[subsubzero]

I read a book called "Brain trust" last year about prion diseases being the cause of massive increases in Alzheimers cases. The idea was intriguing but one fact the author mentioned was about how the US does not test meat in decent intervals for CJD or other prion diseases, while Japan does. The book was written in the early 2000's so alot of the stuff that was posited can be checked today and that was one thing that I did check, comparing Japans rate of Alzheimers to the US and both countries are seeing the same huge uptick in cases. So it seems like its a global issue and not really one that is based in the US due to "potentially" infected meat.

On a side note I know alot of people(not related to me) that are being affected with severe memory issues in their 60's and 70's. A friends Dad is in a memory care facility and he is in his mid 60's and was extremely fit(he was also a avid hunter - unsure if this was a cause). My Wife's aunt's Mom (not related by blood to her) has severe dementia and is in her 70's and needs $7k a month constant memory care. A friends mom has sundowners and every day her memory "erases", my Friend was looking into memory care for her and was quoted $13k a month for this. All these cases seem quite strange as the individuals led normal lives and then just started suffering these extreme memory/brain issues. I do not know what is causing it but I think its alot more widespread than people know.

[kcplate]

My dad did a short stint in memory care before he passed (86 years old). He had Alzheimer’s caused dementia. I was surprised by how many younger (60s+) people than him that there were in his facility.

Without having much experience with early onset Alzheimer’s, I had always assumed that healthcare keeping people alive longer allowing people to live long enough to develop it was the reason it seemed to be more and more prevalent.

All I guess I really know for sure is that it’s a horrible fucking disease.

[chiefalchemist]

I'm sorry for you loss.

And you raise an important point... We're living longer. Medicine is getting better at that*. But we're not living better. In fact, afaik, a significant percentage of healthcare spending in is the last couple years of life.

* The same can be said of war. Fewer soldiers are dying but the otherside of that coin more survivors are ruined forever. Less death shouldn't make war any more acceptable.

[kcplate]

> We're living longer. Medicine is getting better at that. But we're not living better.

I think to a degree we live better to a point*, but at a certain point of no return that longevity benefit of modern healthcare can create a poor quality of life where the peace of death would be preferable.

[chiefalchemist]

Agreed. The gist of my point is, we're fooled by the metric (i.e., longevity) because it's easy to measures, strokes the public's ego, etc. We keep obcessing over how long (quantity) to the point of neglecting the quality of life. In a way we're increasing our suffering, not mitigating it.