Exercise and Diet Weigh in on Alzheimer's

I think it's important at this time for the fat man stay on task. One of the things that is always interested me are the big battles that we face with our common enemies that take our life. With today's topic I do like learning new things. Sometimes our hopes can be dashed. It is good to see what we have learned even in failure to move ahead. 

I have often reported that our biggest enemies are Cardiovascular diseases that include both a heart and the brain, cancer, and diabetes. At number six affecting more than five and a half million Americans is Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. There was an article in the Chicago Tribune today, Alzheimer's Cure Elusive by Melissa Bailey.

Setbacks in clinical trials of medicines developed have producing 99% failure rate. This hasn't been because of lack of money or energy to who try to find treatments for those who are suffering. It is believed that will take many different angles to treat the disease, At least that is the hope moving forward. 

From what I've been able to read there is no cure for any of these diseases. There is hope to slow down or put into a state of remission our problems with the heart, arteries, cancer and diabetes. 

With dementia, lifestyle changes have helped to slow down the disease with some people, but finding drugs to help has proven to be a little more difficult. Since Alzheimer's was identified at the turn of the 20th Century we have been able to discover some of the physical changes that occur in the brain with that disease. 

In an interview with Rudolph Tanzi he states, “In Alzheimer’s disease, there are three pillars of pathology. There’s the plaque, the tangles, and inflammation.” 

Under the microscope

ExperienceLife.com / EXPERIENCE LIFE 

His explanation talks of inflammation being the fuel that increases the genetic possibilities for plaque and tangles which destroys cells in the brain. We have not been able to find medicines to help with these conditions, so for now making good lifestyle changes give us our best hope of dealing with this. 

• Eliminating junk food and processed food will help with inflammation and whenever we are genetically with dementia, This will give us our best outcome. 
• Exercise he says, “You induce the production of enzymes in the brain that clear is the amyloid, that eat it up - enzymes and actually attacked and chew up the amyloid…
• Also during exercise you make new nerve cells - a process called neurogenesis - in the hippocampus, the area affected by the Alzheimer’s.” Exercise is in and of itself anti-inflammatory. 

Tanzi also recommends a diet rich in fruits and vegetables which is anti-inflammatory. 

My take on all this is that in my lifetime we will have to go through 50% of us been affected by dementia by the time we're our 80s. We are unraveling ways too cope a little better but I think we need to spend some time learning what to expect and how to care for those that go through this. Lifestyle right now gives us our best numbers. Choosing to get active and eat well can make a big difference in all these aging diseases. Family caregivers have a need to get inform and support. 

Despite our investment, medical science has its limits. That's sort of sucks but combating disease has never been easy. Keep up the fight, and walk.

Can we depart from the Living God?

One of the classes I am taking is this survey of the general letters of the Bible, Hebrews-III John with Dr. Toussaint from Dallas Theological Seminary. Besides my class notes, I have looked at previous teachers of the class from Dallas as well. Some of these presentations may be expositions to their congregation. 

Hebrews contains a series of warnings that can be very difficult for those who believe they can lose their salvation. I have two safeguards for our oversensitive friends that can be very encouraging. First of all, we have to clear teaching in the Bible concerning salvation in which the Bible in which the Bible will not contradict itself. God gave us eternal life by believing on Jesus, he cannot take it away because that would not have been eternal. Along with this it is God who saves and not man. The second safeguard I offer is context. So far in Hebrews 2 & 3 we have two warnings for Christians not to do, The writer includes himself in the audience 1:2; 2:1, 4:1 and specifically in 3:1 and 3:12, 14 where he refers to his readers as “holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling”; “brethren”; “we have become partakers of Christ.” Clearly his audience is Christian. 

Can a Christian drift away, neglect the things of God? Can a Christian develop an evil heart the fall away from the living God? Can they be deceived by sin? All of this is serious in the same way in the physical world a person can develop the symptoms of a heart attack even at an early age and 30s 40s. Heart disease can become very serious in a matter of weeks.

The wilderness is a dry and desolate
place and pictures on departed from
the Living God

In the same way a Christian can neglect their walk with God, or through difficult circumstances come to believe God has let him or her down, make a decision to turn from the living God in unbelief. Soon the deceitfulness of sin will take over and the Christian develops an evil and hardened heart. Their decision is done at the exact time they needed to do the opposite and cling to the Lord. 

Besides not experiencing God helping them through their difficult time, they will miss their fellowship with the Lord when they most needed it. They will miss the blessings in their future. They'll missed the encouragement from other believers. They will most likely experience some downward trend in harmful behavior towards themselves or others. 

But because they're saved, or trusted Christ as their Savior they did not lose their salvation. 

When a person has a heart attack and there able to get to the hospital the medical team may have to do some drastic measures to restore health. From blood thinners, stents, open heart surgery there are number ways the doctor aggressively works to save the life. 

Hebrews chapter 4 is connected to chapter 3 in which the writer talks about the Lord disciplining those He loves. The Lord may have thousands of ways in which He disciplines the believer. They may be gentle or not. He is God and He knows best. When the believer has drifted away, and falling away from living God, in the land of living the believer is hardened his or her heart and lives in the lies of sin, this is a serious condition that requires God's emergency care.

