Age 67 - My plan to avoid Alzheimer's

[Teacher Terry]

IM, if you have Alzheimer’s I bet you aren’t at stage 4. I had a brilliant friend with a170 IQ that got it young in her mid 50’s. The doctors think she got it from having so much chemo over 8 years because her stage 4 ovarian cancer kept coming back. Also some medications and diseases mimic dementia so I would see a neurologist. I spent a lot of time with my friend and the decline was horrible. Wishing you the best.

 

[RetMD21]

Vchan, everything you are doing is sensible and can enhance your quality of life. Do you participate at ApoE4.info ? They have a lot of good information but some of the recommendations are questionable. The moderators are very knowledgeable.

 

[meleana]

I think that is all great what you are doing and you should continue to do so. Quality of life is so important no matter what.


HOWEVER- not to discourage you- but look at Ronald Reagan, for example. He was active. He was an actor and he was a Governor and a President of our country- His brain was certainly stimulated, but he still got Alzheimers.

 

[meleana]

IM, if you have Alzheimer’s I bet you aren’t at stage 4. I had a brilliant friend with a170 IQ that got it young in her mid 50’s. The doctors think she got it from having so much chemo over 8 years because her stage 4 ovarian cancer kept coming back. Also some medications and diseases mimic dementia so I would see a neurologist. I spent a lot of time with my friend and the decline was horrible. Wishing you the best.

Chemo for sure will at the least cause dementia in some cases. That happened to my mom.

 

[Octogirl]

+1 I worry about my occasional memory gaps and have considered testing.

 

[2177V]

Love may be the answer

HOWEVER- not to discourage you- but look at Ronald Reagan, for example. He was active. He was an actor and he was a Governor and a President of our country- His brain was certainly stimulated, but he still got Alzheimers.[/QUOTE]

I have my own theory on Ronald Reagan. It is true that he was stimulated as a governor and president. But later he retired. What happened between his retirement from public life and the onset of Alzheimer is probably known only to his family.

Once you retire after a full and active life, you then slow down suddenly and you become relatively inactive, I believe this is a very dangerous phase where you can lose your purpose in life. Once you lose your purpose in life and you become isolated, bad things tend to happen. I believe people who are about to retire should establish new goals, establish new purposes and meet new challenges just like a younger person.

For example...At age 67, I now buy more flowers and write more love letters to my wife. I listen to my children and visit them whenever they have the time. I fix and maintain their cars because I like doing this when I was young. Valentine Day is coming so I just wrote the following love letter to my wife: (Yes I stolen the lines from a love song but my wife doesn't care)

Look at my face.
I know the years are showing.
Look at my life.
I still don't know where my life is going.
I don't know much.
But I know I love you.
That is all I need to know.

My point. Love is the most powerful human emotion. Love will help me keep my brain young. Have you heard the phase "she makes me feel 10 years younger"? That is my plan to avoid Alzheimers. If it does not work, at least I will have a happy life. (Happy wife, happy life).

 

[Spiff]

You have a great life going vchan. Enjoy!


My Dad ended up with Pakinsons and Dimentia, but ultimately it was a heart attack that got him. It was a struggle to stay functional, but his efforts helped a lot no doubt. He still managed to have fun to the end. We went tubing down the river. He wasn't able to say a lot, and needed us to steady him but he had a great time, and all the kids thought he was the coolest guy on the river, and he really was. He also hiked the full length of Carchner caverns in New Mexico. My brother kept him steady. There are two trails in the cave, he insisted on taking the full length trail, and loved every second of it.

i knew it was bad, but when i finally saw the scan, i was shocked by how much damage had occurred, and he was aware of it, but still, he remained all about his family and friends, and making the best of it... As he would say "I woke up on the right side of the grass " and he wanted to get out and enjoy it. I hope those 1 of 2 odds play out in your favor, but even if not I suspect you will make the best of it as long as you can. Raising a glass in your direction.

 

[Fynen]

Avoiding Alzheimers

Here's what I do to avoid Alzheimers, control type 2 diabetes, and for general health. I follow a ketogenic diet, take a dose of resveratrol and a teaspoon of curcumin daily, plus weight lifting and general exercise. I'm 77 now and doing very well. Strong and vigorous and my mind is still sharp. I also fast for a day or two occasionally, which seems to improve my sharpness and well being.

 

[RHONDAVE]

I was also tested last month by 23andme.
I was too afraid to look at the results at first.
My Father died from Alzheimers at 75, Mother at 82.
I have yet to look at specific Alzheimers result, I had that one masked.
I am 64.5 and afraid.

 

[misshathaway]

+1 I worry about my occasional memory gaps and have considered testing.

There is a risk, which you may have already considered, that once you test, it is on your medical record. Now you have a documented pre-existing condition which could affect insurance.

