Alzheimer’s scares me. I think it should scare everyone. Our memories ground us into a reality (regardless of how we have constructed it). Yet Alzheimer’s is a disease that makes us unrecognizable to ourselves and robs us of our memories and corresponding stability. Alzheimer’s is the result of brain cell connections and the cells themselves degenerating and dying, eventually destroying memory and other important mental functions. According to the National Institutes of Health, Alzheimer’s disease is currently ranked as the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, but recent estimates indicate that the disorder may rank third, just behind heart disease and cancer as a cause of death for older people. Sadly, there is no cure. Yet.
This past week, Alzheimer’s research and scientific studies have been in the news. Although, many probably didn’t catch the news considering all the other things that have been occurring and collectively draining our attention span. For instance, researchers reported this past week that a bacterium largely responsible for gum disease also contributes to the development of Alzheimer’s. Seems that we really need to get past our fears of going to the dentist. There have been podcasts on how Alzheimer’s can occur in generation after generation in a family. I can’t imagine such sadness and loss of family memories.
What captured my attention was a report that there may be a test (testing for a certain protein in the blood) that ca be used to predict whether one will get Alzheimer’s in 15 to 16 years. Considering that there is no cure, would you want such a test? What happens if these proteins are found? How do you react and then prepare? For one, I would worry as to whether one would be covered by health insurance thereafter. Assuming that one can still get health insurance, preparing for a life that one may soon forget can cause tremendous anxiety day in and day out. Or so I would imagine. Sure, one can argue that knowing allows one to prepare one’s affairs. Sure, one can argue that knowing would allow one to live one’s life fully. But why shouldn’t we live fully anyway?
I am not too sure I would want to know. But I would have to promise myself to live a joyous day and strive for nothing to take away said joy. I think that is doable. I hope.
Categories: identity, mental health, Psychology, science, society
psychologistmimi 
Keep Writing as per the Nun Study
Done Recently on the Dreaded
Alzheimer’s Disease As in All things
Life And Love use it or Lose it applies
As in the case of Sister Bernadette
Who lectured late in Life whose
Brain actually wired around
Severe Alzheimer’s Plaques
And Tangles into her 80’s
As Functional Linguistic
Abilities Both Oral
And Written
Through
The
Lifespan seem
To Protect yeah
My Mother A Poet
Beat my Sister in Scrabble
A Week before she died from
Stage 4 Cancer with a Bleeding
Brain Cancer in addition to
The Rest of Her
Body same
With Back
Pain Dance
Or
Rust
Stay Sharp
Do continue Singing too..
My Father and His Identical
Twin Suffered From Dementia
Into Late age.. their intellectual
And Exercise Diet consisted of
The News.. The Weather Channel
And Watching Sports And
NASCAR.. SMiLes..
Wild Cats
Enjoy
Life
More
Than
Domesticated
Cats as every
Move means Survival..
We Humans overall
Have
Watered
Ourselves
Down to
Vegetables
Long Before
Old Age Do Jack LaLanne
Where Every Step And Word
Of Dance and Song is Health
Insurance BiG WinKS trading Likes
Does almost nothing for Life.. the
Twitter
Disease
With T
For
Poster
B O Y
OF Head Mush
Keeping in Mind
That i am Literally
Autistic and did not speak
Until 4 named the Weakest
Last Kid picked in Sports who
Is Still Getting Stronger At age 58
As i am up to 1200 LBS of
Leg pressing still going
Up and By God i
Am Humble
Enough
To say most
Anyone Can and
Will Do More as GreaTesT
Love and Strength comes
Out of
Darkness
As every
Galaxy owes
Existence To A Black
Hole as Long as Galaxies
Dance
And
Sing my FriEnd..:)
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I’m with you on this one. We all know we’re going to die. Knowledge of that death is always with us, and I don’t think it’s possible to live fully if you’re constantly worried about death. And it’s not as though knowing the specific date of our death is going to change it, right? No, I think going on as we do already, knowing that someday will be the end and enjoying the time we do have, is the best way to go. Pardon the pun. 🙂
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You really write beautifully. Hold the readers well till end.
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No, I don’t want to know. Why spend your last 15 years worrying about when (or perhaps if) dementia will invade your life? And there are many forms of dementia, a test for Alzheimer’s won’t predict vascular dementia. Life your life to the full each day, and don’t spend it stressing about what might, or might not, happen in a future you might not reach anyway
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This is another of those shades of gray issues. Personally, I would like to know, for myriad reasons that i might write about someday.
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