“Alzheimer’s Disease Begins in Childhood”: Part One of a Four Part Series

The flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds we plant today.

 

One of my patients, a former FBI agent, once informed me that their research indicated that a gun located in the home to protect a family, had a greater risk to harm the very family that weapon was supposed to protect.  While perusing the web, out of curiosity, I looked up the actual statistics.  I discovered that a gun in the home is 22-times more likely to be used in a criminal, unintentional, or suicide-related shooting than to be used in self-defense!

 

That factoid became a personal reality one month later, as I rushed to the emergency room to treat a six-year old patient.  His brain was severely damaged because his older brother accidentally shot him in the head with their father’s gun.  What did I learn?  We are the cause or our own demise.  Often we fear the enemy from without, but not realizing it; we open the door and bring him in.  The irony is that we are harming the ones we want to protect and love.

 

While most of us do not have guns in the home, we introduce things equally damaging.  The irrationality and shear negligence of “gun-toting” parents is comparable to the more subtle unintentional lifestyle damage I see parents creating daily.  As Parents, we bring into our homes the very elements that destroy our children’s physical and mental health, their future ability to deal with the difficulties in life, and their general wellbeing and happiness.

 

We plant the seeds of future Alzheimer’s disease in our children by what we feed them; and more importantly, by the lifestyle we instill and expose them to…one that is sedentary, stressful, and sleepless.

 

This is the first of a four part blog series explaining each major risk factor common to both childhood obesity and Alzheimer’s disease.  In each blog I will explain the risks and show you how to implement proper lifestyle in the lives of your children and yourself.  This first blog addresses the effects of diet on children and how to manage a child’s nutrition and establish a healthy lifestyle.

 

Diet:  Children & Carbohydrates = a Recipe for Disaster

 

The damage of Alzheimer’s disease (amyloid and plaques) begins 30 years before the first symptoms.  Obesity rates have now reached epidemic proportions in the US in youth populations and is one of the greatest risk factors for all disease, including Alzheimer’s disease.  It starts with poor lifestyle; one that you, as a parent, create or correct.  The good news is that obesity is the number one risk factor that we can control. 

 

How do we parents harm our kids?  You do so in the choices you make at the market, by bringing home sweets, colas, and chips for your children to find and snack upon.  These foods are all high in simple carbohydrates, calories, and worse, MSG (Monosodium Glutamate).

 

Carbohydrates cause a spike in insulin levels at first then a dramatic decrease in blood sugar leaving us hungry, craving more carbohydrates and likely to eat more, and more.  The result: weight gain and obesity!  The average child in 2008 consumed 700 calories more a week than s/he did in 1950.  “In the last four decades, obesity rates have more than tripled for children and adolescents ages 6 to 19. One-third of all children and adolescents in the United States are obese or at risk for becoming obese.” http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2006-releases/press12042006.html

 

 

MSG, a brain excitant, may be worse than the “carbohydrate crazy’s” that a bag of candy can produce.  I believe that MSG may in fact precipitate illicit drug use in adolescents and young adults because of the manner at which it stimulates the brain.  Check for MSG on the label.  In fact, did you know that Campbell’s soup (“The Mother of all Soups”) was laced with MSG?  It was eliminated due to many complaints by parents.  Did these food manufactures know what they were doing, addicting our children, giving them a rush of adrenaline, not unlike what they might get from later use of illicit drugs?  Are manufacturers who currently use MSG any different then the tobacco manufactures?  My son Kevin, just ready to turn 21, received his first Campbell’s advertisement with a coupon to buy free Camel’s cigarettes…How did they know?

 

What can you do?

 

I encourage you to teach your children to eat one-third protein, one-third fat, and one-third carbohydrates for a balanced meal.  Additionally, the order is important — to prevent insulin peaking, you should eat carbohydrates last.  My diet program in the Anti-Alzheimer’s Prescription details proper meals that are appropriate for children as well as adults. 

 

Be mindful of food labels.  Choose foods that are complex carbohydrates over simple carbohydrates.  Choose carbohydrates that are rich in fiber, they are digested slower and are less likely to peak insulin.  Even more significant, choose foods that have a low Glycemic Index (GI).  For a list of low GI foods visit: http://www.glycemicindex.com/.

 

Parents please don’t believe those labels “low-fat” and those brands that lace their foods with sugar, corn-syrup, or say “Healthy Selection.”  They know what they are doing.  They are profiting by food that causes cravings and addiction.  When our kids were three years old we had to stop them from crossing the street because they didn’t know any better.  As adolescents we may not be able to stop our kids from eating unhealthy foods, but we must warn them.

 

The Family that Eats Together

 

Did you know the most important way to deliver family values is at meal time?  Numerous studies show that taking a client out to eat is the best way for them to buy your message.  It is no different for children.  Eat meals together as a family and eat at the table, not in front of the television.  Eat slowly and enjoy the food.  Don’t use food as a reward or punishment.  Children should be taught to associate food as a source of energy & nourishment.  At the family table children learn life’s lessons and good diet habits.  Furthermore, you can learn from them what is going on at their school or in their life.  You might be surprised!

 

To reiterate, Alzheimer’s and poor health begins with the choices you make for your child at the grocery store, by the technology you give them, and by the amount of time you allow them to engage in technology over exercise and sleep.  Children and adolescents overweight by 18 are 67% more likely to be obese after 50.

 

You can make a change!  You can stop the cycle of obesity, chronic stress, and disease!  I encourage your personal efforts and concerns for maintaining a healthy lifestyle and I wish for you and your kids’ optimal health!

 

Please give your kids the gift of optimal health by taking personal responsibility and teaching them proper diet and lifestyle.  Also, give them the most precious gift of all, your presence at the dinner table.  Make it the number one priority for your family.  Remember the family that eats together, grows together healthy.

 

I applaud your personal efforts and concerns for maintaining a healthy lifestyle and I wish for you and your kids’ optimal health!  For more information and helpful tips on how to manage obesity and prevent risk factors associated with Alzheimer’s disease please read the Anti-Alzheimer’s Prescription available in all major book stores and online at Amazon.com or visit www.dearprogram.com or www.anti-alzheimers.com.  Also read my next blog as a part of this series, “Part Two: The Stress Mess: Stress and its Effects on Childhood Obesity and Alzheimer’s Disease.”