 

[MoPops]

My mom had it at 80, died at 93. Her last 7-8 years were tough on us. Not sure what she was thinking. She recognized all of us almost to the end.
I was thinking of getting tested, but read some of the reviews on Amazon. Makes me a little nervous to have my dna tied into a company that’s 33% owned by google.
Anyone else have that concern? Which company would give most accurate results and be safest for selling your results?

 

[RHONDAVE]

I did not know that these tests were ABSOLUTE PREDICTORS.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

If anyone has their full genome results, you can get a more specific sense of your relative risk of late-onset Alzheimer's disease from https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/alzheimers-and-apoe-type/. However, please remember that you probably want to stay socially, mentally, and physically active regardless of your relative risk, because no result is a guarantee of a particular outcome. There's a reason that Genetic Counselor is a career specialization!

 

[gerntz]

To me, actions you take ward off Alz is likely actions to keep cholesterol down: they affect them on the margins. But if you're genetically prone to something, it will happen anyway.

 

[2177V]

DNA test are confidential

"23 and me" test results are CONFIDENTIAL.

They are NOT part of your medical records.

23 and me have a de-identification process which separates the DNA results from your identification and both sets of data are on separate servers.

The cross reference information is NOT on-line. All information is also encrypted and the encryption key is NOT on-line.

23 and me fully understand that public disclosure of people's DNA results will subject them to a bunch of lawsuits and the lawsuits would put them out of business.

The DNA companies take exceptional strong safeguards to protect their business. People who are considering taking a DNA test should contact the DNA company to get assurances of the CONFIDENTIAL safeguards that they employ.

I can't say the risk is ZERO but I can say that I am comfortable with safe guards to protect my privacy because I will be the first one to sue them for any disclosure.

 

[Bestwifeever]

"23 and me" test results are CONFIDENTIAL.

They are NOT part of your medical records.

23 and me have a de-identification process which separates the DNA results from your identification and both sets of data are on separate servers.

The cross reference information is NOT on-line. All information is also encrypted and the encryption key is NOT on-line.

23 and me fully understand that public disclosure of people's DNA results will subject them to a bunch of lawsuits and the lawsuits would put them out of business.

The DNA companies take exceptional strong safeguards to protect their business. People who are considering taking a DNA test should contact the DNA company to get assurances of the CONFIDENTIAL safeguards that they employ.

I can't say the risk is ZERO but I can say that I am comfortable with safe guards to protect my privacy because I will be the first one to sue them for any disclosure.

Not completely anonymous in a sense—just ask the Golden State Killer

To find him—and more than a dozen other criminal suspects since then—law enforcement agencies first test a crime scene DNA sample, which could be old blood, hair, or semen, for hundreds of thousands of DNA markers—signposts along the genome that vary among people, but whose identity in many cases are shared with blood relatives. They then upload the DNA data to GEDmatch, a free online database where anyone can share their data from consumer DNA testing companies such as 23andMe and Ancestry.com to search for relatives who have submitted their DNA. Searching GEDMatch’s nearly 1 million profiles revealed several relatives who were the equivalent to third cousins to the crime scene DNA linked to the Golden State Killer.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/201...b-golden-state-killer-can-home-about-60-white

 

[2177V]

When I was in the US Army, 2nd Infantry Division stationed in a combat zone at the Korean DMZ, I was taught the following: "Never make decisions based on fear".

Bad things happen when you make decisions based on fear. For example, recently an off duty sheriff in Texas shot a person in his own apartment. In that case, the sheriff made a split second bad decision based on fear. I attributed this bad decision to a lack of training, not following procedures, and likely due to the personality of the sheriff who allowed fear to control a correct assessment of the situation.

Fortunately, People who is not in the military or in law enforcement do not have to make life or death decisions in a split second. People have time to think about making a decision whether to take a DNA test or not. Not taking a DNA test means you are living in darkness and you just made a decision based on fear. This can be understandable if your family has a history of Alzheimer's disease.

Taking a DNA test can mean you might be able to do something about your future. The medical knowledge on Alzheimer's is accelerating. Recently we now know a proper diet can reduce your risk. Recently we now know exercise can reduce your risk. We also know that having the apoe4 gene puts you at a higher risk....if you do nothing to reduce your risk.

I suggest using your critical thinking skills on making the right decision. People should look the definition of "critical thinking" on the web to understand fully what I am talking about.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Taking a DNA test can mean you might be able to do something about your future. The medical knowledge on Alzheimer's is accelerating. Recently we now know a proper diet can reduce your risk. Recently we now know exercise can reduce your risk. We also know that having the apoe4 gene puts you at a higher risk....if you do nothing to reduce your risk.

I suggest using your critical thinking skills on making the right decision. People should look the definition of "critical thinking" on the web to understand fully what I am talking about.

