Stories of Older ApoE4s That Don't Get AD, At Least Not Yet

[circular]

My maternal grandmother and great-aunt both had AD. My grandmother began symptoms in her 60s, my great-aunt maybe in her 80s. I assume I got my one ApoE4 from my mother. My mother is now 80 and I don't see any signs of even MCI, yet she's eaten the SAD her whole life and barely exercised. She has always had close friends, stayed active in her church, and formed strong emotional attachments to pets, friends, family, music, objects, places. She's been part of a memoirs group for many years, the same group of women writing and sharing their life experiences. And, she's taken estrogen since about age 46. She's also been on blood pressure and cholesterol meds, and Celebrex, for *many* years (had to stop the Celebrex b/c of kidney problems). Even though she could still get AD, she seems to have some kind of lifestyle equilibrium in her favor for now, suggesting you can still at least live a long life without AD if only some of your lifestyle habits are protective. She did develop RA in recent years (no family history of that) and has hypermobility issues. Of course it depends on your other genes and all kinds of other mysteries. Interestingly, neither of my maternal great-grandparents had dementia.

Just thought I'd share this. A thread of (so far) successes might be nice?

[Julie G]

Nice, Circ. I love the idea of sharing positivity, success stories...things that might work for us. Your Mom sounds amazing and her cognitive health bodes well for YOU Somewhere along my journey, I read that E4 carriers, who escape the derogatory effects of the allele by age 70, are much less likely to succumb.

My Mom is 75 and has at least one E4. She's also very social, involved in her church, with family, and her friends. She loves crocheting, her grandchildren, 1,000+ piece puzzles, crossword puzzles, and juggles a dozen "Words with Friends" games at a time. She also cares full-time for my 96 y/o Grandmother, who has AD, and lives with her. I recently moved back to my hometown to help.

I can occasionally see small lapses, certainly couldn't be classified as even mild MCI- things like searching for a word, etc. My Mom eats better than SAD; meat, potatoes, veg, very little wheat or pasta. Thanks to my nagging she is cutting back on sugar and rarely eats sweets. She recently stopped putting sugar in her coffee- huge. She does drink a glass of Riesling most evenings. She maintains a low BMI, exercises, walks at least two miles a day, takes fish oil, curcumin, magnesium, and melatonin. My fingers are crossed that she will continue to do well.

Please share more E4 success stories. They give us hope.

[circular]

Shoot! Just wrote a long reply and network kicked me out and it's gone and I gotta go ((

[Starfish77]

@Circular and @Juliegee
Thank you for the encouraging news about your mothers. They both sound as if they could hold their own against
any age group. Julie, after telling us all the things that your mother does, you added that your mom is taking full time care of your 96 year old grandmother with AD. We can now see where you get your "super powers" to be able to accomplish so much.

[circular]

I can occasionally see small lapses, certainly couldn't be classified as even mild MCI- things like searching for a word, etc.

I haven't had time to try to reconstruct my long post. Helping my mom downsize drastically. Stuff everywhere!

Anyway, I read that one of the things they consider when dx memory issues is whether there is change from baseline. My mom has had occasional troubling thinking of a right word for as long as I can recall. And very occasional complete losses of trains of thought in midstream. So I consider this type of thing her baseline, and probably attributable to ApoE4 with exacerbating lifestyle factors. It's always worse when she's under a lot of stress, so I take that into account too. When she was in her 60s her good friend and I thought she was getting AD. But it was a very, very stressful time, and that was why she got worse. She went back to "baseline" when things calmed down.

[Gilgamesh]

Brilliant idea, this thread. I can report that my parents, both 3/4s, in their late 70s, are doing fine -- essentially 100% "cognitively intact" (as the researchers say). This despite my father drinking 3 or sometimes 4 bottles of beer each night, and my mother having 2 or so glasses of wine each night. It would be more impressive if they were 4/4, but I still think of it as a hopeful sign.

GB

[circular]

Good news Gilgamesh! I just think there's so much we don't know. I think we should give equal emphasis to the unknown goods as we do the known bads.

[Julie G]

Of course, we can't forget our very own Starfish, 4/4, 76 y/o, and going strong. And, now we can add Gina's Mom, 4/4, 96 y/o, who's also beat the odds

Hearing about these amazing folks gives me MUCH hope.

[circular]

It would be great for Starfish and Gina to post the lifestyle habits here. I find it very interesting when people who may not even have altered their lifestyle in a "healthy" direction skate through, either because "lifestyle" meds compensate, or they have other compensating factors, like genes that are protective that we don't even know of yet.

[Julie G]

Here's a link to some dietary information that Starfish has previously shared:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=157

Of course, we'd all love to hear more...and about Gina's Mom