Alzheimer Prevention

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Originally Posted by Dythbringer

I believe that might be a part of it. I also think there is another component to it. In the animal kingdom, weaker members either die or don't pass their genes down to the next generation. As a species, we have no system to weed out inferior genetics (when I talk about inferior genetics, I am not talking about how 1940 Germany referred to inferior genetics). Looking at myself, my genetic background has heart disease, diabetes, cancer and a host of other undesirable genetic stuff that I have no doubt passed somewhat onto my children.

My Grandmother passed away last year, she had Alzheimer's before she passed. I saw her deteriorate over many years. It is a sad thing.

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Ya, even go back to glasses, people who need glasses to get around now would have been eaten by a lion back at the dawn of man, our species has complicated things.

I had an uncle who had dementia, it was not Alzheimer's as they suspected but rather the result of a stroke that was not caught (They can only test after you die). It was sad for those around him but it was not sad at all for him and I think we need to focus more on the patients and less on ourselves. He was always a happy guy who was a smart A for sure. Sure he lost his ability to remember those who came to see him but he was always happy to meet someone and loved to talk their ear off about what happened to him "yesterday", although he thought it was the 60s. He recognized me as my dad and my dad as my grandpa, it was actually quite awesome to be able to talk to him as a 30 year old rather than a 70 year old, his perspective was entirely different. He had no concerns about being old or death, he was very much in the moment and very happy about it. On the flip side I lost my grandpa to cancer, 6 months of withering away and knowing exactly what was going on. I would never wish cancer on my worst enemy.

Personally I'd take physical over mental illness any day of the week.

Who I am as a person is located in my brain. The rest of me is fancy plumbing and a drivetrain. If my brain is swiss cheese I'd just as soon my body stop wandering around without me, stressing out my loved ones and eating their groceries.

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Originally Posted by benjhind

Personally I'd take physical over mental illness any day of the week.

Who I am as a person is located in my brain. The rest of me is fancy plumbing and a drivetrain. If my brain is swiss cheese I'd just as soon my body stop wandering around without me, stressing out my loved ones and eating their groceries.

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Just start high risk activities if you ever are told you are terminal. I already told my wife that if something like this happens to me I will start racing motorcycles, not much to lose at that point.

In my career I had to work every day with people who had terminal something, the thing that most had in common is they all wanted to live as long as possible. Even those who pleaded to ' let me go', 'kill me please' usually changed their minds when that time approached.

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Originally Posted by fishermccann

In my career I had to work every day with people who had terminal something, the thing that most had in common is they all wanted to live as long as possible. Even those who pleaded to ' let me go', 'kill me please' usually changed their minds when that time approached.

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Must of been hard to watch every day G , I know you become somewhat immune to it but sheesh that is tough .

Held the hand of hundreds of people, and was the last person they saw, as they 'shuffle off this mortal coil',.... it was never easy ,but for some it was a blessing.

I'm sure you've got me beat on experience, FMC, and I'm sure many who think as I do change their opinion when the time comes. I've known a fair share who wanted to live as long as possible, and a few who wanted to get it over with. Thankfully we now have the freedom in Canada to choose to expedite the process in certain circumstances.

As a member of a palliative care team, our goal was to enable the individual to pass as easy as possible, and insure no one died alone. What kept us going, was when with their last bit of strength, they squeezed your hand, and with their last breath, said, ' thank you'.

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Originally Posted by benjhind

Personally I'd take physical over mental illness any day of the week.

Who I am as a person is located in my brain. The rest of me is fancy plumbing and a drivetrain. If my brain is swiss cheese I'd just as soon my body stop wandering around without me, stressing out my loved ones and eating their groceries.

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Iffy on that one.
Had the Duchene Muscular Dystrophy gene in my family. Two brothers died - one at 17 and one at 20. Awful thing to watch those boys go downhill.
When I got married , they couldn`t tell you if you were a carrier of the gene or not - now they can. ( women only carry the gene , males get the disease). I decided not to have any kids for that reason. The only solution was that if the baby was a boy you aborted. No thanks- I didn`t need a baby that bad.
Had many foster kids, so life was still great! :)

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Originally Posted by Sharon

Iffy on that one.
Had the Duchene Muscular Dystrophy gene in my family. Two brothers died - one at 17 and one at 20. Awful thing to watch those boys go downhill.
When I got married , they couldn`t tell you if you were a carrier of the gene or not - now they can. ( women only carry the gene , males get the disease). I decided not to have any kids for that reason. The only solution was that if the baby was a boy you aborted. No thanks- I didn`t need a baby that bad.
Had many foster kids, so life was still great! :)

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Having your own kid does not define a Mother :D, good for you Sharon for being there for those kids.