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10 Million Baby Boomers Face Alzheimer's Epidemic

10 Million Baby Boomers Face Alzheimer‘s EpidemicApproximately 10 million American baby boomers will develop Alzheimer‘s disease in their lifetime. This will place enormous strains on the U.S. health-care system.

At least 5.2 million Americans currently suffer from Alzheimer‘s. By 2010, there will be 500,000 new cases each year, and nearly one million new cases annually by 2050.

The disease is now the seventh deadliest illness in the nation.


Sources:

Dr. Mercola''s Comments Dr. Mercola's Comments:

In last year’s Alzheimer’s Facts and Figures Report, the number of Americans stricken with the disease was 5.1 million. This year’s report brings us up to 5.2 million, including some 200,000 to 250,000 people under the age 65 who are inexplicably stricken with so-called “early-onset Alzheimer’s.”

By 2050, the report estimates that a full 10 million U.S. “baby boomers” will have come down with Alzheimer’s, which translates to 1 out of 8!

The strain this will place on the already faltering U.S. federal Medicare program boggles the mind, as most people with Alzheimer’s are eligible for Medicare. More than three times as much money is spent on people with Alzheimer's and other dementias than the average Medicare recipient.

Currently, Medicare spends over $148 billion per year on Alzheimer’s patient care. A mere two years from now, that number is expected to reach $160 billion annually.

Alzheimer’s is just as much a threat to the future of American adults as the rampant rise in autism is to our children. Clearly something is wrong, but what? Because Alzheimer’s is not a normal part of aging, any more than autism is a “stage” that children commonly go through.

What is Alzheimer’s?

Alzheimer’s disease is a chronic form of dementia that results in severe memory loss and eventually death. The average lifespan of someone with Alzheimer’s is about eight years, although many can survive up to 20 years with proper care.

It’s not entirely clear what causes Alzheimer's disease, but it (as well as autism) are related to thyroid hormone dysfunction, intracellular T3 (immune system cells) deficiency, and diabetes.

One type of Alzheimer’s, called frontotemporal dementia, is characterized by cellular damage in the front and side regions of your brain. Researchers still have no idea what causes it—only that excess production of a tiny protein fragment called beta-amyloid starts jamming the signals between your brain synapses, blocking information flow, leading to a cascade of damaging events that end in cell death. 

Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s Disease

The risk factors for AD include genetic, environmental and dietary factors. Certain diseases also heighten your risk. People with diabetes, for example, have up to 65 percent higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

The primary genetic risk factor is the presence of the Apo lipoprotein E epsilon4 (APOE e4) allele, which is more common among Africans, Inuits, Amerindians, Northern Europeans than southern Europeans.  

Primary dietary risk factors include trans-fatty acids that are found in so many processed foods (labeled as partially-hydrogenated vegetable oils). One prospective study also found that elevated homocysteine levels were associated with an increased risk for Alzheimer’s. Homocysteine levels are elevated when you are deficient in vitamin B6, folate, and vitamin B12.

Primary environmental factors include: smoking, obesity, and exposure to fluoride, aluminum and mercury. 

How to Prevent Alzheimer’s

Fortunately, there are ways to reduce your chances of getting Alzheimer’s. These simple lifestyle changes can help keep your brain in optimal working order well past your 60’s.

  • Eat a nutritious diet with plenty of vegetables based on your nutritional type, and pay special attention to avoiding sugar

  • Eat plenty of high-quality omega-3 krill oil or fish oil. Avoid most fish (high in omega-3, but often contaminated with mercury)

  • Avoid and remove mercury from your body. Dental amalgam fillings are one of the major sources of mercury, however you should be healthy prior to having them removed. Once you have adjusted to following the diet described in my Total Health Program, you can follow the mercury detox protocol and then find a biological dentist to have your amalgams removed.

    Be careful as you could be jumping from the frying pan into the fire like I did if you see a conventional dentist to do the exchange. ONLY see a high quality biologically trained dentist or your health could get ruined.

  • Avoid aluminum, such as in antiperspirants, cookware, etc.

  • Exercise for three to five hours per week. According to one study, the odds of developing Alzheimer's were nearly quadrupled in people who were less active during their leisure time, between the ages of 20 and 60, compared with their peers.

  • Avoid flu vaccinations as they contain both mercury and aluminum!

  • Wild blueberries, which have high anthocyanin and antioxidant content are known to guard against Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases.

