Why do we hear about so many Alzheimer's and Dementia cases now?

I am convinced that it is mainly our modern diet. I say this because I have gone through it with my husband and have seen a total reversal within hours of giving him the kind of fat he needed. Many other can say the same. The low fat diets are killing brains that are composed mainly of fat. When we do eat fat we eat the wrong kind because we have been told that vegetable oils are good for us and animal fats and coconut oil that our grandparents ate is bad.
A lot of research has gone into this and is proving that oils like canola are bad and the very best oil for brain health is coconut oil, but the drug companies can't patent it, so they won't accept it. My husband's cognitive skills had gone down to 11 out of 30 and the doctor said I should put him in a nursing home but I found out about coconut oil and started giving it to him and within three hours he was talking in intelligible sentences. Within 2 weeks the doctor saw him and was amazed. He ordered a new test and he was 24 out of 30. Now he is perfectly normal again. If you are interested in his story go to YouTube and check GrandmaCarolFlett or search coconut oil and dementia.

I don't believe for a second that Alzheimer's has anything to do with diet, exercise,
mental stimulation, or social activity. My mother has been declining for 5 years, since age 80, and she ate an incredibly healthy diet, exercised regularly, including yoga, weight training and aerobics, is a college graduate who read avidly( serious fiction and non-fiction, not romance novels and People magazine), and was socially active and involved in community activities. She was adventuresome in every way, traveling and expanding her horizons. My grandmother also had Alz.
and she was college educated, active, lively and social. This disease strikes people of all backgrounds, personality and intellect regardless of their diet and exercise regimen. My mother was the least likely candidate for this disease except that her mother also had it, and probably her grandfather as well. It's much more likely to be related to genetics than anything else. There are a lot of people out there who just believe nonsense!

I agree that we see it more now because people are living way past the age that they used to. My dad has had 4 heart attacks, diabetes, cirhhosis, and now dementia. Back in the day his 1st or 2nd heart attack would have killed him but he had a quadruple bypass. Medications, treatments, surgeries.....all these things that are available now to prolong life. If you ask me it's not always beneficial. Personally I would rather die in my sleep at age 72 than struggle with my health for years, suffer from pain for years, go and live with my daughter because I'm not able to live alone and then be placed in a nursing home because my body and mind are totally shot. And I remember as a wee girl scout going and visiting nursing homes and that was 40 years ago so yes, nursing homes have been around for a very long, long time. Modern medicine has figured out ways to keep us alive, maybe past the point we should be, but no one can figure out how to cure the issues we encounter from staying alive long past the time our body tries to konk out. My lovely father has a brilliant mind. Rather, he HAD a brilliant mind. College professor. Member of MENSA. He was creative and funny and loving and the best man I've ever known. Now he's been robbed of the dignity that he and so many others deserve because his body is continuing to outlive his mind. His brain in 80 years old. That is an old brain. I know there are people who live and thrive into their 90's and good for them! :-) However, that is the exception, not the rule. My daddy is facing an ugly, long, slow, painful decline into dementia and will probably end up in a hospital bed, in diapers, drooling and not being able to eat solid food because his implanted defibrilator shocks his heart back into rhythym when it's really time for his huge, loving heart to die. This defibrilator was a Godsend for him 10 years ago when he was vital and social and had things to occupy his time and his mind. Now he's a shell of who he once was and I think that stinks. He deserves better. Most people deserve better. But thank God for modern medicine!!! My dad is 80!!! We thought he'd pass away years ago due to his heart disease. But he's not vital. He's not happy. He's miserable!!! I never thought I'd see the day when he wasn't sharp as a tack but thanks to all of his medication over the years he's actually lived to see 80! There have always been stories from people I've known who've had relatives who were 'senile'. I married into a large Irish family who would regale me with "Uncle Bill" stories. Oh, he was mad as a hatter. He lived with relatives when he was old because he was so 'senile'. This was in the 1960's so dementia was around then even if wasn't referred to as 'dementia'. Now they have to build whole wings of rooms in nursing homes to house all the people with Alzheimers'. In my dad's nursing home there's a woman who is so out of her mind that she is wheeled around clasping a baby doll. Good for her Dr.!! Her brain and her body are shot but she lives on, day in and day out. Maybe we should take it up with God. Or maybe I'm accurate in thinking the Dr.'s have something to do with it. Who knows? I don't believe it's diet but I understand why people do. Maybe it's not my personal favorite, Big Pharmaceutical. Could be that we just hear about it more than they used to but there have always been families who have that one person, maybe it's Grandpa or maybe it's Aunt Tillie....that one person who was nuttier than a fruitcake with what we now call dementia or Alzheimer's. For as far back as I can remember there have always been people who would today be diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer's. It's not new. My mom took care of my grandma, my grandma took care of my great-grandfather, ad infinitum. And my parents told me, they vowed, that I would never, ever have to go through that with them. But guess what? And what's the alternative?! My father has asked me twice to kill him. First it was with a pillow and the second time he suggested an OD. He begged me, he sobbed. I actually had this conversation with my wonderful father. I told him that I would go to jail, that assisted suicide is illegal. And I've told my own daughter now how I will never, ever put her through what I'm going through with her grandpa. It's the thing we tell our children to make ourselves feel better but how do we prevent it? At the first sign of dementia should I kill myself to spare my daughter the pain of what I go through everyday because of my dad? How ridiculous is that? How many stories have we read here about parents refusing to leave their house as they age and begin to suffer from dementia? And for each person we read about there is a spouse or an adult child who is struggling to care for this person. Hell, we have websites of support for caregivers! We need support because it's a next to impossible job. We give up our jobs, our lives, our hobbies, sometimes our marriages so we can care for an aging parent or ill spouse. Who cares for us? We've all read the statistics about the caregiver getting sick before our loved one!

