September 21 is a day set aside to bring awareness to Alzheimer's disease.
I was going to tell Mom about that, but she's old - so it'd probably go in one ear and...
All kidding aside... Seems to be more and more incidents of Alzheimer's, at least in this country. I used to think that was merely a sign that more people were living longer. But then I realized that the life expectancy in this country was... Well, we're not exactly leading that race, lol. We're ranked 33rd (females) and 32nd (males) by the WHO - and a (combined) 43rd by both the UN and the CIA. I wonder if those countries ranked higher have more incidents (adjusted for gross population) than us?
An author I liked, Terry Pratchett (RiP) - who wrote a slew of fiction novels, each of which able to be read in a couple hours - was diagnosed with
early-onset Alzheimer's at age 56 or thereabouts (and was probably affected before that). In August, 2007, he was misdiagnosed as having had a minor stroke in 2004 or 2005 - but late in 2007, he was newly diagnosed as having Alzheimer's (posterior cortical atrophy (PCA)), which had been responsible for the stroke ("stroke?").
He gave a million dollars to the Alzheimer's Research Trust, noting that the funding spent on Alzheimer's research was only 3% of what gets spent on cancer research. He then worked with the BBC to create a two-part documentary, titled
Terry Pratchett: Living With Alzheimer's. And (of course) he continued writing novels. In his later years, he had to do so by dictating to his assistant and by way of speech-recognition software. It appears that his cognitive function was unaffected (except, perhaps, towards the very end).
This year that date is being used to kick off a 12-day documentary series in halting the progress of and reversing the damage of the terrifying disease. If you're interested in following the series you'll find the registration page here.
I tried to view the information, but it wouldn't let me in without trading my privacy/anonymity for the privilege. It's not worth deconstructing their website over, lol - but if anyone finds a simple back-door approach, I'd appreciate a heads-up. Two or three years ago, after one of her infrequent visits to a doctor, Mom asked me what "predementia" meant. I found this to be somewhat ominous.
Additionally... I heard once, some time ago, that there might be some sort of causal link between aluminum cookware/etc. and Alzheimer's. I have
no idea whether or not this is true. But if it is, well, I used aluminum pots and the like for, IDK, 25 years? And have undoubtedly consumed approximately one billion (lol) beverages from aluminum cans (mostly Mountain Dew).
So... Yeah, I'd like to see the videos and/or read the information. Maybe, if there are videos, someone who uses Firefox as their web browser will install the "Video DownloadHelper" plug-in and grab a copy for me? IDK why they want me to view the content - but really, really want my email address. I guess there's a dollar in it? :mad:
After two years alone it's beginning to fit more comfortably.
Err... You're generally far less "alone" than I am when I'm standing in a crowd of people.
Shoot, the other day I was thinking of getting a cat.
Not gonna happen. Lol!
I'm not ready to go back to litter boxes.
They're surprisingly easy to train to use a commode. They can't lift the lid or flush it, of course - and it's not quite as easy as just sitting a kitten into a litter box for the first time and then calling the job done, lol. If that's your
only worry... One of my late uncles had at least one cat for most of his life, and Mom told me he "potty-trained" all of them.
For the most part, the cats that have lived in my home left the cannabis plants alone. The one remaining used to lay on top of a five-gallon bucket (little cat) until I realized that the soil/perlite mix was distressingly similar to a litter box, got worried about what might happen if she got stuck in there, and chased her out one day. Hasn't been back since. The one that died last year... Well, he pretty much lived in there (and died in there, too). I think he liked the plants above, the wind, and the occasional glimpses of artificial "dappled sunlight."
I did have one cat, years ago, that tried eating a cannabis plant. Then he tried acting like the wet pile of vomited cannabis had just spontaneously appeared
. So I added a small catnip plant and a shallow tray of "cat grass," and he - and his three brethren - confined their foraging to those.
The only real difficult thing about having cats is that we tend to outlive them. Most of mine didn't even live to age 20.
Oh geeze, I
was going to get up early today. I wonder if there's any caffeine left in the house?