Hi everyone! I'm new here :)

[druess]

Hi everyone,

My name is David and I come from the land of 10,000 lakes - Minnesota.
I discovered this site through my promethease report. In the gs141 genoset it lists this community as a place to discuss research and find support.

TLDR - Mom has early onset Alzheimer's. I have e3/e4 variants. I like learning about nutrition, my body, and am motivated by being as efficient as possible when it comes to health and preventing Alzheimer's in myself.

Why I'm here:
I just want to do as much as possible to prevent Alzheimer's in my life. I've always enjoyed learning about nutrition, my body, blood sugar, DNA, etc.. mainly because I don't like exercising and want to be as efficient as possible when I do exercise, and I hate the afternoon slump. I'm a pretty open book with all my test results - I hope they can benefit and help someone - whether for research, or just even if they want to see what different test results look like before they buy one.

About me:
I'm 33 year old male, e3/e4 variants, 5'11'', ~160-165 pounds. Also diagnosed with ADHD at 31, realized it was present my whole life, and have been currently learning to be kind to myself as I try to rewire some unhelpful habits and unhelpful thought patterns (including depression and anxiety) that have formed over the years.

Recent Steps I've taken regarding e3/e4 and Alzheimer's:
1. I've removed gluten from my diet after seeing a remarkable transformation that occurred in two of my aunts (two years back they did not look healthy, both had lots of arthritis, one could barely walk, but they removed gluten from their diet and have reduced almost all of their inflammation, the one can walk without any pain now, and they look so much healthier!!).
2. I've started exercising again. I had started early on in the year for a woman, lol, but then quit. I have a rower, so I just started rowing again while I watch videos from the grad program I'm in.
3. After reading Tim Ferris' book 4 Hour Body, I've been on a more LCHF diet for a couple months.
4. I've recently started being intentional about the type of food I buy - so less processed, and more actual whole food (removing gluten really helped in this change), and now reading through the primer, excited about that dirty dozen/clean 15 list.
5. Still working through the primer.
6. Partially read "The End Of Alzheimer's", but still working through it.

Backstory of why I'm here:
My mom, 65, was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's over the past year, but we had started to notice memory issues a couple years prior with the length of time it took to balance a checkbook. It has been absolutely devastating to see her decline. She still currently lives in her home with my Dad, but it's not the most peaceful environment. I've learned a lot about her childhood recently and learned there was a lot of trauma in her life growing up, so she's often very afraid but doesn't know why. She's currently at the place where she often doesn't know how to wash her hands with soap (the order is difficult), can't make her own breakfast though she tries, can't operate the microwave/washing machine, etc.., she usually remembers who I am, but sometimes will completely forget who I am and that she ever had children I've realized that she can be lucid in the moment, but after several days, forgets who she was talking with, or lives with - so she thinks she's living with multiple men who take care of her (even though it's just my Dad). Sorry, I'm obviously still very caught up in this. I'm crying as I write this. It's super sad because I care about her a lot and she's just had a hard life.

Sorry this was so long! I'm excited to be here and learn from everyone!
- David

[NF52]

Hi everyone,
My name is David and I come from the land of 10,000 lakes - Minnesota....
I discovered this site through my promethease report. In the gs141 genoset it lists this community as a place to discuss research and find support. ...Mom has early onset Alzheimer's. I have e3/e4 variants. I like learning about nutrition, my body, and am motivated by being as efficient as possible when it comes to health and preventing Alzheimer's in myself. ...
I just want to do as much as possible to prevent Alzheimer's in my life.
I'm 33 year old male, e3/e4 variants, 5'11'', ~160-165 pounds. Also diagnosed with ADHD at 31, realized it was present my whole life, and have been currently learning to be kind to myself as I try to rewire some unhelpful habits and unhelpful thought patterns (including depression and anxiety) that have formed over the years.

Sorry, I'm obviously still very caught up in this. I'm crying as I write this. It's super sad because I care about her a lot and she's just had a hard life.

