The Struggle is {Alzheimer's} Prevention

The leading causes of death in the United States are:

1.  Heart Disease - prevented by maintaining a healthy weight, diet, exercise, not smoking, limiting alcohol intake, don't do drugs, regular physicals....we know this.

2.  Cancer - prevention efforts towards maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle, a diet that is healthy and low in things you can't spell, not smoking, keeping clear of drugs, limiting alcohol intake, being proactive by home checks (breast cancer, skin cancer), having routine doctor's exams and preventative procedures (pap, mams, prostate checks, colonoscopies, etc).  The list goes on and on.

3.  Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases - (COPD, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, asthma)  Don't smoke, don't breath in toxins, wear masks, and if you were born with it, well....

4.  Accidents - wear your seat belt, don't drink and drive, don't text and drive, wrap yourself in bubble wrap, don't leave your home, stay away from sidewalk cracks (to spare your mother's back) and keep at least 500 yards away from ladders.

5.  Stroke - see heart disease.

6.  Alzheimer's Disease -

7.  Diabetes - maintain a healthy weight, follow the correct diet, exercise, take proper care of your body, see your doctor regularly, take medicines as prescribed, don't ignore changes in your body.

8.  Influenza & Pneumonia - prevent it by getting the shots, wash your hands, be active, follow a healthy diet, prevention of falls in the elderly will help with this (pneumonia).

9.  Kidney Disease - maintain a healthy weight, diet, exercise regimen, take all prescribed medications as directed, see your doctor regularly, do not dismiss any changes in your body.

10.  Suicide - depression treatment, therapy treatment, medicinal treatment, strong support system, let them know they are loved and appreciated and important.

Ten leading causes of death and nine of them have logical ways to aid in prevention.  There's that one that sticks out like a sore thumb.  Just blank beside it.

Irony again.

Alzheimer's draws the blank.

Are there proven methods in prevention for Alzheimer's?
C'mon Cancer has plenty!  Heart Disease has a tons!  We have shots for the flu and pneumonia!

But Alz draws the blank.

If I am totally honest I can tell you that indeed there are ways to prevent the disease.

However, they aren't appealing to me and maybe not to you.

1.  Don't get old.  (Yes, that means you'd have to die before you hit those golden years.  I prefer to see my possible grand kids and tour the world in an RV for a while.)

2.  Don't have a family history of the disease.  (I'm screwed.  How about you?)


3.  Keep Senior loved ones in check.  This is a fabulous link to the warning signs.



The media likes to get us excited and get in these brains we have. We call it sensationalism. In the past four months I have heard that a cure has been found in the USA, Switzerland, Australia, Austria and somewhere else.

It is just cruel for people to report lies.

There is no vaccination just as there is no cure.

We haven't found our miracle in the pharmaceutical world.

Myths abound.  I wanted to take a moment and highlight some of the myths and truths out there about Alzheimer's "Causes & Prevention"



1.  Aluminum Cans - do not cause Alzheimer's.  I'll never forget the day my dad switched from Budweiser in a can to Budweiser in a bottle....to save his brain.  Wow.

2.   Heart - Brain Link - is true.  If you have heart problems then yes you are at a higher rate of developing Alzheimer's Disease.  I hate to admit this.  I have a valve issue and a rhythm issue with my heart and so this fact scares me more than anything else.  If you will protect your heart and be proactive your brain will thank you.

3.  Latino Community & Black Community - higher risk for Alzheimer's - is true.  Due to a predisposition to more heart problems.  Go to the doctor!  Get checked out!



4.  Aspartame - no it doesn't lead to Alzheimer's but it is HORRIBLE for you.  Stay away from it.

5.  Flu shots are linked to Alzheimer's - Negative - they are not.

6.  Silver fillings in your teeth are not linked to Alzheimer's - Your safe fellow cavity heads.

7.  There are medications for Alzheimer's - Yes.  There are 5 medications approved by the FDA for use in patients with Alz/Dementia.  The drugs do not stop the disease from progressing but they can help to slower the rate at which it progresses.  Of course all people are unique and not everyone will respond to the medication like another might.

8.  Brain games and activity keep my brain healthy -Yes!  Keep your brain working!  Do the puzzles and take an enrichment class.  Have conversations with friends, neighbors, and new faces.  Get out of your house and into the world.  Read.  Get into the outdoors and garden and go for walks.

If we maintain a sedentary life, limiting social interaction and stimulation, then we allow ourselves to be like a pear on the counter.

If left there in its spot....it rots.

Don't let your brain rot.



9.  A healthy diet can help protect my brain.  Yes.  You are what you eat and that is truth for every disease on the leading causes of death in the US.  Stop the constant drive thru/boxed meal/easy food plan and actually cook a meal.  Eat fresh.  Eat right.  Your brain, heart, blood sugar, liver, kidneys, skin, etc will appreciate it.

I really hope this jam packed post has been informative (and fun) for you.  I think the purpose in educating is to make it fun.  If you cannot laugh then what are we here for exactly?  

