Dagboek

I love drinking apple juice. Each time I do my grocery shopping, I make sure that I have a pack of six bottles of it in my cart and sometimes a bottle of cranberry juice which is high with anti oxidant. After reading an article about apple juice , that it can help to delay onset of Alzheimer’s, it makes me want to drink it like water and I am planning on pushing it to my husband, who loathe’ s the taste. Okay it’s not a cure but hey, now that I have seen how this disease can create a ‘stranger‘ then I’ll have it each time I’m thirsty. I guess I rather leave this world, God permits, old and still know my name.

You see, since my father-in-law’ has been diagnosed with  SDAT, Senile Dementia Alzheimer’s Type- the disease really intrigues me as I see  in a daily basis what it’s doing to my in law and how it has changed him into a completely ‘ strange’  person. Someone who wears his shirt as underwear, who bangs on people’s door, who curse, who tells me that I lose weight when in fact I gained about 10 kilos (don’t laugh!) , who sometimes doesn’t know his own son’s name, who becomes mean…the list does not end here, it’s juts the beginning. Someday these changes will become permanent. This disease is frightening.

I also read somewhere that lifestyle is a factor to the disease.

“Although this is somewhat controversial, a number of lifestyle factors might play a role in the development of Alzheimer’s. These include lack of exercise, lack of access to a social network, and lack of mentally stimulating activities.”

I sometimes want to blame my husband and his dad for not listening to my constant nagging the past 7 years. I have suggested to my husband mostly -since his dad only listens to him, to enlist his dad to transfer to a home where he could have a more stronger social network with other people. Since my in-law’s divorce 2 decades ago, my dad in law has lived on his own in a 2-story house that was totally lacking of activities. Even I refused to step into that house on my second year here in Holland because the house simply is too depressing, I’m too sensitive to that feeling. My husband did not listen, did not bring the suggestion to his dad because probably the two of them thought nobody’s getting old and would stay the same forever. The past 2 years, I took the initiative of sending the old man some puzzles to solve, nagged my husband to get him a newspaper delivery every day. I even asked the old man to paint for me this, which remains in the same condition since 2007, unfinished:

Activities to keep his mind busy was badly needed, but that he didn’t had for he only and I mean ONLY waited for my husband to visit him daily, totally focused on my husband. No one else matters in this world to the old man but my husband, whom he considers his only son (he’s got another one but doesn’t give squat about him) he’s best friend, companion- just his everything! It’s been a challenge to me too since my dad-in-law was possessive and jealous of me. I guess I can now be vocal about this here, now. Because…

if you have any family member who lives like my father in law-be young or old, and you recognize some of what I have written, then you better start doing something about it. Nag if you must. Especially if that someone is old and living alone. One more thing, my father in law has a blood pressure of a young man, a heart that is totally healthy- this according to his doctors- that is why it’s not fair for him to spend the rest of his days being a ‘stranger‘ .

** On Apple Juice helps delaying the onzet of Alzheimer’s:

” A growing body of evidence demonstrates that we can take steps to delay age-related cognitive decline, including in some cases that which accompanies Alzheimer’s, according to a study published in the January 2009 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Thomas B. Shea and his research team have carried out a number of laboratory studies demonstrating that drinking apple juice helped mice perform better than normal in maze trials, and prevented the decline in performance that was otherwise observed as these mice aged.

In the most recent study Shea and his team demonstrated that mice receiving the human equivalent of 2 glasses of apple juice per day for 1 month produced less of a small protein fragment, called “beta-amyloid” that is responsible for forming the “senile plaques” that are commonly found in brains of individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Dr. Shea commented that “These findings provide further evidence linking nutritional and genetic risk factors for age-related neurodegeneration and suggest that regular consumption of apple juice can not only help to keep one’s mind functioning at its best, but may also be able to delay key aspects of Alzheimer’s and augment therapeutic approaches.”

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