A Thought

[honda03842]

The rest of the story.

"In the process of chat, we also tripped over how little humanity knows. We were discussing a UCLA study about Alzheimers where 9 of 10 people were cured by diet and lifestyle change, nearly a miracle if you know the disease."
-- Honda03842

We passed on the UCLA information to the caregiver of a friend with Alzheimers; he forwarded it to their geriatric doctor. The Doctor's found the report interesting but did not recommend adoption because it required a significant lifestyle change. The caregiver said goodby and that was that. The patient continues taking the medication that at best only only can slow the worsening symptoms down.

Hopefully the specific case does not apply to us but as many of us are older and burdened with some 'getting older condition', it applies. So often modern medicine focus on medication rather than lifestyle change. Everyone should consider lifestyle change, at least as much as possible.

Our extended travels were a response to a death, thinking we must be near the head of the line. It resulted in a lifestyle change and so far 15 years of travel, now in our ever loyal Scamp.

[honda03842]

Most of you know I'm spending time writing a book. I spend a few minutes reading through this thread and was appalled by all the errors. Now that I've got my writer's license from Ellpea I'll try not to crash so many times.

Hopefully the future will be better than the past.

[EllPea in CA]

The editor and writing teacher instructs:

DO NOT LISTEN TO YOUR INTERNAL EDITOR/CRITIC. Don't agonize over a sentence wondering if your verb tense is correct, or whether you've misspelled something.

The first job is to write, and write a lot. Some of what you write will be extraneous, extra, not needed. But write everything down that comes to you. Stream of consciousness takes you to a whole new level of insight.

When you are finished, when you have the *structure* the way you like it, and when you've said everything you'd like to say, then you've finished your *first* draft. Let it rest for a week or two, and then begin critiquing the editorial issues.

When Gayle finished her book (and this was the 3rd or 4th draft) and sent it off to the publisher, she wanted to celebrate that she was *done.* I didn't have the heart to tell her that there was more work coming (galleys, proofreading, etc). It is *work* getting this done, but it is the initial getting everything onto the page that is the biggest challenge.

Stick with it!

Best,
Ellpea

PS, have you read Gayle's book yet? What do you think?

[Bob Miller]

[QUOTE=honda03842;544411]The rest of the story.

"In the process of chat, we also tripped over how little humanity knows. We were discussing a UCLA study about Alzheimers where 9 of 10 people were cured by diet and lifestyle change, nearly a miracle if you know the disease."
-- Honda03842

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is that the UCLA & Buck Institute Study ?

It mentions 9 of 10 patients showing improvement in memory with a very aggressive, 36 point, approach that included Pharmaceuticals.

Yes, improvement, but hardly a cure....

Memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s reversed for first time | UCLA

I will verify this link and correct if necessary)

But, if you know of a different study, please let us all know.

[EllPea in CA]

Australian researchers have achieved 75% memory recovery using ultrasound. No pharmaceuticals involved.

New Alzheimer’s treatment fully restores memory function - ScienceAlert

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by Ellpea in CA

The editor and writing teacher instructs:

DO NOT LISTEN TO YOUR INTERNAL EDITOR/CRITIC. Don't agonize over a sentence wondering if your verb tense is correct, or whether you've misspelled something.

The first job is to write, and write a lot. Some of what you write will be extraneous, extra, not needed. But write everything down that comes to you. Stream of consciousness takes you to a whole new level of insight.

When you are finished, when you have the *structure* the way you like it, and when you've said everything you'd like to say, then you've finished your *first* draft. Let it rest for a week or two, and then begin critiquing the editorial issues.

When Gayle finished her book (and this was the 3rd or 4th draft) and sent it off to the publisher, she wanted to celebrate that she was *done.* I didn't have the heart to tell her that there was more work coming (galleys, proofreading, etc). It is *work* getting this done, but it is the initial getting everything onto the page that is the biggest challenge.

Stick with it!

Best,
Ellpea

PS, have you read Gayle's book yet? What do you think?

Gayle's book arrived today and it's in the mail box. I'll start it after I finish Yankee, the life of the present chairman.

I'm writing free style, not with a particular structure though I have a general outline. Really writing like crazy. I look forward to it every day. I'm usually insane about new-ness, writing is no different. I'm hopeful that by the end of September I have a first draft and can begin to add structure

I have helped edit a couple of books with Jeannette Hopkins, now dead. She formerly ran Beacon Press, Wesleyan Press and worked in a number of NYC publishing houses for a number of years. I've seen the effort required recalling a number of young writers delivering what they considered a finished book only to be put in touch with the reality of a professional, accomplished editor.

