If you ever read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – and I would recommend you read it if you have not and/or recommend you read it again if you have – you may remember one bit of sage advice : don’t panic! This bit of advice is offered repeatedly to our hero, Arthur Dent, as he travels through the Universe, fleeing from the destruction of the Earth to make way for an intergalactic bypass and seeking to find the answer to the questions of life. That answer, by the way, is “42”.
Don’t panic! You don’t have to understand it. Just enjoy the workings of a delightfully warped mind. Thank you, Doug Adams!
And I repeat: don’t panic! Lin informed me there was recently a piece on the possible links between age-related macular degeneration and Alzheimer’s. She remarked a few of you, well, panicked. Don’t do that!
Is it possible? Of course it is possible. The eye is the only part of the brain we can actually see without any messy surgeries or fancy machines. As part of the brain, your eye can, of course, get “brain- diseasey” things going wrong.
This does not, however, mean we are doomed to get dementia!
A couple of things to keep in mind. Number first: these are the very early days of this research. We really do not know much. Number second: the studies I saw were correlation studies. Correlation does not mean causality. In other words, just because two things look to be related it does not mean they are. And it especially does not mean one caused the other! Serious logical boo boo there.
I found the article I believe the other source was citing. I also found a 2014 JAMA Ophthalmology piece on the Association Between Age-Related Macular Degeneration, Alzheimer’s and Dementia. This was also a correlational study. After comparing nearly 66,000 AMD patients and nearly 17,000 Alzheimer’s patients the researchers discovered “considering AD and other dementia after AMD, their coexistence at the individual level is no different than that expected by chance.” In other words, they did not see ant evidence that AMD leads to Alzheimer’s.
Meaning? Don’t panic!
That said, you, me and just about everyone else I know would not get in line if the sign said “Get your Alzheimer’s here!” I would run rather rapidly in the opposite direction. In fact, I am “running” in the opposite direction several times a week right now.
I am doing this by actively working on my health and my cognitive skills. Vascular disease seems to be related to both AMD and dementia. It is important to take care of your heart and circulatory system. Take your medication, eat right and exercise regularly.
Much of my exercise is repetitive, rhythmic activity. That means I am thinking pretty much all of the time I am moving. I tell my hip hop instructor he is my secret weapon against Alzheimer’s. Just trying to figure out his steps and follow along give me as much a mental workout as the actual dancing gives me a physical workout.
I am also still working, playing video games (silly, easy ones), socializing, traveling, writing a blog and reading. In other words, if “use it or lose it” applies to cognitive skills, I am doing all I can to keep using them. Not lose them.
Bringing me back to Doug Adams and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. If you want a few mental gymnastics, read and follow along if you can. Watch those wicked, left turns. And by all means, don’t panic!