The title that I selected for this article, A Simple Way to Avoid Dementia and Alzheimer’s, may be a little misleading. The word simple may not be totally accurate, especially for some of us. Like all goals, success depends on your motivation level and your willingness to stay on a Health and Wellness path.
First, let’s start with a basic fact: Dementia and Alzheimer’s are not diseases in the traditional sense of the term.
It’s common to think of a disease as a condition that is caused by some invader from outside of the body. For example, Lyme Disease is caused by the injection of a bacteria called a spirochete. The vector for the infection is a tick, specifically a deer tick. Once inside the body, the bacterial infection propagates and causes various and often devastating symptoms. Lyme is thus considered a disease.
Meanwhile, the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s symptoms is not caused by specific “bug.” While there is evidence that a longstanding infection could in fact be a precipitating or contributory factor in the onset of cognitive decline, I am sorry to tell you that there is no one cause of Alzheimer’s, dementia, or cognitive decline. Instead, it appears to be a cluster of conditions that lead to the early onset of mental decline. How then can avoidance be simple? Read on to find out.
Morbidity Terminology
Second, let’s understand a few terms. One is most important: morbidity. Morbidity is defined as “the incidence or prevalence of a disease or of all diseases.”
The term multimorbidity refers to having two or more morbidities or chronic health conditions. Two or more health conditions at the same time is also sometimes called comorbidities.
Examples are things such as heart disease, stroke, heart failure, hypertension, cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, liver disease, depression, mental disorders, arthritis/rheumatoid arthritis, and Parkinson’s disease (again another condition that I hesitate to call a disease as we know the term for the same reasons I have just outlined). Oh, and I saved the big kahuna for last: diabetes.
Diabetes can be related to almost all of the conditions that I just outlined. Yes, heart disease, stroke, heart failure, hypertension, cancer, liver disease, arthritis, and Parkinson’s can all be related to diabetes as a cause.
What Does This Mean for Alzheimer’s?
Having two or more comorbidities or having multimorbidity will definitely affect your ability to acquire dementia issues and/or Alzheimer’s.
Multimorbidity affects one quarter of all adults in America! The symptoms of these conditions begin to crop up in early adulthood and continue to progress in a person’s 40s and, by the time he or she reaches 65, are out of control. Usually the person is taking multiple prescription and over-the-counter drugs to deal with the symptoms. An unfortunate statistic is that one in three Medicare beneficiaries report four health problems or more. That certainly is very sad news!
Many research studies have demonstrated that diabetes increases not only your risk of acquiring all of the conditions that I just mentioned, but also Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s (notice again; I didn’t call them disease).
This assertion was born out by research recently published from a study conducted using 10,095 British Civil Servants using data from the Whitehall II study. The participants were between the ages of 35 and 55 when they first enrolled in the study, which took place between 1985 and 1988. Everyone in the study group was dementia free at the time it started.
The researchers considered all variables including gender, age, ethnicity, education, marital status, alcohol consumption, smoking, level of regular exercise, and consumption of vegetables and fruits. Over a 32-year period, the researchers identified 639 cases of dementia.
Essentially, if you have 2 or more chronic conditions by age 55, your dementia risk will increase 2.5 times. If your onset of multimorbidity occurred between ages 60 and 65, your incidence of dementia is 1.5 times higher than those with none of these conditions.
The study further showed that for every five-year increment, the younger the age at onset of multimorbidity, for people between 70 and 55, the risk of dementia rose by 18%. That number increases for those with 3 or more comorbidities. As an example, those with three or more comorbidities at age 55 had a nearly 5 times higher risk of dementia than those with none or one of these conditions. And, if the onset of the multimorbidity occurred at age 70, the incidence of dementia was only 1.7 times higher than those with none.
The researchers then excluded those in the study with Parkinson’s and found that the findings didn’t change. I would venture to suggest that had they excluded those with diabetes that you would have seen a dramatic shift in the findings. I would also say that the shift would occur whether the participants with diabetes were on prescription drugs or not. But that will be left to another study to determine.
The Take Away
The number one thing to consider is that you are in control of your destiny to a great degree. In other words, your lifestyle choices will invariably change the course of your life from a disease and sickness trajectory that includes diabetes to a Health and Wellness one.
Your number one main concern should be that which you consume!!! Are you consuming inflammation-generating, high-glycemic, high-grain-base foods? For most the answer is “yes.” That’s why I call it the old “Standard American Diet.” Eating this way is a self-inflicted wound that festers over a period of years and one day manifests very badly with cognitive decline and progressive degenerative change!
But you have the power to change the course of your life; you can move toward a Longer Healthier Life. Even if genetics seem to predict a poor cognitive future, your lifestyle can turn these genes on or off (epigenetics). You can begin the change immediately and the change is as simple as altering your diet.
Besides encouragement to eat well, we at the Center offer you an opportunity to rechart your course with our Full Detoxification Cleanse Program. Take the opportunity to join us for a preview and learn all about the program that will change your life forever!
As I tell our Cleansers in our classes; “My goal is to teach and educate you how to live a “genetically congruent lifestyle” in order to change the trajectory of your life from a disease and sickness paradigm to a Health and Wellness paradigm.” I hope that you will at least take the opportunity to join us for our FREE Cleanse Preview Program and learn how simple it is to change your life forever! Register via email ([email protected]) or phone (215-679-9355).