Let's work to #ENDALZ together.  I'm building my team to help fund more research and help and hope.  Will you team up with me?  Please do!  Shoot me an email as I work on building.  More information to come.


Please visit http://www.alz.org for more information on Alzheimer's Disease.

The Struggle is {Alzheimer's} Ladies

Well hello ladies.

The majority of blog readers are female.    The majority of my readers are female. 

I appreciate you so much I'm here to scare the pee turkey out of you.  

Pee turkey - totally southern slang there.

It means piss.



Alzheimer's likes women.

Damned womanizer.

Women make up 2/3 of the US population living with Alzheimer's Disease.



When polled, women said the one disease they feared getting the most?  Alzheimer's.

At age 65 more than 1 in 6 women run the risk of developing Alz for the remainder of their lives.  For the boys its 1 in 11.



Ladies, you are more likely to develop Alz than breast cancer once you enter your 60's.

Girls, you are the caregivers the majority of the time.  Here's the scary part, who will care for us?

Alzheimer's is a dirty womanizer.

I do not care to lose my memories, education, and who I am to this dreadful disease.

Hey women, get up and let's get the funding to put this grotesque murderer away for good.

Interested in joining me in raising money for Alzheimer's Research?  Email me, tweet me, FB me today.  More info to come if I can get my team built!  No, you don't have to be local!


***Facts & Figures from www.alz.org***

The Struggle Is {Alzheimer's} Irony

I don't know you.

Words you never want to hear a loved one utter to you.  The fact that in their fading memory bank you are irrelevant.  Someone who is a stranger.  Your 33, 50, 67 years which consisted of them being in your life are a dark pit of nothing.

Strangely enough we, the ones who aren't facing our brains being eaten away, are also looking at the loved one who once was sharp as a tack and we're saying those same words.

I don't know you.

That's what hurts the most.  Not that the loved one with Alz/Dem doesn't know us but that in this disease we lost who they are to us.

Appearances don't change too much but personality takes a huge dive.  What made them, them, is now wiped away like the whiteboard at the end of the school day.

The calm, meek, mild person is replaced with a person who is angry, rude, and ill.

We constantly have to remember:

It isn't a choice to forget.

It isn't a choice to change personality traits.

It is a disease that strips you of your self.

Isn't it ironic that during the course of Alzheimer's they forget us and we forget them as they were?  

Alzeheimer's Disease is savage and ruthless.  No one deserves to have their memories erased or to lose the ability to care for themselves in the simplest ways.  Let's #ENDALZ together.

The Struggle Is {Alzheimers}

  

The blog never experienced more readers than it did when I would do a weekly high light of my grandmother's struggle with the first stage of Alzheimer's (posts in 2013).  The first slippings of memory were hard to take and it was nice to share with the readers how it felt and what it was like from a grandchild's point of view.

People read because they were "interested" - human condition - we all seem to be pulled in by stuff that is out of the ordinary and Alzheimer's/Dementia is certainly out of the ordinary.

People read because they were "scared" - no one wants to think of a future where they forget their entire life because their brain is being eaten away.

People read because they were experiencing the same thing and needed to know they weren't alone.

Alzheimer's / Dementia is one of the most disgusting and derogatory diseases I have ever witnessed.  To be a fully functioning and healthy individual who at the drop of a hat begins losing their most critical unit (the brain) and everything they had stored there for 60, 70, 80 years is heinous.

My grandmother long forgot about me.  I dealt with it and could comprehend it wasn't her but her disease that took away who I was to her.  In turn it took away who she was to me.  As of late she has begin what looks like a transition into another level or stage of her illness.  She is showing signs of being slightly combative and more confused than ever before.

She packs things and says she is ready to go home....while she's standing in the house she's lived in for 60+ years.

She awaits for her husband who has been deceased for 7 years this month.  He's really a faded memory as others she sees becomes her "husband".

She has the mouth of a sailor and speaks ill of people who are helping her.

Her, what can only be called, attacks of the mind, are happening more frequently as she calls with strange questions and makes ill assumptions.

She thinks her 50 year old daughter is an 8 year old who she hasn't seen in a very long time.

The struggle is, indeed, real.  Some of you are well aware of how hard it is to watch someone you love slowly deteriorate.  Slow as molasses they lose their abilities to comprehend all the while as the brain melts away the things you cannot see are fading as well.

Alzheimer's/Dementia is not a disease that only effects the brain.  It takes a toll on every organ system and cell in the body.  As the brain is destroyed so are all the things that brain commands.  Too many people are not aware of that fact and it needs to be in your face more.

Alzheimer's is not a disease of forgetting but a disease that forages on every single aspect of the human body, mind, and spirit.

For the next few weeks I'm going back to the Alz/Dem posts.  This time from a new point of view on the progression of the disease.  I hope you'll join me and invite others who are new to the battle (particularly those in care giving capacities) to read along and join in the conversation.

Thanks for reading.