• May 14, 2024

  Am I Repeating my Grandmother’s story

Growing up, I remember my Grandma coming to visit my little Idaho town. She was an Arizona native, she wore pink lipstick and house dresses, she smelled like roses and she loved listening to our attempts at musical performances orchestrated just for her. She had a great sense of humor and a contagious laugh, her Texas sheet cake was always my favorite. She would walk in with my Grandpa, always in his Arizona Diamondbacks hat, and they would light up a room. Sometimes we would make the trip to visit them. They were always there, side by side in their chairs. They were cracking jokes and holding hands and eating Mexican food. In their room sat journals and books full of her writing, photos and preservation of moments of her life.

I remember the first trip to Arizona when she seemed confused. I remember my Dad (her son) telling me that she couldn’t find the dishes in the cupboards in the kitchen anymore. I remember the time that her stories faded into gibberish and she no longer called me by name. I remember when all of the family gathered from across the country-seven children, over twenty grandchildren, even great grandchildren- to watch her dance with Grandpa one last time, because suddenly everyone knew our reality. Everyone knew it was Alzheimer’s dementia, and everyone knew her mind was fading fast, and everyone knew even though she was there she wasn’t fully present anymore.

I love the pieces of her I find in myself. I always choose Mexican food, I love an uninhibited laugh, and I have books of carefully preserved moments I have documented that sit on shelves in my room. I’m in my late 30’s and I still wish I could give her a long hug. Not every part of her story was beautiful. Last week I walked in to the pantry and couldn’t remember why I was in there, sometimes I forget a name that is at the tip of my tongue, occasionally I blank on something that is obvious.

In those moments I ask myself if that is a piece of her as well. The Alzheimer’s piece. Am I living my Grandmother’s story? Will my kitchen feel like a strange place to me someday, will my kid’s faces become unrecognizable and the story of who I am be told only through the pages written in my room?

Age, family history and heredity are all definite risk factors for Alzheimer’s. But, we know more now in 2024 then we did decades ago when my Grandma was 35. Alzheimer’s has unofficially been coined as Type 3 Diabetes. Scientists have suggested that insulin dysregulation in the brain causes dementia. The NIH (national institute of healthy-aging) has determined that there have been enough studies completed to provide strong evidence in support of this suggestion that Alzheimer’s Dementia represents a form of Diabetes Mellitus that affects the brain. If that’s the case, something that effects the brain 20-30 years down in the road could in fact be reflective of lifestyle now in the late 30’s-early 40’s.

In 2024 we have access to APOE testing, literature and studies surrounding blood glucose stabilization and cognitive function, as well as literature surrounding nutrition and supplementation that have been proven to slow cognitive decline over time. At Pure Neurology we try to put the pieces together for each individual to give you a better understanding of your own risk factors and overall picture of optimal health.

Can all Alzheimer’s Dementia cases be prevented? Absolutely not. Are studies still new, developing and sometimes changing? Of course they are. However, there are certain things that can be done that have 100 percent proven to at least slow cognitive decline, if not fully prevent it. The world needs to know that blood sugar stabilization matters for brain health, even as a young adult. There is more we can do to protect our mind and treat it for what it is-our greatest asset in this life.

My Grandma’s story is within me, and I am a small piece of her legacy. It’s time to gather all of the evidence, tools, studies and knowledge that we have at our fingertips in 2024. We know better now. It’s time to give more people a fighting chance to protect their mind and prolong or prevent cognitive decline.