Alzheimer's Could Be a Third Form of Diabetes 251
Atzanteol writes "Insulin, it turns out, may be as important for the mind as it is for the body. Research in the last few years has raised the possibility that Alzheimer's memory loss could be due to a novel third form of diabetes. Scientists at Northwestern University have discovered why brain insulin signaling — crucial for memory formation — would stop working in Alzheimer's disease."
Re:Smoking? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The Bleeding edge of Alzheimer's research (Score:3, Insightful)
This just really irrates me (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Smoking? (Score:5, Insightful)
Cutting through the propaganda from both sides by comparing various Alzheimer's Disease (AD) studies and how they were done, it appears to me that:
Compared to people who have never smoked,
Previous smokers may have an increased risk of AD.
Smokers without the APOE-4 gene may have an equal risk of AD.
Smokers with the APOE-4 gene may have a lessened risk of AD.
For people who have already contracted AD, tobacco use may lessen the symptoms.
The positive or negative effects may not be due to nicotine; studies on just nicotine appear to disagree (what a shocker!) and be more inconclusive than thosed based on tobacco use.
There's plenty of research material out there on the web. Just don't believe any one study, because they conflict quite a bit. In particular, pay attention to whether "non-smoker" and "smoker" excludes or includes previous smokers or users of other forms of tobacco, and ask yourself why. In many cases, the classification appears to be selected to support the desired result.
Also, some of the studies appear to use cherry-picked subjects, like men who are former war veterans (and thus likely to have a bunch of diseases related to that) or people from groups that have special lifestyles (like adventists who neither smoke nor eat much meat).
In other words, be skeptical, follow the money trail, and don't believe the first study you see.
You know what's great about Alzheimer's? (Score:5, Insightful)
Haha, "New friends every day." Get it?! LOL.
It's not so funny when it happens to you or your family. Wait until someone you know gets it. You won't be laughing anymore.
Haha, that guy has a limp. Haha, that woman is blind. Haha, that kid is retarded. Hahaha. Fucking hilarious.
Whatever you do, don't get Alzheimer's disease. It sucks.
My grandmother just turned 94 and has advanced Alzheimer's disease. She can barely walk anymore. I devote a few hours of my life every single day to caregiving. If you've never known someone like this, you really have no idea what's involved. Yeah, we could put her in a home. We could watch her die sooner that way, wearing diapers and ceaselessly, hopelessly calling out for someone to please take her home. As it is now, she wears diapers, but at least we always change them. In nursing homes, they don't.
Have you ever had someone you know and love, who helped raise you and even changed *your* diapers and then helped teach you how to count and how to read and how to do puzzles and math and typing and how to play games, who taught you the names of the plants that grow out in the back yard? And now she can smile and say "Hello", and tell you to get the hell out because she don't know who you are a moment later?
That's Alzheimer's. You can be helping to manage her most intimate financial affairs completely honestly, you can be doing her laundry and getting her medicine and bringing her groceries and cooking her meals and washing her dishes and vacuuming her floors and helping her get to the doctor and even wiping her ass, when she cannot do it herself anymore, and yet she'll still tell you she loves you one night, and the next morning she wants you to go away, go to hell, or just please, please take her home. Because she doesn't know what home means anymore. She's already at home, and she doesn't know who you are anymore.
She knows what she knew in 1920 or 1930 sometimes, funny stories she can still tell sometimes, but she mixes up everyone's names; she doesn't know who is who anymore. She used to speak three languages, English, German, and French. But now she often speaks gibberish, a weird combination of whatever words she still can recall. She can't always understand simple sentences. She's like a kid who cannot learn.
Alzheimer's sucks; nursing homes suck. Go visit one someday if you doubt me. My grandmother's genes and her circumstances allowed her to outlive two of her children. She never got cancer, but that's what killed her elder son at 50. She had a heart attack thirty years ago, but she didn't die of heart disease. That's what killed her elder daughter at 60. Yet my grandmother lives on, as her mind slowly disintegrates.
She still likes to watch children playing, or to meet a drooling baby, maybe a child of someone who helps care for her, brought over to visit. She still likes to pet her cats and smile and watch them roll on the floor with catnip at her feet, she still can interface with her two grandchildren, she still has a sense of humor that we all can understand and sometimes laugh about together.
She doesn't know what year it is or what day it is, and sometimes she can't remember how to properly hold a spoon (or she'll try drinking from it like a straw). But she especially likes bananas and squash and sweet potatoes and chocolate chip cookies. I know this because I'm there sometimes to remind her to take another bite. She says "This is good, thank you!"
And sometimes when you help lift her into bed at night, she'll tell you she loves you. I guess that helps make it all worthwhile.
