She always has a smile whenever anyone comes into the room. She sits in her recliner most of the day, and she likes to read, looking at a book at least 80 percent of the time. The problem is that it’s the same book and the same page most of the day. She doesn’t seem to realize that she is reading the same words over and over. If you give her a magazine, she will turn the pages from front to back. And then repeat the process again and again—until you replace the magazine with the book. She recognizes her caretakers, and her daughter, and me.
But she recognizes very few other visitors.
Her husband, Ervin, has been dead for over eight years now. She will talk to her daughter as if everything is normal, asking her how she is doing and even discussing things that happened years ago. She can remember them vividly. She knows when I was in her home twenty years ago. Even forty years ago. But then she will look toward the door and say that Ervin will be coming home soon. And when it is bedtime, she will say that it is time for her to leave and go home. I explain to her that she is in her home. That this is her living room—and her bedroom is just down the hall. She will look at me with a surprised look and say nothing. Yet five minutes later she repeats that it is getting late and she needs to leave and go home. But now when she says something like that, I simply change the subject and talk to her about the older days, ones she can remember.
Dementia is what her doctor calls it. It is a progressive process. The symptoms started out with her just like the medical books say they do. She began to forget little things. Names . . . where she left her car keys. Then one day she was going to drive to the grocery store but came back home because she couldn’t remember why she left the house. They finally had to tell her she couldn’t drive anymore. She was infuriated because she knew she could still drive safely. The only way to protect her was to hide her keys. That infuriated her even more.
Then she got better. At least she didn’t ask to drive anymore. I would occasionally visit her, pulling up my chair right beside her recliner. We talked; she laughed. I wanted to remember her that way, because I knew she was a part of me and when she was gone, a part of me would be gone also.
Dementia is a terrible way to spend the last five to ten years of your life. It’s difficult to live in an everyday world without any idea of what today really is.
Is there anything you can do to prevent dementia? Or is it just something that happens as you get older? Are there some things you can be doing to put off getting it—to prevent it completely? Let’s look at what the medical literature has to say.
First of all, a significant percent of dementia is related to the health of your arteries. The health of the arteries of your heart is directly linked to the cognitive health of your brain. You have been learning what is good for the heart. Now learn what is good for your brain.
The two most common forms of dementia are Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, with Alzheimer’s disease being the most common. Alzheimer’s is known to be a degenerative problem within the brain, whereas vascular dementia is a direct result of diseased arteries in the brain. However, more and more studies are showing an association between arterial disease and Alzheimer’s.
We have already discussed Alzheimer’s disease in relation to being overweight and to exercise, but now we will focus on Alzheimer’s disease as a separate entity. One thing you need to realize about the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is that most doctors will tell you it is very difficult to clinically differentiate between vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s dementia. Much of what is today termed Alzheimer’s is actually secondary to vascular problems of vascular dementia. Many times, the problem is not one or the other but a combination of both.
If you look at Alzheimer’s dementia as an individual diagnosis, it accounts for around 65 percent of cases of mental impairment in elderly people. They get to a point where they can’t remember things, have difficulty reasoning, may have trouble getting around, and may even end up bedridden, staring at the ceiling. The prevalence of this dementia doubles every five years after the age of sixty, and here is the scary number: it is found in up to 40 percent of those eighty-five years and older. We are discussing serious terms about everybody’s future here.
True Alzheimer’s is associated with having an unusual type of protein found within the tissues of the brain. You remember our earlier discussion of the importance of eating foods high in omega-3 fat (such as fish, nuts, and olive oil) as a protection against Alzheimer’s. Beta-amyloid protein plays a significant role in the findings of changes in the brains of people who are developing Alzheimer’s. If the brain tissue is studied, fibers are found made up of what is called amyloid protein. Little nerve fiber tangles are also found in the brain tissue. Studies have shown that people who have higher levels of beta-amyloid in their blood develop Alzheimer’s more frequently than those who don’t have beta-amyloid floating around in their blood.
So if you took someone who had dementia and found deposits of beta-amyloid protein in their brain, you would diagnosis their dementia as Alzheimer’s. But other studies point out that it is not all that simple to differentiate between Alzheimer’s dementia and vascular dementia.
How can dementia be prevented?
