How in the heck do I avoid getting Alzheimer's?

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Greetings all. Its another snowy day and schools are closed so hopefully if you are home with your kids they are outside playing in the snow.

To follow up on the last couple blog post on diet and detecting Alzheimer's disease through retinal scanning I have had a few questions on what do you do to prevent it? It is a great question and unfortunately we are far from having all the answers. However, there are things we can do to lessen the risk.  I look at these things like investing money. If you do a little early it can pay big dividends later in life when it counts. If you have a family history of dementia, like I do, you become interested in not going down that path if you can make choices to avoid it.

1. Get enough sleep. I can't take credit for the quote and it escapes me whose it is. I saw it in Dr. Matthew Walkers book on sleep which I highly recommend. "The amount of people that can get by on less than 7 hours of sleep rounded to the nearest percent and expressed as a whole number is zero." We all need 7-9 hours of sleep a night. A couple famous short sleepers are Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher who both ended up with dementia later in life. That certainly is not proof, but being able to get by on less sleep in nothing to brag to about.

2. Keep your blood glucose and insulin levels in check. This goes back to the good diet advice from a few weeks ago. Elevated insulin levels increase the risk of dementia. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28255864

We have long known about diabetes and the increased risks for dementia as well. I remember as a 4th year optometry student hearing about Type 3 diabetes which some were using as a term to describe dementia because of the strong association.

As a side note you can have normal blood glucose and elevated insulin levels. This is a precursor to type 2 diabetes. If you are at risk ask your doctor to check not only your blood glucose but your fasting insulin as well.

3. Stay active. This does not mean doing a cross word puzzle once in awhile. This means staying physically and mental engaged. Stay socially active with your friends and family. Join a service club and get involved. Take a class for adults and learn new skills.

Ultimately we don't have all the answers for prevention and treatment. I think at this point we would be better focusing on prevention of these disease vs trying to cure it once it has happened. That's all for this week.

Dr. Jason


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