Did anyone see an article in the paper yesterday about how life style and how you eat contributes to ALZ? In a nut shell it said that if you carry the gene for this disease, you might fall victim to it and it rather implied if you have it and enjoy a high carb diet, diabetes and insulin resistance being what it is today, that could kick it off..it went on to say those who are over wt or obese are more likely to be victims of this disease.
Well my mom, her brother and an aunt were not carb babies, were NOT over wt and all 3 died of this disease.
I am not saying not to pay attention to diet and exercise but this seems to be one more stab at finding a reason for this that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. For every article that has been published, about having education, being a professional which helps avoid this..my family members were all of those things and they still got it..
Same thing as the advice to keep your brain active and you won't get it. Well, I have personally known an award winning space engineer who got the disease; a Ph.D physicist; a CPA; and a word traveling photographer. Then there was Sandra Day O'Connor's husband who was a judge; Richard Taylor,Ph.d; Ronald Reagan, president; and the list goes on. One of these people had Diabetes; others were and are healthy and the proper weight. All of those articles are crap, IMHO. Nothing wrong with eating healthy, exercising, and keeping your brain active, but it won't prevent AD.
What are they gonna do? They have to tell us something.
We all know we hate it when they tell us AD can be prevented if you do A, B, and C. Because we know it doesn't operate on that kind of a simple cause & effect deal. And we sure don't want false hope in the form of diet or lifestyle habits to distract anyone from commitment to finding a REAL cure and/or prevention.
But I don't think they're lying when they do population studies and determine that star-bellied sneetches get AD at a slightly higher rate than plain-bellied sneetches. We just don't want to be lulled into thinking that removing our stars will keep us safe. Although, statistically speaking, perhaps there is one future victim in 100 for whom that turns out to be a protective factor. Maybe for the rest, not so much.
I tend to look at it this way--no matter what is in store for you, it's going to be to your advantage to approach it in as healthy a starting condition as you can muster. Maybe it'll buy you 2 more good years. (Maybe not) There are so many reasons that keeping our bodies, minds, and metabolisms healthy may grant us a better future--at least for a time--as we age, that that becomes reason enough to make good choices.
I guess that when/if it gets me, I'd rather contribute to the pile of evidence that says...Alz does not play health-habit favorites. Then they'll have to get real. Plus I'll be in better shape to enact my exit-by-lost at sea strategy.
If we wait long enough there will be a new study to contradict the old studies - never fails. I was reading the study on diet soda increasing your chances by 64% - guess my chances are increased. got to leave calories for something more pleasurable!!
My husband exercised every day, was normal weight and had a healthy diet, didn't smoke, didn't have a lot of stress, had a happy marriage and social interaction, was educated and was a CPA. DX with MCI at 60.
His Dad didn't exercise, had an unhealthy diet, smoked, had a lot of stress, wasn't educated and had a job that didn't challenge his brain. DX with pre-senile dementia in his 40's.
What this anecdotal evidence says to me is that lifestyle changes can postpone onset, but if you've got the genes, you've got the genes.