Getting the Diagnosis
The brain is an amazing organ. It’s unimaginable to the average person how the brain can perform all the functions that allow us to live out our daily lives. We don’t even know it’s working . . . . that is . . . . . until it stops working. Or until it stops working well or malfunctions.
I am a cardiac nurse, a vegetable grower, a mom, a daughter, a grandmother, a friend, and a partner to My Tommy. I am not a nurse with a neurology back ground. But I am the only daughter, and only child, of a mother with Alheimer’s Disease.
I won’t spend time in this article talking about the devastating affects of this deplorable disease to everyone involved. Because there are those, and not just to the person with the disease. It’s a painful journey for the entire family and also dear friends. I’m also not going to describe every scientific change that takes place in the brain as the disease progresses.
What I want to focus on is the possibility of lowering the risk, through dietary changes, of developing this disease.
My mom was diagnosed in the second half of her 70th decade. Looking back I realize there were subtle signs long before we pushed for a diagnosis. Mom didn’t take it well at all. In fact, her head was securely and deeply embedded into the proverbial sand for most of the early and mid stages of the disease.
I remember her neurologist trying to talk to my parents about dietary changes they could make to slow the progression of the inevitable.
They just didn’t get it. Trying to change the way a person has eaten their entire life when they are nearly 80, while not impossible, is difficult.
Here they are at my daughters wedding a few years ago . . . 2 peas in a pod!
Eventually my mom could no longer cook. My dad just couldn’t get it that instant oatmeal from a packet was not the best choice for breakfast (read the label). Especially along side a piece of white toast with chemically created margarine and sugar laden jam.
Oh they loved fruit. But, in their eyes, what was a bowl of strawberries without milk topped with a coating of sugar. There was shock in my dads eyes when the neurologist suggested that fruit was sweet enough without adding extra sugar.
Needless to say, the eating habits remained the same. And at some point, I had to just let them make their food decisions based on what tasted good to them as they just didn’t seem to be able to grasp the concept of sugar = poison when it comes to the brain. It’s not my mom or my dads fault. It’s what the USDA said we could do on that pyramid right? Heck, I raised my kids that same way!
Thank goodness we know better now!
But in order to keep them on the straight and narrow with their diet, I would have had to quit my job, shut down my business, and give up my home to move in and take over as their personal chef and lifestyle gestapo.
They would have evicted me on about day five.
My mom is now, heart breakingly, in a memory care unit. Each time I visit I wonder if she will know who I am. Sometimes I’m sure she does. But other times I struggle to find one spark of recognition in her eyes when she looks at me.
So guilt and frustrations of a nurse and vegetable grower daughter set aside, what can be learned from this?
Enter the MIND Diet
There are many diets claiming to be the only sure way to avoid this horrid disease. And many have merit. My question is which diet has the highest likelihood of compliance among American born and raised individuals wanting to decrease their risk of developing Alheimer’s Disease?
After all, we in this country, are addicted to meat, fat, and sugar. What diet would be most likely to have the highest rate of compliance among 1/2 pound burger, meat lovers pizza, candy filled shake eating Americans?
As a cardiac nurse, I have spent more than 30 years watching the same patients return to the hospital over and over again for more stents, or open heart surgery, or peripheral vascular disease requiring invasive procedures and surgeries to “fix” the blockages. The “fix” is not the stent or procedure. The “fix”, I believe, can be found in the things we put into our bodies.
The interventional procedures out there are treating symptoms. Plaque is a symptom. Poor diet, smoking, not getting enough exercise are the cause. Eliminate the cause, and you change the effect.
The same is true with the brain. What we put into our body ultimately affects the brain.
Compliance is huge! It makes no sense to sentence someone to a diet that they will not adhere to. So for the average meat eater, vegetarian or vegan diets, while they are great, are probably not going to be sustainable in the long run.
The MIND Diet was introduced in 2015 and was developed by Martha Clare Morris PhD and her colleagues. Dr. Morris is the Nutritional Epidemiologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago Illinois.
I have long been a fan of the Mediterranean diet. The MIND Diet is a combination of the Mediterranean diet and the well known DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet. So you’re really getting a 2 for 1 here. One diet with a double benefit for brain and cardiovascular health. Woot!
Throw in a little exercise and the sky’s the limit!
The Next Steps
The great news is that we can all be growing some of the best-for-our-brain food ourselves. This can be done with little likelihood of tainted vegetables that we have seen in the news in recent times.
You can grow under lights in the winter and on a garden, patio, or on the balcony of your apartment in the summer! And if you can’t or don’t want to do it yourself, there are plenty of local growers like me who will grow it for you!
It’s so easy to “fall off the wagon” when it comes to our health. It’s many times the first thing we compromise when life gets crazy busy. Believe me I know! The important thing is that when we fall off, that we forgive ourselves, chase that wagon down, and get back on it again!
In the coming weeks, I will be writing more on this diet and the positive things it can do for your brain and consequently, your heart!
You will see that you aren’t required to totally give up all the food that you love. We just need to learn how to factor it in properly and responsibly.
The sooner you change your eating habits the more likely you are to deter the destruction of your brain. It’s like anything. We think it won’t happen to us. Or we think, “I’m young. I have time. What’s the rush?”
We’ve been waiting on the cure or the pill that will “fix” Alzheimer’s. In reality. . . . “You had the power all along my dear”.
Let’s click those heels and get to work!
© 2020, Pamela. All rights reserved.
Very interesting Pam. Very sorry to hear about your Mom. I know she never wanted to leave her home. I hope your dad is doing ok. We love and miss you! Aunt Ea and Uncle Don
Thank you! Love you both too!