Politics and Alzheimer's Disease

Watch actor David Hyde Pierce share his story about how Alzheimer's disease affected his family (after a 30 second commercial). His father and grandfather suffered from the disease.




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A politician running for state senate knocked on my door yesterday. She told me she was running for the office and wondered if there were any issues that were important to me. I invited her in to meet my 90 year old father who has Parkinson's disease and showed her pictures of my mother who died last year from Alzheimer's disease. I told her that I believed that these diseases will grow to epidemic proportions unless someone steps into the ring to fight it with an act of PREVENTION! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In this election year, I am looking for a politician that will fix health care. One of the big elements of that will be a plan to prevent disease before it happens.


It starts by teaching our children how to eat better and to be more physically and mentally active. There is a strong link between obesity and dementia. Obesity is a huge risk factor for Alzheimer's. Get the pop machines and the junk food out of our schools. This is a message that will not get much support from the medical community and the pharmaceutical industry. Preventing people from getting sick in the first place will cut their income and profits dramatically.


Studies had shown, that exercise - even in the form of everyday activity - could stave off dementia, reducing the risk by 30% to 40%.


Diets rich in vitamin C cut the risk by about 15% and a very good study had shown that sticking closely to a Mediterranean diet could cut the chances of developing dementia by up to 40%.


Just as with heart disease and stroke, reducing blood pressure is also protective - yet less than one in three people who need it have their blood pressure properly managed.


Scientists think that as many as 4.5 million Americans (26 million people worldwide) suffer from AD. But in the next few decades, that number is expected to skyrocket by 350% as America's baby-boomers age. According to a recent study from John Hopkins University, by 2050, Asia will have 62.8 million of the world's 106 million Alzheimer's patients. The disease usually begins after age 60, and risk goes up with age. While younger people also may get AD, it is much less common. About 10 percent of men and women ages 65 to 74 have AD, and nearly half of those age 85 and older may have the disease. It is important to note, however, that AD is not a normal part of aging.


This year Alzheimer’s is costing Medicare $91 billion and Medicaid $21 billion. By 2015, the two programs will be spending $210 billion just on individuals with Alzheimer’s. Finding a "cure" would be beneficial. Prevention is something we could do now. Prevention will cost us a lot less in the long run. Prevention is the best cure that we have right now. There are no bad side effects to prevention.

Why Is Junk Food So Addictive?

Have you ever noticed that after eating a meal at a fast food restaurant, you feel hungry a few hours later? Why is that? Are you just plain hungry or is there something in the food that is causing this hunger? If you haven't had the chance to watch the movie, "Super Size Me", click here and watch it now for free!
"Super Size Me" is one man's journey into the world of weight gain, health problems and fast food. It's an examination of the American way of life and how we are eating ourselves to death. Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock unravels the American obesity epidemic by interviewing experts nationwide and by subjecting himself to a 'McDonald's only' diet for thirty days straight. His Sundance award-winning feature is as entertaining as it horrifying as it dives into corporate responsibility, nutritional education, school lunch programs and how we as a nation are eating ourselves to death.


Before you start to roll your eyes at this video, I understand that no one would eat all of their meals from McDonald's for a month. It's a little extreme. I know that. But, I was fascinated by the chemical effect this diet had on his brain. When he got depressed, he ate another junk food meal and felt better immediately. Wow.

McDonald's calls the people who eat there once a week, "Heavy Users." 72% of the people who eat at McDonald's are heavy users. "Super Heavy Users" eat there 3-5 times a week. 22% of the people who eat there are super heavy users!

I recently heard a registered dietitian say that people do not get addicted to food, they just get hungry. She said that we can have an "extreme hunger and the physiological drive to eat" but there is no such thing as a food addiction. Really? Do you believe that?

In 2002, McDonald's took out a full page add in the newspaper in France in which a nutritionist stated that there is no reason that anyone should visit a McDonald's more than once a week. McDonald's corporate headquarter went crazy and responded that this was only one opinion. They continued that the majority of nutritional professionals agree that McDonald's food can be a part of a healthy diet. The people who made the movie, "Super Size Me" contacted 100 nutritionists to see if this was true. Two out of 100 nutritionists said that it was ok to eat fast food two times a week or more. Twenty eight said it was ok to eat there once a week to once or twice a month. Forty five said you should never eat it and 95 of them agreed that it was a major contributor to the obesity epidemic that was sweeping America.

America is now the second fattest nation in the world. Australia has the dubious honor of being number one! The latest figures show 4 million Australians — or 26% of the adult population — are now obese compared to an estimated 25% of Americans. A further 5 million Australians are considered overweight. Are we both nations of weak-willed ninny's or is fast food physiologically addictive? I believe there is a chemical reason behind this addiction as well as a behavioral one. Let's take a look at the brain chemicals that are at work in the addiction process. Here are a few videos that talk about the chemical effects behind food addictions. The first one talks mainly about the addictive power of fast food.

FAST FOOD ADDICTION

This second video talks about the chemistry behind our addictions to food

 THE SCIENCE OF ADDICTIVE FOOD

This third video features Dr. Vincent Bellonzi as he talks about how junk food and fast food has an adverse effect on your health.

