My husband was able to help me build a cabin with no available electricity. We did this from 2002 to late 2004. He died in June 2005 at age 75. He could not plan anything, but if I began a saw cut, I could turn over the sawing to him. He could hold a timber in place while I hammered it. He loved to sweep the leaves off the moss and in the city the sidewalk. He simply could not remember anything for more than 10 or 15 seconds. Thus he could do any job that was a series of continuous actions. Before he became seriously nonfunctionally, I had to call the police because he had swept 10 blocks of sidewalk, just kept on going and I had no idea where. Always before, he would sweep to the end of the block then come back to the house. After that I had to watch him. This was also the time period when he would wander off if he was hungry. In a primative society with people all around it would be easier for an Alzheimer person to function usefully. In a primative society, he could have gone out with others and picked berries or nuts and carried them home. He could have played with children under supervision. He could have turned a spit.
I checked a little about frequency of Alzheimers in foreign urban populations. A long settled area of India had a very low rate. A long settled urban area in Africa also had a very low rate. Black population in Cleveland, Ohio had a high rate. In conjunction with my theory I think that American blacks would have been captured from the jungle and small scattered villages, and not from the large urban centers, which fits with my theory. Obviously, this could be studied a great deal more, especially as specific genes related to Alzheimers are discovered.
Your theory has a lot of truth behind it — have you pursued it any further? A white paper sounds possible
Thanks gleeaikin.
What a wonderful post. Your husband was a lucky man.