As I said earlier, I have three aunties and one precious father diagnosed with forms of dementia. Another of their sisters and their mother, my grandmother, died with this disease. We could fairly conclude then that, with five female members experiencing dementia, other females in the family may also be genetically predisposed to developing it.
As mentioned earlier, the field of epigenetics highlights the influence of lifestyle and environment on the turning on/off of our genes. We have, with this knowledge, the chance to address, right now, relevant lifestyle and environmental factors in our lives. This may be more powerful than we have ever realised. I personally, as one of those female family members, am going full tilt to avoid the avoidable.
Am I, like Don Quixote, tilting at windmills, desperate like him to avoid thinking about the reality of death itself? It's a good question. I am becoming more and more accustomed to, and am accepting of, the prospect of my, and my beloved one's, inevitable deaths.
However, I definitely hold out for the avoidance of unnecessary suffering whilst we are still all alive!
Supposing more families could come together to research and address these questions? To seek to adjust any known harmful foods and to add foods and supplements they and their parents may be lacking? A push for an improvement in our general health would surely be helpful, for everyone, in any case?
If I, 64 years old and partially-educated (being quite honest, I preferred thinking about my poetry and boys to studying for my A levels ... ) can trust and use my native intelligence, and can take advantage of the marvels of the internet and research for myself ways in which I can help ease my father’s suffering, surely anyone can?
If I can be bothered to think beyond the ‘accepted’ ways, if I can find the courage to question, to say NO occasionally to those in ‘authority’ that used to hold me nervously in thrall, then I and my family stand a chance of alleviating and/or avoiding some of the suffering we have been told is inevitable. We are just one family. Multiply my proactive self-education and push for change by millions and much healing could happen very quickly!
I will not unquestioningly accept purely pharmaceutical solutions when clearly other, more beneficial, solutions exist.
This body of ours is a miracle of engineering, of balance, of beauty. A car, with its intelligently designed and well-tuned engine, cannot endlessly drive without clean fuel, oil and water. Can we be surprised if, through neglecting our own need for the correct clean fuel and water (remember those dehydrated elders?) our bodies start to struggle and break down?
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