{"id":29482,"date":"2022-11-10T19:00:14","date_gmt":"2022-11-11T03:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29482"},"modified":"2022-11-10T19:01:41","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T03:01:41","slug":"catching-alzheimers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/catching-alzheimers\/","title":{"rendered":"“Catching” Alzheimer’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

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You Can Catch Alzheimer’s<\/strong><\/p>\n

“You Can Catch Alzheimer’s” the headline reads. It goes on to explain it spreads during surgeries and blood transfusions, however, the headline is obviously misleading and disturbing. A questionable study was performed that led to this conclusion. One can only wonder if this is an anecdotal study [1], or about the sample size [2], and how big the actual effect was. [3] The media demands stories with “hooks”, or novelty, and this one has it, whether there is much truth to it or not. [4] I am sure the paper sold many copies because of this headline.<\/p>\n

Early On-set Alzheimer’s Disease<\/strong><\/p>\n

Early On-set Alzheimer’s Disease is the only form of Alzheimer’s that can be passed from one person to another, and that happens at birth according to the National Institute on Aging. [5] This is when you exhibit signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease between the ages of thirty and sixty-five years old. [6] Scientists have identified three genes with mutations that cause this form of Alzheimer’s. If you have any one of these three genes, there is a good chance of developing the disease. That is according to the Mayo Clinic. [7] If you have a parent with Early On-set Alzheimer’s Disease, you have a 50\/50 chance of inheriting one of these genes, and thereby developing the disease. [8]<\/p>\n

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A Mother’s Story<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2018, my mother died of early on-set Alzheimer’s Disease. She had lived with me the last eight years of her life. She was only 72 when she passed. In looking back to when her symptoms began, my siblings and I have concluded that her Alzheimer’s began when she was about 55 years old. It went undetected for several years. We simply thought she was getting quirkier with age. We realized there was a problem the day after I purchased a used vehicle for her while she was visiting me here in Mississippi. She made it home safely after some having a little trouble navigating through Memphis. However, she completely totaled the vehicle in her hometown of Branson, Missouri her first full day home. She was a nervous wreck driving.<\/p>\n

A Generation Back<\/strong><\/p>\n

Years before, our grandmother also had Early Onset-Alzheimer’s, and passed away at a very early age. She was an only child. She lived with my mother for a long time, until the last few years of her life when our aunts took over responsibility for her.<\/p>\n

So Far So Good<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have an older sister who is confident that she is going to be the one that gets this disease. If it were possible to speak it into existence, she would already have it. So far, she has no signs or symptoms of Early On-set Alzheimer’s. Personally, I would count that to be a blessing. I also have had no signs or symptoms. Praise God. In fact, to my knowledge, none of my siblings have had any trouble in this area at all.<\/p>\n

Whom Shall I Fear?<\/strong><\/p>\n

All of this leads me to the conclusion that perhaps the statistics and headlines for this disease could be a bit misleading at times, and certainly scary. Maybe they err on the side of caution. And certainly we cannot overlook God’s sovereignty in all things. Psalm 27:1 states, “The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” [9] The answer is no one, not even Alzheimer’s disease, or the unknown future.<\/p>\n

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[1]\u00a0 Chivers, Tom, and David Chivers. 2022. How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News (and Knowing When to Trust Them)<\/i>. Paperback edition. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p. 15.<\/div>\n
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[2]\u00a0 Chivers, Tom, and David Chivers. 2022. How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News (and Knowing When to Trust Them)<\/i>. Paperback edition. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p. 28.<\/div>\n
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[3]\u00a0 Chivers, Tom, and David Chivers. 2022. How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News (and Knowing When to Trust Them)<\/i>. Paperback edition. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p. 45.<\/div>\n
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[4]\u00a0 Chivers, Tom, and David Chivers. 2022. How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News (and Knowing When to Trust Them)<\/i>. Paperback edition. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p. 104.<\/div>\n
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[5]\u00a0 National Institute on Aging, “Alzheimer’s Disease Genetics Fact Sheet,” December 2019, November 2022, https:\/\/www.nia.nih.gov\/health\/alzheimers-disease-genetics-fact-sheet.<\/div>\n

[6]\u00a0 Zhu, Xi-Chen. 2015. \u201cRate of Early Onset Alzheimer\u2019s Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.\u201d National Library of Medicine, Annals of Translational Medicine<\/i> 3, no. 3 (March): 38. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3978\/j.issn.2305-5839.2015.01.19<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[7]\u00a0 Mayo Clinic, “Alzheimer’s Genes: Are You At Risk?” May 2021, November 2022, tinyurl.com\/ybtkx8wh.<\/p>\n

[8]\u00a0 National Institute on Aging, “Alzheimer’s Disease Genetics Fact Sheet,” December 2019, November 2022, https:\/\/www.nia.nih.gov\/health\/alzheimers-disease-genetics-fact-sheet.<\/p>\n

[9]\u00a0 Crossway Bibles, ed. 2007. ESV: Study Bible: English Standard Version<\/i>. ESV text ed. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles, p. 587.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You Can Catch Alzheimer’s “You Can Catch Alzheimer’s” the headline reads. It goes on to explain it spreads during surgeries and blood transfusions, however, the headline is obviously misleading and disturbing. A questionable study was performed that led to this conclusion. One can only wonder if this is an anecdotal study [1], or about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography-drama-history","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29482"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29489,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29482\/revisions\/29489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}