According to Dr. Gott: There is no surefire prevention for Alzheimer's but---it is important to keep our brains as active and sharp as possible by challenging ourselves with logical thinking and creativity. Please tell me why so many of our spouses started showing symptoms in the midst of brilliant careers. This type of thinking sends me over the edge. Reminds me of when I developed breast cancer. An enlightened soul questioned why I ate such a high fat diet (I was a size 6 at the time)
bluedaze, I am a size 6 and weigh 92lbs. I am on 2 pills for HBP, 1 for cholesterol and once a week I take fosomax. I also take a low dose aspirin each day as well as calcium twice a day. Oh, almost forgot I went on a pill for anemia a couple of weeks ago. People seem to think you have to be overweight to have high BP and cholesterol.
The idea that we could prevent AD with stimulating the brain bugs me too. I met far too many professors, scientists, bankers, doctors, etc. in AD facilities. Sure, it may be good for us all anyway to find stimulating and challenging things to do with our brains, but I too wish they'd stop telling people they can prevent AD by doing that.
Bettyhere-Dr. Gott is a syndicated columnist in many newspapers. He is the same idiot who claimed you don't have to wash your hands after using the toilet because urine is sterile. (wonder who fixes his lunch)
Don't know who fixes it, bluedaze, but I wouldn't want to help him eat it. If anybody has to use their brain, it would be the president of the U.S. President Reagan had AD. Most of our spouses were very intelligent, active, and productive people. Somebody needs to educate Dr. Gott.
perhaps Dr. Gott should clarify if he means doing these "brain teasers" may help to stave/slow the decline in dementia, because they obviously cannot PREVENT it.
I don't know who Dr. Gott is or what he means by "prevent" - I attended an Alzheimers Conference for two days last week with some of the top researchers. None of them claimed to know how to prevent AD as they don't know exactly what it is. There are many theories about the underlying disease process or processes - it might be more than one disease. But I did learn that there are lifestyle (and genetic) characteristics that are "brain preserving" such as cognitive stimulation, eating certain foods, exercise, etc. One thought is that similar disease process may be occurring in two people but one deteriorates faster due to less cognitive reserve. In other words, the reason my husband and some of your loved ones took so long to diagnose, and performed so well on their neuropsych exams for so long is that they were active and intellectually stimulated and had a lot of cognitive reserve ("extra brainpower") because of their intelligence and lifestyle.
I've always felt that the games, intellectual curiosity, and physical activity probably held back certain symptoms up until a certain point where the disease made that impossible. I've felt that the strategies that cognitive therapists use on stroke victims also work on dementia patents in the early stages.
They won't stop the disease from happening, no matter which version we are talking about, but like the memory drugs, in some cases they slow things down for at least a while.
I KNOW that in my husband's case he saw the cognitive therapist right at the point where the strategies were not working anymore. I know it because for a while some of them did work, and one of them, writing down the date every day from the date in the newspaper is probably why he can still sign his name. He signed his name this week when we did blood tests.
He goes out for long walks (1 to 2 hours a day) every day and comes back on his own. I think he can do that because he does do it every day. I think the walking is holding back the physical symptoms that would normally go along with the cognitive and language symptoms he already has.
The thing that makes all of us mad is the idea that doing any of these things could PREVENT the disease. I think that is a crock of s@%#&t. But I also think that a lot of these strategies DO WORK in the early stages of the disease. I think lists and notebooks and calendars DO WORK for a while, in the EARLY stages. I know we are angry, but I also think we may be throwing out the baby with the bathwater for the caregivers who are dealing with early stages.
Joan's husband was functioning at a much higher level because of notebooks and lists when I first got here. I think that was real. For a very short time my husband was using his laminated card to help him find words, and even though it stopped working very quickly, I think that was real too.
Of course, when you get to stage 6, NOTHING WORKS!
