Senile Dementia--the Next big Health scam?

[yumyumtree]

Here's something I have been getting increasingly concerned about over the past few weeks. As most of you know, I am not a huge fan of a lot of alternative medicine.  I don't take the rigid, zero-tolerance approach of say Stephen Barrett on quackwatch and I do try to keep an open mind unless an idea is clearly ridiculous(like the notions being peddled by a lot of coast guests).But I evaluate the ideas based on what I know about the human body and find that most of it doesn't hold up. Since I have a chronic illness myself, I get a lot of well-meaning people taking me aside and telling me that I'd get better if I only gave up eating nightshades or whatever. My favorite is applying WD-40 to your joints.  I'm not kidding--people have recommended that to me. It doesn't help that a lot of alternative medicine proponents and practitioners believe a lot of other silly crap.  Do you really want to take medical advice from somebody who's a birther, a truther, talks about the Bilderbergers and illuminati, etc.?

I listen to Dr. Jerry Mixon on KTTH (Seattle)and KIRO most Saturdays from 8 to 10.  I just happen to be home and awake at that time very often.  I know that it's basically an infomercial and he wants to get people to his seminars and to sign up for auto-shipments of his supplements and stuff.  I don't plan to do that, but I enjoyed the show for some of the general information.  "Longevity medicine" has been his thing.  But now he's talking a lot about senile dementia(not Alzheimers' neccessarily, but the same type of thing.)There aren't too many diseases scarier than cancer, but for people in my age group, this might be it.  He's saying things  like, if you think you have the early signs, you probably have it. He's saying that the early stages can be reversed.  This doesn't sound right to me.  Slowed almost to a stop I could believe, but reversed I have trouble buying. One caller asked about games and puzzles that people do to stay sharp.  He told her that it will only make you really good at those particular games and puzzles and not accomplish anything else. Naturally he was peddling a seminar for $400 and something and of course you know that would only be the beginning.  He doesn't take insurance.

If you google Dr. Jerry Mixon probably within the first five hits will be some of the peccadillos he's been in.  I think illicit use of human growth hormone may have been one, but don't let me spoil it for you, look for yourself. 

So how about you? I think that this has the potential to be one of the big new alternative medicine scares over the next few years, as baby boomers like me become senior citizens.

[onan]

Anyone that states "if you think you have the early signs, you probably have it" is certainly a quack, and should be reported to his state board of medicine.

There are many reasons for what may be considered dementia. Chronic anxiety, or depression can appear as dementia. Certain illnesses can present with what appears to be dementia. And substance abuse can also appear as a form of impaired memory.

And not to forget (yes there is a pun there), as we age our retrieval factors suffer and our memory is not as quick as it once was... that isn't senility.

If you are 71 or older there is a 1 in seven chance of some form of dementia and the odds increase from then on.

[maureen]

I have cultivated dementia from a young age so now people don't notice anything odd.

"One day I shall burst my bud of calm and blossom into hysteria!" -- Christopher Fry

cheers!!

[Heather Wade]

I have cultivated dementia from a young age so now people don't notice anything odd.

"One day I shall burst my bud of calm and blossom into hysteria!" -- Christopher Fry

cheers!!

You crack me up, maureen!   

[Beelzebubbelah]

Here's something I have been getting increasingly concerned about over the past few weeks. As most of you know, I am not a huge fan of a lot of alternative medicine.  I don't take the rigid, zero-tolerance approach of say Stephen Barrett on quackwatch and I do try to keep an open mind unless an idea is clearly ridiculous(like the notions being peddled by a lot of coast guests).But I evaluate the ideas based on what I know about the human body and find that most of it doesn't hold up. Since I have a chronic illness myself, I get a lot of well-meaning people taking me aside and telling me that I'd get better if I only gave up eating nightshades or whatever. My favorite is applying WD-40 to your joints.  I'm not kidding--people have recommended that to me. It doesn't help that a lot of alternative medicine proponents and practitioners believe a lot of other silly crap.  Do you really want to take medical advice from somebody who's a birther, a truther, talks about the Bilderbergers and illuminati, etc.?

I listen to Dr. Jerry Mixon on KTTH (Seattle)and KIRO most Saturdays from 8 to 10.  I just happen to be home and awake at that time very often.  I know that it's basically an infomercial and he wants to get people to his seminars and to sign up for auto-shipments of his supplements and stuff.  I don't plan to do that, but I enjoyed the show for some of the general information.  "Longevity medicine" has been his thing.  But now he's talking a lot about senile dementia(not Alzheimers' neccessarily, but the same type of thing.)There aren't too many diseases scarier than cancer, but for people in my age group, this might be it.  He's saying things  like, if you think you have the early signs, you probably have it. He's saying that the early stages can be reversed.  This doesn't sound right to me.  Slowed almost to a stop I could believe, but reversed I have trouble buying. One caller asked about games and puzzles that people do to stay sharp.  He told her that it will only make you really good at those particular games and puzzles and not accomplish anything else. Naturally he was peddling a seminar for $400 and something and of course you know that would only be the beginning.  He doesn't take insurance.

If you google Dr. Jerry Mixon probably within the first five hits will be some of the peccadillos he's been in.  I think illicit use of human growth hormone may have been one, but don't let me spoil it for you, look for yourself. 

