Alzheimers/Dementia and Autism

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We may be at higher risk of developing alzheimers/dementia...I find this scary.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/543630

http://www.cpmedical.net/articles/the-c ... and-autism

http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/mediaroom/ ... -Alzheimer’s-Drug-To-Treat-Children-With-Autism.aspx

http://www.wlmht.nhs.uk/research/resear ... ino-study/

http://www.dementiatoday.com/previously ... nd-autism/

Which brings me to the next question, is it better to be unaware of your physical decline, by having mental decline, does it leave you without fear of your demise?

Edited to very slightly amend the wording of the first sentence to comfort the minority of overreactive members...

Last edited by whirlingmind on 19 Jul 2013, 2:43 am, edited 1 time in total.

My father, who was Autistic, developed Alzheimer's Disease in his late 80s. It is a very tragic condition. He knew he was lost, but he couldn't find his way back.

... Never heard about such a thing.
My father is over 50 now and still no sign of Alzheimer, despites his very many AS traits. He has an awful short-term memory, but that is because of ADD, his long-term memory is fairly good (he can still remember the phone number he had when he was 12), so it is not Alzheimer.

It is known that the risk for Alzheimer increases depending on a person's lifestyle.
My father has always had a very healty lifestyle, he exercises and walks regularly and doesn't eat junk food. He used to smoke when he was young but stopped when he was 25, and hasn't smoked since then. He doesn't drink alcohol and his still quite healty, even healtier than most of his co-workers, that are in their 40s.

Alzheimers in someone under 60 is considered to be early onset and is a much rarer condition.
Chlov, I hope your father continues to be healthy for a long time yet.

I have been having some upsetting mental fog and memory lapses lately at age 50, but I had a CT scan that came back clean, so I'm hoping it's just perimenopausal stuff and will disappear. Alzheimers would be hell on earth.

I don't think it has much to do with your lifestyle. For example, Pat Summitt (former Tennessee women's basketball coach), she was diagnosed with early onset dementia and yet she was, and still is, living a very healthy lifestyle.

Another example, my grandma has very progressed dementia and also had strokes and is laying in a nursing home pretty much trapped in her body and she use to walk several miles every day, was involved in the community and church, traveled the world, never smoked or drank and never ate fast food (she's a very good cook). I think dementia is genetics (my grandmas relative also had dementia). But that's just my opinion.

I have read some articles that shows smokers can have delayed onset of dementia but obviously a higher incidence of strokes and other related diseases.

The comparison between Alzheimers and ASC's seems to be through a reduced dopamine production.

Nielsen, you are right that the jury is out on the role of cigarettes in Alzheimer's. But nicotine itself is clearly beneficial in the prevention, or at least in the delay of the onset, of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's:

http://isearch.avg.com/search?cid={26264A9D-6772-4E73-89B1-A4EE3E3A2394}&mid=e65e27a0196847d1847fd168dde9d152-13140d046f3c6b4d41e489166ddf2644aee19d59&lang=en&ds=AVG&pr=fr&d=2013-04-03%2011:37:14&pid=avg&sg=0&v=15.3.0.11&sap=ku&q=nicotine+alzheimers

My mom has Alzheimer's and is also somewhere on the ASD spectrum. She is 80 and has many other neurological issues including Epilepsy. She has no short term memory at all and her long term memories are vanishing at an accelerating rate.

I see that she is often left with nothing but her habits of mind and special interets. This can be tedious because it means she wants to have the same conversation over and over and over again. The lesson I draw from this is to learn to live in the moment as much as possible, because a day may come when that is all I have.

The problem I see is that "we" pretty much have dementia already.

Dementia is but autism/schizophrenia with an onset in old individuals (some more things, but those two have more things too). Why it's so "bad" is because the people were relatively normal until then. Other than memory loss, all the other symptoms are found in autism/schizophrenia.

My grandfather was just like someone with AS/schizophrenia.

Well that is just f*****g great isn't it? And everyone wonders why I freak out about having AS and hate it so much. Now all you Autism-lovers know why!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !

I suppose there will be about 10 studies on Autistics having a higher risk of getting cancer, pneumonia, malaria, Tuberculosis, HIVs/AIDS, leukemia, the list goes on and on.

f**k Autism, I KNEW it was a f*****g deadly c**t to have.

Dillogic - I see dementia as Autism squared, I feel the symptoms are magnified, especially the confusion.

so i basicaly have dementia?

Yes, so they're saying here.

If this is the case, why don't they just put every mental disorder imaginable into one spectrum? Seems to be the attitude in this thread.

I really do now wish I were dead or didn't have this s**t. I'm at a higher risk of getting Alzheimer's when I'm old anyway, because my mum's mum and my dad's dad both got it, and now I am on the sh***y Autism spectrum I've now got 100 percent chance of getting it. Plus I can't have kids so there will be nobody to look after me, so all I've got to look forward to is a lonely, depressing death.

f**k YOU AUTISM I f*****g HATE YOU SO MUCH!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!
! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!

That is really scary. However, none of these studies actually show that autistic people have a higher chance of developing alzheimer's in old age. Two of the studies show that similar neurotransmitter systems are screwed up in ASD and Alzheimer's, the glutamate and acetycholine systems. One study shows that elevated levels of certain toxins are found in both autism and Alzheimer's and one study just talks about how Autism and Alzheimer's are both uniquely human ailments and that epigenetics and looking at "junk DNA" might be useful in discovering the causes of them. So , there are certain similarities between the disorders but that certainly doesn't mean one makes it more likely to develop the other. So little is known about aging autistic people at this point. I really hope it doesn't turn out to be the case that we're more likely to develop AD or dementia.

No, not 100%.

Autism, if it is linked to dementia, will increase the risk only slightly. As for your family history, how old were your grandparents when they got Alzheimer's? If they were over 60 it doesn't count in terms of your own risk. (I've been told this by a geneticist.) Only early-onset Alzheimer's seems to run in families.

Besides, if we get Alzheimer's later on, it doesn't invalidate the rest of our lives. If I knew for certain I would develop dementia, I would focus on enjoying my life before the dementia develops. And autism doesn't stop you from enjoying your life. (I know this for a fact, because I'm autistic and I'm happy and I know many other happy autistics.)