Posted on 01/25/2005 10:43:52 AM PST by nickcarraway
Diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking may damage brain
Crossword puzzles and memory games aren't enough to ward off Alzheimer's disease when some middle-aged couch potatoes get older.
A new study finds that people in their early 40s who smoke or have diabetes and high cholesterol or have hypertension are at greater risk to develop Alzheimer's in their late 60s.
But those risk factors can be mitigated through treatment and exercise, the study suggests.
Alzheimer's can spring from heart and artery trouble, not just from neurological damage, said neurologist Rachel Whitmer, who led the study of 8,500 Kaiser Permanente patients.
"Blood pressure, hypertension, cholesterol - they have an effect on the brain and, apparently, damage it," she said.
The study, in the current issue of Neurology magazine, is the first to show that risk factors can damage the brain 10 or 20 years before the person shows symptoms of dementia or Alz-heimer's disease.
"Lifelong exposures to risk factors seem to change your brain and make you more susceptible," Whitmer said.
Diabetes is the greatest risk factor. In the study, one out of seven people who had diabetes in their 40s had developed dementia or Alzheimer's by the time they were in their late 60s or early 70s. That represents an almost 50 percent greater risk.
Those with high cholesterol were 42 percent more likely to get dementia; those who smoked 26 percent more likely and those with hypertension 24 percent more likely.
When people had at least three of those risk factors the likelihood more than doubled.
There are specific treatments for high cholesterol, diabetes and hypertension. But the risk of all can be reduced through exercise and keeping weight down.
"It gives us another good reason to be aggressive about treating these four risk factors," said Dr. Glenn Gade, a gerontologist with Kaiser Permanente in Denver.
"It's another reason why we should keep healthy, exercise and eat well," he added.
"The chance to live a longer, healthier life with good cognitive memory would motivate most people."
Alzheimer's risk factors
• Diabetes • High cholesterol • Smoking • Hypertension
What about us "keyboard cruisers"? Rarely sit on the sofa and watch tv, but often have the computer up and running!
I forgot what this article is about.
I heard... if you have a brain, you could be at risk for uh... wait... I can't remember.
I think our pajamas shield us form any danger of this.
Man, I gotta get out running today.
Oh.......the down side of the industrial revolution.
"I forgot what this article is about."
very funny!
BTTT for later
While he was something of a couch potato at home, he worked tirelessly from the days of the family farm, then he gave the Navy 22, then private industry until his retirement which he enjoyed maybe two or three years.
Retirement didn't agree with him; he had a series of strokes, causing dementia, wherein he required 24/7 supervision which I provided. He passed a couple Christmases ago.
He had been a smoker but who grew tobacco or was in the old Navy and didn't smoke? He quit in his 40's I think. He developed diabetes in his 50's but it was under control. I think a head injury he sustained probably caused things to progress, a bit like Reagan's horse accident.
For the one-minute exercise program see:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1317883/posts
During the '80s when exercise gurus were trying to outdo each other by making exercise harder than anybody else's, I took the rather novel approach in thinking that exercise should be made as easy and inevitable as possible. Rather than just working with champion athletes, I also worked with the terminally ill, to which I thought, it did not make any sense for them to wait until they got well to be able to exercise. One had to design exercise to make the desperately ill better.
Its a completely FLAWED study, and so irrelvant.
ITs very simple... your brain is a 'muscle'. Like other muscles, if you don't use it, it decays, shrings, becomes less effective.
Work it reguarly, and LITERALLY your brain stays 'fit'.
For example... if you are a "couch potato" but are always watching "thought provoking" programming such as News, or Discovery Chanell, or History Channel, etc.
Of course if all you watch is "Fear Factor", you might have troubes.
Well, my mother in law has alzheimers...she does not have diabetes, high cholesterol, or hypertension...and she has never smoked. At 73, she still walks 3 miles a day, swims 30 laps in the pool and plays a mean game of golf (ok, she needs someone to keep track of her ball, so she doesn't forget), even as her mind deteriorates. I hate these articles that say, "if you do this/have this/...you'll get this disease". We're all gonna die of something. Life life to the fullest, take care of yourself, pray and hope for the best.
This article mixes Alzheimer's and dementia. They are two different conditions. Very poor reporting.
;)
Maybe as pc potatoes we are safe.
wait a sec...let me roll off this couch....
And everyone knows Troubes is the cause of all evils. I hate the Troubes.
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