Energy Express by Marilynn Preston

Why am I writing about Alzheimer's for this week's column? Let me think ... A ... B ... C ... D ... ah, yes, diet and dementia. There's new research out that suggests you can significantly lower your risk of Alzheimer's by eating clean, healthy foods, a diet rich in fish, poultry, fruit, nuts, dark leafy greens, and vegetables like cauliflower and broccoli.

Is this news? It depends how up-to-date you are in your Healthy Lifestyle studies. These delicious and real foods — low in saturated fat, high in powerful nutrients like vitamin E, folate, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids — are known to be hugely helpful in reducing your risk of all sorts of diseases. Alzheimer's is now being added to the list, thanks in part to a small but important study published in a recent issue of the Archives of Neurology.

In case your subscription has run out, I will summarize by saying this: If you want to save your brain, use it to make smart decisions about what you eat, starting today. Diets high in red meat, organ meat and high-fat dairy products appear to raise your risk of Alzheimer's, while making smarter choices, listed above, keeps us healthier and higher functioning as we age. And remember this: We're all aging, all the time.

Which reminds me, I'm reading a fascinating book called "The Last of His Mind: A Year in the Shadow of Alzheimer's" (Swallow Press). It's beautifully written by John Thorndike, who moved in with his 91-year-old father Joe Thorndike — founder of American Heritage magazine, writer of three books, a distinguished scholar — to take care of him in the final months of his life.

The father had Alzheimer's, and the son had the will, the compassion, the humor and understanding to stay with him as the disease did its damage to his father's big brain. It wasn't easy — caring for elderly parents with deteriorating minds is one of the great challenges of life, in my mind — but the author finds a way to nurture and accept his father's decline.

Five million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's, and many of them wish to remain at home instead of being institutionalized.

Joe Thorndike had told his son exactly that in the early days of his decline.

John's accounting of caring for his dad is heartbreaking at the same time it is heartwarming, uplifting and instructive. "Sometimes, I wonder what I'm doing here — and then I imagine my father in a nursing home," John Thorndike writes. "Who would sit on his bed at night as he struggled with memory and order? How often would someone take him outside to sit in the sun? When would he have a dinner of ocean scallops and fresh asparagus?"

 

EN/X EMAIL BAG: SAVING LIVES, ONE NOSE AT A TIME

 

Self-care is nothing to sneeze. Check out this email from a guy named Bill from Gainesville, Fla.

"Marilynn, I don't write or email very often, but felt I had to today. I read your column on the neti pot today, and it hit home with me. I am 58 and have had problems with sinuses since I was a baby. I was hooked on Dristan for over 15 years and never went anywhere without a bottle in my pocket. I finally went cold turkey and got off that stuff, but I have always had trouble breathing properly through my nose, especially at night.

I went and bought a neti pot today, and came home and used it in both sides of my nose and can breathe with no trouble about 30 minutes later. I am a convert! This is just a thank you for getting out some information that made a huge difference in my life."

Thanks, Bill. I forgot to mention you can boost the effect of the neti pot treatment by adding a blend of helpful herbs — zinc, goldenseal, phellodenddron bark and more — to the sea-salt and warm water solution. Visit your local health food genius and see what's available.

 

ENERGY EXPRESS-O! THE LAST OF HIS MIND

"I tell him he's been a great father to me and Al and Joe, and he can go home at any time. He shows no sign that he's heard me, but they say hearing is the last sense to go, so I keep talking to him." — John Thorndike

Marilynn Preston — fitness expert, personal trainer and speaker on healthy lifestyle issues — is the creator of Energy Express, the longest-running syndicated fitness column in the country. She has a website, http://marilynnpreston.com and welcomes reader questions, which can be sent to MyEnergyExpress@aol.com. To find out more about Preston and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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