Thumbs up! I enjoyed it 100% and agree 100%. In the beginning with those clunky "cell" phones, we were told using them might cause cancer. Of course cell phones have morphed muchly since then; so now they're "good" for us.
I am a lurker not a writer, but I had to say that I loved the blog Joan. So true. I wish all these experts would stop telling people that they can prevent AD if they just eat right and exercise. My dh was a marathon runner and scientist before he was diagnosed!
In about 1993, I was at UCLA w/DH & they wanted him to participate in a study of a drug for AD--Cognex. I researched it & felt it was too dangerous. I think it could affect the kidneys or liver, can't remember. The blood draws and endless exams DH was expected to go thru would take up more time than the 24 hrs a day that we had, and DH, aware enough at the time said, "I don't want to be anyone's guinea pig." But, they said, it is expected to delay progress for 7 mos and by then something else may come along--it's been a loooooong 7 mos. We stayed w/UCLA's program for some time, participated in other studies, got good support, they did DH's autopsy, I gave a speech. Dr. Small (on Oz) is much admired, Dr. Cummings endorsed my book--good people doing their best and a lot has changed in diagnosing early, etc. Otherwise, 'breakthroughs' come and go, nothing changes except the stock price rises of whatever drug company says they've got mice to reverse their AD. I watched Oz because I like his program, but he doesn't know what we know about AD. He never told us why one brain was shrunken--because no one knows why.
My doctor is from India. Her FIL had AD. I presume he ate curry all the time. She says that AD is vastly under-reported there. Social attitudes play a big part in all of medicine. No one can convince me that my very physically & mentally active healthy DH would not have had AD if he'd eaten more curry.
Who knows...? It's all a bit of a crapshoot, isn't it? I have a variety of theories for my husband (whose symptoms began mid-50s...now 62.) A lifetime of careless use of chemicals...furniture stripping, spilled insecticides in his hardware store, etc... Or maybe it's that his childhood dentist believed in hollowing out kids' teeth and filling them with amalgam--even if there weren't cavities--as a "preventive" measure.
As for food--Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma) has a great little book out now called "Food Rules," which explains, simply and briefly, how humans ought to eat, and how processed food and the whole infrastructure of our food system has taken us away from it. At least my children might do better...maybe.
Maybe it's like this: My friend's mom--now 70--has been a bike-riding, healthy-living vegetarian for 50 years, and was recently Dx'd with aortal plaques. "Why?" she wanted to know, given her excellent health behavior. The doc replied that if she hadn't done all that stuff, she'd be dead by now.
And that brings us to our take-home point: We can't remove the cards we've got in our deck. We can just maximize the game we've got. So, why not take healthy "Alzheimer-preventing" steps, even though we, of all people, know they won't prevent AD, IF you've got that card. But maybe it'll stave it off for 5 more years. Who knows?
So glad you are responding to Joan's blog. I laughed so hard at it. Oh yes, dear, while you are mowing and painting, and building rooms in our home, and making up filing systems for you vcrtapes that Dewey with his decimal system would be proud of, and while you are writing your memoirs of being in ww2 and growing up in the depression, and while you are running the community newspaper, etc, etc, etc, why don't you do a crossword puzzle, or run around the block. PULEESE. He got AZ, his mother had AZ and who knows who else. Fact is, people used to die, now they are alive til thier 80's , active and going places. My DH mapped out our trip to alaska, driving, then cruising and having the RV shipped to Tacoma a few years ago (maybe 4 yrs before dx), and we made everystop he planned, down to the minute. not to mention he was always in management positions until he retired. Such nonsense about prevention. find a cure, or a vaccine to prevent it. don't tell me to do crossword puzzles, or eat lettuce. i already do.
With the number of people I see driving around with a cell phone glued to the ear, I guess the end of AD is coming. I wish they would stop talking about all that will prevent AD and really do something about finding a cure. My MIL, BIL, SIL and DH all have/had AD. DH was a health nut until he got sick. We ate so much broiled/baked fish and chicken that it's a wonder our kids didn't all turn out to be champion swimmers with feathers. Don't keep getting my hopes up about a cure right around the corner only to let me down again. A cure is too late for DH but I do pray that a cure is found before one of our children has to suffer. I just get tired of all the false hopes.
Can you picture a driver being pulled over for using a cell phone while driving and telling the policeman "I'm just taking my medicine".
My DIL came over this morning asking if we heard about the vigorous exercise to ward off AD. I told her I had and that is just another of the hopeful theories with no proof. I also told her that good diet and exercise might help those over 65 to delay the symptoms, but not EOAD. And if you are going to get it, you are going to get it.
Better not try that in Oregon (and other states) where they just enacted a 'hands free' law. They have nothing better to do but pull people over for just that offense. I bet someone saw that article and will try it somewhere in this country.
I loved this, Joan. I wonder where the experts get their information. They should read the thread here about What did your LO do before AD? Apparently President Reagan should have taken time off from running this country to do some crossword puzzles and he wouldn't have gotten AD. :-)
This is a great post for the weekend. I just wish I had a portion of the money that these professionals use to come up with such nonsense. If our lo's had the time the professionals wasted on this crap they would live longer.
Excuse me if I am being ugly, just tired of all the "if's" that people come up with. Isn't it about time they quit wasting time and come up with some "for sures". Now.
"In the study, one group of volunteers in their 70s with early memory decline drank the equivalent of 2-2 l/2 cups of a commercially available blueberry juice every day for two months. A control group drank a beverage without blueberry juice. The blueberry juice group showed significant improvement on learning and memory tests, the scientists say."
I did not put this up on the home page, so if you are interested, copy and paste -
Hmmm did their fingers turn blue?? I wonder how many gallons that the mice had to drink. Joan- I managed to get the test for both groups Control group-- Q. What kind of juice did you drink? A. I don't know. Blueberry group-Q. What kind of juice did you drink? A. BLUEBERRY Juice.
Result: memory improvement for the blueberry juice and serious decline for the control group.