Participants: Don Miller, Agatha Thrash
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000139
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00:01 Hello, I'm Agatha Thrash a staff physician from
00:04 Uchee Pines Institute. 00:05 This institute is a place where we teach people how to do 00:11 medical missionary work, and health education. 00:13 As such we deal with people who are aging quite a lot, 00:17 sometimes we have people who have Alzheimer's Disease. 00:19 I suppose that part of the body that we hate to see aging 00:24 the most is the nervous system, because that brings with it 00:27 a lot of loss of function, and for the next half an hour 00:31 we will be talking about aging of the mind, 00:34 maybe you would like to join us. 00:55 Welcome to Help Yourself To Health 00:58 with Dr. Agatha Thrash of Uchee Pines Institute, 01:01 and now here is your host Dr. Thrash. 01:04 Aging comes to the body at a different rate for many of 01:11 the organs. 01:12 Our first organ to begin to age is the thymus gland, 01:17 it is located in the chest, and even before we are born 01:20 it is beginning to involute, or to age, and then we age 01:25 the other organs at different rates, of the spleen, 01:28 the liver, the pancreas, muscles, bones, joints, 01:33 and we hope that the nervous system will be the very last 01:37 that will age. 01:38 We want to see this slow progression, 01:41 in fact the ideal would be that we would never loose 01:44 function even though we do age. 01:47 Aging should not be a time when we expect ill health, 01:50 aging and ill health should not be synonymous. 01:54 we should recognize that during the aging process we can keep 01:59 ourselves quite healthy by strict obedience to the 02:03 eight natural laws of health. 02:04 In fact one of the great reasons to institute these laws, 02:07 in childhood is that that you can preserve the youthful 02:12 functioning's of the various parts of the body into 02:16 advanced old age. 02:17 As Americans we often loose our functions one point at a time, 02:23 we loose our teeth, we loose our vision, we loose the 02:27 elasticity of the skin. 02:29 Then we loose our muscle tone, we began to loose our bone, 02:33 so little by little, then we may loose a little part of the 02:37 heart, or we may loose a little part of the intestinal tract. 02:40 Little by little we loose our organs until finally we get so 02:45 that we can't walk, we don't sleep well, we can't eat 02:48 a lot of things, and we're essentially becoming aged. 02:54 Aged because of the loss of various functions, one step 02:58 at a time. 02:59 Now as we come to think about what is memory loss, 03:03 or the loss of the nervous system, not all of memory loss 03:09 is Alzheimer's Disease. 03:11 Although we may jokingly say when we forget something 03:15 that my Alzheimer's is working up today. 03:17 We should not say that because it may not be that we have 03:22 special forgetfulness at all. 03:25 In the age of 20 or 30, we may have as much forgetfulness 03:31 as we have at 50 or 60, or 70, but because at 60 and 70 03:36 we think that the person should be beginning to show signs 03:41 of Alzheimer's, any forgetfulness at all, 03:44 or any lack of planning or loss of memory of how to do 03:51 some function, we began to be worried, and we begin 03:54 to think, is this Alzheimer's? 03:56 Now if a person has a serious loss of memory, then we should 04:01 not just immediately label it Alzheimer's but look for 04:04 some other cause which may be treatable. 04:07 A treatable cause not recognized may cause the person to get 04:13 to a position where they are really crippled with the 04:16 mental functions, and of course at that point 04:19 they then have a serious difficulty in returning to 04:24 a place o functioning. 04:25 Let's talk about one of the commonest causes of the loss 04:29 of mental functioning and that's atherosclerosis, 04:32 or hardening of the arteries. 04:34 We have two carotid arteries that are the principle sources 04:39 of blood flow to the brain, we also two vertebral arteries 04:45 that go up from the back, but having four arteries altogether 04:50 that supply the brain, and we can get hardening of the 04:53 arteries in any one of those, or in all of those. 04:57 Or we could have a fairly clear carotid artery system 05:01 and the hardening of the arteries can be inside the head 05:05 without a lot of significant artery hardening lower down. 05:10 Even the very tiny blood vessels of the brain can become 05:15 hardened and loose their function, loose their ability 05:19 to carry the blood to the brain and all of these can 05:23 cause deterioration. 