Friday 22 November 2013

Alzheimer’s Disease



An old schoolmate sent me another one of these health emails recently, this time on how to avoid Alzheimer’s Disease.  One of the 25-point advice says: 

Know the early signs
Memory problems are not the first clue. You may notice a decline in depth perception, for example you reach to pick up a glass of water and miss it. Or you misjudge the distance in walking across a street.

I have always had problems with judging distances, ever since my early years (as early as age 8?), all the way to today in my sixth decade of life.  As a child and a mature adult, even a middle-aged—and now old-aged—adult, I’d (i) stub my second long toe on the vertical section of steps on my way up; (ii) miss a step on my way down, if I don’t consciously focus on the steps and practically count them mentally with every single step down, ending up stumbling or taking two steps instead of one; (iii) open wall cabinet doors into my own face; (iv) slam one of my shoulders into the door frame as I go through a door way; (v) miss my mouth as I lift a drinking vessel and spill the contents all over my front.

I have often asked, and still ask, myself: “Don’t you even know where your mouth/face is after all these years?  How can you mis-judge the width of the doorway when you’re not that big?”

As a child, I’d have “Clumsy!” levelled at me regularly.  As a grown-up, I’ve had to field expressions of sympathy like “Oh, poor you, what happened?” with embarrassing confessions to having been the perpetrator of my own injuries through such (incomprehensible to most people) clumsiness.

Now I have an explanation for it:  I was born with Alzheimer’s Disease!

Point 9 of the same advice list says:

The ApoE4 gene
One in four of you reading this has a specific genetic time bomb that makes you three to 10 times more susceptible to developing late-onset Alzheimer’s. The gene is called apolipoprotein E4. If you inherit a single variant of ApoE4 from one parent, your Alzheimer’s risk triples. If you inherit a double dose from both parents, your risk rises by 10 times. Ask your doctor about a DNA test to reveal your ApoE4 genotype.

So, perhaps I have ApoE4 gene in my blood.

2 comments:

  1. When I was young, I never could catch or return a volleyball. I would duck when the volleyball was headed my way, in hopes that somebody else would return the ball. The teams would pick members alternately, and I would be the leftover. No one wanted me on their team. Do you think this is also Alzheimer's?

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  2. I must say that I never noticed any of that when I knew you in the early 80's. I do remember you falling off the bike once. But I fell off my bike many times.

    Here's a positive way to look at this: since you obviously don't have Alzheimer’s, it is possible that if you do get it later on, the symptoms you describe will actually go away! Just like nearsighted people will see better when they get old.

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