Hi all..wondered if anyone has experienced the same thing. Today, after almost 9 years into this journey of AD with my DH, am pushing supplements which contain fats, MCT oil and Coconut oil. What I find amusing is that about 10 -15 years ago my husband began a serious campaign to eliminate fats from his diet after receiving abnormal labs in follow up to his hypertension work up. When I say serious, regardless of what I tried to sell about moderation, he became "general of the fat police!" Obnoxious as only a sweet engineer can be! He lost considerable weight and with statins did get his HDL and LDL into a good range.
My question...several of the earlier studies talked about severe weight loss as a predictor of AD. Did anyone have a similar experience as I wonder if "starving his brain" of needed fats triggered AD as he is not an APOE4 carrier. The increased incidence of EOAD also begs the question of low fat dietary impact. Just a thought.
Maybe our scientist, Sunshyne, will come by and comment on this one.
I can tell you that weight loss was never my husband's strong point (mine either), but he never listened to anything any nutritionist said about what he should do - He did what he wanted. Which was to overwork, overeat, and under exercise. He DOES, however, have the APOE4 gene.
Neither my husband, sister-in-law nor father-in-law lost weight. My husband use to be able to eat anything and not gain weight. It wasn't until about 2 years ago (by chance when he started having short term memory problems) that he had to start watching his weight. In the last 4 months he has gained about 10 pounds. Don't know if that is due to inactivity or the galantamine or prozac. I suspect mostly is inactivity.
My husband has gained weight since AD progressed. As you say probably due to meds and inactivity. The weight loss happened before the disease was evident...althought I look back and their were some behavior changes. I guess my concern is did the severe weight loss and decreased fat intake contribute to his dementia.
At this point my husband is gaining weight or holding steady. But at the end of the dementia journey, late in stage 7, most of them lose weight. It is a signal that the journey is almost over.
About 18 months before Claude passed on, he started losing weight while still eating about the same. He went from 205 to 160 in about 6 months and from a 42/44 waist down to a 36. He gained back 5# and when the 36's got too small, I went to cotton pants with an elastic waist or sweat pants when it got really cold. He was holding steady at 165 when he passed on.
He was diagnosed with AD in 2003 and the weight loss started in 2007. There is no norm for this disease, each one is different.
scs - until they know the cause of AD, I don't think we can know if a low fat diet triggered it. Don't exhaust yourself trying to figure it out IF it was or contributed to it.
What I've read about weight and AD is this--it is common for people to lose about 10 lbs (without trying) early on. My husband did exactly that. Later on, most do lose weight. However, some of the drugs (Seroquel is one, I think) have weight gain as a side effect.
My husband was diagnosed w high cholesterol in the early '90s. We went on the strict Ornish diet - low fat, no cholesterol, vegetarian, egg whites. no yolks. I now wonder if this contributed to the onset of AD. In the last several years we have added lots of nuts and fish and I now use whole eggs for cooking. His weight has been stable. Since starting Depakote he has put on a little weight.
Dee-please don't put a guilt trip on yourself for doing what you thought was right. That diet is so difficult. How long were you on it and did it lower cholesterol levels?
Our cholesterol & triglyceride levels are fine and we are both pretty healthy. He has been on statins since the early 90s. We were on that diet for nearly 10 years.
Even my cardiologist has distane for Dean Ornish's book and diet, and HIS name is listed among the 'thanks to.." He said it was like eating CARDBOARD. IF a diet is followed, he prefers more like the South Beach diet,...tastier and not as forbidding as Adkins and Ornish.
Ornish diet..wow..about -4 yrs ago, my wife religiously followed the ornish diet, and she still claims that it reversed her heart problems....she had a "widow maker", and insists that the diet removed the blockage....As I watched her eat the rice and beans etc...I also saw her go from 140 lbs to 106. I also noticed that her dementia got worse, and now I am wondering if this diet had anything to do with it....for years we thought she was type 2 diabetic, and I would often comment that it was a sugar day...meaning that her behavior declined as her blood sugar went up.....Interesting that others have experienced this...
The study about weight loss and Alzheimer's disease talked about unexplained weight loss 10 years before the disease perhaps being related to disease severity I believe. I don't think it was about weight loss (due to diet changes) causing the disease or increasing the severity. PatB
Current theory of the Diabetes type III and AD, concludes that people have decreased glucose uptake in certain parts of the brain and could benefit from taking higher amounts of coconut oil to produce ketones which may be used by brain cells as energy. I certainly did not start this thread to make anyone feel guilty. We all did things when we were younger and did not know any better...like smoking maybe!
The common denominator may be that our LOs had coronary risks of elevated cholesterol and like my husband took the low fat diet to an extreme. Ornish was the big Guru at the time. I know that there is a scientist at NIH looking at ketones and brain health. So I am sure we will hear more about this theory. I think I would just stress to our children that moderation in diet may be the way to go. Less processed foods and a Mediterannean diet which uses alot of olive oil and probably add some coconut oil to the menu.
I need to go back and try to find the article about weight loss. Do you remember the source Pat? Thanks.
I hear you all but I must say people get this AD for a variety of reasons. who knows what they are, but those who were watching thier fats carefully cannot blame themselves. My DH never watched his fats, salts, sugars, nothing. Ate with a hearty appetite, exercised, stayed slim, etc, etc. Still got it. Now, 6 yrs after dx's he has lost nearly 40 lbs, has no appitite, sleeps all the time, no strength, exhausted. and of course, no memory of what happened after he was 20. I've read the stuff about Diabetes III, and I tried the coconut oil. he's currently in a trial for resveratrol, but I have a hard time getting him to drink 2 glasses of grape juice a day. He did have cholesterol, and is on statins, Lipitor, the 'miracle' drug but I think most people are on statins at some point. I just don't know that they are going to find one cause. I think they will find numerous things that eventually lead to this group of symptoms. Maybe the real answer is to be ever vigilant for the smallest changes that were occurring 10 yrs before dxs. if action could be taken then, maybe some improvement could occur. But then, how do you know if a preventive works?