Anyway, this is what will happen to you if you don't die of anything else or get hit by a bus before your brain starts to degrade. I suppose it hasn't been all bad, I have learned a lot caring for my grandmother. But she is no longer able to offer her opinion. [yeah, it's my own copypasta, but it's relevant]
Re:You know what's great about Alzheimer's? (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, I've had family with the disease. Yes it's depressing to watch.
I also joke with my mother about her cancer. Being able to laugh at such things isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Re:You know what's great about Alzheimer's? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:You know what's great about Alzheimer's? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because you know me so well, I won't tell you about my great grandmother's last years or about her daughter who's getting to that age now.
Bottom line, if writing this helps you get by, then bring it on.
Re:I hope not... I'm getting tired of diabetes new (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Hmm (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:You know what's great about Alzheimer's? (Score:5, Insightful)
We have a deal in our family - anyone gets anywhere near as bad as our aunt, just "take us behind the barn and shoot us."
Or give us the means to "do it ourselves". We'll have a big going-away party ahead of time, and another one (a wake) after the deed is done.
Why people insist on prolonging the inevitable is beyond me. We let what's left of old people rattle around in their empty heads, but we wouldn't let the family dog suffer nearly as much.
Once the brain is gone, they're dead. The body might still function, more or less, but the person is gone. Show some compassion, stop being so selfish ("I don't want to lose them") and do the right thing; put what's left out of its misery, and end the suffering of everyone else around them.
And don't give me any of that "life is sacred" crap. When the brain is gone, they're gone. The rest is just an empty shell. That's not life.
Re:You know what's great about Alzheimer's? (Score:5, Insightful)
Or, to translate to geek speak, it's not the frequency that sucks, it's the latency.
As long as nursing staff have to schedule things and the patients can't adjust to a fixed schedule, their need is not met 100%. That's not a criticism of the nurses and aides, who tend to be very fine people doing the best they can, but it's just that the best they can isn't optimal.
Regards,
--
*Art
Re:You know what's great about Alzheimer's? (Score:5, Insightful)
But, it's awfully hard to convince yourself that it's true.
There is a big difference between the care provided by you who have known the lady in better days and the caregiver for whom she is just another day at the office. But, there is a place for both. You know who she was and love and respect her for all that stuff in your past. But, you didn't choose to be a care giver. You have less time and energy for what comes more easily for you. That makes the care giving tasks much harder. Knowing who she was makes it especially painful.
You don't need to put your grandmother in a "home" to get help. Unless she is ill, you don't need a nurse, either. In the US, a nurse is a skilled medical person with a degree and much too expensive for diaper changning. But, you can arrange for someone to come in for a few hours a day to deal with bathing her, feeding her, changing her,etc, in her own home. It would take a lot of the unpleasantness out of your relationship and allow you to have some life of your own.
About the people who work as care givers - not all of them are losers who do it because they have no work ethic or can't get a better job, some actually like working with people and have a proper attitude that gets them through the unpleasantness of it. You have the older ladies who seeminly love everyone and get great persoanal satsifaction out of making your life better and you also get young immigrants who are glad to be working in the US and have dreams of doing bigger things, but are professional enough to do a good job as a caregiver while going to school.
The biggest problem is finding them. The government doesn't do this sort of thing, so you need to learn about all kinds of private agencies. There are lots of them, some are better than others. They don't have big marketing campaigns, and are more likely to advertise for fundraising rather than services. And the ones who are best at fundrasing are necessarily the best at services, plus the advertisiing is aimed at people with money, not people who need the services. But, that's a whole nother discussion.
The point is, one person shouldn't devote several hours a day to unpleasant tasks made even more unpleasant by being too familiar with the person they are caroing for. I would never want my grandchild sacrificing his/her life to keep me clean. I would simply want him/her to be physically close enough to make sure that I am clean and feel loved.
Re:You know what's great about Alzheimer's? (Score:3, Insightful)
If I find out I'm getting that and there's not a cure yet, I'll get my affairs in order and suicide as soon as possible.
It pisses me off that the Law says you can't perform assisted suicide even for these poor bastards who have no quality of life any longer, even if they are known to not want to live in that situation. My mother has made her wishes known and I'd have to risk jail if she needs help.
Re:I hope not... I'm getting tired of diabetes new (Score:5, Insightful)
The theory I have heard that makes the most sense is "high fructose corn syrup". 20 years ago Coke switched from sugar to this crap. The whole Coke/New Coke/Classic Coke marketing ploy was used to make the switch with few noticing (we were so glad to get our old coke back, we did not pay attention). Most other soft drink producers, and many other junk food manufacturers, did the same. It was much cheaper. Fructose does not trigger insulin the same way regular sugar does, causing a lot of glucose to build up in your blood. It also metabolizes quickly, sending your blood sugar through the roof within minutes of consumption.
The current Diabetes epidemic tracks this massive change in our diets almost perfectly. Give it 20 years, people get older, exercise less, the cumulative effects take hold and wham.
