But Mother Wasn’t Obese in Her Alzheimer’s Days or Before

Whenever you read articles concerning health conditions that might accelerate Alzheimer’s, do you see if you can discover any connection to your family member?

I often do that…try to seek answers for Mother and Auntie’s affliction with this disease, even though they passed away several years ago.  When I learn that a specific food, medicine, health condition may increase or decrease the tendency for Alzheimer’s, I’ll think about these ladies.

The most recent theory presented in the blogosphere is the connection between obesity and Alzheimer’s.  (See the excellent round-up of articles Liz presented in her post, A Link Between Obesity and Alzheimer’s Disease.)

However, Mother wasn’t obese in her Alzheimer’s.  She was never obese.  She wasn’t skinny, but she wasn’t fat.  She was a tall woman and able to work on the farm where we lived.  She was in good health most of her life.  So, in her case, the obesity theory doesn’t seem to apply.

Auntie was much shorter than Mother but never heavy.  She wasn’t skinny either,  but she did develop diabetes.  Research today seems to imply that obese people might have a greater tendency to diabetes.  So was there any connection between  Auntie developing diabetes and Alzheimer’s ?  Were there other factors involved in both sisters being afflicted with this memory loss disease?

I’m still no closer to determining why Auntie and Mother developed Alzheimer’s and their brothers didn’t.  But that doesn’t mean I won’t stop looking….and hoping researchers will find a cause and a cure.