Posts Tagged ‘dementia’
Skeptical about exercise to prevent Alzheimer’s
The causes for Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia are varied. Alzheimer’s is associated with development of tangles in the brain, causing disruption in communication between cells. It is also associated with atrophy, or deterioration of the brain. Dementia has many causes and Alzheimer’s is only one of them. But what makes a person prone to dementia? The answer is unknown, but genetics is clearly one of the reasons. Yet, as with any other genetic disease, experts believe that a healthy lifestyle may avert potential risks. After all, we know that environment can influence how our genes behave.
In the past, experts have recommended healthy eating and exercising as ways to combat or prevent dementia. One of the main causes of dementia is stroke. We know that diet and exercise can help prevent strokes. But exercise is not just physical, it can be mental. Experts believe that exercising your brain can prevent or delay the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s. A recent study in the UK pointed out that people who retired from work at a later age, thereby exercising their minds and bodies more, were less likely to suffer from dementia early.
I’m going to play devil’s advocate and say baloney to all this research on Alzheimer’s and dementia. Certainly, I believe that keeping the mind active helps to create connections between your brain cells. I like to indulge in mental exercises, as it does keep me alert and focused. However, as with all research, there is always another to dispute it. Similarly, it might not bear out very well in real life. Who’s to say that by working past the age of retirement you are delaying dementia? Isn’t it possible that the people who retired early were the ones who were already suffering from dementia? I have known people to quit working because their performance at work was declining. They were later diagnosed with dementia. Does the research show this? Did they even address this?
Alzheimer’s was once associated with lower socioeconomic class. But that is no longer the case. What’s apparent is that those who are highly intelligent perform better on the simple dementia tests, so they are not diagnosed as early as those who were less educated. They are more likely to deny that something is wrong and may be so stubborn about it that they do not seek medical attention until later. Though it does not hurt to advocate good, healthy eating and exercising your mind and body, I have seen too many seemingly healthy people with Alzheimer’s and dementia to think that it all boils down to that. Conversely, I have seen unhealthy, uneducated people outliving the best of us with much of their original brain intact. So, I am more cynical, or skeptical, about all these “new” research showing diet and exercise helps in dementia.
It’s time they focused more on treatment of this disease, as we can see the trend in life-expectancy is increasing, rather than on meaningless ways to prevent it. The diet and exercise theme has been done to death. If they want to discover other effective means for people to take control of their lives and prevent dementia, by all means, go ahead. But, I have concluded that the answer to the root cause of dementia still eludes us and we need to combat the disease right now. We appear to be closer to finding treatments than the cause. It is possible that we may be able to find ways to prevent the formation of tangles. Now, wouldn’t that be more useful research?
Have advances in medicine caused people to become complacent?
We always greet advances in medicine with enthusiasm. We hope and pray for new treatments for serious health problems. We are grateful for technology that saves lives. Yet, there is a downside to all this technology.
We have extended lives and in doing so, we have created new problems, new illnesses. Take Alzheimer’s, for example. When people started living longer, we began to see a rise in what was initially thought to be senility. Now we have multiple diagnoses for dementia, one of which is Alzheimer’s. We have machines to keep people alive. Now we’ve run into ethical issues regarding end-of-life and right-to-die. When is it permissible or ethical to turn off the ventilator or remove the feeding tube? But another serious issue is that people start thinking that they can ignore serious health consequences because there are means of overcoming them.
I read an article about an HIV/AIDS survivor who expressed his concerns that young people are taking chances with their lives because they are no longer scared of contracting sexually transmitted diseases. Had they witnessed first hand all the horrific side effects of HIV, they would not be so complacent. As it is, HIV treatment has allowed many survivors to live normal lives. Of course, this only applies to those who are being treated. But it is rare for young people in developed countries to see the consequences of AIDS. Perhaps, they need to visit Africa and see the devastation there.
Now, I’m not saying that medical advances are bad. They’re not. It’s great that we can conquer illnesses, but the fight is never won. The battle is never over. There will always be obstacles. Unfortunately, we shouldn’t have to keep fighting so many battles. If people could take responsibility for their actions, we might prevent disease, rather than have to tackle them afterwards. HIV/AIDS is still a major issue, but it does not attract attention as it did in the 1980s. People have forgotten how scary it was when we first heard about it. Young people today were not around to experience it. So, they ignore it. If they were to receive the diagnosis now, they probably would shrug it off and ask for the treatment. Their complacency means that they might not be compliant with the treatments.
Yet, I wonder if behaviour would change if young people knew first-hand about the seriousness of sexually-transmitted diseases. Would there be the same rate of unprotected sex and teenage pregnancies? Would there be any changes in attitude towards sexual activity? Is it really the advances in medicine that have produced this complacency or is it a generational attitude?
Brain decline happens earlier than expected
Having passed the age of 27 some years back, it was disheartening to read that the brain starts to decline from then. In some odd research study on brain power in people from 18-60, they found that brain power peaked at 22 and started to decline at 27. Though I have serious doubts as to the validity of the study and its findings, it is nevertheless a worrying case.
Now, I probably suffer from what some colleagues like to refer to as Sometimer’s Disease, as opposed to Alltimer’s (a colloquial way of saying Alzheimer’s), but I’d like to think my Sometimer’s is related to not focusing attention to the matter at hand. For, if you don’t focus, you tend to forget in the next second and have to ask someone to repeat what they said.
But this new study has me wondering. Scientists say this may help them to better understand dementia and Alzheimer’s. But how? Dementia is not necessarily an old age problem, but many elderly suffer from it, and it usually occurs later in life. Less frequently, it can occur in the younger population and is referred to as precocious dementia. This may also occur in some neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s and most especially, Huntington’s disease. But on the whole, it is something that is restricted to the elderly. However, if the findings of this new study are true and valid, it means that dementia should usually start occurring by age 30. At this rate, I should well be on way to full-blown dementia. (Hmmm…It might explain a lot.)
The study was performed over 7 years and involved 2000 participants. Now, unless they give the brain test to the same person at different stages in their lives, I cannot see how they can determine that brain power peaks at 22 and starts to deteriorate at 27. Perhaps the 22-year-olds in their study are particularly brilliant and the 60-year-olds are obviously not going to be as quick. Comparing the mind of one 27-year-old to a 22-year-old has to take into account everything about their backgrounds. If you show me that the 22-year-old performed well one year and five years later his performance declined, then I might be inclined to give you some credit, provided the circumstances of the test are identical – fully rested, no illness, etc.
Oh, well, brain decline is an inevitability, just like death. Though I’d hate to think I’m on the edge of the cliff.
