Why do we hear about so many Alzheimer's and Dementia cases now?

Coconut oil is what we used to slather ourselves with in the '60's and lay in the sun with. Now I find out that I should've been putting the coconut oil IN my body, and keeping my body OUT of the sun. Go figure...

OrangeBlossom,

It's good to see someone with your perspective writing here.

If anyone has seen films like "Escape from New York" or Mel Gibson's "Mad Max" series, then you've seen a portrayal of a broken-down society where certain areas are a lawless free-for-all. That's pretty much the way I see our current health practices. IMO, somewhere down the line, maybe 50, 100, or 200 years from now, we will look back at this period as a time of insanely barbaric ignorance.

Medical research has been CO-OPTED and CORRUPTED by Big Pharma. That is beyond a doubt.

Here's a sample illustrating the problem from Science Daily in January 2008:

"Anti-Alzheimer's Mechanism In Omega-3 Fatty Acids Found"

"Many Alzheimer's researchers have long touted fish oil, by pill or diet, as an accessible and inexpensive "weapon" that may delay or prevent this debilitating disease. Now, UCLA scientists have confirmed that fish oil is indeed a deterrent against Alzheimer's, and they have identified the reasons why."

... "the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) found in fish oil increases the production of LR11, a protein that is found at reduced levels in Alzheimer's patients and which is known to destroy the protein that forms the "plaques" associated with the disease."

and here's the key...

"But he (Dr. Cole) is hopeful that the NIH will conduct a large-scale prevention clinical trial using fish oil at the earliest stages of the disease -- particularly because it is UNLIKELY that a pharmaceutical company will do so, since fish oil in pill form is readily available and inexpensive.

So, Alzheimer's is big, it's obviously important, but key research into nutrient-based prevention is something for which we can only HOPE. Meanwhile drug research goes on like wildfire.

Let's think about part of our "cultural wisdom" - "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". Is that the way medical research shapes up today? A 16 to 1 ratio in favor of prevention?

How about Thomas Edison?

He stated that "The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest her or his patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.” Looks like he had no idea how far off "the future" would be.

It's preposterous that we spend so much on drug research when we haven't even mastered the ABC's of good health. You mentioned that "the soil was far less contaminated with artificial fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, industrial pollutants, acid rain, etc". That might correspond to the letter 'M'. "Naturally occuring vitamins, minerals, and natural enzymes" might be letter 'N'. And so on.

Now, consider the statement, "Proper functioning of the lymphatic system is a cornerstone of good health, yet it is often over-looked by Western medicine." How can something as straightforward as "the basic plumbing system" be overlooked? How about, "In Europe, Lymphatic Drainage Therapy is frequently performed prior to radiation or surgery to prevent the complication of lymphedema."? Is Europe part of a different planet?

We really need to attack the basics of health with an engineering mentality. How does this system truly work?

Anyway, I could go on forever, but I won't. I'll just say that IMO medical science should have listened to Edison. By now we would each have a wonderful "Owner's Manual" for the human body, instead of the random half-assed guidelines we may or may not make up for ourselves.

But despite all that, I see a lot of wonderful signs that the times are changing, and I am optimistic that we are going to get back on track.

Hi
I've been reading a bit your discussion on coconut oil and i've heard about using for other conditions too. But I've always wondered how you would consume it. Do you just eat a tsp of it??? or melt it and add it to something or use it to cook with ?. my hubby likes to use it for making popcorn...lol does that count. my mom has Alz and we are willing to try anything and everything to slow down the progression.

Use it for popcorn or as butter or cook with it. Get rid of oils like corn or canola because they turn carcinogenic when heated. Coconut oil does not. You can use it without worry.

Carol, apparently the problem with vegetable oils is when they are heated TO THE SMOKING POINT. The typical uses of sauteing onions or stir-frying shrimp and zucchini do not cause the carcinogenic changes to the oil. So, hey, don't burn your oil. :)

The other heating practice that can change the nature of the oil is reheating it repeatedly, such as re-using it multiple times in a deep fryer. This change (according to a study published in WebMed) occurs with coconut oil as well as other oils. Don't reuse your oil!

Rancid fats are problematic, too. Coconut oil lasts better than many oils before it becomes rancid. Don't use rancid oil! (And, yikes, unless your nose doesn't work, I cannot imagine using a rancid oil. Gag.)

You can use most oils without worry unless you are heating them to the smoking point or reheating them as in a deep fryer, or using them after they are rancid.