05:24 If you have a stethoscope in your home, or if your 05:29 doctor listens to your carotid arteries, the doctor may say 05:33 to you that you have a bruit, it is spelled bruit, 05:38 which means a noise or a sound made by the blood 05:44 as it swishes past some obstruction or partial 05:48 obstruction in your carotid arteries. 05:50 You may also hear this in the aorta, hear this bruit, 05:55 or this noise in the aorta, or in the iliac veins that 05:59 go down through the groin into the legs. 06:03 Wherever we hear a bruit it's always unpleasant for the 06:08 doctor to hear because he knows that inside that artery 06:11 is a cushion or mound causing and eddying of the blood 06:18 as the blood swishes over it, and that is a cause for concern, 06:23 it indicates that the person has hardening of the arteries. 06:26 We need to recognize hardening of the arteries because it 06:30 can be reversed to some degree and by changes 06:33 in lifestyle by very careful attention to one's food, 06:37 one's exercise, even such things as sunning, breathing, 06:41 deeply of fresh air, all of these things may help to 06:45 reduce one's likelihood of getting this hardening 06:48 that causes the closure of the blood vessels going 06:52 up to the head. 06:54 Then another thing is that of trauma, repeated trauma 06:58 to the head, such as might come from competitive sports, 07:01 of course whatever is done there is usually a permanent 07:05 loss and may not be reversible. 07:07 But that at least would not be Alzheimer's and we need 07:11 to recognize that there can be a difference. 07:13 Then there is a theory that partially cooked grains 07:18 may be a real problem for some people. 07:22 We know that grains may start out, let us say this 07:26 size, relatively speaking and as we cook them a little 07:29 bit they become a little softer. 07:32 The outside part of the grain dissolves or cooks or softens 07:38 and becomes a part of the fluid around it, and then 07:43 the grain becomes smaller and smaller, and finally it's 07:47 small enough that it can enter a capillary, 07:49 but not small enough that it can go through the finest 07:53 meshes of the capillary meshwork and there it stops. 07:58 So when it gets into the blood stream through the 08:00 intestinal tract, it flows or travels to a certain 08:05 distance and then stops at that point. 08:08 That means that the blood flow to the tissue beyond that 08:12 is cut off, then the person gets a tiny micro-abscess 08:17 a little sterile abscess there has no germs in it but it is 08:22 in a place where we have lost some tissue, 08:24 and the tissue has died and then be replaced by a scar. 08:28 Now interestingly enough the radiologist tell us that 08:33 after a person passes about the age of 30, they have many 08:37 tiny scars called Lacunar Scars in the brain, 08:42 and these are postulated by some researchers to be 08:46 caused by partly cooked grains. 08:48 So we need to recognize that this may be a thing of prudence 08:51 for us to remember to cook grains well, several hours 08:54 of cooking are required to properly cook grains that 08:58 are used for cereal or mush. 09:00 Such as rice or oatmeal, or corn grits, all of these 09:07 require several hours of cooking before they are 09:09 ready for a person to eat. 09:13 Now stress is another reason for loss of memory, 09:16 some of you may have had the experience of a very 09:19 stressful day, and then you say where are my keys, 09:23 or where is my notebook, or where did I leave my 09:25 pocket PC, and you can't remember where these things are. 09:30 They are lost! 09:32 You may even forget your purse or you billfold, 09:36 something very important and may be just out of place 09:40 because of stress. 09:41 Stress can also have a permanent effect if it is 09:45 serious enough, then a serious loss such as a house 09:49 burning down, or someone in the family dying. 09:54 These things may be stressful enough that it may cause 09:57 some kind of permanent loss of memory, at least for the 10:00 things that surround that period of time, 10:03 any major loss can be associated with that. 10:07 Now there are some physical stresses, metabolic stresses, 10:10 such as come on with over eating, overeating is a 10:13 metabolic stress on the body, it also is a stress 10:18 on the central nervous system, and it is nothing to 10:23 joke about that we overeat. 