Yes, it's true. Mainly because I'm very slow and inconsistent in responding to comments. So I want to kind of catch up on recent ones.
First, I get many very positive comments, both by postings on the blog and via email. This is so gratifying to me. After experiencing the amazing turnaround in my condition, my reason for getting up each day is to encourage others who are confronting, or may confront, the same monster. Well, it's one of the reasons. After selling over 11,000 copies of Beating the Dementia Monster, and unexpectedly encountering people who have stumbled on it and read it, I know my efforts have made a difference in some lives.
Anyway, what follows are my responses to comments over the past several months that seemed to anticipate that I would respond. Note that the system doesn't always tell me who actually posted a comment, and it just identifies them as "Unknown."
Now Espresso fights Alzheimer’s disease? - August 15, 2023
Comment from “Unknown”: I reached out to the researcher - Question: "I currently drink coffee regularly, but espresso only on occasion. I'm trying to decide if I should make a change. Did your research find that espresso is beneficial above regular coffee? Or is drinking coffee also a good move?"
The researcher’s answer to Unknown: "We made a in-vitro research using only espresso. We still don't know to what extent our findings are confirmed in vivo. However, the molecules contained in the regular coffee are not so different in terms of type and amount, from that of espresso."
My response: I appreciate you investigating this further and sharing your findings!
Sushi for Brain Health? - January 15, 2024
Comment from “Unknown”: I will be interested to hear how it goes. Also, I think I understand you as saying that the paste form of wasabi is ineffective. Can you please clarify? I'm not sure what other forms are available. Thank you for your blog. I find it both informative and inspiring. Joan
My response: Joan, sorry to be so slow replying to your comment! I wasn't trying to say that the paste form is ineffective, rather that product sold as wasabi is often more horseradish than actual wasabi. I suspect that the wasabi I've bought on Amazon was actually more horseradish. There are web sites claiming to sell pure wasabi, but it can be pricey.
Why the MIND diet excludes cheese, butter, and margarine -- now we may know. - May 28, 2024
Comment from “Unknown”: I'm curious to know why stick margarine is specifically mentioned; does that mean other types of margarine (tub margarine, I suppose) are less likely to contribute to the kinds of detrimental effects found in the study? And if so, what's different about them? And thank you for this blog. I follow it avidly.
My response: Thanks so much for your kind words. In "Diet for the Mind," Dr. Morris said that stick (or block) margarine is more hydrogenated and contains more transfats. She said that tub margarine is much better, but she preferred olive oil. I stick with olive oil.
Comment from Sui Generis: So where does this leave us with eggs? I've been eating two eggs every day for breakfast. The sample meal planner at https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/mind-diet even includes them. The articles you referenced don't mention eggs, but neither do they mention cheese.
My response: Sui, from what I read, it seems that eggs have been completely let off the hook. In "Diet for the Mind," Dr. Morris says they got a bad rap, and they're full of important nutrients. The only reservations about them I've heard recently is that you shouldn't eat too many (more than two a day), because they haven't been studied enough. I don't have any reservations about eating eggs, even more than two.
Regarding cheese, Dr. Morris was very critical, notably regarding mozzarella, since Americans eat so much of it. In the US, we put a lot more cheese on pizza than other countries, so pizza consumption seems to be implicated in Alzheimer's disease here. It has a lot of saturated fat, which she believed is the culprit. After seeing her own research findings, she cut her consumption of cheese way back.
Genes that control dementia in the face of advancing Alzheimer's disease - June 14, 2024
Comment from “Unknown”: Might therapies be developed to help more people "express" those protective genes? Do we all have the genes, even though they are only "expressed" in some people? That sounds like an intriguing possibility to me.
My response: I brought up “expressing” genes because the research article used the term, and I like to differentiate genes from the proteins that result from them. Contrary to what a lot of people believe, genes don’t actually do anything. They are simply the blueprints for the proteins that will do something. So, mRNA molecules read the genes and take the information to the the ribosomes. The ribosome uses the information the mRNA read from the gene to assemble a chain of amino acids and, from the chain, form a protein molecule.
You have the genes you were born with, and different people have different variations of many of them. That’s why we look different from each other. Identical twins have the same genes, and so they look the same as each other.
But every gene exists in every cell of the body, even in cells where this gene or that gene will never be used. So, genes are expressed selectively. If a cell will be used to color your eyes, the genes governing eye color will be expressed as special proteins in that cell, but not in, say, a bone cell. Expression of genes is controlled by “gene regulation networks.”
This is a lot more than you asked for!
Regarding your question, the point is that the important variable is which genes you drew in the lottery, rather than when genes will or won’t be expressed. But … for people who drew the better genes, might there be therapies out there that would better exploit them by expressing them more or somehow differently? That’s a good question. But not one I’m qualified to answer. Nor have I seen anyone address it.
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