The Dark And Bright Sides Of Alcohol

Some lab rats at the Ohio State University summed it up: Researchers “designed a special liquid diet for the rats. One formulation included a low dose of alcohol, comparable to two or three drinks a day for a human, while the other diet included a much higher dose of alcohol, comparable to six or seven drinks a day for a human. A third group of rats was given a liquid diet without alcohol.” In memory tests, rats that consumed moderate levels of alcohol outperformed those given high doses of alcohol or none at all.

These results tie in with French epidemiological studies that found that regions of France with the highest wine consumption tend to have the lowest Alzheimer's risk.

The Dark Side of Alcohol

And then there’s alcoholic dementia, an illness that is, of course, caused by excessive use of alcohol. Binge drinking seems especially dangerous. Finnish investigators found that people who drank more than five bottles of beer or one bottle of wine once a month were more than three times as likely to get dementia.

Alcohol dementia may not cause much memory loss at first. Instead, it often becomes evident by these signs:

– poor planning
– personality change
– poor judgment
– difficulty handling complex situations

But, ultimately, alcohol dementia may be indistinguishable from Alzheimer's.

Be Friendly And Avoid Alzheimer's

The title exaggerates a little, but not much. One research project after another reports that, if we want to stay sharp all our lives, relationships matter. One of the most recent is the 2008 report of a Harvard School Of Public Health Study showing that elderly people in the U.S. with an active social life have a slower rate of memory decline. In fact, memory decline among the most integrated was less than half the rate of that among the least integrated. (Social integration was indicated by marital status, volunteer activities, and contact with parents, children and neighbors.)

Just 10 Minutes’ Conversation Helps

Many seniors, especially “senior seniors,” find computer brain games daunting. But there are simpler – and age-old – ways to keep an older brain alert. The University of Michigan Institute for Social Research reported in 2008 on a study that tested people as old as 96. Lead author Oscar Ybarra said, "We found that short-term social interaction lasting for just 10 minutes boosted participants' intellectual performance as much as engaging in so-called 'intellectual' activities for the same amount of time."

Sociability Even Protects Those With Alzheimer’s!

A surprising 2006 study from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago found that some people with many social contacts with family or friends were protected from the effects of Alzheimer’s, even though they had Alzheimer’s tangles and plaques in their brains!

Down Side For the Non-Social

According to a study by the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, “Those who were married or living with a partner in midlife had a 50 percent lower risk of having dementia later in life, compared to those who lived alone—even after adjusting for education, occupation, exercise, general health and other variables.

“People who were single throughout their lives had double the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, compared to the married, while those who were divorced and stayed divorced from midlife on had triple the risk.”

And the most dramatic risk increase was found among those who lost a spouse in midlife and stayed single. They had more than a sixfold risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease compared with their married peers.

It is often difficult for those divorced or widowed to build a new social life, but clearly such a social life will help protect them from Alzheimer’s.

Ways You Can Avoid Alzheimer's

People over the age of fifty-five tell pollsters they are more afraid of Alzheimer’s than of cancer. Yet scientific research is revealing numerous things you and I can do to prevent dementia and its most-feared form, Alzheimer’s disease. And this blog is devoted to telling people the many things scientists say we can do to stay sharp all our lives.

Most of us read items about preventing Alzheimer’s in magazines or newspapers, but researchers’ advice often mirrors the advice our mothers and doctors have been giving us all along. And the whole thing slides past us. You’ll find here, however, a COMPILATION of Alzheimer’s prevention items, all based in the scientific research, which compilation should be more memorable.

These ways of avoiding Alzheimer’s cover a wide range of activities: the way we eat, how much we exercise, and the way we take care of our health. I’ll report about all these ways to keep our minds sharp, along with the promising medical treatments starting to come out for those who already have the disease.