Drug Trials

Earlier in the year I volunteered to go forward to be on an Alzheimer's prevention drug trial. This involved going on a whole battery of medical tests, ECG, MRI and Pet scans. Plus cognitive impairment and memory tests. They are after people without cognitive impairment but whose brains have the bio-markers for the potential to develop Alzheimer's caused by the beta-amyloid protein.
Today was judgement day when I went with Julia to get the results. So off to Re:Cognition Health for the feedback on all my tests. They came back negative which means I am not likely to get Alzheimer’s caused by the beta-Amyloid protein which is the most common cause of dementia. To quote the doctor “I am normal” with no cognitive impairment. This means I will not be on the drug trial. She also looked at my ECG results and said that I had nothing to worry about there.

So if we meet and it becomes obvious that one of us is not quite "all there" I have medical proof the it is not me!!

Of course I can still suffer from one of the other causes of dementia such as Vascular dementia, Lewy bodies, frontotemporal dementia etc. But at least one has been ruled out.

 

 

Birthday Celebrations

Gaew, our lovely Thai daughter-law was forty in February and Andrew our middle-son and her husband turns 40 tomorrow. To celebrate this "coming of age" they took all the family out for lunch on Saturday at Sea Salt in Beckenham - an excellent lunch and a great time was had by all.

The Family in Sea Salt

 On the Sunday the family gathered at Mellish Mansions in Bromley for the first BBQ of the year. We were not brave or stupid enough to dine outside. But I did BBQ roast pork and beer can chicken - you drink half a can of beer then put the beer can inside the chicken and balance it upright. The chicken comes out beautifully moist - I also used a smoker with cherry wood inside - beautiful! I even managed to get praise from Sam, my son-in-law, who is a chef.

From the back reading left to right
Andrew and David
Lawrie, Helena, Emma, Sam cuddling Georgia
Julia, Henry, Gaew and GOM (Grumpy Old Man)

The biter bit

Looks like the Mr "Call me Dave" Cameron's cunning plan to unite the Tory party by calling a referendum on whether we should leave the EU or not has really come unravelled. The Tory party is in completer disarray, if the Labour Party had a leader worth his salt they would be trouncing the Tories in the polls. As it is "JC" is staring at the ball with an open goal in front of him wondering whether he should kick it or not.

Is money the way to success in sport?

Yes! Old-fashioned is perfect!” chuckles Tom Tvedt, the president of Norway’s Olympic Committee, when asked whether the philosophy behind his country’s staggering Winter Games success may be, well, a little old-fashioned.

The Norwegians refuse to plough millions into sports that ordinary folk simply do not play in exchange for a brief medal-winning serotonin hit. They stress the importance of the umbilical link between grassroots and elite sport. And, unusually to British ears, they say local sports clubs are a core part of their success.

“Our vision is sport for all,” Tvedt says. “Before you are 12 you should have fun with sport. So we don’t focus on who the winner is before then. Instead we are very focused on getting children into our 11,000 local sports clubs. And we have 93% of children and young people regularly playing sport in these organisations.”

Norse code: what’s the secret of the Norwegians’ Winter Olympics success?

 

Read more

As Tvedt explains, this benefits everyone, because the more that people enjoy sport as kids, the broader the talent pool their elite teams will have later. “All our medals have come from athletes who have started in local clubs. If an athlete is good, we will then bring them to the Olympiatoppen, our elite sports centre, where the top sport science comes into the picture.”

To say it is working is a thundering understatement. With three days remaining of these Olympics, Norway, a country of 5.2 million people, has won 35 medals. Germany is next on 25, with Canada one further behind in third.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/feb/22/norway-winter-olympics-success

Living long

The researchers say they have also found that common human vices do not necessarily need lead to an early grave, with many superagers saying they smoked and enjoyed a tipple. 

“We ask them why is it that you think you are a superager, how did you get here, and there are a couple of funny ladies and they will say, well it’s because I have a martini with my friends every day at 5 o’clock. Others have never had a drink,” said Rogalski. 

Being underweight also seemed to matter, with those who had a very low body mass index after the age of 80 more likely to die. “It’s not bad to be skinny when you’re young but it’s very bad to be skinny when you’re old,” said Kawas.

However, Rogalski added, that did not mean that people should take up bad habits to live longer, noting that some people might have a genetic makeup that allowed them to tolerate smoking and drinking.

Nonetheless, Rogalski thinks we can learn from superagers. “We are getting quite good at extending our lifespan but our health span isn’t keeping up and what the superagers have is more of a balance between those two, they are living long and living well,” she said.

Drug Trials

I have volunteered to take part in a drug trial. The drug is designed to stop the onset of Alzheimer's Disease which is the most common cause of dementia. I am still undergoing extensive medical tests to see if I am suitable. If nothing else I get full health MOT for free. So far they have discovered:
1. That I do not have cognitive impairment although the children have asked for a second opinion on that.
2. My folic acts levels are low so I am taking a supplement - found in the pregnancy care section in Boots.
3. It would seem that at some time in the past I have had a silent heart attack. I have seen the GP and have had further tests. I am seeing him on Saturday to discuss what happens next. They say not to worry as the last ECG was normal, so I am not worrying.
4. Had an MRI scan on the brain last Friday - no results yet. I wonder that they found anything to scan.

Following all these test my conclusion is that it is well worth volunteering. If nothing else you get a good check-up and if they do find anything you will know before the symptoms become obvious,

Fake News

Fake news is nothing new and no doubt dates back thousands of years. In mediavel times rumour and counter-roumor would be started during the various "wars of religion" that were prevalent at that time. In warfare the spreading of "disinformation" to the enemy was and is commonplace. In todays society with the widespread use of social media and the web its easier than ever to spread false news, many people think that if they see it on the web it must be true!
This was brought home to me when I recently saw the exhibition at Tate Modern  "Red Star over Russia" which chronicles the use of art and visual media in Russia 1905 - 1955 Lenin and then Stalin were probably the first people to use misinformation (or should this be disinformation?) on a wide scale. You could see how, as people fell out of favour (and were executed or banished) they were removed from photographs - it was as if they had never existed.
Hitler was also a master at spreading false accusations against individuals and racial, religious and ethnic groups. He was able to turn the whole country against the Jews, the Gypsies etc etc.
This brought me round to thinking about Trump, the Brexit referendum, Isis and the whole current political and news systems. Who or whom do we trust, we are generally very ready to accept "news" that agrees with our own personal beliefs and prejudices. Anything that goes against the grain is immediately suspect. We might believe the Guardian and suspect the Daily Mail, or vice versa. So how do we judge what is real and what is false? With a powerful few individuals owning multiple news outlets the fact that something is spread across multiple news media does not mean that is true. It could be that one individual is spreading the same line across all the media that he or she owns or is able to manipulate, be it newsprint, radio, TV, Blogs, Facebook etc.

How do we counter this and find out what is the real truth, if such a thing exists objectively? I am not sure if this is possible in today's world. The one thing that  we can be certain of is that when the board of football club says that they have every confidence in their manager and that they are 100% behind him that he will be gone in a matter of days or weeks.