Alzheimer's Disease, Are we at risk?

I recently visited an Alzheimer’s care home.  I volunteer at the annual Memory Walk in Denver City Park but I have never really had any personal experience with an Alzheimer’s patient until a few weeks ago.  It was very sad to see all those people just sitting around wasting the day away.  One lady kept saying her husband was coming to pick her up and take her out for dinner.  It was only after about 15 minutes of her repeating that, that I was told that her husband died several years ago, and she just didn’t remember.  She spent her entire day wondering when he was going to show up; not know that he won't.  I decided I wanted to look know more about if we are getting close to a cure and what could cause this terrible disease.  

 

I have heard a lot about certain things that were thought to cause Alzheimer’s.  I decided to look into those first.  The Alzheimer’s Association has a list of common myths about the causes of Alzheimer’s.  The bathroom stalls in Brown says the flu shot increases your risk, deodorant is advertised as being “aluminum free”, crossword puzzles are supposed to help.  Which of these are true?  The common ones are listed below:

Alzheimer Myths

1)  Memory loss is a natural part of aging

Reality: Experts say severe memory loss is a symptom of a serious illness.  Whether your memory starts to go when you get older is still up to debate.

2)  Alzheimer’s disease is not fatal

            Reality: Alzheimer's disease has no survivors. It destroys brain cells and causes memory changes, erratic behaviors and loss of body functions. It slowly and painfully takes away a person's identity, ability to connect with others, think, eat, talk, walk and find his or her way home. L

3)  Only older people get Alzheimer’s

            Reality: Alzheimer’s can strike people as young as 30s.  This is called younger-onset Alzheimer’s.  It is rare but still affects 200,000 people in the US that are under 65.

4)  Drinking out of aluminum cans or using aluminum pots (or antiperspirants) can lead to Alzheimer’s

            Reality:  Studies have failed to confirm that aluminum has any role in causing Alzheimer’s.

5)  Aspartame causes memory loss

            Reality:  The FDA has done more than 100 laboratory and clinical studies and have found that aspartame has no evidence that it is dangerous.

6)  Flu shots increase the risk

            Reality:  Several studies (1 & 2) link flu shots and other vaccinations to a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s and overall better health

So far there is no cure.  I will discuss some treatments that are meant to slow or ease the symptoms in a later post.

I hope that these myths have helped to debunk some other those rumors I’m sure everyone has heard.  Why is it that we have heard more about these myths than we have about the actual disease?  I didn’t even know what anatomically happens to Alzheimer’s patients until I started researching but I have heard almost all of these myths.  How do we communicate facts that will have just as much media hype as the myths?  Well my guess is that we can’t.