10:26 When we overeat, we increase the likelihood that we may 10:31 get Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease, 10:34 this is a very important thing for us to recognize. 10:38 So as we consider these things there are many things that 10:43 we can do to make certain that we do not have these 10:46 kinds of problems that reduce the mental functioning 10:49 of the person. 10:50 Now alcoholism and other toxins illicit and licit drugs 10:56 that we may take can also make their toll on the 11:00 central nervous system and make it so that we are 11:02 unlikely to maintain brisk mental functioning right into 11:06 advanced old age. 11:07 A B-12 deficiency, especially for tall blue eyed, fair skinned 11:13 or freckled individuals who have a north European 11:16 extraction, these individuals tend to be more susceptible 11:20 to B-12 deficiency and it may be correctable, at least 11:26 early enough it is correctable so tests should be done, 11:30 the person should be evaluated for that kind of problem. 11:34 Also a Folic Acid deficiency, for the same reasons that 11:39 B-12 causes a problem, and then hypercalcemia, 11:44 that's an increase in calcium, this can cause also deposits 11:50 of calcium in the central nervous system, 11:52 and that can result in a reduced mental functioning. 11:56 Lo thyroid is another very correctable problem that 12:01 a person may have and that can easily be corrected 12:06 and we will want to do so. 12:08 Of course there are serious organ failures that occur 12:12 in people who have serious disease of liver and kidneys 12:17 and these can cause also a loss of mental functioning. 12:22 We need to be able to diagnose some of these problems and 12:27 to help me talk with you about the whole problem of 12:32 mental and emotional problems is Don Miller who is a 12:36 health educator/health counselor at Uchee Pines Institute 12:40 and Don Miller will now talk with you some things about 12:43 the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, Don Miller! 12:46 Thank you Dr. Thrash! 12:47 You know Dr. Thrash just mentioned many things 12:50 that can give Alzheimer's type symptoms, but we have to 12:54 understand that those things alone do not give a diagnosis 12:57 of Alzheimer's, matter of fact it's really hard to diagnose 13:01 Alzheimer's. 13:02 One thing by itself cannot be the one, let's say one 13:06 that we always think about is loss of memory. 13:09 I just can't think of any more, we all have losses of memory 13:13 we've been forgetting things all of our lives, and that by 13:16 itself is not a loss of memory. 13:18 Let's take it to a finer tuned thing. 13:21 I am always loosing the keys to my car, but it's when we 13:25 forget that we have a car that we might be a little bit 13:28 more concerned with a memory loss. 13:30 One way, and I think I need to at the same time we are talking 13:35 about some of the things that may be a diagnosis of 13:38 Alzheimer's, I can also mention some things along the way 13:41 that we can protect ourselves from developing these types 13:44 of diseases. 13:46 This is just theory on my part, we need to keep the mind 13:50 strong, and we realize that one thing, that deranges 13:54 the mind, and this is a mind derangement type of illness 13:58 is a disorderly environment. 14:00 We need to keep our environment neat. 14:03 We miss-lay our keys because our place is a wreck, 14:06 we don't have any system to our lives, we need to develop 14:10 a system in our lives where everything, 14:12 a place for everything, and everything in it's place, 14:14 which is the way the saying goes. 14:16 If we do these, we're talking about not so much as one 14:20 messy corner, the trunk of your car can't even be messy 14:24 and as we keep everything arranged, our mind will keep 14:28 from becoming deranged. 14:30 The second one of the diagnosing steps might be, a difficulty 14:36 in performing familiar tasks, things like tying your shoes, 14:40 or winding your watch, or turning on the stove. 14:43 I remember a few years ago being in someone's home 14:45 where the person in the home had gone in to make himself 14:51 a sandwich, but he forgot how to make a sandwich. 14:53 Now it wasn't Alzheimer's in this case, he had just had 14:56 a TIA, and his mind wasn't working well, so we cannot 15:00 misdiagnose by calling on a lot of other things 15:03 that might be causing this particular problem. 