For those who have children.

[Tincup]

The trouble with the apoe4 gene is that it serves no purpose apart from increasing risk of various diseases, not just alzheimers, but heart disease and long term damage from concussion. It has no place in the gene pool.

If it did not provide any benefit, then most likely it would no longer be in our DNA. ApoE3 came out around 220,000 years ago, and has overrun ApoE4 for the most part, but there are pockets where ApoE4 is more common. Why? I personally think it gives better ability to survive periods of famine. I have no proof, but would make an interesting research topic. One area where E4 is more common is northern Europe - a much harder environment for early man where the winters were harsher than now.

My 30,000' view of ApoE4 is that it is very good at inflammation, which is good in an acute setting but bad in a chronic one. It is also good at surviving deprivation. In a setting of abundance, this appears to be a negative as it will drive chronic inflammation. I make a choice to live a life that includes periods of deprivation and also frequent cold exposure.

I also have a 3/4 adult son with a glioblastoma brain cancer. After his surgery, I asked the neurosurgeon, with my son and the rest of the family present, what his odds were if he did everything standard of care asked. The answer, "12-18 months, 2% survive to 5 years." My point in bringing this up is none of us know what is ahead of us and him surviving to the age where his 3/4 status might be an issue would be considered a great victory in his situation. He is now 15 months post surgery and doing reasonably well.

[mike]

Well said Tincup

[kd7]

I also have a 3/4 adult son with a glioblastoma brain cancer.

Sorry to hear about your son. When I was researching Berberine which is part of my Bredersen protocol - I noticed some application for glioblastoma. I think it was just cell studies but you may want to research if you haven't already.

[Emerald]

The trouble with the apoe4 gene is that it serves no purpose apart from increasing risk of various diseases, not just alzheimers, but heart disease and long term damage from concussion. It has no place in the gene pool.

APOE4 does provide some known benefits, including protecting against parasites, liver damage in hepatitis C patients, etc. There are likely more benefits we are not aware of, as we are learning about the APOE alleles every day: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/arc ... st/512396/

There’s more on this topic here, which discusses APOE4 protecting against parasites: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytime ... a.amp.html

As you already know, people without APOE4 can and do get Alzheimer's, dementia, and mild cognitive impairment. APOE4 carriers just need to be more mindful of certain risks. And plenty of people with APOE4 live great lives. It's a risk gene - not a deterministic gene, and even if I do get Alzheimer's one day, I'm still grateful I was born.

It is possible that the vast majority of people - including APOE2 and APOE3 carriers - may develop Alzheimer's or some form of dementia if we succeed in rapidly extending lifespans. I've seen a few medical professionals postulate that if we extended average lifespans to 120+ to 150 years, but are unable to prevent or at least significantly delay the aging process during that time, nearly everyone would it. Here's one example: https://bigthink.com/videos/will-everyo ... g-enough-6

These are the credentials of the individual in the above article - he seems pretty intelligent to me:

"Dr. Leonard P. Guarente is an American biologist and director of MIT's Glenn Laboratory for the Science of Aging, where he is also a Novartis Professor of Biology. He is best known for his research on longevity and specifically for uncovering the gene in yeast that governs the organism's life span. He is the author of "Ageless Quest: One Scientist's Search for Genes That Prolong Youth," which was published in 2003 by Cold Spring Harbor Press."

I am a 3/4 woman. I eat as healthily as possible and also exercise and meditate, but still enjoy a few alcoholic beverages a week. I'm going to live as happily and positively as I can, and I feel very proud of my accomplishments in life. I'm glad I'm alive right now, even with a copy of APOE4.

Here's an interview with a family whose family carries a PSEN2 mutation - which is estimated to lead to Alzheimer's in 99.5% of carriers. His attitude is just incredible, he and his wife decided to have children (in his case, I can definitely see why some people would choose not to, but they went for it), and his odds are way worse than ours with one or two APOE4 copies: https://www.beingpatient.com/early-onse ... sen2-gene/

Being faced with your own mortality on a regular basis is different than having a car accident where all of a sudden, your life flashes before your eyes, but you survive the car accident. I’m sure that changes your life, but being faced with this on a regular basis has made me stop and think about life much more intentionally, live with no regrets, and make good intentional choices with my time, energy and money.

The silver lining about all of this is that I think it’s made me a better person in a strange and morbid way. A very popular philosophy in the 1600s and 1700s that permeated the entire society, including its art, fiction and literature was called memento mori, and it means “Remember you will die.” If on a consistent basis, you remind yourself that you are going to pass away, it very quickly begs the questions “How are you going to live?”; “What are you living for?; and “Are you actually in congruence with yourself, your choices and your values?” In a strange way, it has positively impacted my life.

There’s a great Confucius quote that says, “We all have two lives. The second begins when you realize you only have one.” That hits the nail on the head. I’ve realized I only have one life. Not to belittle this in any way, but it’s a little different than getting a stage 4 cancer diagnosis because a). There’s no treatment that’s effective for early-onset Alzheimer’s; and b). It’s not right now because I’m not dying in the next four months. I can’t just quit my job and travel the world. I still have to get up every day, raise my kids and provide for my family. It has affected a day-in and day-out relationship with death that was tough at first but has turned into a healthy and positive relationship.