There is a correlation between dementia and being overweight or obese. In an eighteen-year follow-up study of overweight patients, the women in the study who developed dementia had a higher BMI than the women who did not develop dementia. Other studies found that the risk of developing dementia is greatly increased in individuals who are overweight or obese.
Dementia is not the result of just one factor. The same lifestyles that lead to disease of your heart also lead to dementia. The same precautions to protect your heart help in the prevention of dementia. It is all woven together.
Let me go over a significant study called the Rotterdam Study, which helps tie it all together. This is a study with almost nine thousand participants in which researchers evaluated the dietary fat intake of each group and the relationship of dietary fat intake to dementia. The study’s basis was related to the known fact that a diet high in saturated fat and cholesterol elevates LDL and has been consistently associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The question was, If dietary fat intake increases risk to your heart, does it also increase the risk of developing dementia?
Their conclusion was that cardiovascular disease is related to dementia.
This study suggested that a diet high in saturated fat and dietary cholesterol raises the risk of dementia, especially vascular dementia. Plus, they concluded that eating fish may reduce the risk of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
At one time there was a medical distinction between Alzheimer’s dementia and vascular dementia, but that distinction is fading in many circumstances. It is not one or the other as much as there is a big overlap between the two types of dementia. When the brains of patients who died after a diagnosis of dementia are studied, finding pure Alzheimer’s dementia or pure vascular dementia is rare. Most people have at least some component of both.
I’ll give you a quick rundown on both types of dementia, but remember, they can be difficult to differentiate and the two can be mixed. Learn how to prevent any type of dementia, whether it is isolated or mixed, and develop your lifestyle accordingly to prevent it.
Certain findings under the microscope are used to differentiate between the two types of dementia. Finding amyloid plaques and tangles with connective tissue has been the main factor used to label someone’s dementia Alzheimer’s. However, some patients with dementia do not have this amyloid substance in their brains but do have signs of small, multiple, silent strokes caused by the artery problems we have been discussing. These patients have been assumed to have Alzheimer’s because the symptoms are so similar.
What I want you to understand is the fact that the two types of dementia are not necessarily completely unrelated. For the brain to function properly, it is dependent on one primary factor: an efficient circulatory system. That is why studies are showing that at least some Alzheimer’s dementia may actually be the result of chronic low perfusion of the brain. Some who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s have had “silent strokes” occur without any symptoms.
It is reported that the arterial changes you have been studying is present, to some degree, in 100 percent of the population in America by age eighty-five. Such reports are revealing the possibility that chronic or transient blockage of the blood flow to the brain may well contribute to the accumulation of the amyloid deposits that are commonly seen in pure Alzheimer’s disease.
The large Rotterdam Study mentioned previously evaluated the severity of the arterial disease as correlated with the severity of Alzheimer’s, and what they found makes a great point in the interrelationship of the damaged arterial walls and Alzheimer’s. The finding is one of the most significant warnings you have concerning protecting your arteries with your new lifestyle. They found that the severity of both Alzheimer’s dementia and vascular dementia correlated significantly with the severity of the arterial wall involvement. Their conclusion: the more severe your arterial wall damage, the more severe the dementia.
The exciting conclusion is that you are able to do something to help prevent the “drool factor” later in life. The Prescription for Life plan is key in learning how to protect against the damage to your arteries that brings on dementia.
Learn the steps you can take to keep your mind alert as the years go ticking by. Never forget those 40, 48, and 60 numbers. (You memorized them already—remember?) Forty percent reduced risk by eating properly. Forty-eight percent reduced risk by exercising. Sixty percent reduced risk by doing both. And you have learned the details of what to do with the Prescription for Life plan.
Remember . . .
You can do something to prevent dementia
You can prevent damage to the walls of your arteries
For your mind’s sake . . .
Change your eating strategy
Change your strategy for exercise
Change your strategy for sustaining your ideal weight for the rest of your life
If you don’t, you may be the one who ends up sitting in your recliner most of the day, always smiling whenever anyone comes into the room, and looking at a book at least 80 percent of the time. The problem is it will be the same book and the same page most of the day. For some preventable reason, you won’t seem to realize that you are reading the same words over and over. It was preventable, but it is too late at that point.
The truth is, it is still preventable now—by doing all you can to protect your arteries.