I come here because I can relate to all of you. I'm a caregiver. I cared for my dad for 5 years in my home until I. Couldn't. Do. It. Anymore. It was either him or me and I chose me and here's the secret no one tells us: When you put your loved one in a nursing home the caregiving doesn't stop. It's different but it's not over, not by a long shot.

My dad is dying a little bit everyday. His mind is almost gone. Because of his liver failure he's full of toxic, noxious fluid. We've hired hospice to supplement the care my brother and I give him. The care I still provide him. It takes 3 people and a staff full of nurses and techs to care for my dad now. I told my daughter that I would never put her through this, just like my mom and and told me but I promise her I will never, ever put her through this. I promised her and I promised myself. Eventually, someday, the time will come and I'll know it's the right time and I will save my daughter years of grief, sadness, resentment, heartbreak, financial strife and everything else I've been through and everything else I've read about all of you going through. My daughter will never need a website like this.

You pose some interesting questions, Lilliput. No doubt there are many factors at work here. The one I'm going to focus on is the increase in longevity. I don't think it is the only factor but it is too important to ignore. Why do you think there is so much more trouble during menopause these days? (Bear with me. I will connect this up.) Why are there magazine articles and newspaper articles and research studies and debates about hormones, and other generations just got through it? In 1911 less than one third of all females tived to see the change of life. I don't know exactly what that number is in 2011, but it is a way, way higher percentage of a much larger population. More women are dealing with these issues because more people are living long enough to experience them. Also, the subject is no longer hush-hush. Our society has a different attitude about health subjects than we did a hundred years ago.

Dementia is more common now in part because more people are living to an age where they are suseptible. And it is not a hush-hush topic. My grandmother was pretty sharp into her nineties, but she spent her final years bedridden in a nursing home, not always recognizing her visitors and often off in some world not shared by them. No one ever suggested she had dementia, and she was not counted among dementia statistics at that time. But she no doubt would be now.

I think we cannot minimize the importance of more people of dementia age and better record keeping about health matters. In 1900, about 4% of the population was over 65. In 2000, about 12% of the population was over 65. And the population is much bigger. I don't know if anyone kept track of how many people were "senile" in 1900; lots of agencies track how many are being treated or cared for with dementia in 2000.

I'll bet this isn't the only answer, but I think it is an important one.

Wow - what a terrific topic, and great responses as well.

Just a couple of words about myself. I live with, and take full time unassisted care of my 105 yo grandmother. Unfortunately for me, she is an absolutely horrible person. Mean spirited, a liar, swindler, etc. When my mother passed away 7 years ago, somehow in the shock and confusion of that, I promised to take care of my GM "to the end". Huge life-wrecking mistake. I would guess that 98% of the people here could not even conceive that a person of that age could be evil. But there she is every morning - just waiting to boss me around yet another day.

My sister - who fits the selfish sib pattern perfectly - dropped us hot potato-style over 3 years ago. However, in the one email that I received from her since then, she stated "I imagine nothing has changed, she's still an evil liar who treats you like s---." Well, yeah. In fact just yesterday my GM said to me, "I'm gonna buy a gun, and then when you don't do what I tell you, I'll just shoot you." Now obviously that was meant as some kind of "joke", but it is truly representative of the way she thinks.