I agree ... intelligence, education, and keeping your mind active can -- ALL OTHER FACTORS ASIDE -- probably can delay the onset and slow the progression. People like the good "doctor" don't understand the research and use the wrong terminology. Plus they ignore the fact that the data indicates a risk factor (no cause-and-effect has yet been established), and only applies on the average. We have no way of knowing how soon our spouses would have developed AD or how fast it would have progressed without the mental stimulation.
We also have no way of knowing what CAUSATIVE factors were involved -- infections, toxic chemicals, unknown genetic mutations, and so on and so forth.
Try to feel pity for people like the good "doctor". Anger is a waste of time and energy, and just causes stress. (Which is a known link or risk factor, and possibly even has a cause-and-effect relationship.)
I asked Joan if it would be alright for me to summarize (to the best of my ability) some of the thinking of the experts I heard in the last few days. She told me to go ahead and share - I can't right now but later today or tomorrow I'll try to write out some of the theories and info. But like I said above - no one knows WHY it happens. They also had a section on driving, and another on caregiver stress. I'll put the info in a different subject line so you can find it if you want to read it.
There is a lot of research about growing new brain cells. Physical exercse seems to promote it and, of course, mental stimulation. But unanswered is whether enough new cells grow to outweigh the impact of those that are dying and also where in the brain they are growing or dying. One reason many of our spouses have different symptoms at different times may well be where the cells are dying and brain shrinkage--which can come from stress. My DH thrived on stress, but others will say their LO was always happy & upbeat. Maybe couch potatoes do get AD, but from this group alone one would almost have to conclude that it frequently comes with being brighter, actively & aggressively intelligent--but I think it's more than that alone. I have no medical background, just a layman's observation over the past 15 years. The technical points are beyond me, but there seems to be a concensus among us about active brains that experts do not address. So, yes, JustThinking, a summary is a good idea.
Another factor is that we really don't know when the early stages are. I believe my DH had AD for decades before it became apparent that 'something' was terribly wrong. The docs--and others--almost always ask 'when did this begin?' and you think back & realize it was noticed, but dismissed as age, stress, etc, but certainly at least a couple of years. Again, my layman's opinion is that it's really there for decades, just not evident. Joan recently had an article on the site "Early Detection Matters" (and I have written an article about it, also) that the AD community is now coming to realize it is there long before we know it, but hopefully with a variety of tests coming on line, it can be detected much earlier than anyone suspects or any symptoms show themselves.
I first noticed memory problems with DH in1995. We joked that he could not remember to take his ginko biloba. He started investigating his problem by himself by 1998. All tests were normal. He started aricept around 2000. Around 2003 he entered a memory study at Duke. In 2005, they told him he was no longer qualified to participate in the study. His scores were at the point where he had AD. Looking back, DH retired at 53. Maybe, he was feeling something then. I believe that this disease starts much before anyone realizes. He was very intelligent, worked in a job where he had several patents, had a pc before anyone else did. He used his computer skills to manage his memory loss for a long time. I eventually realized he could no longer cope and had to take over all the finances, taxes, etc. around 4 years ago. He did computer games, then word searches, suduko for a long time, but no longer. Maryd
maryd, the coping methods he used are what I was talking about. I know my husband had them too, but I'm not sure what they were. I look back, before his big event, which caused the rapid slide to where he is now, and I know that something was wrong for at least 10 to 15 years before that. There are things that were going on that I now see as early versions of dementia symptoms.
I think Dr. Gott is pretty impressed with himself. He does not know what he's talking about. My DH's father, cousin and uncle all died from AD. There's a possibility his grandfather had it too. Sounds genetic to me. Yet, 'they' say, only 20% of AD is inherited. Perhaps DH got the 20%. My kids are concerned about it and hppe there is a prevention and/or cure before they get any older.
It's not just us. I googled "Dr. Gott". The thyroid problems community is mad at him for misinformation, too. Remember, his job is to sell his column to newspapers, not educate or advise anyone.