How Would I Know If I Have Alzheimer's?

Do I have Alzheimer’s? How would I know? What if I knew I did, but forgot about it?

Alzheimer’s is form of dementia that is a progressive, degenerative brain disease that destroys brain cells, causing memory loss, thinking/behavior problems and may become severe enough to affect speech, memory and a social life. Today, there is still no known cure for it.

There are three stages and should you even feel like you’re suffering the mild stage, you should immediately get yourself checked-up.

Mild – This is the stage that is most usually missed by the patient’s family. You start misplacing things and you forget some minor detail from earlier on in the day. You also tend to be less energetic. There’s a diagnosis for Mild Cognitive Impairment if your forgetfulness starts to alarm you.

Moderate – You may forget several important details, but should at least still be able to care for yourself. Simple tasks are still doable, but for the more complicated ones, like driving or cooking, you may need assistance. It is crucial at this point to start seeing a doctor about it.

Severe – This article stops making sense to you. Fact is you might not have been able to read it all that well --- it’s either you have read it and have forgotten about it, or your brain simply can’t access the part of your brain that knows how to read. The progression of the disease at this point is drastic, control of bodily functions go out the window and you may start forgetting who your loved ones are, or why they’re there in the first place.

While it’s silly to assume that we can all just go out every afternoon to get a cognitive impairment test, it’s even sillier to think that Alzheimer’s won’t affect you. As clichés go about prevention and cure --- there are several, more accessible means of decreasing the likelihood of Alzheimer’s, only if you don’t forget to remember.

Take this test to see if you have Alzheimer's!

Do Nutritional Gaps Affect You?

Every diet is a bust. No matter how careful you plan them --- there won’t be enough x-mineral or x-vitamin to fill up the daily recommendation.

The vast majority of us don’t get enough Vitamins A through E on a daily basis, let alone the omega-3s and fish oils. It’s gotten to the point where deficiency testing has become such a staple in your doctor’s check-up.

These gaps make way for damaged DNA, or the support for cellular growth. This leads to premature aging and diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s.

There is such a thing too, as overdosing on certain vitamins to reduce the chances of a disease. It has recently been found that Vitamin B DOES NOT directly affect the risk of heart attack in high-risk individuals.

The disappointing thing is that we know so little about how certain vitamins and minerals from food interact with others upon consumption --- so yes, in a way, nutritional gaps affect you.

The best way to curb the gap is by a diet that is both varied and nutritious. Mix up fruits, vegetables, fish, carbohydrates, low-fat meat and chicken. Add in some whole grains and low-fat dairy products. For those of us who are slightly older than the rest who need a little more nutrition need to take up supplements that are perfectly balanced, for an excess may lead to an amount of antioxidants that are slightly toxic in the body.

Effects Of Stress In The Body

Stress is the body’s warning system that it can’t cope. Much like a 486x running today’s computer applications … the body just can’t deal with the stress.

Stress and the mind.

A hard day at work, your kids getting in trouble at school, or just a bad encounter at a restaurant can cause stress. When the threats --- real or perceived --- overcomes a person, stress becomes harmful to the body. Stress starts in the mind --- when the mind thinks that there is a threat nearby, it starts firing signals down to the adrenal glands to produce adrenalin and cortisol.

Down to the body.

The rapid surge of adrenalin increases the heart rate, blood pressure and energy. The cortisols, at the same time, increases blood glucose levels. To further complicate the situation, the muscles and the liver releases glucose from the muscles and the liver. Meanwhile, the pancreas releases insulin and glycogen to regulate glucose.

In the long run.

All of the energy required to release the hormones and glucose (and both regulate them) are taken from the body’s main activity processes --- the ones used to maintain and regulate balance in digestion, for example. Imagine that everytime a person undergoes a stress episode, the body releasing hormones THAT WEREN’T NECESSARY in the first place.

A continued lifestyle of constantly stressing over nothing will take its toll on the body. The muscles will become tired and the organs will wear out eventually. Life won’t be the same --- the worn-out organs will make way for serious diseases in the long run.

During your 40s, a continued lifestyle of stress will have the most impact, since this is the time when you want to be in tip-top shape. Stress is something to avoid if you want a healthy heart lifestyle. Imagine what the heart undergoes from constantly trying to keep up with perceived stress, or over things that don’t require to stress over for. It may even lead up to heart diseases, real, not perceived.

