Cancer sucks. Alzheimer's is worse.
I'm going to take a brief detour from politics for this post, simply because I think it's an important topic. I want to share it with everyone.
Alzheimer's is a devastating and increasingly quite common disease. If you live long enough, you're very likely to end up with Alzheimer's yourself or taking care of someone else who has it. Obviously, many people would like to know what we can do to decrease our chances of facing an Alzheimer's diagnosis.
This short talk by a Lisa Genova, a neuroscientist, provides an update on the state of Alzheimer's research. More important, she relays science's top and most recent suggestions for reducing one's risk for the disease.
For those who don't want to take the time to watch the entire video, here are the key points:
(1) Nearly half of all Americans over the age of 85 will be diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
(2) Beta-amyloid plaque can begin to build up in the synapses of one's brain as early as 40 years of age.
(3) In most cases, Alzheimer's actually is not caused by one's genes (not hereditary). Genes appear to be only a piece of the puzzle. One's environment and lifestyle appear to primary driving factors in most cases.
(4) In order to mitigate those risk factors, these are the steps one should take, based on the preponderance of studies to date:
-Get enough sleep at night. Our brains remove the bulk of their synapse beta-amyloid proteins while we sleep. Too little sleep over a long period of time is strongly correlated with higher Alzheimer's risk.
-Get plenty of cardio exercise. More than 80% of Alzheimer's sufferers are in poor cardiovascular condition or have outright cardiovascular problems, to include simply being overweight.
-Eat a Mediterranean-style diet. A host of studies recently have found very strong evidence that this type of diet greatly reduces Alzheimer's risk--even in those who are genetically predisposed to developing it.
-Keep your brain active. This does not mean working crossword puzzles and other exercises that require recalling information you already know. Rather, you should be doing things that are educational--that teach you new things. Learning new things builds new synapses.
There you have it!
https://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_genova_what_you_can_do_to_prevent_alzheimer_s
Speaking as one who has both lived with cancer for 14 years and observed dementia patients at end of life, I'm not convinced one can even compare the two. On the one hand, dementia robs you of your life long before death brings peace...on the other, living with cancer can be equally terrifying. However, I speak as one who still (at age 77) has his memories, so I can't compare my experience with loss of memory...youth, marriage, family...I can't image how terrible that must be.
This post has been ranked within the top 80 most undervalued posts in the first half of Apr 29. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $1.69 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Apr 29 - Part I. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
If you are the author and would prefer not to receive these comments, simply reply "Stop" to this comment.