I was apologizing for the sloppiness of my posts.

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm really having fun, so far it's not work, I write every day for a couple of hours.

[Bob Miller]

That's certainly promising research (especially if you are a mouse).


Plaque reduction certainly has some promise, lets see how soon they try it in humans. But wait... you can't Dx Alzheimers in a live person, only post mortem.

While medical breakthroughs have happened, the "Cure" suggested hasn't.

For those in need, false information only breeds false hope. I dealt with this very issue with parents of autistic children (including moi for over 20 years). There, hardly a week went by, and never a month went by, without someone hearing about a new cure or treatment, most of which had no basis in fact.

[honda03842]

Bob Miller,

There's no doubt that doctors are a pressured group these days. The doctor we forwarded the actual study to had no previous knowledge of the study.

Here's one of the many links on the 10 person study.

Memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s reversed for first time | UCLA

The proper word should probably been 'reversed' instead of 'cure'.

To me a reversal is very significant. We have someone close to us going through this relatively rapid decline. If it were me I would consider a lifestyle change or any other possible solution.

It's as heart breaking a situation as I've ever seen.

Though neither of us have any sign of Alzheimers we've taken the approach that nothing in the study will hurt us so we've made changes.

Most of the elements are reasonable and make sense to us. Being more active, eating better and exercising more can do nothing but help us.

Now what was my point??????

The pills taken are not prescription, I now own most of them.

By the way I have nothing against prescription medications, I take some. My point is that very often merely changes to your lifestyle can make a dramatic difference.

[honda03842]

Ellpea,

I was a little short in my last response. I truly appreciate your small comment that encouraged me to write. So often in life little things set you on a course. AS an RVer this is often the case. So many interesting places we have visited resulted from a passing call and patient travels.

I'm religiously writing every day. I'm a little surprised how habitual/routine our mornings have become. Now that we're doing the UCLA lifestyle change, some of which we already did, we have a morning filling routine. Exercise, coffee, writing, breakfast, writing, long morning walk.

An Imperfect Life, will be my third book this week following The Death of Money and Yankee. I hope to be done with Imperfect by Monday.

Fortunately I'm a fast reader. It's a topic I write about in the book: Magic Eyes...Seeing but not Seeing.

Initially I saw a difference how Ginny and I see extending to how we read. Though we're both heavy readers, I read 3 or 4 times as fast. Grammar schools friends of Ginny told me everyone in her class reads slowly. (Ginny went to a Catholic school where the virtually the same kids were together for 9 years. No science here just individual comments.)

Life is marvelous. I spend my time writing, reading and planning the Newfoundland Caravan. Spending a little time worrying about the state of the world and nation (Death of Money), doing a little Mormonesque preparing (Ginny bought 3 cans of SPAM today).

Ginny is chomping at the bit to read what I've written...

[EllPea in CA]

Originally Posted by honda03842

Ellpea,

I was a little short in my last response. I truly appreciate your small comment that encouraged me to write. So often in life little things set you on a course.

Norm, truly, no harm no foul! Too many years of encouraging online students via email and forums sometimes affects my online correspondence. I do remember now your work on editing (which was another reason why I thought you should WRITE). It sounds like you're going great, and I can't wait to BUY your book when it's finished.

Best,
LP

[Bob Miller]

Quote: "In the process of chat, we also tripped over how little humanity knows. We were discussing a UCLA study about Alzheimers where 9 of 10 people were cured by diet and lifestyle change, nearly a miracle if you know the disease."

There was absolutely no mention of a "Cure" and the process was very complex and difficult to follow.

From the article about the study:
"The study was conducted Dr. Dale Bredesen of the UCLA Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. It is the first to suggest that memory loss in patients may be reversed — and improvement sustained — using a complex, 36-point therapeutic program that involves comprehensive diet changes, brain stimulation, exercise, sleep optimization, specific pharmaceuticals and vitamins, and multiple additional steps that affect brain chemistry."

[honda03842]

Bob, Are you whipping a dead horse? I agreed I should have written 'reversed' mot 'cured'.

Lifestyle change is difficult. The lifestyle change with an Alzheimers patient shockingly difficult and expensive but worse saddening. 9 of 10 reversals is enough for me to take notice.