  • Challenge your mind daily. Mental stimulation, such as traveling, learning to play an instrument or doing crossword puzzles, is associated with a decreased risk of Alzheimer's. Researchers suspect that mental challenge helps to build up your brain, making it less susceptible to the lesions associated with Alzheimer's disease.


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Comment on This Article Community Comments (44)
 
 
Posted On Mar 20, 2008
I wonder what would happen if 10 million Americans stopped consuming Aspartame & MSG (hydrolized vegetable protein)?  These are two major ingredients that can pass through the blood-brain barrier and reak havoc on the cells.  As cells die the potential for Alzheimers, Parkensons etc exist. 

Aluminium and mercury (vaccinations) are also huge factors.

 
HealthCoachSandraG
Apprentice User Apprentice User, Joined On 3/2008
HealthCoachSandraG  
 
 
 
Posted On Mar 20, 2008
Vaccines, pollution, junk foods, sedentary life style, do you think a combination of these could be the problem..?

My mother is in late stages Alzheimer's. She drank diet pepsi non-stop every day. She also ate margarine and every kind of processed food imaginable. Although Alzheimer's runs strong in her family, I have always felt that her diet. brought it on earlier in life than other wise.

 
bmc
Savvy User Savvy User, Joined On 2/2007
bmc  
Replied

proatc
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 12/2006
proatc  
 
Posted On Mar 20, 2008
Have we ever looked at the possibility that are overuse of aluminum from drinking the soft drinks and beer since the 70's could have started this phenomenon?
This has always been my gut hunch!  Not too many aluminum cans in the 60's.  Since they started using them, it is more readily available and consumptions of soda and beer in aluminum cans have skyrocketed out of proportion now its the predominate medium to sell them. Only this decade have we seen a predominant use of plastic which brings out a whole new set of problems, maybe related.  Interesting I think.


PepperR23
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 6/2006
PepperR23  
 
Posted On Mar 20, 2008
This goes along the lines of proatc's thoughts on aluminum cans.  Every year seniors are strongly encouraged to get their yearly flu shot!  It is my understanding that aluminum is one of the many toxic ingredients in each and every flu vaccine.  Now it is my belief that every single person from the age of 6 months and up is going to be encouraged to receive the flu vaccine.  It is just a matter of time before the pharmaceutical companies will push to make these vaccines mandatory! Cases of alzheimer's and autism will skyrocket!


pezland
Novice User Novice User Joined On 2/2008
pezland  
 
Posted On Mar 20, 2008
I agree with bmc, and proatc's comment about aluminum cans got me thinking about how those cans are also coated with BPA inside, and this quote from an article I read...

...when the ability to make estrogen is impaired, as in old age, exposure to BPA could adversely affect hippocampal function and contribute to age-related neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, in which hippocampal function is impaired.

The cause of all this disease is so complex, cumulative, and individual based on each person's different toxic load and ability to metabolize all these nasty chemicals we take in, scientists will keep scratching their heads. They will never get the cookie-cutter answer they're looking for. And of course, drug companies will keep raking in the dough


mas
Novice User Novice User Joined On 4/2008
mas  
 
Posted On Apr 02, 2008

Hi bmc, I agree with you. As a matter of fact I tend to listen to everything you say. Keep up the good thinking.


 
 
 
Posted On Mar 20, 2008
Independant lab tests in the US, in Europe and New Zealand have found an extremely high level of aluminum particles, as well as barium and other "suspect" substances, in the white mists resulting from high altitude jet sprayings. I am not talking about the natural phenomena of contrails that disappear after a few seconds or minutes. I am talking about these long white double white trails that stay long after the passage of high altitude jets and that spread into some white haze. Often, you can wake up to a perfect blue sky, then the jets start spraying and in the afternoon, the sky is white/greyish or it looks like foggy. These white trails are sprayed regularly all over the US, and also above European countries, New Zealand and Australia. The substances found in these "sprayings" are entering into our lungs all the time. Tens of thousands of people have reported feeling flu-symptoms, enlarged lymph nodes, migraines and irritated eyes after these sprayings, as well as foggy mind, memory impairment, confusion and increase of aggressive behaviors among people around them. My personal studies and observations both in the US and Europe (I live on both continents) leave me with no doubt that these sprayings are very harmful for the immune system and are partly responsible, with toxic food, vaccination and germs phobia, for the enormous increase in auto-immune disorders.

