Scared Of Alzheimer's Disease? How To Cope

Knowing your family history might have already made you nervous about Alzheimer's disease. You may currently feel trapped because it seems that if the disease shows up, you can't do anything. You don't have to feel afraid, however; if you're taking these disease-related actions now, the prep work could make you stronger.

Be Tested

Apolipoprotein E, or ApoE, a protein living quietly in your blood, could hold a key to your knowledge about what you personally could be in for. Two pairs of it exist; both can be tested. If both pairs reveal E4, the variant most associated with Alzheimer's, there's a strong chance you'll develop symptoms. If E2 is the variant revealed, risk is low.

E4 results might make you upset, but your testing facility staff will explain that such results indicate 100% certainty you'll have Alzheimers. You'll need to be serious about other prep steps.

Get Healthy Habits

Having an otherwise healthy brain can sometimes dampen the effect Alzheimer's could have. Boosting brain function with healthy diets and constant activity is helpful. For example, you might increase omega-3 fatty acid-containing foods such as flax seeds, walnuts and fish. Word puzzles and similar brain activities could even keep your brain younger than it is.

You'll also have to be committed to compliance for all the treatment plans in place for various health conditions. You already know if you're supposed to be monitoring your salt intake or blood sugar amounts. Compliance with your treatments can increase overall health that protects different areas of the brain.

Exercise helps brains too. An exercise habit, especially when it's cardio, brings more oxygen to cells of the brain and could improve function of neurons.

Make Financial and Care Plans

A reason Alzheimer's bothers you could be concern about financially providing for your family or not knowing who would care for you. All of those disease-related worries could be ameliorated with concrete plans. You may seek out entrepreneurial pursuits to provide more household money to save. You might start asking relatives about future care needs. Living wills, estate planning and similar work can't be avoided. You'll need to keep documents handy and updated so if Alzheimer's arrives, you're not surprised and have already put some related arrangements in place.

Alzheimer's need not be a terrible fright. With these steps, you'll be ready if needed. Start with ApoE tests; get results and then begin making life changes and decisions. Contact a service, like Apoe Genetic, for more help.

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