New, so happy to have found you all.

Newcomer introductions, personal anecdotes, caregiver issues, lab results, and n=1 experimentation.
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Amelia
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New, so happy to have found you all.

Post by Amelia »

Hi there,
I’m Amelia, my mother died from early onset AD when she was only 63. The signs started when I was around 18 years old, I cared for her for a few years in my early twenties so I saw at a pretty young age what full blown AD looked like. I was petrified of getting AD and buried the knowledge for decades of my own apoe4/3 status. But! After finding Dr. Dale Bresdon’s book through Dr. Rhonda Patrick I’ve been feeling an awful lot more positive. I’m so glad that I’ve also now discovered this wonderful community : ) I’m in the process of trying to persuade my doctor to run a bunch of the tests that Dr.Bresdon has recommended and looking into HRT as I’m peri-menopausal. I know nothing about the menopause 😅 except that it doesn’t seem like it’ll be a super happy fun awesome time ; ) There’s so much information to process and I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed but have started with a running jump and am fasting 14 hours and doing the keto diet, I feel fantastic but can’t sleep (which is not fantastic) so I’ll try to add some more carbs and not be in such a deep state of keto.
I shall be perusing the site often I imagine as I take more control and responsibility for my own health. So much love to you all, Amelia.
NF52
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Re: New, so happy to have found you all.

Post by NF52 »

Amelia wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 12:36 pm Hi there,
I’m Amelia, my mother died from early onset AD when she was only 63. The signs started when I was around 18 years old, I cared for her for a few years in my early twenties so I saw at a pretty young age what full blown AD looked like. I was petrified of getting AD and buried the knowledge for decades of my own apoe4/3 status. But! After finding Dr. Dale Bresdon’s book through Dr. Rhonda Patrick I’ve been feeling an awful lot more positive. I’m so glad that I’ve also now discovered this wonderful community : ) I’m in the process of trying to persuade my doctor to run a bunch of the tests that Dr.Bresdon has recommended and looking into HRT as I’m peri-menopausal. I know nothing about the menopause 😅 except that it doesn’t seem like it’ll be a super happy fun awesome time ; ) There’s so much information to process and I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed but have started with a running jump and am fasting 14 hours and doing the keto diet, I feel fantastic but can’t sleep (which is not fantastic) so I’ll try to add some more carbs and not be in such a deep state of keto.
I shall be perusing the site often I imagine as I take more control and responsibility for my own health. So much love to you all, Amelia.
Welcome, Amelia,

Please accept my deepest sympathy on the early loss of your mother. You were incredibly young to have been thrust into a caregiving role in your twenties, when your own education, occupation, relationships and sense of yourself were still very much developing. Your ability to cope with that by focusing on your needs then sounds like exactly what your mother would have wanted you to do. As a mother and grandmother, I am confident that she would be proud of you for finding information on Dr. Rhonda Patrick and Dr. Dale Bredesen and especially glad that you're in a more positive place now. You show great strengths as a learner and as someone able to find her way through tragedy to a new sense of purpose!

Sounds like you are also doing a great job of "self-hacking" to realize that especially in peri-menopause, you don't want to focus on a keto number that might not give you enough nutrition. Your brain can still use some healthy carbs to have both glucose metabolism and ketosis as sources of fuel. Menopause may not be super-awesome, but it might not be as bad you think. It helps to realize that any "brain fog" you feel is the result of the changes your body is adjusting to, and NOT an early sign of dementia. Dr. Lisa Mosconi, Director of the Women's Health Initiative at Weill Cornell Medical Center in NYC has a recent book, The XX Brain, which lots of helpful info and I think most ob/gyns are up to date on recent research showing the benefits of hormone replacement therapy, possibly especially for women with ApoE4.

Enjoy browsing the forum, with some resources to help you find your way:

You may have some great reading or podcasts on sleep, but here's a resource from our wiki on
https://wiki.apoe4.info/wiki/Sleep

The Primer is written by Stavia, a practicing M.D. with ApoE4/4. It's a great place to see some strategies that you can consider--and she also recommends not trying to re-tool your entire life at once!

The How-To Guide shows how to quote members (use the " icon in the upper right of any post) so they get an email notification of your post. It also shows how to use the Search function for topics, and how to subscribe to topics of interest.

Here's a link pulled from our Wiki on Research, with a 2018 article on strategies for LOAD prevention in ApoE 4 carriers from Dr. Richard Isaacson, the former Director of the Alzheimer's Prevention Program at Weill Cornell Medical Center in NYC: Clinical Application of APOE in Alzheimer’s Prevention: A Precision Medicine Approach Here's his top recommendation from the article:

Physical activity
A systematic review of 16 prospective studies concluded that physical activity decreased the risk of developing AD by 45%
Physically active ε4 carriers had an OR [odds ratio risk of Alzheimer's] of 2.30 and sedentary ε4 carriers had an OR of 5.53
Aerobic activity was associated with greater cognitive performance for ε4 carriers compared to non-carriers.
..The findings also suggest that physical activity may prevent Aβ accumulation that occurs in the brains of ε4 carriers before clinical symptoms of AD even become apparent
As someone who could be your mom's genetic cousin, I applaud your commitment to your own best future.

Nancy
4/4 and still an optimist!
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floramaria
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Re: New, so happy to have found you all.

Post by floramaria »

Amelia wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 12:36 pm Hi there,
I’m Amelia, my mother died from early onset AD when she was only 63. The signs started when I was around 18 years old, I cared for her for a few years in my early twenties so I saw at a pretty young age what full blown AD looked like. I was petrified of getting AD and buried the knowledge for decades of my own apoe4/3 status. But! After finding Dr. Dale Bresdon’s book through Dr. Rhonda Patrick I’ve been feeling an awful lot more positive. I’m so glad that I’ve also now discovered this wonderful community : ) I’m in the process of trying to persuade my doctor to run a bunch of the tests that Dr.Bresdon has recommended and looking into HRT as I’m peri-menopausal. I know nothing about the menopause 😅 except that it doesn’t seem like it’ll be a super happy fun awesome time ; ) There’s so much information to process and I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed but have started with a running jump and am fasting 14 hours and doing the keto diet, I feel fantastic but can’t sleep (which is not fantastic) so I’ll try to add some more carbs and not be in such a deep state of keto.
I shall be perusing the site often I imagine as I take more control and responsibility for my own health. So much love to you all, Amelia.
Welcome to the community, Amelia! It is great that through Rhonda Patrick and Dr Bredesen you’ve been able to feel more optimism about your future and also that you are taking responsibility for your own health. There is so much science-based information now supporting our ability, as carriers of the ApoE4 allele, to thrive longterm. As you say, it is a lot to process, so give yourself time to incorporate what you are learning. From the sounds of it, you are off to an excellent start. You are wise to be prioritizing sleep as well as your diet.
Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach
IFM/ Bredesen Training in Reversing Cognitive Decline (March 2017)
ReCODE 2.0 Health Coach with Apollo Health
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