The thing is, no matter what your risk is, it's never 100% or 0%, so whatever it is you're better off doing as much as you can do to reduce your risk. Even in cases where it's virtually 100%, those risk-lowering activities can delay onset and help you cope better and suffer less when symptoms do start to emerge. That's why I said that knowing your genotype shouldn't really affect what you do to improve your health.

 

[2177V]

Please note the article that you presented which states:

"One possible solution suggested by his team is that the consumer DNA testing companies digitally encrypt a customer’s data and that GEDMatch only allow these encrypted files to be uploaded. That way a law enforcement agency couldn’t upload DNA sequence data from its own lab without an ancestry company’s cooperation. "

23 and me has already encrypted the data because they saw this coming. Whether 23 and me cooperates with law enforcement by providing the encryption key is a separate issue. However, I have no problem with this issue because I am part of the military/law enforcement side. I have no criminal record and therefore there is no harm. This situation is somewhat similar to the government trying to get the encryption key from Apple of a iphone belonging to a suspected terrorist. As I recall, Apple refused to do this in order to protect the privacy of their customers.

I do have an BIG issue with sharing this information to insurance companies. 23 and me explicitly state that they do not share this information with health insurance companies due to liability issues. If you are the CEO of "23 and me", would you share the encryption code to the health insurance companies and expose your company to potential liabilities from your customers?

 

[rgarling]

You are on the right track with diet and exercise. As far as diet, look into no grains, no vegetable oils (corn, canola, soybean, etc), high omega 3 fats including other high=quality fats, and an overall ketogenic diet. Unless you have excess iron in your body, red meat is not the boogeyman.

 

[RetMD21]

The ApoE test from Life extension also doesn't go in your medical records. Life extension sends it to a certified lab and the test is officially ordered by the Life Extension Physician. Nobody is checking the the name you submit or asking for photo id. Personally I like confirmation.

 

[target2019]

I'm afraid that the release or sharing of DNA information is murky, to say the least. This is a relatively new area, and therefore worthy of a new thread. For now, I leave post here for others to decide.

These [State] laws go beyond the federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) which prevents genetic discrimination in the health insurance sector. The laws act similarly to GINA, which prohibits health insurers from requesting, requiring, or using genetic information to make decisions about eligibility for health insurance, premium rates, coverage terms.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/04/4--...th-dna-testing-and-buying-life-insurance.html

This is something to consider, and I do not have enough facts at the time. We may need to re-consider low-tax states, and add in consideration for how well they intend to protect your DNA privacy...

 

[target2019]

GEDMatch has put into place a different version of the site. Some of what was simple previously, is now difficult or impossible. Your matches used to list the GED along with matches and email addresses. The new site has just the email addresses, and anonymizes more search results. It's always been your choice to upload a GED or not.

There are other ways to search for GED, as on Google, or other testing sites. So, your ancestry is being leveraged by many of the bigs.

 

[misshathaway]

"23 and me" test results are CONFIDENTIAL.

They are NOT part of your medical records.

23 and me have a de-identification process which separates the DNA results from your identification and both sets of data are on separate servers.

The cross reference information is NOT on-line. All information is also encrypted and the encryption key is NOT on-line.

23 and me fully understand that public disclosure of people's DNA results will subject them to a bunch of lawsuits and the lawsuits would put them out of business.

The DNA companies take exceptional strong safeguards to protect their business. People who are considering taking a DNA test should contact the DNA company to get assurances of the CONFIDENTIAL safeguards that they employ.

I can't say the risk is ZERO but I can say that I am comfortable with safe guards to protect my privacy because I will be the first one to sue them for any disclosure.

I think the person with memory concerns was talking about going to a doctor and asking for testing. That, for sure, will go on your medical record.

As for 23andme, which I did 10 years ago, I am not as confident as you are about long-term confidentiality. It's funny. At the time a friend of mine thought it was kind of risky for long-term privacy and I thought she was being paranoid. Not so now. Look at the publicity around criminals in cold cases getting nabbed by geneticists using public data stores like GEDmatch. That could not happen with 23andme data now, unless you intentionally uploaded your data to it, but it gives me pause.

 

[slowsaver]

You may want to add good dental hygiene to your list of things you do to avoid Alzheimer's:

"Gum disease bacteria may be cause of Alzheimer's: study"

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/426820-gum-disease-may-be-cause-of-alzheimers-study

I recently purchased a Waterpik for $80 off Amazon, to add to my routine of brushing & flossing. My dentist recommended this after she noticed my gum "pockets" were getting a little deep, despite the fact I floss after every meal! The dentist said to get the "Aquarius Water Flosser" and not the Cordless version, which is apparently a piece of junk. Anyway, I'm happy with the purchase. I kind of like using it now.