Posted on 01/25/2005 10:43:52 AM PST by nickcarraway
"This article mixes Alzheimer's and dementia. They are two different conditions. Very poor reporting."
Sounds like Kaiser has determined that couch potatoes cost Kaiser more money than active older patients, so they came up with this collection and called it a study.
My mother in law died last October, probably with Alzheimer's or maybe dementia. She was active up to her last few months, never had diabetes nor high blood pressure and never smoked. She would have been 90 years old in November.
Two of my mother's older sisters died with Alzheirmers or maybe dementia in their mid to late 80's. They had high bp and cholestrol. My mother about 3 years before her death was developing memory problems, her cardiologist put her on Merck's lipid lowering drug. I discussed this with the doctor, and she (a woman md) said if my Mother's mental ability didn't improve in six months, she would dc the drug.
My Mother's mental ability and memory went back to normal. She became excellent in bridge bidding and playing again, finished several crossword puzzles aday and read everything she could get her hands on. It was very evident in our phone calls up to her death that her memory was excellent with the lipid lowering.
So there may be something with the high cholesterol and hypertension.
My mother was somewhat of a couch potato her last ten years of life, and my MIL who supposedly had Alzheimer's was never a couch potato.
My father who died two years ago with the "A" at the age of 78 was a specimen of perfect physical health and had more energy than a much younger man. He lived a very long time with "A" and would have lived longer because of his physical well-being but there comes a time when the brain doesn't tell the throat to swallow and even saliva gets aspirated into the lungs. He withstood several bouts of pneumonia due to this. He was never a couch potato a single day of his life.
Most of the victims of the terrible A that we have known have been like your Father and my Mother in Law, the opposites of Couch Potatoes.
YOO HOO! Heh
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