ShannonHasHope wrote:
So I decided to impulsively run my raw DNA into Promethase this weekend and I was flagged for being heterozygous 3/4
I just turned 24 last month...I will not lie my heart dropped when I read the statistics for it, and I am trying not to think about it all the time but I find myself thinking I'll take anything BUT losing my memory.
Slowly it has gotten better day by day, but still weighs heavily on me.
Though the silver lining of this is I realized I need to cut down my sugar, carbs, and processed food consumption as well as increase exercise and supplements. given my liver enzymes are already going up and have a bunch of other health issues (ironically most are genetic if not all).
I hope and pray by the time I am in my 60s, that more progress will be made on our gene.
I am so thankful I'm not alone in figuring this out.
Welcome and a hug from a 68 year old with two copies of ApoE4 who, like Tincup who also welcomed you, can say "I'm in my 60's and amazing progress is being made!" We are not outliers; we have an APOE 4/4 member in her 80's who can say that, another in his late 70's and MANY I know in their 60's who are engaged in exciting new pursuits.
Think about this: About 20-25% of people you meet also carry one copy of ApoE4, including, people now the age of your grandparent with an exceptional memory who may have the same genes as you do. Your family may use the term "Alzheimer's" as a kind of shorthand for what your great-grandmother had when she died. But if she was like most people in late old age when she died, it was much more likely a combination of vascular dementia caused by long-standing heart disease with some of the amyloid plaques and tau tangles of Alzheimer's. We now can delay and prevent most heart disease through diet and exercise and, for those with signs of heart disease, great cardiac care and monitoring. (My dad died of cardiac arrest when he was 67; my three siblings and I are that age and older and NONE of us has cardiac problems--or memory problems.)
On the amyloid and tau front, the FDA is probably within a year of approving the first of what may be many drugs to remove toxic amyloid from those whose brains cannot clear it, and are learning rapidly how to support the health of neurons.
Just this week researchers published results from a "meta-analysis" of hundreds of studies that support the same strategies that Tincup recommended checking out from the
Primer. Our genes are amazingly intricate, yet they don't determine our future! Don't throw out everything you do at once--even Dr. Stavia, the author of the Primer, gives herself permission to have her favorite pastries once in a while.)
Most importantly, Shannon, keep that hope!! The fear and dread you're feeling is normal; it's actually our brain's way of saying "wait, there might be danger far ahead!" Once we can use the "executive" part of our brain (the frontal lobe that does planning, organizing, evaluating, reflecting, goal-setting) to think about what is important to us (for me it's reading and learning, for Tincup it's sometimes mountain climbing for hours at a time) , then our ramped-up amygdala will calm down and say, as you are already saying
"I'm hopeful and this is a silver lining. I'm taking charge of my future; what happened to my ancestors is not my future."
You're never alone, Shannon. Reach out whenever you want.
