Tuesday, October 05, 2021
Commentary: New Ways to Diagnose Alzheimer’s Are Here, and Better Ones Are on the Way
In sharp contrast to every other top-ten cause of death, Alzheimer’s disease has long lacked affordable and accessible ways to diagnose it. While doctors have been able to tell patients with almost 100% certainty whether they have diabetes, heart disease or cancer, until recently, Alzheimer’s was a diagnosis of exclusion.
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Mom had/has AD. This is good news. But the advice is terrible. Don't wait for the equivalent of a lottery win (clinical trial participation). If a loved one gets the diagnosis get off your ass and check out Dr. Dale Bredesen. He has successfully reversed early AD and has trained hundreds of doctors in his methods. AD is multi-factoral and needs to be addressed with a range of interventions including diet, supplements/drugs, sleep, fasting, etc. The body can clear out the plaque from the brain, which is a symptom of chronic inflammation. Waiting for a miracle is not a strategy.
ReplyDeleteMy mother died from Alzheimers after about 10 years of it. This is the worst kind of illness, where it takes your mind. My father, on the other hand, lasted to 95 with a mind like a steel trap but succumbed to kidney failure. My grandfather went to 102.
ReplyDeleteMe - I don't expect making retirement age or want to...
I figure cancer or heart attack will punch my ticket - just not sure which one will win the race. Maybe I'll get lucky and big heart attack will lead me to a draw against cancer.
DeleteIf it is what you want, make sure you have a DNR and make sure that the people around you know it. There was a man in Florida that had it tattooed to his chest, just to make sure that some over eager E.R. doc didn't do something stupid (I think the doc still wanted to do something stupid.)
DeleteI "successfully" performed CPR on a woman that I knew that had collapsed. I thought she was in her late 60s (ended up she was in her 90s). All I did was buy her 3 days of extreme pain. Probably the worst thing I ever did to another living being.
Heart attacks are painful, but if no-one does something stupid, they should hopefully be relatively quick.
Cancer gives you a chance to say good-bye -- and can easily claim everything that you've ever saved; including your dignity. Depending on the prognosis, the cure can be worse than the disease.
My sister has both cancer and the ravages of multiple strokes. Her husband has stated it would have been much better if the first stroke had killed her versus just robbing her of the ability to speak and do things for herself. He isn't being mean. Just realistic. She never would have wanted to live this way.
I've known 9 elderly, all over 80, that have committed suicide. One of my elderly friends showed me her stash of pills she has squirreled away for when the time comes. It was pretty obvious that she was very proud of her collection.
Quite a few of the suicides used a firearm. Big mistake. They had bought into the Hollywood myth of "bang, bang, you're dead". Most lived at least an hour and a half after pulling the trigger.
With luck, I should still have 20 to 30 years. But there's no way that I'm going out in a nursing home with an IV in the arm and a bunch of leaches on my wallet. If you can get sufficiently high quality helium, that's the way to go. The problem with suffocation is not the lack of oxygen, but the build up of carbon dioxide. If you're breathing in helium, you don't have the build up of carbon dioxide, you get dizzy, and then fall asleep.