Volunteering and Alzheimer’s

[Calm]

Given the genetics of some of us board members, I thought this would be interesting to many.

Though I think DN is claiming causation when only correlation has been demonstrated so far, but haven’t read the study itself.   
 

https://www.deseret.com/2023/7/20/23798973/alzheimers-disease-risk-demetnia-constipation-volunteering

I am pretty sure this has been known for awhile…it’s been claimed anyway, keep active in meaningful work after retirement to stay healthier.  I attribute some of our members’ long lives rate to meaningful callings and missions liberally offered and accepted by seniors.

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Folks who volunteer have better memory and executive function. Research from University of California Davis says voluntarism is associated with better baseline scores for executive function and verbal episodic memory, even after adjusting for age, sex, education, income and other factors. Volunteering more often — several times a week — is linked to the highest executive function scores.

“Volunteering may be important for better cognition in late life and could serve as a simple intervention in all older adults to protect against risk for Alzheimer’s disease and associated dementias,” Yi Lor, epidemiology doctoral student at UC-Davis, said in the study release. “Our next steps are to examine whether volunteering is protective against cognitive impairment and how physical and mental health may impact this relationship.”

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Last year, researchers from the University of Colorado Denver said working and volunteering both benefit older adults and buffer risk of cognitive decline. 

“Not every job is created equal,” said Ronica Rooks, professor of health and behavioral sciences at the University of Colorado Denver. “Those that are people-oriented or service-oriented provide that connectivity with people and goal-setting that are (cognitively) more beneficial. Manual labor would be less likely to give people that beneficial connectivity.”

Those researchers said volunteering may be more brain-protective than work because it’s mentally and emotionally rewarding or people wouldn’t do it. Not all jobs are.

 

Edited July 20, 2023 by Calm

[Calm]

Other good news in the article:

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Researchers in Sweden working on blood tests for diagnosis say theirs are 85% accurate, compared to a study at 17 Swedish primary care centers that showed doctors got it right about 55% of the time.

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There are other blood tests in development, as well. Earlier this year, Wasatch BioLabs in Utah — which started as a collaboration of researchers at Brigham Young University and the University of Utah — said its blood test for Alzheimer’s based on detecting neuronal cell death is nearly ready for market.

 

Edited July 20, 2023 by Calm

[Calm]

On a similar and yet very different note in the same article….

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Research from Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and University of Massachusetts Amherst found constipated individuals had “significantly worse” cognition, equal to at least three of years cognitive aging, compared to those with daily bowel movements. There was also a small increased risk of cognitive decline in those who have three or more bowel movements daily.

I want to know if they controlled for diet because my mom was a nutrition semifanatic, everything from scratch, fresh ground flour for homemade bread, etc., but as her dementia got worse, her diet tanked and once she was in assisted living (where we weren’t providing her with healthy prepared meals and no desserts besides her favorite strawberry honey yogurt) she started eating dessert with every meal and skipping the salads and veggies and inhaling chocolate when it was around.  Her younger self would have been horrified.  Because of that she gained weight, which meant less activity and more pain, so my guess is bad diet can contribute to both constipation and less activity, which then lower activity causes greater increase of impairment (brain and body muscle, she was a perfect example of losing what you don’t use).  Quite possible gut health plays in there directly as well though, imo.  Glad I am eating a massive salad daily.

Edited July 21, 2023 by Calm

[Tacenda]

I take Citrate magnesium in the morning constipation, and L-Threonate magnesium for brain health. Also, L-Carnitine in the mornings for the brain and for energy. 

[Tacenda]

Also, besides constipation being a problem, UTI's are as well. I've been taking a supplement to prevent them or use if I develop a mild case called D-Mannose and it's a game changer. When I'd get them all the time, I'd have to go on an antibiotic and that led to me putting the good bacteria in that they took out by using homemade Kefir. But I do believe the volunteering has got to be the ticket as well, for men too, because it's such a blow for men to retire and not have much to get out of bed for and volunteering would give purpose a long with friends and family of course. 