Anyway, my life with granny has been insanely depressing, and I would never do it again. However, the one and only good aspect of my situation is that I have plenty of time to THINK.

I am a former chess master - top 10 in my home stae - and also a self-taught computer programmer. I love attacking complex logical puzzles. One of my life-long chess friends made enough money to retire in his early forties in order to pursue chess full time. But guess what - he got so interested in alternative health that he basically dropped chess and writes / researches "alternative" health matters instead. (He has been a raw foodist for about 20 years.) We are both extremely skeptical of the conventional doctorin' approach to health.

Now, sorry if that is TMI, but I wanted to explain my perspective before making any other statements.

First, despite my GM being so horrible, both my mother (RIP) and I are just the opposite. Therefore my grandmother gets absolutely great care from me. Meaning, for example, Essential Fatty Acids!

That is the first tie-in to this topic. For 20 years I have owned a copy of Udo Erasmus' book "Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill". You can read some very interesting "user reviews" of it on Amazon, and you'll also see about 80 reviews for "The Coconut Oil Miracle", which is regarded as the better book of the two. Think I'll order that one, pronto.

One thing I can tell you from the Udo Erasmus book is that he points out that with our domesticated meat sources, their fat profiles are radically different from that of their wild counterparts. Kind of like the "free range" idea, but pig vs wild boar, sheep vs antelope (or whatever) etc. Basically too much fat, the wrong kind of fat, and an absence of the right kind of fat.

Anyhow, I agree with jeannegibbs that we shouldn't expect a magic bullet from any one substance, and that 99.9% of our ancestors did not have access to coconut oil. But the fact remains that 99.9% of our ancestors were not eating all of our bad fats either. Plus, they got EFA's from whole foods, seeds, insect contaminants, and so on. So IMO this fat issue is of paramount importance in health / disease research.

Well, it's after 2, got to get ready for another groundhog day.

One last thing.

I was thinking last week that it would be great to have an ongoing topic like "Caregiver's Quest for Super Health", but figured that there might only be 1 or 2 people interested, if that. But seeing the response on this topic, I wonder. Lots to discuss, guaranteed.

Please don't think I am saying that coconut oil is the answer for everyone. But diet is extremely important. We have changed a lot of the way we eat since we made the first discovery about coconut oil and it made such a huge difference. We also found out that nitrites have a huge effect on the brain, and that drugs like beta blockers are deadly.
But the change occurred right after the first dose of coconut oil so in his case I believe that made the biggest difference.
I will try to start that new thread.

Sorry Ish, and everybody else, for my "nonsense" statement, but in my mother's case it does seem that way. She was very fit, cardiovascularly, and otherwise and she she ate a very healthy diet always, including the healthy oils, long before it became more mainstream to eat that way. I realize she is just one person among millions suffering from AD, but what I'm saying is that you can do every preventive thing possible and still get AD and the longer you live, the greater the risk. So I believe it is much more genetically influenced and the genes set you up for when you'll get it, early onset or late onset. I know my view may be very subjective but that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

capnhardass, yes, infant mortality, etc. does have an impact on longevity statistics. And yes, there have always been people who lived into their eighties and nineties and beyond. BUT NOT IN THE NUMBERS WE HAVE TODAY! And that is true whether you are looking at percentages of the population or just plain numbers of people alive. I looked at some demographics of the aging of the population in the last 200 years. OMG! When you see it on a chart it is stunning. (I'll try to find that set of charts again. I just know they blew me away.)

The other thing is that we did not keep track as well of the numbers of people who had dementia. My dear grandmother was pretty sharp into her nineties and then declined significantly. Her family and her nursing home considered her senile. She never made it into the dementia statistics, but today she certainly would.

We have both more people who live long enough for dementia to develop and much better ways of tracking the number of dementia cases. Of course we are going to hear more about it!

People didn't talk about it because there was no general knowledge about what caused dementia. People didn't talk about embarrassing heath issues. People didn't live long enough for Alzheimer's to manifest. It used to be referred to as senility. There is so much increased awareness of Alzheimer's now that everyone knows what it is. The same is true of many mental disorders that people never used to talk about and now everyone knows about because they have been identified and named. The reason Alzheimer's seems to be more prevalent is because we are better educated about it and are aware of it. When I was growing up no one ever talked about alcoholism either, but there were just as many alcoholics! It was just covered up and not discussed. It's all about ignorance versus awareness.

I totally understand you, Eyerishlass and Whirlpool. I've had the talk with my daughter too. I'm the fourth generation in line for what we call the "family curse". Most of my cousins and I have watched our parents die of Alz. Don't think WE aren't concerned?