15:06 Another one of the warning signs, or diagnostic signs 15:10 of Alzheimer's is a language difficulty, 15:14 I just can't think of that word any more. 15:17 It's no problem not being able to think of that word, 15:20 but when we are constantly not being able to bring up 15:23 that word that we need, a familiar word, that might be 15:26 a little bit of a diagnostic clue, that we might be heading 15:29 down Alzheimer's highway, so look for the person who just 15:33 is always grasping for words. 15:35 Disorientation as regards to time and place. 15:40 Now I travel a lot, and I travel internationally a lot 15:44 and I go through lots of time zones, I remember the last time 15:49 I traveled, I came back from Africa, 15:52 it was the longest day of my life. 15:55 It happened to be my birthday, I left 15 minutes before 15:57 my birthday, got home about five hours before my birthday 16:01 ended, and that was the longest day of my life. 16:04 I remember going to bed that night, waking up in the 16:06 middle of the night, laying there in bed, 16:07 I had no idea where I was, when it was, or even who I was, 16:11 that was because of a disorientation as to time 16:15 and place because of an upset schedule. 16:18 So, what do we do with somebody who might be going down 16:21 Alzheimer's highway, they've got to become regular 16:25 in their schedules, everything on their right time, 16:28 everything on schedules. 16:30 If someone seems to be going down that slope, 16:32 correct the damage right now, you might be able to slow 16:36 it down if not stop it. 16:38 People who show poor or decreased judgment, 16:42 now most of us show poor and decreased judgment 16:46 all the time, but someone who has been consistently 16:48 of a good judgment all of a sudden starts making poor 16:52 judgment choices, that's one of the diagnostic 16:55 tools of Alzheimer's. 16:57 Problems with abstract thinking, another one of the diagnostic 17:03 tools of Alzheimer's. 17:05 Misplacing things, and again that goes along with the memory, 17:09 I sort of put these two together, but we are always 17:12 miss-laying things, we can't find... 17:14 I remember one time I spent a half an hour looking for 17:17 my glasses and I finally found them they were hanging 17:19 on my nose. 17:20 Now I don't have Alzheimer's, I just was really flustered 17:23 that day and I don't understand why I couldn't see them, 17:25 as soon as I looked in the mirror I saw my glasses 17:28 where they were supposed to be, hanging off my nose. 17:30 Those people who are always misplacing things could be 17:34 a diagnostic tool. 17:35 Changes in mood and behavior. 17:38 Now I need to mention as I talk about mood and behavior 17:41 the fact that sometimes we can keep who we really are 17:46 under wraps, and who we really are when we start 17:51 getting into areas of Alzheimer's or dementia, 17:54 or just senility which is probably what we can group 17:57 them all as in some form, the real you comes out. 18:02 I remember my great-grandmother 1969, she was lying in bed 18:07 at home, she was in her upper 90's. 18:09 She was the most beautiful woman in life, and there she was 18:13 laying in her bed, and I went in to see her, and she said 18:17 oh Donny, get my purse, I've got a million dollars 18:21 in there for you. 18:22 That was my grandmother, that's the way she was, 18:25 she never had anything to give me really, except for her love. 18:28 But she wanted to give me everything that she had, 18:31 and that's who she was, and as we get into these areas 18:34 where we start to loose that mental control over 18:38 who we are, we become who we really are. 18:40 I like that saying, you may not be who you think you are, 18:43 but what you think, you are. 18:45 So allow the Lord to change that character now, so that 18:49 when the day comes, and it may come for some of us, 18:51 that we start loosing that physical control, 18:54 that mental control over who we are, what we then are 18:58 is a pretty nice person still. 19:00 I remember walking though a nursing home years ago 19:03 in Oklahoma where I was going to graduate school 19:07 and the lady... she used to invite me home for lunch 19:11 every day, now this lady was 89 years old. 19:13 Every Sabbath she invited me home for lunch, 19:15 and she would spread the table... 