[Mr. W.]

I think I can understand where Bob is coming from, having been on the receiving end of lots of well-meaning advice over the years for past issues. A long-term affliction can become an obsession, and sometimes the pursuit of a cure can become more troubling than the affliction itself.

However, I also think that there is a HUGE difference between having somebody say, "You need to try this", versus them saying, "I want you to be aware of this information." There can also be a big jump between "this worked for me" and "therefore it will also work for you."

I do believe that Norm is presenting information for consideration, and reporting what has worked for them. I don't see him pressuring anybody for compliance. So, thanks, Norm, for pointing us to that info. Last week, I heard that the wife of a dear friend (herself a dear friend, also) - one that we regularly do volunteer work with -- has been diagnosed with Alzheimers. If I were them, I would want to be aware of this small study.

[honda03842]

Though I often use specific examples, that sometimes don't fly or are not well thought out, after so many years of thinking time while on the road, thinking of the present with respect to the past I sometimes feel like Lazarus.

It is said that when Lazarus returned from the dead after 4 days in Hades he never smiled, having seen unredeemed souls (All I could think of was green stamps.)

I don't feel sad thinking about the past, Ginny and I had a great previous life. However the freedom of extend travel has provide free time to consider the past and present, particularly regards to lifestyle.

It puzzles me that there's little teaching of lifestyle choices.

One has to wonder why Lazarus was in Hades. He certainly didn't take a wrong turn with his RV. (I expect a couple of PMs on that one.)

[honda03842]

I've mentioned we received Jawbones as a gifts for our 73rd which measure our sleeps during the night and our steps during the day. When you get the device you set a step goal and a sleep goal, 5,000 steps and 8 hours per day.

In the process you have set a goal and you habitually look to see the number of hours slept and steps taken. You find yourself almost subconsciously achieving the goal. At the end of the day, if Ginny's close to 5,000 she takes a little walk to push it over the top.

We had read Jim Clear's short books about habit and goals his point is it's important to have a goal, it's not important that you make it but critical that you maintain the habit.

One sub-property of the habit is it's a continual reminder. For the book I'm righting little nuggets of it just pop into my mind during the day. Creating habits and goals is something worth trying.

[honda03842]

I'm absolutely convinced the world is full of secret knowledge subconsciously held by individuals. Many if not most of these people do not realize that they have special skills or ability.

Generally I find that special people do not know they are special. Ginny is entirely special, really a very good person. Not for one minute does she think of her goodness as special.

Recently I found that our Doctor, just knows things that are beneficial that don't come out in normal appointments where his focus is on the annual physical. i always try to engage him in conversation on some medical issue of interest to me, often getting suggestions that improve myself. (He always asks us about our travels, finding us special people because we take his advice seriously. Many patients apparently don't respond to little goals.)

I told him that he needs to develop a book of little medical suggestions or approaches.

This week my niece is here for the weekend, the niece buying our beach house. She has a magic ability to talk intelligently with, not to, young children. I've encouraged her to write a book. She has a knowledge that could help every parent.

[honda03842]

Some dogs bark is a saying of Ginny's sister. She uses it to explain why people are the way they are, really a statement that for many their genetics make them 'barkers'.

One of the magic aspects of extended travels is extended thinking time. At some point I recognized that our genetics is a significant component of what we are, what we become and how we behave.

It's important to consider your parents, your grandparents, and siblings looking for attributes that you may have been born with, particularly ones that need modification. it's only when we realize our reality can we do anything about it.

What makes up our being, comes from nurture, genetics and experience. We can consider the source of who we are and make choices about improvement.

[Bob Miller]

Be careful of thin ice.....

[floyd]

Originally Posted by honda03842

Some dogs bark is a saying of Ginny's sister. She uses it to explain why people are the way they are, really a statement that for many their genetics make them 'barkers'.

One of the magic aspects of extended travels is extended thinking time. At some point I recognized that our genetics is a significant component of what we are, what we become and how we behave.

It's important to consider your parents, your grandparents, and siblings looking for attributes that you may have been born with, particularly ones that need modification. it's only when we realize our reality can we do anything about it.

What makes up our being, comes from nurture, genetics and experience. We can consider the source of who we are and make choices about improvement.

These are the only people who are nothing more than chemical soup...

[Bob Miller]

Not forget, well into the 60's DuPonts corporate motto was "Better Living through Chemistry".


If that's supposed to be one family, my heart goes out to a very tired mother