 
Dr Christine
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 2/2008
Dr Christine  
Replied

KiwiMatt
Users with negative points NoviceUser Joined On 8/2007
KiwiMatt  
 
Posted On Mar 20, 2008
 Load of nonsence. The people telling us it is happening, tell us that the people carrying out the attacks are the ones controlling us. Perfect unprovable conspiracy. Besides, why would they do it? They breath the same air as us, or are they actually aliens and need chemtrail additives to survive/ maintain their camoflage? There is the same level of evidence for aliens as chemtrails http://www.doomsdayguide.org/UFO/ufo_aliens_among_us.htm


KiwiMatt
Users with negative points NoviceUser Joined On 8/2007
KiwiMatt  
 
Posted On Mar 20, 2008
 Summer solstice, it is hard to prove your point, I can't find any maps on density v. disease around airports.
Statistics are inherently tricky to understand http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/msstats.html what you accept as proof positive may have an incorrect initial assumption. Neurological diseases are horrible on so many levels, just as well real science is looking for cures and holistic practitioners are looking for causes.


PPARGammaGirl
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 6/2006
PPARGammaGirl  
 
Posted On Mar 20, 2008
Actually KiwiMatt – there is evidence for the claim about metal ions and noise in neurological disease put together by the late, but very smart Mark Purdey. Here he provides a table with plenty of scientific references for this hypothesis.


KiwiMatt
Users with negative points NoviceUser Joined On 8/2007
KiwiMatt  
 
Posted On Mar 21, 2008
PPARGammaGirl, fantstically complex hypothesis, can't see why more researches haven't picked up on it. It would require heaps of funding and many years work to complete any studies. Only problem I see with the hipothesis is that he has missed out half the worlds population and massive geographical areas. India should figure prominently- heaps of munitions bad handling and fault lines. What about the Giant Panda Bear, and Australasia? All my engineer brothers-in-arms should stand no chance of not getting a neuralogical condition, they work very closely with explosives (the nearer the explosion the better it is!) I still think scrapie is the most likely cause, and introduction from North American deer can't be ruled out- but less likely.


kellymars281951
Novice User Novice User Joined On 1/2008
kellymars281951  
 
Posted On Apr 01, 2008

Absolutely, aluminum and barium have been detected in the fallout from these sprayings. You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows and you sure don't need governments to admit they're spraying something from airplanes causing those weird "clouds" and "contrails" that hang in the sky for hours & hours that have to be coming down on top of us or tell us why they're doing it -- not that they'd ever tell us the truth about it -- nor do we need to question whether or not the government cares they're poisoning us because it's going to be a cold day in Hell before they care whether we live or die and truth be known it might be being done to eliminate people in certain areas; more likely though it's an experiment and we're, as usual, the guinea pigs. Collateral damage -- like spraying our soldiers in Vietnam with 100 X concentrated Agent Orange; like that could be healthy for them?

"Conspiracy theory" us all you want, KiwiMatt, but the facts do speak for themselves and what viable explanation do you offer that contradicts what I'm saying?      



KiwiMatt
Users with negative points NoviceUser Joined On 8/2007
KiwiMatt  
 
Posted On Apr 03, 2008

Notice how posts keep going missing?



KiwiMatt
Users with negative points NoviceUser Joined On 8/2007
KiwiMatt  
 
Posted On Apr 05, 2008

kellymars281951 my last comment was a bit criptic, I didn't realise but there are kind of 2 message boards running, and they don't synchronize the pair. If you check out the "Health Blog" part there is more up to date comments. I wasted heaps of time figuring this out.

The Agent Orange is safe, it was the dioxin contaminant from the Taanaki chemical plant that has caused health problems. It is not and "it's not the gun that kills people, it's the bullet" arguement. The reason it is called a contanimant is because it wasn't supposed to be in there in the first place.

I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next person. But they need to be able to withstand cursory investigation and logic based questions (as opposed to emotive rhetorical ones "like could that be healthy for them?")

If you want to get an idea what proper reasoning is like go to http://www.philosopher.org/ and  www.p4c.org.nz/values.html



doubtful 365
Novice User Novice User Joined On 3/2008
doubtful 365  
 
Posted On Apr 10, 2008

Dr Christine I believe antacid for indigestion contains aluminium? I have never taken it myself but do you know if people who take it suffer from early onset alzheimer's disease ?


