Reversing Alzheimer's memory loss may be possible

Reversing Alzheimer's memory loss may be possible - Yahoo! News (Reuters)

It's good to hear such positive and hopeful news about Alzheimer's Disease.

This article makes me wonder yet again about something I've long suspected - that Alzheimer's patients frequently get worse, or at least deteriorate at a faster rate, when they are "put away" into nursing homes. ("Warehousing" some have called it.)

This could be from lack of stimulation. A lack of mental exercise - literally!

Also, being home alone in that easy chair in front of the TV too much would have a similar effect it would seem.

It's becoming more and more obvious to me that throughout our lives we need to continue to work our minds, as well as work our bodies.

Toddler calls 911 after mother collapses

Toddler calls 911 after mother collapses - Yahoo! News (AP)

I like this story and had to share it. Good for this little guy!

Add this toddler hero to the assortment of other heroes who you would not think able to contact 911 for help in an emergency (dogs, cats, etc.), but surprise and gratify us all by doing just that.

Woman crashes car into Huntington Beach store

Article - News - Woman crashes car into Huntington Beach store (Orange County Register)

This is an old lady who is not acting like a groovy lady.

She drives a better car than I (2006 silver Accord), however, mine (2000 not-silver Accord) is in better shape right now, since mine has not been driven through the front of a drugstore.

The good news is no one was hurt - the driver's airbag wasn't even activated.

Unfortunately, this is yet another in a long, too-long, string of "pedal-confusion" accidents caused by elderly drivers.

I do think the time has likely come for drivers to be more rigorously tested, say, upon their 75th birthday. Illinois already does this, I think all states should.

Woman, 95, to be oldest college graduate

Woman, 95, to be oldest college graduate - Yahoo! News (AP)

Well, good for her!

The story of this woman (see above) certainly shows that it is never too late to complete a degree.

Yet another groovy lady to add the the string of them in the news lately.

P.S.: Did you hear that the NYC dirtbag who beat up the 101-year-old lady (as she was on her way to church), stealing $31 from her, has been arrested? On drug charges, not surprisingly. Real tough guy - beats up the extreme elderly, then rides off with his take on a stolen little girl's pink bike. Loser...

These two tough NYC women this guy attacked that day are also groovy ladies in my book. They even fought back. Walker as weapon?

Grandma makes emergency landing in field

Grandma makes emergency landing in field - Yahoo! News (AP)

I love stories like this. From the article...

She [the forementioned grandma] said she flies a couple of times a week and plans to fly again. But she worried about what her children would say now.

Fits in with the recent story posted here re the 102-year-old golfer who hit a hole-in-one.

Good for both of them!

(Makes me feel lazy and inadequate somehow...)

Hormones can raise breast cancer risk

Hormones can raise breast cancer risk - Yahoo! News (AP)

Yet more verification of the nastiness - no, the danger - of HRT.

From this article...

"After rising steadily through the 1990s, the breast cancer rate dipped from 2001 to 2002, from 138 cases to 135 cases per 100,000 women. After the federal Women's Health Initiative study reported in July 2002 on the health risks of hormones, use of the pills plunged.

So did the breast cancer rate the following year — to 126 cases per 100,000 women. It was the steepest fall since the government started keeping records in the 1970s.

The drop was seen in all of the cancer statistics registries reviewed in the study, and no other cancer rate changed as dramatically — strong signs that hormones were playing a role, specialists said."


I resisted my doctors' entreaties to take HRT for years (they started in at me when I was only 45!), and I only give in because doctors urged it as a prevention against osteoporosis - which I got anyway!

Doctors were really suckered in by the drug companies on this, I believe, BTW. Related, I also believe doctors didn't handle this well.

Anyway, whether or not HRT was entirely the cause of my tumor I can't answer, but I do know that the tumor was "very strongly receptive" (quoting my pathology report) to hormones. OIOW, whatever the cause, it was indeed a fact that the HRT was feeding my tumor royally and generously. Every pill I took, every patch I put on, was feeding my tumor. : ( I can't believe I went to so much trouble and expense to feed and grow my cancer.

No wonder some women like me have sued these people. You can tell it makes me angry. I don't dwell, though, what's the point? I do warn others about HRT, though, when the subject comes up.

102-year-old Calif. woman hits hole-in-1

102-year-old Calif. woman hits hole-in-1 - Yahoo! News (AP)

Don't you love a good-news story?

Amazing.

Hope you had happy holidays.