THE TRUTH ABOUT JUNK FOOD AND FAST FOOD, CLINICAL NUTRITION

Here are a few articles to read concerning the chemically addictive qualities of junk food.
Is Junk Food Addictive?

Burgers on the Brain: Can You Really Get Addicted to Fast Food? What constitutes an Addiction?

Fast Food As Addictive As Heroin, Study Confirms

What Happens to Your Body When… You Carb Binge?

For more information on fast food, obesity and addictions, click on the links below

When Does A Happy Meal Become Sad

Food Addictions

Why Diets Fail

Sick Of Being Sick?

The Cause Of Disease
This might seem hard to believe . . . But,
we as humans don't actually age, we don't get sick and we don't get diseases - our cells do. Our body's health is dependent on our cell's health. So to slow down aging, limit sickness and prevent disease we must protect and properly feed our cells. If you were to put buttermilk in your car's gasoline tank - it would get a "disease" and stop working.



What are cells made of?
Cells (above) are made up of many atoms (right). When these atoms are healthy the cells replicate (make an exact copy) and keep the body young, well and disease free. What makes an atom healthy (right) is that it has "paired" electrons (yellow dots).



How do cells age, get sick and get diseases?
Atoms missing an electron (yellow dot) are not just "bad" - they actually destroy surrounding atoms by stealing their electrons. An atom missing an electron is called a Free Radical. Free Radicals alter or destroy cells. Cells that die, and cells that replicate in a damaged state are the cause or contribute to premature aging, sickness and diseases such as cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, and many others.













The Solution

THE SOLUTION IS ANTIOXIDANTS

Antioxidants have "extra" electrons (yellow dots) that they can give to free radicals, which eliminates their harmful effects.

Antioxidants are your bodies defense against destructive free radicals. Therefore they are your defense against aging, sickness and disease.



See how antioxidants neutralize free radicals and reduce your risk of disease.

WHAT IS HEART DISEASE?

There are several forms of heart disease, but heart disease primarily comes from the buildup of fatty deposits on the inner surface of the arteries. Eventually, these deposits block blood flow, leading to a heart attack or stroke.


HOW FREE RADICALS CAUSE AND/OR CONTRIBUTE TO HEART DISEASE.
Scientists now believe that it's not just the eating of fat that causes the buildup on the inner surface of the arteries, but those fats that have been damaged by free radicals. This is called "oxidized fat," which causes the fat to be more "sticky" therefore adhering to the inner artery walls more easily. This explains why smoking and stress are risk factors to heart disease - as are high fat consumption.

HOW ANTIOXIDANTS REDUCE THE RISK OF HEART DISEASE.
By neutralizing the free radical, antioxidants limit the number of damaging free radicals in the body, thereby reducing the risk of the free radicals "oxidizing" (damaging or making stick) the fat.

"Don't underestimate the threat free radicals pose to our health. Scientists now believe that free radicals are causal factors in nearly every known disease, from heart disease to arthritis to cancer to cataracts. In fact, free radicals are a major culprit in the aging process itself. By controlling free radicals, antioxidants can make the difference between life and death, as well as influence how fast and how well we age."
Lester Packer, Head of Packer Laboratories
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
University of California at Berkley

WHAT IS CANCER?There are many different forms of cancer, but basically all forms involve the abnormal growth of cells. Humans are made up of about 75 trillion cells that continually replicate themselves. Each cell has a set of genetic instructions in its center called DNA that controls cell growth, development and replication. When the DNA gets damaged, it can replicate an altered (damaged) cell - when/if this altered cell replicates itself . . . this can become cancer.



HOW FREE RADICALS CAUSE AND/OR CONTRIBUTE TO CANCER
It is proven that free radicals damage DNA. Most scientists believe it is free radical damage to the DNA that begins many forms of cancer.

HOW ANTIOXIDANTS REDUCE THE RISK OF CANCER
One of the most important roles antioxidants play in the body is to protect DNA from damage caused by free radicals. In addition, particular antioxidants can actually repair damaged DNA before it replicates - if antioxidants are there. the importance of maintaining proper antioxidant levels can not be over emphasized.













WHERE DO ANTIOXIDANTS COME FROM
Antioxidants are found in fruits and vegetables. They are also found in other types of foods such as nuts, oils, beans, etc. Research studies suggest that organic foods have higher concentrations of antioxidants than processed foods grown with pesticides.

Antioxidants are also found in high quality vitamin supplements, which are recommended by the American Medical Association because most adults do not eat the right foods to properly feed their cells.



Take multivitamins, AMA urges in policy reversal

VITAMIN SUPPLEMENT WARNING

Not all supplements are beneficial. They must be absorbed by your body. as you can see from the x-ray below, these supplements which are from a "name brand" company would do you no good. They're still undissolved in the colon!

Supplements also should include many types of antioxidants, combined properly. It is recommended that you click on the following links and read more about vitamins before you go out and purchase or take vitamins.







10 Vitamin Truths

Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements Rates Top Vitamins


Modern Theories of Aging


Here is a short news clip from Australia's "Today Tonight" program that talks about how to choose a multivitamin.