An irrelevant but beautiful Wikimedia Commons photograph of a sunrise near Dresden, Germany, taken by Henry M\u00fchlpfordt. \u00a0I\u2019m discussing an unpleasant subject.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I suspect that more than a few people who\u2019ve reached a certain age, whenever they have to search for the name of an author or a film, wonder suddenly \u201cIs this it? \u00a0Am I beginning to lose my memory? \u00a0Will I end up like poor Uncle Ruprecht?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alzheimer\u2019s is a terrible disease and a terrifying malady to contemplate.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to a very interesting article in the December 2018 issue of Discover<\/em>, 5.7 million Americans currently suffer from Alzheimer\u2019s, with that number expected to increase to nearly 14 million by 2050. \u00a0While deaths from heart disease decreased 11% between 2000 and 2015, deaths from Alzheimer\u2019s disease have increased 123% during the same period, making it the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. \u00a0In 2018, the cost to the United States of Alzheimer\u2019s and other forms of dementia was approximately $277 billion, but that cost could rise to as high as $1.1 trillion by 2050.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The trouble is that, thus far, medications to fight Alzheimer\u2019s have been remarkably ineffective. \u00a0Nearly 99% of the anti-Alzheimer\u2019s drugs that have been tested to this point have failed, and there\u2019s no pharmaceutical solution on the horizon, either.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, though, scientists are beginning to think that there may be multiple pathways to the disease, and that, accordingly, there may be multiple ways of slowing its advance or even stopping it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Which is, in its way, very hopeful news. \u00a0Because these pathways seem more manageable than an expensive magic pharmaceutical bullet has proven to be.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Roughly half of the risk of contracting the illness comes from a group of factors that, in combination, seem to make any given individual susceptible to it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
These factors include chronic stress, lack of exercise, a deficiency of restorative sleep, insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes \u2014 in 2005, Suzanne de la Monte, a Brown University pathologist, concluded that Alzheimer\u2019s itself is actually a form of diabetes (she calls it Type 3 diabetes), depression, low kidney function, high blood pressure, inflammation from exposure to infections and environmental toxins (such as molds), poor nutrition (e.g., consumption of fat-laden fast foods and too much sugar), smoking, obesity, small strokes, heart disease, concussions, lack of mental stimulation, and insufficient social connection.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Genetic inheritance also plays a role, but it\u2019s just one factor among the others \u2014 as are hearing loss and a lack of education.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fortunately, apart from genetics, virtually all of these risk factors are already familiar and fairly unmysterious. \u00a0They can be separately and relatively easily addressed and modified. \u00a0In fact, a major 2017 review in the British medical journal The Lancet<\/em> argued that addressing them could prevent more than a third of the cases of dementia worldwide.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
This Discover<\/em>\u00a0article, which I highly<\/em> recommend, is (in my view) quite encouraging and even, in a sense, inspiring. \u00a0Alzheimer\u2019s disease, it argues, isn\u2019t necessarily something that will just happen<\/em> to an unfortunate subset of us, regardless of our efforts to avoid it. \u00a0There are some things that we can do. \u00a0Our fate is, at least to some degree, in our own hands. \u00a0And, to coin a phrase, forewarned is forearmed.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
See Linda Marsa, \u201cAlzheimer\u2019s Under Attack: Armed with Big Data, Researchers Turn to Customized Lifestyle Changes to Fight the Disease,\u201d Discovery<\/em> 39\/10 (December 2018): 32-41<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I suspect that more than a few people who\u2019ve reached a certain age, whenever they have to search for the name of an author or a film, wonder suddenly \u201cIs this it? \u00a0Am I beginning to lose my memory? \u00a0Will I end up like poor Uncle Ruprecht?\u201d \u00a0 Alzheimer\u2019s is a terrible disease […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"M\u00fchlpfordt](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/06\/800px-Babisnauer_pappel_morgen.jpg\")
<\/a>