 
 
 
Posted On Apr 01, 2008

Working with families and residents with Alzheimers for the past seven years on a daily basis I have found the Disease does not spare Librarians, Physicians or any other trade.We  also have a huge number of Vascular Dementia which comes from small tia's [ strokes in the brain ] and many end up with Alzheimers as well it's a terrible combination. We have many many Diabetics that have Alzheimers most receive insuline injections.There are many types of Dementia such as Parkinsons Dementia, Drug and Alcohol related at least 1000 according to Mayo Clinic but Alzheimers is the fastest growing. All Residents are required to have flu shots as well as employees in Healthcare, nothing like adding insult to injury.

Programs like ours address all levels of the Disease.I have seen these folks do best when they get into a good program early, the structure helps the frustration and because we work from long term memory they are able to do activities they know and can engage in.The social activites are extremely beneficial.

Families have no idea that their loved ones nutritional habits are in any way related.The Residents refrigerators are often full of various soda's and junk food.We monitor this otherwise they would not eat a regular healthy diet. It's a very sad Disease and what they did not know has hurt them.These folks cannot live alone even though I have been made aware that we have people driving our highways with Alzheimers.You know how they do that ? from their long term memory, frightening huh! As long as they stay in their home that they are familiar with [ 30 years say ]  and go down the same road to the store they can function for a long time. Safety is a whole other issue.I think  we are going to find that the numbers are going to be much higher.Go to Alzheimers website they have a lot of info. and  need our help.


 
england
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 8/2007
england  
Replied

LadyPam
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 2/2008
LadyPam  
 
Posted On Apr 02, 2008

You're right about driving on long term memory, even long distances: my mother stuck to outdated routes, ignoring changes in traffic and new roads, for many years. When I broke my leg and needed her to drive me home a long way, she took around 5 hours to do a journey that should have taken around 90 minutes, becoming extremely upset when I tried, carefully, to make suggestions (when I noticed we were going completely the wrong direction).

As she got worse, she would look in her mirror then reverse straight into things she hadn't noticed were there. She finally lost her licence when she went out to post a letter and totalled her own car and four parked cars. Luckily no one else was hurt and she had only a bruised wrist.

Her long term memory now gives us something to talk about when I visit her in the nursing home; as a child, she memorised a poem giving all the kings and queens of England - she can sometimes still recite it, even though she can't remember how many children she's got, or our names. Her diagnosis is Lewy bodies dementia, by the way.  

PS Why are calling yourself England? Just wondering.


 
 
 
Posted On Apr 01, 2008

In her book, Electromagnetic Fields, written in 1995, B. Blake Levitt has this to say: "Many people think that Alzheimer's disease - a progressive, fatal, complete mental deterioration - is a a disorder of normal aging that afflicts an unlucky few. But there is nothing about Alzheimer's that is normal to aging. Nor is it related to mild forgetfulness. It is a degeneration of the neurons in specific areas of the brain that results from some disturbance within nerve-cell networks utilizing the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.

Just ten years ago, Alzheimer's was considered an obscure and rare condition, but today it is the nation's fourth leading cause of death. What happened? Is it simply that better diagnosis has turned up more statistically reliable numbers, which perhaps had been lumped together in years past with senile dementia? Or ware we dealing with another degenerative nerve disease increasing in incidence beyond a mere increase in the population? It looks like the latter is true - although increases increases in the population of those living beyond the age of eighty-five plays a significant role in the sheer numbers of cases today. And although there are only a handful of indicative studies and much speculation at this stage, there is a possibility that some EMF frequencies may play an important role, too.

Alzheimer's is a specific organic disease that afflicts only some people. It is quite different from memory lapses that plague all of us as we age, in which long-term memory is crystal clear and short-term memory seems to all but evaporate. A typical memory lapse of old age would be a person's remembering in vivid detail an event from youth as if it were yesterday but forgetting where his or her glasses were a minute ago. With Alzheimer's, people forget that they ever wore glasses.

Alzheimer's is a physical process in which the nerve cells of the brain take on the abnormal characteristics of "plaques" and "tangles." In time brain tissue comes to...


