Tomorrow is my mother’s birthday: she will be 99. She is deep into AD, living in her apartment with full time caregivers (for which I am deeply grateful). She would not have lived this long but for their attentive care, and being in her own home. Though her mind is gone, she is remarkably healthy: walking around quite soon after a hip replacement (she does have severe osteoporosis), and her appetite is better than ever. As far as the Alzheimers: I worry about that, but I feel quite sure that she did it to herself: she was extremely anxious, OCD, controlling, narcissistic, all the years I was growing up, anorexic in her youth, in short, pretty messed up. And she took a continuous dose of meds such as Elavil (amytriptoline), Miltown, valium, librium. I don’t know how she got her hands on them. She paid no attention to the warnings that she needed to get off them. She was always very thin, but “skinny fat”, apple shaped body. Her diet was terrible- – no fruits or vegetables, but prodigious amounts of steak-- she said she felt she needed the meat, and she probably did, for the amino acids – and also a lot of sweets, ice cream and pastries. Here too, she accepted no guidance.
So here she is, and she is not a good advertisement for living long.
We have been estranged for years. But watching what happened to her, and knowing I share some of her tendencies, has made me resolute about understanding as much as I can, working out as hard as I can. All the more so now, as I recently did a scan that showed: low body fat (22%), low metabolic rate (900 calories per day), most likely because I too have the apple body tendency, skinny fat, and little muscle. I have spent so much time getting the lipids and glucose where they need to be that I have not faced into what for me is probably the biggest threat: sarcopenia and frailty.
So, time to wean off metformin, start imeglimin, creatine, leucine, work with a trainer to lift heavier weights, eat more protein and drink more water.