Is the Media Giving a True Picture of Alzheimer's Disease?

I am frustrated by what I read about Alzheimer’s disease in newspapers and magazines.

If you believe the information in the articles, you’d think we could prevent dementia by eating broccoli, staying fit, taking a few vitamins and working crossword puzzles.

One recent Associated Press article that sits on my desk cites a British study that suggests that working a few years past the standard retirement age might stave off Alzheimer’s disease. Each extra year of work was associated with a six-week delay of onset. But could it be that a person works longer because they don’t develop dementia – not the other way around?

Another recent story from the New York Times News Service tells about a long-term study by the University of Southern California. It has followed 14,000 seniors 65 and older and 1,000 seniors 90 and older, checking health status and mental acuity since 1981. The researchers hypothesize that people who spend a minimum of three hours a day engaged in mental activity such as playing bridge may be at reduced risk for developing dementia.

The story also notes, though, that these researchers are aware of the problem of deciphering cause and effect: Are the mentally sharp that way because they are active, or are these seniors active because they are mentally sharp?

Side note: Only one in 600 people makes it to age 90, and of those, 40 percent of the men and 60 percent of the women “qualify” for a diagnosis of dementia.

Another study out of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York, followed a group of older people for five years and found a significantly lower risk of dementia in those that frequently enjoyed leisure activities that required mental activity, like reading books, playing cards or writing for pleasure.

I just don’t buy any of this and I don’t encourage those who ask about preventing dementia to buy into it either. I don’t know why some people develop dementia and others don't, but I’ll bet it has something to do with genetics.

Sadly, I know too many brilliant people who were physically fit and active in their communities that developed dementia anyway and at a way-too-young age. I knew a physician who was a marathon runner and respected cardiologist who was forced to give up his practice when he began having trouble reading his patients’ charts. He was in his mid-50s.

I know a top OR nurse and avid walker who quit work in her early 60x when she could no longer figure out a tray of instruments.

And I recently met a university professor of physics who also was a runner who developed dementia in his mid-80s.

About the best we can do at this point is provide drugs that temporarily slow the worsening of symptoms for six to 12 months -- and for only about half of those who take the drugs.

What I tell people is that, at this point in time, we don’t know how to prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. But for those who don’t develop dementia, there are plenty of things we can and should do to keep our minds and bodies in tip-top shape.