So how about you? I think that this has the potential to be one of the big new alternative medicine scares over the next few years, as baby boomers like me become senior citizens.

====================================================
'Allo!
Still with you.
Wish to point out,if you live in the northern hemisphere for the last 90 or so years,you have been seriously compromised by many,many heavy metals in your environment,so-kalled.
The Factory owning kklass lives far away and under the earth in sealed eco-systems,some man- or atlantean/reptilian built upon the existing cave systems within gaia.
Most of the visible-to-serfs population promoted in Lame-Stream agit-prop as exemplars of beauty and progress are either puppet maquette "Liveing Dolls"or video game-like simulations blended from ancient recordings.
When you see these social paragons,you must assume the real puppetteers are many levels of techno-kontrol away.
I'll try to post some better research files further on.
Meanwhilst,you should look at how some elites are already liveing in the pseudo-Agarti type "rock cities"to get away from the hell here and now of radio-activity,heavy metals,chemical toxins,and geneticly tailored war viruses/bacteria set loose on the n.hemisphere's hapless serfs-sheeples.
Any-one with an i.q.above room temperature needs to look at 150-or-more older industrial hygene books and extrapolate from Bopal,back to the 19th.century E.V.
"B_B"

[Treading Water]

So how about you? I think that this has the potential to be one of the big new alternative medicine scares over the next few years, as baby boomers like me become senior citizens.

As a boomer myself I've been terrified of dementia. Worrying about every time I had one of those brain lock-ups. Wondering if I really "forgot" what someone told me or if "they" forgot to tell me....Then I figured out that worrying about it was just contributing to the stress that caused me to forget stuff in the first place.

I'm lucky enough to have a close, supportive, "medically challenged" family. And we have always picked up when one of us couldn't physically do something. So now I've noticed that when I hesitate when I'm talking one of my  younger sisters fills in for me.(Notice I said "when" and not "if").

I've never followed the alternative medicine adherents. A vitamin here and there, but NO baking soda or horse manure pills.

I think maureen's philosophy is perfect. I'm going to quote her at our next family get together. Of course, I'm going to write it down so I don't forget it.   

[SredniVashtar]

As someone mentioned earlier, dementia is bound to happen in a society where people are living longer. Just like cancer, these things are going to show up with increasing frequency the older we get. I don't imagine it was much of an issue two hundred years ago. Of course we can all do things that will harm us and take sensible precautions with our health in certain areas, but people get cancer and dementia however healthy or mentally active they are. Not to be flippant, but it's hard to know whether it is rational to fear something like Alzheimer's, as opposed to cancer, because it is hard to tell how much the sufferer is aware of what is happening to them when it reaches its most severe stage.

There is always someone who is willing to flog you one nostrum or another to guard against something that will most likely happen whatever we try to do to avoid it.

[Unquenchable Angst]

My father lived to 93 and was pretty sharp till near the end and in pretty good shape till a fall took him out. My mother had Alzheimer and it took her  at 89. Her balance went and her speech went and she made no sense verbally for the last 3-4 years which frustrated her because we were never sure what she was saying.Her mother went  senile in her 70's. My sister is in her early 70's now I will be 68 later this year.Time will tell if it is carried on X gene or I have some help avoiding with  a Y gene.Most males in the family (Father's side) died in their 70's but Dad was a vitamin freak and got a couple extra decades. I tend to take a lot of vitamins and herbs but not fanatically as dad.

[yumyumtree]

Anyone that states "if you think you have the early signs, you probably have it" is certainly a quack, and should be reported to his state board of medicine.

There are many reasons for what may be considered dementia. Chronic anxiety, or depression can appear as dementia. Certain illnesses can present with what appears to be dementia. And substance abuse can also appear as a form of impaired memory.

And not to forget (yes there is a pun there), as we age our retrieval factors suffer and our memory is not as quick as it once was... that isn't senility.

If you are 71 or older there is a 1 in seven chance of some form of dementia and the odds increase from then on.

Thanks. As I said, google Dr. Jerry Mixon and you will find some stuff that makes him appear not altogether credible or ethical.

Somebody told me once that a diagnoses of Alzheimers can't be confirmed until after the person is dead and there's an autopsy.  That's why I always use the term "senile dementia".  I notice that Mixon does not use the word "Alzheimer's" either.

I get concerned about exploitation of the elderly. From internet dating scammers, to phony IRS phone calls to grandparent scams, it seems like high tone nowadays to defraud old people.

[albrecht]

Obviously Alzheimers and dementia are real and because they are so awful (to the spouse, family, and friends more than to the person, eventually, though I think during the initial phases it is awful to the person also. Once full-on I reckon it is worse for the others than the afflicted) there is money to be made off it. Like cancer etc, there will be quacks and charlatans on account of it.

There might, I say might, be some benefits to supplements and, if they are at least benign and do no harm, I guess it is ok for people to sell them.
http://www.medicaldaily.com/alzheimers-may-be-linked-arginine-deprivation-supplements-wont-help-329248

I find interesting that another big "supplement" boom is by people trying to 'maximize' their brains- not for protection from dementia- but to "be more productive." Nothing new, really, look at caffine, cocaine, bennies, etc but interesting
http://observer.com/2015/04/nootropics/