Making Memories

A study published in the March 7 issue of the Journal of
Alzheimer's Disease found that people with Alzheimer's
showed more signs of cleavage of a molecule called amyloid
precursor protein (APP) than people without the disease.

But the researchers also found that the brains of younger
people without Alzheimer's had about 10 times as much
APP cleavage as Alzheimer's patients.The conclusion was
that younger brains make memories faster than they lose them.

"Young brains operate like Ferraris -- shifting between for-
ward and reverse, making and breaking memories with a
facility that surpasses that of older brains, which are less
plastic," research group leader Dr. Dale Bredesen said in a
prepared statement.

"We believe that in aging brains, AD occurs when the
'molecular shifting switch' gets stuck in the reverse position,
throwing the balance of making and breaking memories
seriously off kilter," Bredesen said.

My conclusion is that, as usual, the medical community,
including doctors and researchers, simply do not know.
Next year they will have a different theory.

I could carry the automobile analogy to the logical
conclusion that our old rusted-out bodies are ready for
the place where cars are crushed into neat little blocks
and sold for scrap, which could be a neat alternative to
so-called "funeral homes". And I could say some take
better care of their automobiles than their own bodies:
they get the oil changed, put in the proper fuel, then
drive through a MacDonald's for their own
fuel, or order a pizza while sitting in front of the TV.

I prefer just now to dwell upon the glaring contradiction
in this study. The brains of people with Alzheimer's showed
more cleavage...than the brains of people without Alzheimer's,
but the brains of younger people without Alzheimer's had
about 10 times as much APP cleavage as did the brains of
Alzheimer's patients.

Oh wait, these were young Ferraris speeding along life's
highway making memories and breaking them. They must
have wrecked on that highway, however, in order to have
their brains dissected by the researchers.

I'm remembering the researchers and doctors who decided
that people with heart disease shouldn't eat egg yolks, just
the whites. Now yolks seem to be back in fashion: so long
to those overpriced artificial substitutes. And most of all I'm
remembering all those women who dutifully kept filling their
prescriptions for hormone replacement therapy until they
were told stop! Those artificial hormones can cause you to
have cancer!

And I think about the diabetics who are given diets that can
be poor in nutrition- the very quality the diabetic needs most-
so long as it includes the prescribed number of "choices" from
the various food groups.

Doctors have told me I do not need to take vitamins, and this
without having any knowledge whatsoever what I eat. At the
other extreme, a worker at the clinic where I went two years
ago for a dexa scan asked if I ate Tums, and, because I
answered "No", wrote that I was taking no calcium
supplements.

I think one way to stay healthy and preserve one's memory
longer is to stay away from doctors as much as possible.
Doctors whip out a prescription pad. They prescribe drugs.
That is how they have been taught to respond to all illness.
Drugs are dangerous. Just say "No".