19:17 I've always been thin, they are always trying 19:18 to fatten me up, it's great to be thin, 19:20 and we would walk in there feed me all this food, 19:22 then we would go to the nursing home where she 19:24 took care of people. 19:25 I remember walking down the highway and there was this 19:28 lady over there in one of these rooms, rocking in her 19:31 rocking chair, with one steady stream of profanity 19:35 coming out of her mouth. 19:36 It was frightening, maybe that's who she really was, 19:39 I don't know but one of these personality and judgment 19:43 things when they start to change, it could be one of 19:45 the signs of Alzheimer's. 19:48 Changes in personality, and loss of imitative, 19:52 you just no longer want to do anything. 19:55 A person who used to love just to play the piano, 19:59 they no longer have an interest in playing the piano any more, 20:02 all of these things are diagnostic clues that you 20:07 might be going down Alzheimer's highway. 20:09 Going back to this recognition and memory thing, 20:12 it's when we can see the person, or see the thing 20:16 and we still can't remember who it is or what it is, 20:19 whether we can see it or hear it, or feel it, or whatever, 20:23 if we can't do that, one of the diagnostic signs that 20:27 we might be going down Alzheimer's highway. 20:29 There are things that we can do to maybe slow it down 20:32 but whatever the case is, we need to be aware 20:35 that it is happening because we've got to be ready 20:37 for it too, if we are not getting it, if our loved one is 20:40 I'll talk about that in a few minutes. 20:41 Dr. Thrash! 20:43 Alzheimer's by any means is not funny although sometimes 20:46 we loose our keys and we make a joke about it, 20:49 but Alzheimer's has a great impact on us and we need to 20:54 recognize the seriousness of this diagnosis. 20:59 There are certain things that happen to us in the brain 21:04 that are diagnostic of Alzheimer's, unfortunately 21:08 we have to have a sample of the brain itself in order to 21:11 make that diagnosis, and not very many people are going to 21:15 let you have that kind of sample to examine under 21:20 the microscope, but I would like to show you on 21:22 the white board here just what kind of thing we are 21:25 dealing with in the brain when we are talking about 21:29 Alzheimer's disease. 21:30 Let us say that we have here a nerve cell, here it is, 21:36 looks somewhat like this, and I'm going to draw it as if 21:39 it were on it's side so that I can make this extension 21:42 out here like that. 21:43 This is the axon, this is the cell body, and over here 21:48 we have some more processes which we call dendrites. 21:53 Now when the person is getting Alzheimer's disease, one of the 21:57 first things that happens is that, or one thing that 22:00 may happen is that they get Amyloid plaques that form 22:04 on the nerve cells somewhere. 22:08 It can be on the axon, it can be on the processes, or it 22:11 can be on the cell body. 22:13 These Amyloid plaques are of unknown source, we don't 22:19 really know where they come from, nor what makes them. 22:22 Although I have a theory, I think it may be from 22:25 our overeating or it may be from something that we do 22:30 that breaks one of the eight laws of health. 22:32 Another good reason to be careful about all of those, 22:36 but at any rate, at the present time we do not know 22:39 where these Amyloid plaques come from. 22:41 Another thing is a tangle of these processes, 22:45 these are called neurofibrillary tangles 22:48 and they can occur right up on the cell body or out 22:52 in the processes out here like this. 22:55 And then of course another thing that can happen is that 22:58 we can loose the entire cell, it just drops out and dies, 23:03 and this is a thing that we can understand as being 23:08 what Alzheimer's disease is. 23:11 It's a number of things that make it so that we are 23:15 unlikely to be able to transmit nerve impulses which we call 23:20 memory. 23:22 These changes usually occur in a portion of the brain 23:27 which might be thought of as being between the temples 23:33 and between the eyebrows where those two lines intersect 23:38 would be about where the hippocampus would be, 23:42 that's about the level, but it is on one side or the other. 23:45 Now some other things that we can tell you about Alzheimer's 23:51 that make a very serious problem is the impact that 23:55 Alzheimer's disease has on others. 