[Emily]

2 hours ago, Calm said:

eating dessert with every meal and skipping the salads and veggies and inhaling chocolate when it was around.

My mother is doing the same thing. She's in an exceptionally good care center that feeds the residents well-balanced, high quality meals, but she eats a few bites, pushes the rest away, and asks for both of the two allowed desserts.

The facts are that care centers don't have any incentive to limit desserts. Too many residents losing weight will cause them to lose their Medicare eligibility. Letting them have dessert is better than their monthly check-ins showing a weight loss.

I'm not sure I consider it a problem though.

My mother was draconian about my father's diet the last few years of his life. She watched everything he ate like a hawk. As he got closer to death, she got more controlling -- she seemed to think if she could stop him from eating frosted flakes or a cookie after dinner -- he would live forever. Since he didn't have an appetite, and only showed interest in things made with sugar, he just stopped eating and pretty much starved to death.

Consequently, I hope that if I ever lose my ability to make wise food choices, whoever is taking care of me will just leave me alone and let me eat cookies. Not eating the cookies might give me another year of life, maybe. But when your mental functions are already that far gone, a cookie would be a lot more fun than another year. 

[Calm]

16 minutes ago, Emily said:

My mother is doing the same thing. She's in an exceptionally good care center that feeds the residents well-balanced, high quality meals, but she eats a few bites, pushes the rest away, and asks for both of the two allowed desserts.

The facts are that care centers don't have any incentive to limit desserts. Too many residents losing weight will cause them to lose their Medicare eligibility. Letting them have dessert is better than their monthly check-ins showing a weight loss.

I'm not sure I consider it a problem though.

My mother was draconian about my father's diet the last few years of his life. She watched everything he ate like a hawk. As he got closer to death, she got more controlling -- she seemed to think if she could stop him from eating frosted flakes or a cookie after dinner -- he would live forever. Since he didn't have an appetite, and only showed interest in things made with sugar, he just stopped eating and pretty much starved to death.

Consequently, I hope that if I ever lose my ability to make wise food choices, whoever is taking care of me will just leave me alone and let me eat cookies. Not eating the cookies might give me another year of life, maybe. But when your mental functions are already that far gone, a cookie would be a lot more fun than another year. 

If I had known she wasn’t going to live for another five years (she was in great shape except for mobility and mentality), I would have been okay with it.  But she was terrified about being bedbound, so I was trying to get her to keep moving.   Her mental state prevented her from doing anything about it and no one else was willing to push her no matter how much I begged them (they wanted fun visits with her), except my husband who she could never refuse.  And from what I could see, she was just a few months away from being able to get out of her bed on her own, but no one ever believed me that she was as bad as she was because she made a big effort for them….plus they saw what they wanted to see.

I am so, so, so grateful she went when she did.  The only thing I would change is someone letting me know ahead of time, so I could have dumped that gut eating worry about her.

Edited July 21, 2023 by Calm

[Emily]

3 minutes ago, Calm said:

The only thing I would change is someone letting me know ahead of time, so I could have dumped that gut eating worry about her.

I sympathize with you. It's really hard to watch them be their own worst enemy. We live day to day wondering if she'll pass while she's still somewhat aware of what's going on and is still able to attend some social activities, or if she'll keep sliding further and further into the dementia. It's really difficult to be in a situation where death feels like the better option. 

[Calm]

4 hours ago, Emily said:

I sympathize with you. It's really hard to watch them be their own worst enemy. We live day to day wondering if she'll pass while she's still somewhat aware of what's going on and is still able to attend some social activities, or if she'll keep sliding further and further into the dementia. It's really difficult to be in a situation where death feels like the better option. 

It sounds like your family has a better grasp of the situation and you have each other’s support.  I am glad you have that.  That is so important.   What was really nice for us was at her memorial, they had an extended montage of photos of her in previous years and that was helpful for me to remember her as she had been so I could grieve her loss, though for me it had happened years before.  From what everyone said that was a very healing experience, especially the photos of her and my dad and knowing they were back together as they both wanted.  I could never manage to reconcile in either my heart or mind the two versions of her.  It was very disorienting, still is in fact.