Go back to that hardship, that loss where you turned your back on the Lord, it is there in which you must learn to trust. The rest of your life in the living can experience God’s loving care and healing. Healing and restoration takes time but here you will find a gentle Physician. Keep walking

Thanks to my Russian Readers

I see a wonderful development that is occuring with my readership. Throughout my writing most readers are from the US. But I have had readers from the Philippines, Germany, Britton, France, Liberia, and often from Russia. This month I have noticed a surge from Russia.
There are many things we have on this blue planet that we share. One of them would be we are trying to live healthy and are trying to hang around a little more in a good way.  The impact of exercise, diet and lifestyle can have a huge impact on our health as we age. We can control these things and they can trump genetics.
For example Dr. Ken Cooper has lived to his eighties by attending to health skills as running, strength training, flexibility and walking. Parents and grandparents did not fare so well.
We might not live to 105 like Robert Marchand from France medicine free. We may have to fight heart disease, diabetics, and cancer. But all need a strategy to overcome what we can to live and older independent life.
Thanks for reading my blog my oversea friends.

Vive la vie, continue la marche, biking at 106

Robert Marchand, age 105 a Frenchman sets a new one hr. cycling record where he petal more than 14 miles an hour. He is more aerobically fit then most 50-year-olds. The new benchmark had to be created for him since he is the 1st 105 year old to do this. He was born in 1911 and while he was working as a truck driver, gardener, firefighter, and lumberjack he did not exercise. Most of his jobs would have been physical.
Since his retirement he has been biking under trainer or roads near his home and at a leisurely pace. at 100 years old he set the record for that age at 14 mi. an hour. Then he started a program of of interval training, where 80% of his biking was at a leisurely pace and 20% and a more strenuous pace 20% percent harder. There was a 20 point scale of effort. Leisurely was 12 or less and strenuous was 15 or more.
By the numbers:
Mr. Marchand’s VO2 max was now about 13 % higher than it had been before,  as good as a healthy 50 year old.
His pedaling increased by 40% power.
At 103 he maxed out the test at 17 miles per hour for 60 minutes.
He takes no medicine.
He weighs hundred and 15 pounds at 5 feet tall.
He is very sociable
He eats a simple diet of yogurt,  soup, cheese, chicken and a glass of red wine for dinner.
My take on how it work for him. I have noticed that most people who live long time tend to be smaller. Also most people who are still in competition in racing picked up the habit even after retiring so what Mr. Marchand was doing in the 60s to a hundred gave him the opportunity to set these marks. The biking help him to prevent diabetes, maintain a strong heart and clean arteries, and helped his immune system with other diseases. The biking that he does is over one hour and day. There was no discussion within his family related to living longer so I don't know the genetic factors, besides the obvious he must have good genes.
We were from him that we can improve our aerobic, strength health as we age. Also interval training can be beneficial in our fitness goals. For him to get these benefits he did work at it. And it's a good point for us that if we are to improve our fitness it will take work. His work was consistent over time.
It is pretty wild to be in good health at 105 with a desire to improve at 106.
Moving helps us age. A simple nutritious diet would also help. OK it is time to get on my bike. Thank you Robert, Vive la vie, continue la marche.

God's love and care even when we can't perceive it.

On the net there is a lot of places where you can be encouraged. Today I am sharing a technique you can use praying to God. It is used to pray back the Scriptures. You take a scripture and personalize it as you pray back to God. Here we see an example of a Ephesians 5:8-10. Note to personal pronouns:

Dr. Ken Boa paraphrases “I was once darkness, but now I am light in the Lord.  May I walk as a child of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), learning what is pleasing to the Lord.”  (Ephesians 5:8-10)

Reading Wayne styles today, he shares truth centered on Romans 8:31-34

It is quite possible in our lifetime to experience people who did not approve of us. There have been those who are not on our side. What ever our experience contrast that with God's unconditional love and acceptance. When we acknowledge our need for a Savior it is always an uplifting experience.

If there is a chance we are living on the blue side, we may be seeing too much negative. It is always a good idea to challenge negative thinking. Theologically we should be able to see from Romans 8:31 to 34 that God is going to see us through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. (Ps. 23) We live in a fallen world and bad things happen even to good people; but God is with us through these experiences. 

(I have thought about in our weakness and frailty. We may not be able to see the truth of God’s care.  People are cruel to each other and we may distort and bend things darkly. Then there are accidents, conditions and diseases that over take us. If we live long enough we are likely to effected by an aging brain. If you see me with a Sox hat or Cardinal hat you will know that dementia has got me. There is nothing wrong with these teams but if I am wearing their hats as my everyday hat, my brain has left the building.) 

There is a certainty that we are in God’s hand through death and heaven. This life is not without its blessings and as such  we challenge negative thinking of depression for it is not always true or absolute.

There may be some people against us; but if we rethink it we will find examples of people who are for us. We have experienced neglect; but if we look again we will notice them many people who took care on our behalf. We may be looking at somebody with the negative expression; but they at that moment may have gas. Our interpretation is always subject to our feelings. To be sure negative responses are real; but they are not always what they seem to be. An angry face my have just bit their tongue.

You can read many stories in the Bible of people who did horrid things. We can learn from them; but it is important not to personalize each and every one of them. Don't own up to every bad thing you read. It Is a good thing that we did not experience every bad thing. Taking our problems day to day is enough. Knowing that God loves us, forgives us, and is working in our life through the good and bad, He won't forsake us. These things are clearly seen in the Bible. 

Challenge negative thinking and remember our thinking may be distorted because of disease or abuse, the truth about God will see us through even that. Keep walking