Nothing against coconut oil, for sure. But I'd like to see the whole picture presented a little more accurately.

I recommend the book "Stop Alzheimers Now" (...and all neurodegenerative disorders) by Dr Bruce Fife, also known as "Dr. Coconut". You'll also find lots of info on the benefits of coconut oil here at his website http://coconutresearchcenter.org/index.htm.
Also, we now know that overall inflammation is the cause of nearly all chronic diseases, and is caused by dietary issues. Acidic foods are implicated ( as opposed to alkaline) in that inflammation. There is also widespread use of aspartame (artificial sweetener) which is highly neurotoxic. In the book mentioned above, there are countless references to studies indicating statins (cholesterol lowering medications) in neurological disorders and specifically cognitive dysfunction. These drugs are prescribed like candy, for "hypercholesterolemia", which is not a disease, but a lab result. The brain and nervous system need cholesterol to function well, and I believe this too is a cause of the dementia epidemic we are facing

Also, refined vegetable oils quickly become sources of free radicals when exposed to any light and heat, even before heating to smoking point. I realize there are countless opinions and beliefs @ dietary fats, but you will find that the leading contemporary experts on nutrition and health are more and more in agreement with this, recommending coconut and palm fruit oil over all vegetable oils

Heavy metal toxicity. There is STILL a toxic level (25 mcg per dose) of mercury in most flu shots.

The sad fact is medicine for sustainment has outpaced the medicines to contain the deterioration of the human body in the aging process.

i dunno. i read recently that the common knowlege that people died at a young age years ago is just not true. infant mortality and agricultural accidents skewed the statistics. people lived to 100 yrs old and did it without drugs. ill bet ya they were jabbering maniacs after about 80 tho.
dementia has been classified as a fatal disease in only the last couple of years. i think its because science is understanding how organ failure and digestive / immune difficulties are directly linked to brain function..
coconut oil has about as much scientific basis as wheel bearing grease but wheel bearing grease is cheaper..

capnhardass, yes, infant mortality, etc. does have an impact on longevity statistics. And yes, there have always been people who lived into their eighties and nineties and beyond. BUT NOT IN THE NUMBERS WE HAVE TODAY! And that is true whether you are looking at percentages of the population or just plain numbers of people alive. I looked at some demographics of the aging of the population in the last 200 years. OMG! When you see it on a chart it is stunning. (I'll try to find that set of charts again. I just know they blew me away.)

The other thing is that we did not keep track as well of the numbers of people who had dementia. My dear grandmother was pretty sharp into her nineties and then declined significantly. Her family and her nursing home considered her senile. She never made it into the dementia statistics, but today she certainly would.

We have both more people who live long enough for dementia to develop and much better ways of tracking the number of dementia cases. Of course we are going to hear more about it!

Some form of dementia has been around since Biblical times, there is a vers "honor your father though his mind fail him" for example, Isaac and Esau's dad should not have been so easy to fool, and King Solomon apparently was afflicted with something in his later years. People do talk about it more with less embarrassment and shame than they used to, as well as being more ready to "medicalize" it into a possibly treatable, diagnosable condition. That's not all bad, because sometimes it is, and cognitive impairment should not be just accepted as part of normal aging, because it isn't. And the diabesity epidemic due to bad food and sedentary living has got something to do with at least the vascular dementia part of this. I think the wrong fats - trans fats and too much grain fed meat have been part of the problem too. Longer life span/better medical care overall means more will live long enough to develop cognitive impairment before dying of something else; my grandpa who died of MI in his 50s would not have had that happen today, and might not have died with all his wits intact if he had lived with vascular disease for another 20-30 years instead....it is all very worrisome, and I hope the current generations look to being active and eating better as a way of staying vital longer; otherwise each generation will be more burdened by caregiving than the one before.