I almost never drank diet soda, primarily just Classic Coke. Not ridiculous quantities, but 2-3 cans a day was pretty normal. Mix that with a Snickers, ice cream, pasta, etc. In my late 30s I tried to lose weight by avoiding fat, but that pretty much leads to a high carb diet (unless you just eat rabbit food). By 40 (I am now 44) the symptoms started showing up, but I mostly ignored them.
One night I was out drinking with some coworkers, one noticed I was drinking water by the pitcher and we started talking. He was diabetic (not surprisingly another programmer who led a similar life to many of us) and had a glucometer. He measured my blood glucose and almost fell over. I had 520 mg/dl (80-120 is normal).
I am pretty sure that there is no one "smoking gun", but high fructose corn syrup sure seems a likely major factor. At least for me and many others. Especially considering the massive spike in cases, and the 15-20 year correlation to the massive introduction of HFCS to our diets.
If I can give a couple pieces of advice to the 20-somethings on this forum:
- You are not invincible. Bad habits will catch up with you in one way or another. Whether it is diabetes, heart problems, etc., it will get you. All the stock option bonanzas in the world won't save you either. Look around your office at the 40 somethings. Lots of fat and lazy folks. They were just like you 20 years ago!!!
- Get into an exercise habit, and stick with it. It does not have to be a formal plan or involve going to the gym, but walking or biking to work, the store (or the bar), parking at the back of the parking lot, etc. will all help. Going for a walk after eating is really good, as it is working off what you just shoved down your throat and speeds up your metabolism. It helps the environment too.
- Moderation is the key to food consumption. I don't advocate dropping all the good stuff, that gets too boring and you will likely not stick with it. Have your favorites, but get smaller portions and go for a walk afterwards.
I still love my DQ, but I only get it from the DQ 3 miles from my house, I get a small dish, and I ride my bike there. I still drink beer, but I only have 2 or 3 (instead of 7 or 8), and I ride my bike there too. I skip fries and have a salad instead. Have a coke, but then alternate with water or coffee instead of another coke. Get the can of coke, instead of the 20 oz or Big Gulp (forget about the price advantage, long-term that is a fallacy when you consider your health costs). All the little steps help, as long as there are lots of little things to have a cumulative effect, and you do it all (or at least most) of the time.
I will be living with this the rest of my shortened life. I will say though, it scared the the hell out of me, and I am now in as good a shape as I was 20 years ago, and way better than 10 years ago. I feel fucking great. I have more energy than I got from caffeine and sugar. I am just pissed off at myself for getting into this situation. I can't go back and change it, the damage is done. All I can do is contain it, and make it not get much worse. Hopefully I can help at least one person avoid my fate with this rant.
Re:You know what's great about Alzheimer's? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I hope not... I'm getting tired of diabetes new (Score:4, Insightful)
cheers
Re:Diaper Changers (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:You know what's great about Alzheimer's? (Score:1, Insightful)
That's an easy one, but it can be much more difficult to spot problems.
Long story short, after my mother's stroke, she was living with my sister and her daughter. Things were going well, but, as part of her conservatorship, we had to have a Plan B -- a nursing home, in case my sister and niece fell ill and couldn't provide necessary care.
I was the one looking for a home nearby. Kaiser Hospital had classes to assist in doing this kind of search. The session I attended with one of their social workers was the most illuminating part of my search. Basically, she told me just how hard it can be to find the right place.
As an example, she told me of a nursing facility where she attended a four day seminar in eldercare. The place was beautiful -- a light airy foyer with an aviary full of well-kept birds, plants all over the courtyard, no medicinal, antiseptic or urine smells, etc. She said to herself, "This is where my mother is going if the time comes."
On about the third day, she noticed she hadn't seen many residents, so she did a little unauthorized snooping around. She discovered a large number of the residents were always in their rooms. It turned out that the home's management was heavily into either chemical or physical restraints to keep the patients from wandering around or causing other problems.
She concluded that, if it took her, a professional in the field, three full days to discover the problem, what chance would a layman have?
One other story. I have a friend who was the youngest ever director of a large mid-western county social agency. Her husband was also very high up in the federal social service hierarchy. They have a now-thirty-five-year-old daughter with severe mental and physical incapacity, whom they were unable to adequately care for at home. They had, and still have, a hell of a time getting her placed in a facility where she'll be adequately cared for.
During visits, they have found her with her hair unkempt, skin rashes and with two ostomy bags untended to -- sometimes leaking.
No matter how much noise they make, they always run into the same attitude on the part of management, "What are you going to do -- shut us down? Where do you think you'll find anything better?"
I hope these aren't typical stories, but I fear they are. Why is it that we are so unwilling to pay the caretakers, both in care facilities and in schools, for both our parents and our children, a wage that will allow them to have a decent living and to attract people who care enough to do right by those supposedly most precious to us?