In the end none of my worst fears materialized in spite of the totally unpredicted Covid restrictions which made her last 6 months so difficult and yet in some ways easier (because we weren’t allowed to do more, I stopped much of my self debate on whether I should be doing more).  My advice to any in the same situation of caring for older parents is to keep realistically grounded, don’t run yourself into the ground trying to figure out how to fulfill all their needs and their wants, because too often they cannot both happen and also where possible make sure every capable adult is aware of the situation and working together and that will make it much easier for all involved.  And look to the needs of all the caregivers as much as the one needing care.  My parents gave us the habit of not only trying to take care of things on our own, but protecting others without actually finding out if they want to be protected, so our communication and teamwork skills are sadly lacking….and this is a situation that calls for teamwork and having each other’s back.  We were the ones farthest away for most of my husband’s parents’ last years and since there were so many siblings who lived nearby, we never really made an effort to make sure things were going smoothly.  His dad was also very independent until the very end.  Looking back I wish we had taken the time to get more details and contributed where we could, even if it was just an occasional gift card to go out to eat for the couple who were doing the most work.  Thankfully, the last year or two we had moved back into the area, so my husband was able to spend more time with his parents and siblings, especially at the end.

 

[Calm]

4 hours ago, Emily said:

It's really difficult to be in a situation where death feels like the better option. 

I hope you can be open about these conflicting feelings with each other.  The one sibling I talk with a lot had a very close relationship with my parents (she was divorced, no kids and Mom and Dad were her anchor) and really struggled with losing them, so I didn’t really get this opportunity much, though my husband was very supportive.

[Stargazer]

On 7/21/2023 at 2:56 AM, Tacenda said:

I take Citrate magnesium in the morning constipation, and L-Threonate magnesium for brain health. Also, L-Carnitine in the mornings for the brain and for energy. 

Interesting! I like certain flavors of Monster energy drink, and they all contain L-Carnitine. Didn't actually know what that was for until your post here. Never even heard of L-Threonate magnesium before. Are you finding that these things actually work for brain function? Perhaps I am smart enough now, but wouldn't mind being too smart for my own good. <- that last was something Lucy Van Pelt used to say:

Edited to add: Looked up "magnesium L-Threonate" on Wikipedia. Says this:

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Magnesium L-threonate is a magnesium salt of L-threonic acid having the formula Mg(C4H7O5)2.

One animal study reported that magnesium L-threonate administered to rats boosts their cognitive abilities.

Not being a rat, nevertheless maybe it works for humans, too! I am going to get some and see if I can figure out how to get that doctorate in astrophysics I keep moaning about.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Stargazer

[Stargazer]

On 7/21/2023 at 4:02 AM, Emily said:

My mother was draconian about my father's diet the last few years of his life. She watched everything he ate like a hawk. As he got closer to death, she got more controlling -- she seemed to think if she could stop him from eating frosted flakes or a cookie after dinner -- he would live forever. Since he didn't have an appetite, and only showed interest in things made with sugar, he just stopped eating and pretty much starved to death.

That's effectively what took my late wife -- because her colon cancer eventually took over her digestive system and she stopped eating. Early on, however, she was still insisting on eating healthily even though we both knew she was terminal with no likelihood of staving it off. I got a little quietly frustrated with her because here was her chance to enjoy eating things she would always shy away from (because consequences were now nil), and she nevertheless acted as if it were a virtue to "stay healthy." 

[Calm]

2 hours ago, Stargazer said:

That's effectively what took my late wife -- because her colon cancer eventually took over her digestive system and she stopped eating. Early on, however, she was still insisting on eating healthily even though we both knew she was terminal with no likelihood of staving it off. I got a little quietly frustrated with her because here was her chance to enjoy eating things she would always shy away from (because consequences were now nil), and she nevertheless acted as if it were a virtue to "stay healthy." 

She probably felt better doing it. After eating healthy, the “good” food doesn’t taste that great to me any more (most things taste way too salty for example) and they make me slightly sick to my stomach. I sometimes indulge just for fun and almost always regret it.