The Paradise for Parents Newsletter
The Alzheimer’s Hub of Hope has four sections: Heroes, Highlights, Headlines and Helpers/Caregivers. This post is aligned to the Highlights section.
I created this blog to provide others easy access to approaches for AD prevention, treatment and caregiving. When close relatives of mine were diagnosed with the disease, I realized how little I knew about it and how little help the medical community provided. Their standard approach was “diagnose and adios”.
There had to be more and better information. So I started to look and, by chance, stumbled upon The Paradise for Parents Newsletter. The newsletter is written by Hal Cranmer, a former Air Force pilot, who now owns four nursing home communities. His daily interactions with AD suffers and willingness to think out-of-the-box gives him a unique perspective on treating the disease and caring for its sufferers.
Hal’s weekly emails cover topics such as diet, pharma, insurance, caregiving and the politics of AD. Unlike most nursing home communities, where people are “warehoused” watching TV; Hal’s has the goal of “making aging people better”.
The newsletters are very informative and I believe my readership will get a lot out of them. They are free but you need to sign-up with your email here (and you will also get information on reducing cognitive decline). Click here for the archive of newsletters (after you create your free account to gain access).
The Twilight Zone
Like the Twilight Zone TV show of the 1960s, the Twilight Zone section of a post will have thought provoking paradoxes and surprises that makes one think deeply.
Association of Egg Intake With Alzheimer’s Dementia Risk in Older Adults: The Rush Memory and Aging Project
Often we hear that animal foods and not good for a person’s general health and specially not good for brain health. The MIND diet is recommended by many practitioners as a way of maintaining and improving brain health. I posted about it here. The diet is primary plant based and does NOT recommend eggs in its list of “healthy items”.
A recent study in The Journal of Nutrition (click on the underlined heading above for details) concluded:
“These findings suggest that frequent egg consumption is associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s dementia and AD pathology, and the association with Alzheimer’s dementia is partially mediated through dietary choline.”
Perhaps the MIND diet advocates should update their recommendations.
Higher 'bad' cholesterol levels may help Sardinia’s seniors live longer, study finds
I’ve written about how higher cholesterol is associated with increased longevity here. A recent study looking at the LDL (bad cholesterol) in seniors in Sardinia (one of the Blue Zones) determined that a borderline high level of LDL is protective. Click on the underlined heading above for details of the study. I’ve copied the conclusion below.
“Overall, the findings suggested that the widely held belief that lower cholesterol is always better may not apply to individuals in their 90s. Instead, moderate hypercholesterolemia might be a marker of resilience in aging populations.”
The Cleveland Clinic1 recommends LDL levels to be below 100, however, this study’s participants with LDL-C levels above 130 mg/dL had a significantly longer median survival (3.82 years) than those with LDL-C levels below this threshold.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/11920-cholesterol-numbers-what-do-they-mean