Sorry this was so long! I'm excited to be here and learn from everyone!
- David

A warm welcome and hug from someone who could be your genetic aunt, David. And, for extra credit, I lived in the Land of 10,000 Lakes when I was much younger so claim to be part-Minnesotan. Especially when people complain about winter when it's 30 degrees and I explain that -30 below is when school might get cancelled in Minnesota.

I have three adult children in their 30's who also have ApoE 3/4. I fully expect they and you will live healthy, fulfilling lives with purpose and enough joy to last you through the sad times. It's important to recognize that your mom's diagnosis of "early onset Alzheimer's" just before she turned 65 does not mean that she or you have the dominant genes for what is confusingly also called Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease (EAOD) which is usually diagnosed in multiple family members in the 40's and 50's. Apoe 4 is a risk for Late-Onset Alzheimer's Disease (LOAD), usually diagnosed after age 65. But for some people, they have what is also termed "young-onset" variation of LOAD.

So let me first say that your list of positive actions you are taking is absolutely going to help you--and I would add "grad school" to that, since "cognitive reserve" in the form of both high levels of education and lifelong cognitive challenges, new learning, flexible mindsets and creating new mental maps are associated with both resistance to both genetic and environmental risk factors and resilience even given signs of changes in the brain.

I know what it is like to have that predisposition to anxiety. Recognizing it and the ADHD means that you are going to be able to be resilient and they may have less of an impact as you organize your life to see them as providing strengths (empathy, altruism, energy, creativity) as well as challenges. It also does not mean that your personality orientation isn't optimistic, which I would say is the case from reading your post and your list. Having an optimistic attitude that you can effect change in your future and that problems are specific, temporary and external (not pervasive, permanent and personal) has also been associated with delaying heart disease and cognitive impairment. A great resource for you and one that will also help you understand how the trauma your mother experienced may have affected her own risk for depression, is Dr. Martin Seligman's Learned Optimism. It's been out for a long time, but still relevant. He is the "founder" of the school of positive psychology, and he was the researcher who first wrote of "learned helplessness" in the 1970's.

Your post shows that even when faced with your mom's diagnosis, you are able to fully feel the pain of the loss of who she was, and the demands her diagnosis places on your dad, while also seeing that in very real ways, memory is not necessary to know that we are loved and protected by those we trust. My own mother also sometimes forgot information that I thought was in her steel-trap mind forever. But she never forgot how to smile and always loved a good strong hug.

Remember that you have only 50% of your mother's genes and that as you look at your dad's side of the family, you may see relatives who had many traits that you carry. (I like to think I take after my paternal grandmother, who lived to be 93 and was a political junkie to the end, more than my unfortunate maternal grandmother, who died at age 45 of a stroke. My two sons are hugely grateful that they didn't inherit the genes for early male baldness that my dad and their sole male cousin discovered in their 20's.)

Two suggestions for you, and one for you and your dad:
1. You may want to browse the Primer. Written by a doctor who also has ApoE 4/4, it offers a comprehensive view of strategies to improve your health.
2. Our wiki resource on How to get the most out of the ApoE4.info website will save you time by showing how to quote members so they are notified of your reply, how to subscribe to topics to threads of interest, how to search for topics beyond those that show up in the Index page, and how to send Private Messages, if needed.

You and your dad are embarking on a journey that you didn't plan for, and are likely to benefit from many sources of support along the way. But available online resources, including the Alzheimer's Navigator from the Alzheimer's Association, may be very helpful to your dad, even if he never want to join a support group. Make sure your dad knows it's important to keep some time in his week for his hobbies, friends and even time by himself. When neighbors, friends and relatives say "How can I help?", he should ask for specific actions like coming over every Monday evening to play simple card games or go through old photo albums with your mom, so your dad can watch football as at a friend's house. Or have her friends rotate turns taking your mom to get her hair or nails done. (Trust me, she'll love it, especially if it's followed by an easy lunch with a friend at Panera's or other "fast casual" restaurant.)

Finally, never apologize for writing too much--write as much as you need, whenever you need! From a 67-year old ApoE 4/4, former-Minnesotan who wants to hear about that grad program.