Lessons from my (nearly) centenarian mother

#1

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.

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#2

Well, it seems that you have some pretty good longevity genes, given her other eating and lack of exercise habits. And we have much more information on how to prevent or delay the medical issues she does have, so it seems likely you are on the path to a good, long life.

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#3

At what age did your mother’s AD start?

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#4

Hard to pinpoint when exactly it started, but approximately her early eighties.

#5

My wife’s step-grandmother, who was often sick and seeing doctors regularly for various illnesses, developed AD. Not long after she was in the advanced dementia stage, she seemed to be much healthier, and previously reported illnesses disappeared. Were her previous illnesses psycosomatic? Don’t know, but it seemed odd. I don’t remember how old she was when she died, but she lived with Alzheimer’s for a long time.

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#6

Very unusual in AD. Often it’s the opposite, and people in the prodromal stage of AD have loss of appetite (and subsequent weight loss). This is sometimes also connected to deficits in the senses of smell and taste.

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#7

Yes it is unusual. I think she just “mindlessly” eats all that her caregivers set in front of her --and they do a good job: salmon, spinach and far fewer treats than she habitually ate.

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#8

My wife recently died from fronto-temporal dementia. It was thought to be AD initially but as it progressed, it became more evident that it was FTD. With FTD, and its effects on the frontal lobe, disinhibition becomes more evident and part of that disinhibition is loss of inhibition to stop eating when full. I cared for her and prepared her meals, and she had a healthy appetite until her last few weeks… Weight loss was not a problem.

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#9

I’m so very sorry for your loss.

#10

mchasemd, thank you for that information, and, so sorry for your loss.

My mother was never tested so I don’t know if she has AD or FTD or even something else. She did go through a frantic/violent stage, calling the police, attacking her caregiver, (who stayed through it all, thankfully). But mostly it just amplified her worst anxieties and paranoia,

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#11

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’m pretty similar. Cycling on and off rapamycin has definitely helped, as has creatine and eating more protein. Last fall, I added working with Kaatsu bands after listening to a podcast Doug Lucas did about using them for osteoporosis. Around the same time, I got a Body Pod bioimpedance scale to track changes. Happy to report that within months, I went from my chronic low weight of 105 to 112, and my scale confirmed that the weight gain was due to increases in muscle and skeletal mass. This has not happened with previous strength training. I’ll be repeating a DEXA next month to see if it has improved my osteoporosis.

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