Carol F, to start a discussion or ask a question, go to the Home page, and about halfway down at the bottom of the Caregiver Community section there are links to start these things. One thought on some forms of dementia is that the brain, which is normally not thought to need insulin for its glucose uptake the way the rest of the body does, actually does to a degree and becomes resistant to it. Coconut oil has some medium chain triglycerides, which may be usable by brain cells fairly directly; the sugar mannose may also work like this and ketone bodies can be defintiely be used as fuel, but it is all a little unclear. The MCTs are what was in "Lorenzo's oil" and helped though did not cure leukodystrophy. So its not a crazy idea to try and will not be harmful if not overdone. You could always just try coconut macaroons with apple and cranberry juice, and some good salmon and trout for supper a couple times a week. You can also get MCT oil - I even have some orange flavored - and make sald dressing with it (you can't cook with it though, unfontunately.) Those foods did always seem to improve mood, again, not fully reversing anyone's dementia, but helping to feel less irritable and perk up at least. The other thing is to reduce other medications; at some point, prevention and life extension is no longer as important as quality of life. A trial of stopping statins if they are on some should be considered as the cognitive side effects, though rare, can be devastating, and will usually reverse in a few weeks off of them. I've seen someone nearly lose their job over cogntive effetcs of Topamax; if you toerlate it, its great stuff for headache prevention or seizures, but it is also nicknamed Dopamax because some people just don't :-) The individual biochemistry that makes people react differently to commonly used drugs is 1) poorly understood and 2) not likely to have genetic testing funded to find them out in advance anytime in the near future.

@ jeanne
your probably right but im trying to sell wheel bearing grease here.

Ah, sorry, capn -- give me a heads up next time. I don't want to step on your entrepreneurial toes.

This is a very interesting conversation.

I am in my 50's now and was fortunate enough to be an older teenager when my GREAT grandparents passed away in their 90's, and worked their mountain farm on their own til the day they died. My grandparents all lived and "worked" til their 90's also.....the difference is clear to me: diet, chemicals in food and stress. They drank water and coffee only..no sodas ever, they ate ONLY what came off their farm, including the honey they "hived", everything was pesticide, preservative free, steroid, antibiotic and hormone free.
I recently learned that "organic" corn and strawberries have been genetically altered so the pesticides are in the seed, thus enabling the "organic" label.
I think the answers are clear, there just aren't many of us willing to make the effort and commitment to get away from chemicals. I am trying ......

People didn't talk about it because there was no general knowledge about what caused dementia. People didn't talk about embarrassing heath issues. People didn't live long enough for Alzheimer's to manifest. It used to be referred to as senility. There is so much increased awareness of Alzheimer's now that everyone knows what it is. The same is true of many mental disorders that people never used to talk about and now everyone knows about because they have been identified and named. The reason Alzheimer's seems to be more prevalent is because we are better educated about it and are aware of it. When I was growing up no one ever talked about alcoholism either, but there were just as many alcoholics! It was just covered up and not discussed. It's all about ignorance versus awareness.

Coconut oil has been discussed here before. My wife has cortical basal degeneration and a week on coconut oil put her in the hospital. Does not mean it won't work for other people, I would suggest reviewing the studies with your doctor first, like I did.

As far as causes, I am sure the quantity of medications people are currently taking is one cause.
A second is diet.
A third is lack of exercise.
A fourth possibility is a high level of stress.

I can speak to diet and medication peronally. Once I took over my wife's medications I discovered she had been taking premarin for over 12 years. There was a warning in the package not to use it for more than 6 months. I don't know if the warning was always there but I notice now the druggists are watching more of the medications she is taking.

When she was diagnosed, she was given a cocktail of medications. I kept telling the neurologist she was not eating, she was having these mini reactions at night, etc and she kind of pooh poohed everything I said. Finally I said, lets take her off everything and then we can add medications back as she needs them. It took almost a year to get her off all the medications and every time she went off one, her mental ability took a giant leap. Afterwards we had about 3 years when she was much more functional than she had been on the medications. The neurologist told us she couldn't do anything more for us. She was kind of ticked that I took the treatment out of her hands. Last spring when my wife was in the hospital for the reaction to coconut milk, she had to see a neurologist. One of the first things he mentioned was that I already knew medications did not help her situation at all.
As far as diet, she became incontinent about 6 years ago. One of the ladies at the senior center mentioned the fact that when she drank milk, it went right through here. I experimented with removing milk from the diet and there was a tremendous improvement. I did see a urologist and he gave her a 30 day supply of pills that did not help at all. I kept experimenting with her diet and a little over a year ago our local doctor told me she was starving to death. My comment was "She eats more than I do".
A week or so later I had a brainstorm. I removed anything with soy products from her diet. She lost another 4 pounds in a month's time but then she started to gain back a pound a week. I am guessing that tomorrow when we go to the doctor's office she will be 140 pounds or more, compared to 114 a year ago in January.
In order to find soy free products I buy most of my food in the natural food department at the grocery store. Coconut and almond yogurt, coconut milk, soy free sandwich spreads, etc. I also make fruit sauce for her to use on her sandwiches and to use to take pills. Currently she takes a thyroid pill, calcium and vitamin D3. The urologist gave her a prescription to keep urinary tract infections down, but I think I will be discussing that tomorrow.