Combine that with a family history of disease, lack of exercise, a pending mid-life crisis and several bad habits you might’ve picked up along the way --- and it might just go off in one of the worst ways possible. Certifiably unhealthy.

This might be, or any other instances before it, the best time to give stress a more in-depth looking into --- its lethal.

Want to talk about your back ache or memory gap and improve them? go and join this online forum at over40andfighting.com

Keeping Your Eyes Healthy

Don’t watch TV too close! Don’t read on with a dim light! Don’t do this, don’t do that. Does it remind you of your mother when you where young? Actually, for people who didn’t follow that, they might be suffering from poor eyesight now but, that’s not it. You don’t need a research to show you that one sign of ageing is having a deteriorating eyesight.

Sad but, we need all we can do to prevent our eyesight from deteriorating. The question is, how?

4 easy things to do to help you from having a poor eyesight.

1. Go to the doctor for regular check-up and follow their advice. Ask for 2^nd and 3^rd opinion if they suggest an open surgery. Laser treatment is another popular way to improve eyesight without having to wear those thick-as-a-vault lenses.

2. Eat veggies. Your mother would say, “Eat carrots! It has beta-carotene and vitamin A that improves your eyesight.” Although that is not the only determining factor for having good eyesight, eating vegetables actually helps in more than maintaining your eyesight.

3. Take in vitamins and minerals. It’s the fastest way if you hate eating vegetables like I do. Most kids also don’t love them but we force them to. You can always have them take in vitamins to help fill-in the lacking vitamins they need in their body. This also goes to us, older people. An ounce of prevention is better than cure. We don’t want to spend our savings in the hospital right? Start investing in those vitamins right now!

4. Reduce eye strain. Computers and big screen plasma LCD’s are in nowadays. Try decreasing the number of hours spent staring at those huge gadgets. Straining your eyes will of course just hasten your way to blurry-eye-ville.

So now, you understand why your mother nags you about those stuffs while you are watching your favorite tv show! Don’t wonder why now, your kids won’t listen to you. They won’t understand it unless they get to our age.

If you want to ask and discuss about your health, go to this forum: http://over40andfighting.com/theworld.asp

Over 40 and Online!

It’s no surprise that I still make online boo-boos. I just turned 43 this year, and have just learned about blogging. Aside from blogging, I’ve learned (with help from the children) what’s new on the internet. Now I’m not saying that the internet isn’t for people over 40, it’s just that email has been, for me, the pinnacle of the internet --- and that wasn’t even half of it, apparently.

Aside from my newfound blogging/email knowledge, with help from officemates and kids, I’ve discovered a whole wealth of great services and social tools that enrich my 43-year-old life’s online existence.

Budgeting
I admit my budget plan before has been pretty simple --- keep 10-20% of my income in the bank, save for at least 6 months’ worth of pay in the bank, and splurging whenever I find something that the family wants. I was pointed over to Buxfer --- a finance application over the web. It helps you keep track of your spending, plus, it even syncs up with your bank … online! Whenever you do transactions with your bank, it automatically updates your transaction list. You can even set it to send emails for bill reminders, or weekly finance updates.

Pictures
I’ve taken literally thousands of pictures over the last few years. My family has a love affair with the camera, and it looks like none of us are stopping at any point. Which is why we all have accounts on Multiply. My kid set it up so my contacts are family members, plus, we value the privacy options in keeping the content exclusive for sharing tender family moments.

Health
I’m not the perfect healthy being out there, but I’m not unhealthy either --- for that, the wife and I are updated on the newest development in health via Over40andFighting and WebMD. The former being my foremost source of discussion with people my age, while the latter, just an overall health information website.

Friendships
I’m just surprised at how Facebook works. It was a blast getting in touch with my mates from school, and how each one have families, or are living far, far away now. The class bully added me up to be my “friend.” This is as surreal as how my online social life’s going to get. For my close-knit buds though, we have a group page on 24Ever, and the cutesy interface just doesn’t get old in my eyes.