23:58 I think that is one of the most serious things that we have, 24:01 and Don Miller is going to talk with you a bit about that. 24:04 You may be that other one of these days! 24:06 How do you deal with your loved one becoming a victim 24:11 of Alzheimer's? 24:12 First of all we have to not get flustered in the face 24:17 of that loved one because they to, where as they may seem like 24:21 they don't remember anything, they to are struggling with it 24:24 somewhere in that lost confused mind, so we have to do 24:28 a number of things for this person. 24:29 You have to realize that that person is going to go from 24:32 total independence, to total dependence. 24:35 They will go from the place where they can take their bath 24:38 by themselves, to the place where you've got to remind them 24:41 to take their bath, to the place where you have to 24:43 help them take the bath. 24:45 And the time is going to come when they don't want to 24:47 take the bath, and you can't force them at that point, 24:50 You've got to slowly bring them into that experience, 24:52 you've got to talk gently to them, they've got to be talked 24:55 gently to. 24:56 I've heard people with loved ones who may not have had 25:00 Alzheimer's but some type of dementia, some type of senility 25:04 and the person would ask the same question over... 25:07 Where are we going? 25:08 We're going to town! Where are we going? 25:11 We are going to town! 25:12 Where are we going? 25:14 And that would happen 20, 30 times, I would always marvel 25:18 that the person could sit there and answer that same question 25:21 the same kind way, exactly the same answer, every single time. 25:26 We have to become like that, that's the way Jesus 25:29 would like us to be in those situations. 25:31 We have to make sure we insure adequate time for all the 25:35 tasks that have to be preformed, if we have to go over here for 25:38 a purpose, or over there for a purpose, 25:40 don't think you are going to do it like you did it last week 25:42 or last year, it's going to take a little bit longer 25:44 to get there, a little bit longer to get out to the car, 25:46 because the person's going to be a little bit more afraid 25:49 of falling perhaps. 25:50 You've got to install some grab bars and some 25:52 protective things in the home for the person who is going 25:56 down Alzheimer's highway. 25:58 You've got to prepare for any task that you are going to be 26:01 taking that person to, if you are going to give them a bath 26:03 have everything ready before you put them in that bath. 26:06 You can't put them in that bath and then go off looking for 26:09 the towel or the soap, or the scrub brush, everything 26:13 has to be there, they can not be left alone, 26:15 especially in situations where it could become rather dangerous 26:18 for them. 26:19 And please protect their privacy, understand they need 26:23 that time of privacy, even though they may seem 26:26 like they don't know what's going on around them, 26:28 you have to give them that private moment, protect them, 26:31 don't make fun of them. 26:32 I've seen people make fun of people who are becoming 26:35 senile, it's not the time, it's not the place for it. 26:38 These people are to be loved as they loved you when they 26:41 had their full minds. 26:42 Take good care of these people and it will be 26:46 a whole lot better, and then you have to as I've already 26:49 mentioned, make sure you have a regular, rigidly regular 26:52 schedule for that person, and tell them even while they are 26:57 getting into that experience, that they have to always put 27:01 your keys here, and your water is always going to be here. 27:04 Set up a routine, so that they will get into a routine 27:06 and it might be a little bit better Dr. Thrash, 27:08 as they go down that highway. 27:10 Yes! We look at the aged with respect 27:15 and yet we must treat them often as children, 27:19 which is a very difficult balance for people to take. 27:22 Those who take care of them have to balance between 27:25 the respect and the love that they've always had for them, 27:29 the privacy that we know that they must have, 27:32 and also the care that we must take over them as if they were 27:37 actually children. 27:38 They may not look at themselves as being helpless, 27:41 but they often are helpless, they often need everything 27:46 done for them. 27:47 They may even need you to answer questions for them, 27:50 and so as God gives you the grace, deal with these people 27:53 with respect. |
Revised 2014-12-17