If I seem to ramble, it is because my brain gets overtaxed at times.

Any stimulation helps, speech therapy, occupational therapy, just walking.

I saw a well-respected doctor on television several months ago, and his theory is that people are taking too much iron, copper and zinc, and that too much of it greatly affects the brain in a negative way. I am not saying what he says is correct, but this is his theory. I don't think folks many years ago took supplements at all, if so, not nearly as much as we do today.

Whitney, what about people who have never taken a supplement in their lives and still come down with dementia? Did he address that? Are those minerals added to food we commonly eat?

I agree that we see it more now because people are living way past the age that they used to. My dad has had 4 heart attacks, diabetes, cirhhosis, and now dementia. Back in the day his 1st or 2nd heart attack would have killed him but he had a quadruple bypass. Medications, treatments, surgeries.....all these things that are available now to prolong life. If you ask me it's not always beneficial. Personally I would rather die in my sleep at age 72 than struggle with my health for years, suffer from pain for years, go and live with my daughter because I'm not able to live alone and then be placed in a nursing home because my body and mind are totally shot. And I remember as a wee girl scout going and visiting nursing homes and that was 40 years ago so yes, nursing homes have been around for a very long, long time. Modern medicine has figured out ways to keep us alive, maybe past the point we should be, but no one can figure out how to cure the issues we encounter from staying alive long past the time our body tries to konk out. My lovely father has a brilliant mind. Rather, he HAD a brilliant mind. College professor. Member of MENSA. He was creative and funny and loving and the best man I've ever known. Now he's been robbed of the dignity that he and so many others deserve because his body is continuing to outlive his mind. His brain in 80 years old. That is an old brain. I know there are people who live and thrive into their 90's and good for them! :-) However, that is the exception, not the rule. My daddy is facing an ugly, long, slow, painful decline into dementia and will probably end up in a hospital bed, in diapers, drooling and not being able to eat solid food because his implanted defibrilator shocks his heart back into rhythym when it's really time for his huge, loving heart to die. This defibrilator was a Godsend for him 10 years ago when he was vital and social and had things to occupy his time and his mind. Now he's a shell of who he once was and I think that stinks. He deserves better. Most people deserve better. But thank God for modern medicine!!! My dad is 80!!! We thought he'd pass away years ago due to his heart disease. But he's not vital. He's not happy. He's miserable!!! I never thought I'd see the day when he wasn't sharp as a tack but thanks to all of his medication over the years he's actually lived to see 80! There have always been stories from people I've known who've had relatives who were 'senile'. I married into a large Irish family who would regale me with "Uncle Bill" stories. Oh, he was mad as a hatter. He lived with relatives when he was old because he was so 'senile'. This was in the 1960's so dementia was around then even if wasn't referred to as 'dementia'. Now they have to build whole wings of rooms in nursing homes to house all the people with Alzheimers'. In my dad's nursing home there's a woman who is so out of her mind that she is wheeled around clasping a baby doll. Good for her Dr.!! Her brain and her body are shot but she lives on, day in and day out. Maybe we should take it up with God. Or maybe I'm accurate in thinking the Dr.'s have something to do with it. Who knows? I don't believe it's diet but I understand why people do. Maybe it's not my personal favorite, Big Pharmaceutical. Could be that we just hear about it more than they used to but there have always been families who have that one person, maybe it's Grandpa or maybe it's Aunt Tillie....that one person who was nuttier than a fruitcake with what we now call dementia or Alzheimer's. For as far back as I can remember there have always been people who would today be diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer's. It's not new. My mom took care of my grandma, my grandma took care of my great-grandfather, ad infinitum. And my parents told me, they vowed, that I would never, ever have to go through that with them. But guess what? And what's the alternative?! My father has asked me twice to kill him. First it was with a pillow and the second time he suggested an OD. He begged me, he sobbed. I actually had this conversation with my wonderful father. I told him that I would go to jail, that assisted suicide is illegal. And I've told my own daughter now how I will never, ever put her through what I'm going through with her grandpa. It's the thing we tell our children to make ourselves feel better but how do we prevent it? At the first sign of dementia should I kill myself to spare my daughter the pain of what I go through everyday because of my dad? How ridiculous is that? How many stories have we read here about parents refusing to leave their house as they age and begin to suffer from dementia? And for each person we read about there is a spouse or an adult child who is struggling to care for this person. Hell, we have websites of support for caregivers! We need support because it's a next to impossible job. We give up our jobs, our lives, our hobbies, sometimes our marriages so we can care for an aging parent or ill spouse. Who cares for us? We've all read the statistics about the caregiver getting sick before our loved one!

