills and remembered our names and was FINE as long as I did everything for her.............it took a good decade for it to progress to the END STAGE............however, she might have had it prior to the diagnosis, when I think back now. She always claimed she didn't know how to use the toaster. We bought her a microwave and wrote the instructions down, but she couldn't use that. Ditto for a camera, a popcorn popper, etc. So, maybe there were symptoms earlier than 84.

While traveling with us she managed to somehow open a deadbolt lock and exit the room ; went down to the atrium by the hotel pool where a wedding was going on and crashed the wedding in her nightgown, bare feet and with a pocketbook over her arm (like Sophia in THE GOLDEN GIRLS)......THE FRONT DESK CALLED ME AT MIDNIGHT TO COME AND GET HER WHICH MY HUSBAND DID. Had she gone OUTDOORS.....she would have froze to death as it was 16 degrees out in December.

She had what they call "Sundowners's Syndrome" which is night time wandering. We live in a tri level so I always worried she would fall down the stairs, but she never did. But she did some strange things overnight each night. A friend's mom would go down and set the dining room table for Thanksgiving dinner every single night.
Waking up to these things is stressful after 6 years of it or more.

At her adult daycare center, they said, "Your mom is different in that SHE KNOWS SHE IS CONFUSED". "MOST OF OUR PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW IT".

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Are you confused if you don't know it?

p.s. Your theory on weight is flawed. We saw patients of all sizes, mostly thin, in the skilled nursing home....in various stages of Alzheimers, from early to end stage.
My mom was four feet eleven inches (very short) and extremely thin and tiny boned her entire life...........when I "got her" to live with me , after my stepdad died, she weighed only 85 pounds. In her prime she never weighed more than 95 to 100 lbs. As I've told you before, she walked all over town like a teenager, as everyone told me. We couldn't even keep up with her. I had her living with us for six years and her weight increased to 120 lbs to 125 lbs via three good nourishing meals per day.
When she had to go to a community care home, she went down to 85 pounds again as they just put the food in front of her in the dining room, but if she forgot to eat it, that was that. The last 18 months in the skilled nursing facility for alzheimer patients, they SPOON FED HER as we sat by and watched; we also spoon fed her and her weight went back up to 125 lbs. She was there because I could no longer bathe her. They had a gizmo where they'd elevate her "chair" up into the air and lower it down into a warm whirlpool tub..........she'd lost her speech by then, but would cry out as she was frightened ........until she felt the nice soothing warm water.
BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY I AM EXPERIENCED IN THE "LONG GOODBYE" OF ALZHEIMERS.............and not everyone is the same. There were teachers, doctors, engineers, and regular plumbers, carpenters, you name it.......people from all walks of life and SIZES get Alzheimers.......the worst is when they get it at a YOUNG AGE.

[Villages PL]

Originally Posted by senior citizen

I thought you didn't believe in genetics???????????

Well, I'll explain it again. Some authors, like Dr. Bruce Lipton, say that very few diseases are caused by a single gene. For the many common degenerative diseases, genes need to be triggered by lifestyle. Genes by themselves don't cause degenerative diseases.

You've always said that the health of my long lived relatives was not attributable to their genes.

I don't know your relatives and only have your word for what they did and didn't do. Are you sure you remember what they did? So why speculate? But I still say that lifestyle is the major factor in determining health and longevity.

In another post you said you didn't know what a KINDLE was????
Plus you've never had a charge card. Are you sure????
You just said you've hit your head a few times.

Are you sure you remember what I said? I didn't say I didn't know what a KINDLE was. Do you know what you are insinuating? Ordinarilly, it would be considered mean-spirited but it might just be a change in personality. I read that aggression and rudeness can be an early sign of Alzheimer's.

p.s. Your theory on weight is flawed. We saw patients of all sizes, mostly thin, in the skilled nursing home....in various stages of Alzheimers, from early to end stage.

No it's not flawed. It's not weight per say, it's waist measurement. Did you forget? And, in science, it doesn't mean that everyone with a large waist will get Alzheimer's. It just means that they increase their risk of getting Alzheimer's.

[Villages PL]

Originally Posted by pooh

It is indeed one of life's greatest mysteries. I have a friend whose family is impacted with familial Alzheimer's. Members of her family have been studied, also. She is beginning to exhibit brain shrinkage, associated with coming down with the condition. As of this date, she has not exhibited Alzheimer's. It's been a few years.

Not sure if I would want to be tested VPl. At this point, if Alzheimer's manifests, actually very little seems to help, actually nothing really does at the moment.
One physician, Dr. Mary Newport reports success with her husband, an Alzheimer's patient, using coconut oil. Is this a cure all? Did it really work? Will it bring about a host of other medical problems?
If prevention through diet, exercise, preventing blows to the head turn out to nip the condition in the bud, you're right, prevention needs to start early. If other factors play some part in Alzheimer's, hopefully continued research will better pinpoint exactly why things happen. We know what happens, but why???

The book (100 Simple Things....) explains that there can be brain shrinkage and all kinds of other signs of degeneration and some people go on living normal lives. So, it's a strange disease. But it's thought that there can be offsetting factors like keeping active etc..

[pooh]

Originally Posted by Villages PL

The book (100 Simple Things....) explains that there can be brain shrinkage and all kinds of other signs of degeneration and some people go on living normal lives. So, it's a strange disease. But it's thought that there can be offsetting factors like keeping active etc..

It is indeed, a strange disease. My friend was devastated initially when diagnosed with mild cognitive disorder AND some brain shrinkage...having had so many family members with Alzheimer's, including her father, uncles, and an aunt, too, I believe. A good number of years have passed and there appears to be no worsening, so hopefully, she and her family will be spared this disease and it's devastating impact on patient and family. This disease is so complicated....hopefully a cause and effect can be definitively determined soon.