Posted 8/22/23
When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Psalm 126:1
Howdy folks! Thank you for coming to the Digital Cornbread table today! Let’s not loaf…we should get right to work. 😉 (See what I did there… Wait…is it a loaf of cornbread??? There, I messed up the pun now. Sigh…never mind. 😉 )
I was just thinking about a couple of unrelated topics that I will quickly shoe horn into our little piece today.
First is a set of very true statements. Dang it is hot!! The sun called my cell today and requested its surface temperature be returned immediately. It was hotter Monday in Springfield than in Death Valley, California. (Death Valley isn’t known as that because driving through it is as inevitable as taxes…it is one of the hottest places on the planet.) Here is my weather app look at their temp:
For the record, Springfield was hotter on Sun, Mon, and likely today and tomorrow. OK, I know the naysayers would blame it on Tropical Storm Hilary, but note that I didn’t mention that in my true statement list.
Second thing of note is a piece that a friend emailed me about Korean Red Ginseng as a help to reduce inflammation and possibly help Alzheimer’s. Here is one study about it. Here is another. Here is a more current one.
This root, used for nearly 2 dozen centuries, seems to help some aspects of cognition (and all sorts of the same things that snake oil was sold as curing…). I am NOT saying it is snake oil, but I am saying there are many things with similar promises that are. It actually looks much more promising than CBD oil does. Does that count? 🙂 It reduces inflammation enough to be considered as a potentially very valuable piece of the puzzle perhaps. Much more study needs to be done. They really only know that there are 2 components that do good things. There may also be some bad side effects (lack of sleep being a really bad one, especially if it triggers sundowning).
Bottom
line
here
…and I hope this helps tie up these two disparate ends: research causes more research and it is hard. We just don’t know that much about the brain and the systems that make it thrive (or not). Infighting, politics (from the old Greek “poly” meaning Many and “tics” meaning “Blood sucking insects”), greed, pride, and the ilk make research soooo much harder.
It is like the Sony Betamax back in the day. Must too young for their first colonoscopy know that there was a battle over movies long before disks came around. JVC and many other brands had the VHS player/recorder and Sony had the Betamax. The VHS won the battle NOT because they were better. They won because of Sony’s Infighting, politics, greed, pride, and the ilk. See, Sony’s machine was capable of 500 lines of resolution whereas a VHS tape is under half that. In context, Sony had the same resolution as the eye-popping DVD players when they first came out. However, Sony didn’t make them readily available, they were greedy and fought hard for every patent, every licensing deal nickel, and wouldn’t let anyone else make their machines off brand so much so that they died.
See, there are soooo many greedy folks, so many fake websites promising cures for dementia that do not exist, and so much of a challenge with companies not sharing all of the details in medical research that it is hard to know whether something, especially an old root, is worth considering. We tend to throw up out hands and just go with the flow. Or, better said, we go with what grandma said and think subconsciously “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is”.
And it makes things hard. 🙁
So what do we do. We, as believers, know one spectacular (actually the greatest ever told) example of “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is” being fortunately very wrong: LINK . So there is precedent. Sadly, though, not everyone follows that path and much of what we see IS too good to be true. I keep a spreadsheet of things on my computer that DO NOT cure the disease that were offered to me as something that does. Usually well meaning folks with no other intention than to offer help are the givers. And it helps until it hurts.
So, what do we do? Not research? Ignore possible treatments or cures? Nope. We just be skeptical, like we used to before the internet broke our skeptographs. Skeptometers? Skeptomachines doesn’t sound right… OK, or ability to be skeptical.
Here are my tips for eating the meat and spitting out the bones when studying the next big thing in dementia research (and in life in general) :
- Default is skepticism
- Look hard for good sources. Alz.org has an app called Science Hub. Very solid. There are lots of Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers (ADRC) in the US. Here is a link: LINK. They are great sources of research. CNN, Fox News, local news…all fine, but study the root source first. They try, but they also need to fill the news cycle so they may be passing info from ope of the ADRCs and they may not be. Figure out.
- Sic me on them…I will investigate. I have alot of friends in the research realm that I have made in my 20-30 research guinea pigging trips. If someone who has jabbed me doesn’t know, someone else who has poked or prodded me probably does.
- Never give up. Share it with support group friends. Brainstorm together… BUT, trust with a heapin’ helpin’ of verification. If money seems to be a factor, run. Lots of scammers…lots.
I hope that helps. Not everything that supposedly helps doesn’t. Trust in Christ, but verify anything everyone else says 99 times. 🙂
#EndALZ
Update: Mom is tired these days. Yesterday she was drooping on one side again and didn’t eat supper well. Every day is a new adventure but they all lead to the same place as of today. Nevertheless, we love her dearly and will keep enjoying every visit and making things as bearable for her as we can.
Last thought:
This is my Walk to End Alz link:
https://act.alz.org/site/TR/Walk2023/MO-GreaterMissouri?team_id=786849&pg=team&fr_id=16677
If you are in Springfield, Mo on 9/23, either join my team or start a new one. 🙂 It is free and is amazing!
If you are out of the area, here is a link to find your Walk:
https://act.alz.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=walk_homepage
A bonus to those who stayed through the credits:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-3964(23)00230-X/fulltext
This vaccine looks also like a step in the right direction. 🙂 Stopping it before it starts (aka, Bud Nippin‘) is a great plan. 🙂 Very encouraging…