I come here because I can relate to all of you. I'm a caregiver. I cared for my dad for 5 years in my home until I. Couldn't. Do. It. Anymore. It was either him or me and I chose me and here's the secret no one tells us: When you put your loved one in a nursing home the caregiving doesn't stop. It's different but it's not over, not by a long shot.

My dad is dying a little bit everyday. His mind is almost gone. Because of his liver failure he's full of toxic, noxious fluid. We've hired hospice to supplement the care my brother and I give him. The care I still provide him. It takes 3 people and a staff full of nurses and techs to care for my dad now. I told my daughter that I would never put her through this, just like my mom and and told me but I promise her I will never, ever put her through this. I promised her and I promised myself. Eventually, someday, the time will come and I'll know it's the right time and I will save my daughter years of grief, sadness, resentment, heartbreak, financial strife and everything else I've been through and everything else I've read about all of you going through. My daughter will never need a website like this.

I've had a lot of coffee today.

Eyerishlass, your post sure got me thinking. I have a feeling that it might not be okay to delve too deep into this topic on this board, but I guess the moderators will let me know. I too think about ending my life at the right time before I get too old to do it. I don't and won't have children and am unlikely to marry, so I will face old age and dementia alone. Every generation in my family that I know of going back four has had dementia in old age, can I be so lucky not to? That's only on one side of my family, but the genes seem pretty strong. Still I think it would not be so easy, to be say 70 and still in pretty good health but to know one's mind is starting to slip and deliberately give up the last bit of life - while the mind is still good enough to enjoy life. But if you wait until your mind's not good enough to enjoy life, what then? You wouldn't have the independence or ability to do it. Also most people are traumatized by suicides in their family - I would think the adult children (if one had them) would still be devastated even while knowing the reasons. To me it's a sign that something is deeply wrong with how modern medicine treats the elderly that people are kept alive physically to a point of such spiritual/emotional suffering. I remember in her last days my grandmother yelling out in pain over and over to me to help her and there was nothing I could do. And in the years before that this once proud smart woman, humbled and humiliated by her circumstances a shadow of herself. I soon will go down into these depths again with my mother and I'm not ready.

I totally understand you, Eyerishlass and Whirlpool. I've had the talk with my daughter too. I'm the fourth generation in line for what we call the "family curse". Most of my cousins and I have watched our parents die of Alz. Don't think WE aren't concerned?

I was so afraid after I posted that rant. I'm new to this site and I tried to figure out a way to remove it. Not because I don't feel the way I described but I thought people might read it and think I'm some kind of loon. But I meant every word.

"The family curse" sends shivers down my spine.

xoxo to Whirlpool and AlwaysMyDuty

Eyerishlass, I guess in my older age, I'm not real concerned what others think as long as I'm not hurting them, which i try never to do mI'm entitled to my opinion just as others are to theirs. It's a nice feeling for me, one who has lived my life worrying what others thought because my mom instilled that fear in me. But my greater fear is getting Alz. I don't dwell on it, I hope I don't get it (or already have it-yikes) but I'd be living on another planet to deny it. It's just like if cancer runs in your family, you'd always wonder. Who knows exactly what I'd do if I was ever diagnosed, but I definitely don't want to travel that road just like my great grandmother, her daughter my grandma, my father or his 3 siblings didn't want to either. They just weren't as informed as we are today. Above all else, we have to be honest with ourself.

Eyerishlass, Your "rant" was excellent in covering all the issues those of us have
concerning the decline and diminishment of our loved ones with dementia. Thanks for just putting it out there. Because of family history, I have a good chance of developing Alzheimer's and I don't plan to stick around if it develops. I don't have children so it's easier to make that kind of decision. I am watching my mother go through the end stages of Alzheimer's and it is HEARTBREAKING!

Dare we hope that in the somewhat near future that they can actually develop a cure or effective treatment for Alzheimer's? Again thanks to Eyerishlass for opening up this discussion, I bet there are many who quietly think "not me", I can't go through it.

Whirlpool, we can sure hope, and brilliant scientists all over the world are working on treatment/cure/prevention of dementia. But science has been working for a very long time on a cure for diabetes, and for decades on HIV. We humans aren't quite as powerful as we like to hope, sometimes.