 
Paul Doyon
Apprentice User Apprentice User, Joined On 11/2006
Paul Doyon  
Replied

Paul Doyon
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 11/2006
Paul Doyon  
 
Posted On Apr 01, 2008

...resemble long strands of gray knotted rubber. The disease affects women twice as often as men. Women who have taken anti-inflammatory drugs for arthritis or have had estrogen-replacement therapy have been found in some studies to have a reduced risk of developing the disorder. These studies indicate that inflammation as well as hormonal changes may be important factors. (EMFs annd hormonal changes were discussed in Chapters 7 and 8.)

Research particular to acetylcholine was conducted in 1976 by a research group headed by J.J. Noval, at the Naval Air Development Center in Johnsville, Pennsylvania. Studies using rats exposed to very weak electric fields vibrated in th extremely low frequency ranges (the kind of EMF typical of any office or modern home) produces an increase in brain-stem acetycholine levels, indicating a subliminal stress response in test animals. (This also has implications for humans and low-level 'contact currents' produced by touching any common machine, including small appliances. Far more work needs to explore this possibility.)

Genetics may also be involved. Several studies have found a genetic abnormality similar to those with Down's syndrome also occurring in Alzheimer's patients. And recent research has found that the presence of a protein molecule called apoliprotein E (ApoE4) was present in 64 percent of those studied with Alzheimer's, whereas only 31 percent of those in the control group had E4. (However the presence or absence of E4 was found to have a clearer relationship to the age of the person at the onset of Alzheimer's. Some of those without E4 did get the disease, but the onset was after age eight-four.)

Recent research by Daniel Alkon, at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes, has turned up a fundamental difference between the skin cells of Alzheimer's patients and healthy people. Alzheimer's patients appear to have defective potassium ion channels, which funnel potassium out of the cells. It was...



Paul Doyon
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 11/2006
Paul Doyon  
 
Posted On Apr 01, 2008

[part 3] ...found that Alzheimer's patients had this cellular malfunction in the nerve cells leading from the nose to the brain. Learning and memory are associated with a number of changes in the flow of potassium ions through cellular channels. It is not known yet whether the defect originates within the brain, or even whether it precedes Alzheimer's symptoms. All that remains to be seen.

Some important questions need to be asked, such as: Are different EMF frequencies responsible for opening and closing (or permanently shutting down) potassium channels in the same way that research indicates window effects for calcium ion channels at the cellular level? Could an EMF resonance factor be involved with potassium ions? Melatonin is also known to be suppressed in those with Alzheimer's, and EMFs have been found to lower melatonin in some studies. is there any significance to the concentration of magnetite in the nasal area? What of the studies that have found EMFs to increase the permeability of the blood-brain barrier?

Recent work done jointly by Dr. Eugene Sobel, of the University of Southern California School of Medicine, and Dr. Joseph Bowman, of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, found statistically significant increases in Alzheimer's in some EMF-related occupations. The researchers combined the data from one American study and two Finnish studies and found that tailors, seamstresses, and dressmakers (who work with electric sewing machines) were overrepresented among the Alzheimer's cases. Increases were also seen for carpenters and electrical engineers, among other EMF professions. A fourth study is in the offing, as well as additional research in Finland.

Dr. Sobel indicated that the use of certain high-EMF-emitting machines may eventually be linked with Alzheimer's, but that a casual relationship between EMFs and specific people is premature. Kitchens, however, are high-EMF sources, and this may eventually account for the...



Paul Doyon
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 11/2006
Paul Doyon  
 
Posted On Apr 01, 2008

[part 4] ...two-to-one ratio between women and men with Alzheimer's.

There is also some indication that the microwave frequencies are particularly suspect. Dr. Sam Koslov, director of the Applied Physics Laboratory at John Hopkins University, found, in a study using microwave exposures on chimpanzees, that the repeated low-level nonthermal exposures to the eyes produced clinical Alzheimer's in test animals. At autopsy, the classic plaques and tangles were found in brain tissue. (The researchers discovered this relationship by accident; they were testing for something else.)

Regarding the causes of Alzheimer's, a range of possibilities exists, including subtle genetic alterations initiated by environmental EMFs. Or EMFs may be acting as co-factors in melatonin suppression and in changes to the blood-brain barrier, potassium ion channels, or acetylcholine levels in the brain stem, among other possibilities. With between 2 and 4 million people afflicted with Alzheimer's in the United States alone, this will prove to be one of the most provocative research areas within the next few decades.

pp. 200-203


 
 
 
 
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