Videos
It was a big deal back in the 90’s when I had my officemate set up a meet on an IRC server on a specified channel to get in touch with my family. (Or whoever got the instructions back then) Now they have video on a site called Vimeo? Which is much more immediate than lugging around a camera, burning the footage on CD and sending it out to family, hoping that nothing bad happens on the trip.

Well, I think that’s my range for my online life over 40. I’m pretty sure that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what can be done online. Do you have any suggestions for what else I can do online? Kindly share a comment below to let me know.

My Battles With Daily Temptation

Everyday is a good day to be alive.  Not that the world becomes perfect overnight --- it’s just that the amount of possibilities is staggering.  So does the daily temptation.

Being a little older than some of my colleagues, it’s easier to see why things seem easier for me.  I know better, and that “last” bottle of beer?  I know it’s going to haunt me --- if not in the morning, but for months or years to come.

It’s easy to think back to easier times, when, after a day of solid work, I’d go thinking how a couple of bottles of beers, cigarette breaks or a heavy meal might do me some good --- but now, these things are part of the daily temptation I try so hard to avoid.

 

Alcohol – I never believe in alcohol abuse.  The alcohol doesn’t abuse the body of the drinker, but when the drinker decides to abuse the alcohol, that’s when things go horribly wrong.  Part of the daily temptation is knocking back a few after a hard day’s work.  I used to think that I deserve that shot, or that bottle --- but now I consider that I deserve MORE.  I deserve my health, for what lifestyle changes I put my body through.

Smoking – I tried it when I was younger.  My advice is, if you don’t smoke already, don’t even try it.  It’s a nasty habit that leaves your teeth stained and your hands constantly smelling like burnt excess.  Daily temptation is storming out of a conference call and lighting one of these up in the designated smoking area.  Most buildings have designated smoking areas that just make you feel bad about smoking, like an empty rooftop.  If that wasn’t a sign enough already, consider your health.  I considered mine.

Heavy meals – A good meal is something to be valued, treasured, even --- for a meal only happens once in your life.  But constantly binge eating only reinforces the bad habit as instant gratification.  It makes your body ill and makes you think less of yourself.  I can’t think of a time when something deep-fried or buttered isn’t a daily temptation, and I’m not bound to try and decode why --- I don’t want to confess these sins from a hospital bed, see.  :D

Do YOU want a healthy heart?

“Do I want a healthy heart?”  Not to be crude, but … well, duh! 

With the current trend of a lifestyle of excesses, it’s easy not to care what the heart has to say, when you’re puffing that smoke, downing that drink and chewing that glorious piece of red meat.  Even though studies have shown that men have a greater risk of heart disease, women should be equally concerned.  Heart diseases can start from palpitations, a mild discomfort in the chest, followed by a running pain down your shoulders … and well, that’s it.

In order to keep safe, you follow a few simple tips.  Some of which may be hard to follow, but remember to ask yourself, “Do I want a healthy heart?”

Learn to Breathe

Take deeper breathes.  No, really.  The deeper the breathes, the more amount of oxygen is taken in, which is just important for the heart.  Get one of those air purifiers for your home while you’re at it.

Laugh out loud

Laughter has been proven to increase immune functions, boost endorphin release and whatnot --- but the deeper reason for choosing it is simple: stress is a killer.  Stress causes palpitations, arrhythmia and other heart disturbances.  Try watching funny movies at least twice a week, or read the funny papers before heading to work --- it’ll do you a world of good.

Exercise

A strong heart is a healthy heart --- just like any other muscle in the body, it must get the exercise it needs to get the blood pumping.  Not enough time to work-out?  Use your environment --- choose the stairs over the escalator the next time you’re in the mall.  Take a walk in your afternoon coffee break. 

Supplement

Eat as many organic fruits and vegetables that you can --- this is bar-none the best thing you could do for your heart.  If you can, eat them fresh and uncooked, as some of the nutrients are lost once a fruit or vegetable is cooked.  Eat fresh fish twice a week, and get more omega-3’s from a fish oil supplement.

Limit

Avoid any kind of toxic exposure for the body.  Limit your intake of saturated and trans fats or anything cooked in hydrogenated oil.  Stop that cigarette habit.  Quit the binge drinking!  All of these contribute to you getting a higher blood pressure, which is always linked to heart disease.

May you live long, strong and happy!