Bizarre but true. Connection between dementia and farming?

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Bizarre but true. Connection between dementia and farming?

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My husband and I moved into our subdivision in January 2020. Homes are on 1 acre lots and the land was used as a cattle pasture from what I’m told. A male neighbor, 3 houses away, was diagnosed with dementia in 2020 and was gone within 2 years (I’m not sure which type of dementia). Another neighbor 5 houses away is now in the end stage of frontotemporal dementia I’m told. This has been a rapid decline over approx, 1.5 years. Now…my husband was “labeled” with vascular dementia in January of this year and officially diagnosed following head CT’s and neuropsychiatric evaluation. That’s 3 men, all over 70 years old… all neighbors, diagnosed with dementia within a span of 4 years all living within a 5 acre area. Anybody ever heard of such a coincidence??? Makes me want to move, but not an option at this point in time.

Alzheimer's & Dementia Diagnostic Criteria Grief

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I don't find this situation very bizarre at all. I live in a small neighborhood of homes where everyone is 55 years and older. We've had several residents pass from dementia recently, and several more go into Memory Care Assisted Living. The truth is, it isn't the parcels of land we live on that's creating dementia but likely the chemicals and plastics we're using, combined with other factors, that's causing SO MUCH dementia in 65+ year olds.

The number of Americans living with Alzheimer's is growing — and growing fast.
Nearly 7 million Americans have Alzheimer's.

An estimated 6.9 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer's in 2024. Seventy-three percent are age 75 or older.
About 1 in 9 people age 65 and older (10.9%) has Alzheimer's.
Almost two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer's are women.
Older Black Americans are about twice as likely to have Alzheimer's or other dementias as older Whites.
Older Hispanics are about one and one-half times as likely to have Alzheimer's or other dementias as older Whites.

As the size of the U.S. population age 65 and older continues to grow, so too will the number and proportion of Americans with Alzheimer's or other dementias. By 2050, the number of people age 65 and older with Alzheimer's may grow to a projected 12.7 million, barring the development of medical breakthroughs to prevent or cure Alzheimer's disease.

FTD and vascular dementia have the shortest lifespan. Victims normally pass within 5 years of diagnosis.

I'm sorry your husband was diagnosed with dementia recently. I lost my mother to vascular dementia in 2022 after a 6 yr battle.

Wishing you the best of luck and support moving forward.toward.

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I grew up in Boulder as one of three sisters. We all plus mom got breast cancer, which would be easy to blame the now closed Rocky Flats over, but I’ve yet to see a study showing increased breast cancer risk over the Denver Boulder metro area.

In high school, I worked for a senior facility, otherwise known as Boulders nursing home. The residents could mostly get to dining on their own. The average age was mid 70s, and they were all somewhat with it.

Likely most of said residents died within five years of cardiovascular disease or stroke or cancer. Nowadays there is more “saveabity” meaning the person gets to continue their life to the point they experience dementia.

It’s not plastics or what have you that has caused more dementia. It’s that medicine has eliminated the stops before dementia while adding to the risk of dementia.

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It could be partially coincidence . The fact is we live in a very polluted country . If this is a new subdivision , it’s likely some of these people had the start of these dementia’s before you all moved in and now after a few years their symptoms became apparent.

If you live in a 55 and over , of course you will see this happening a lot in a small radius .

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Corrolation is not causation. If you live in an area where the average age is higher, then this increases the odds that those neighbors were on their way to dementia for multiple other reasons. People can have all the theories in the world but unless these theories are proven through more than one, large-scale, mass-participant studies then you are just operating from your biases. The medical science community right now is not even sure what causes dementia even after all sorts of studies. It is inherently difficult to study dementia in relationship to the environment because it is difficult to control the literal environment that people live in. And, how to do you have a control group if they too live in and breath the same air, the same dirt, etc? Some dementias are inherited, as was the case with my Aunt who lived to almost 101 (showed symptoms in late 80s and passed in Jan 2023). She lived with her older sister their whole lives (and 20 of those years was with me as I grew up). They lived identical lives, even working in the same pharma company. Ate the same foods (Mediterranean diet), lived in the same homes (NYC and NJ), had the same friends, had no bad habits, retired withing 2 years of each other, etc. Yet one sister developed dementia and the other didn't. In fact the other one is now 105 living in FL with very little cognitive decline. This can only mean one thing: the other sister inhereted her dementia. Their Mom (my Grandmother) also lived to 96 despite living with a smoker husband who passed from lung cancer at 77 (and worked in his own machine shop breathing in all sorts of fumes). All their 8 children lived into their 90s, despite some of them smoking in their youth. Some developed dementia very late in their lives. If you have theories about the source of dementia then you should research whether environmental variables as a cause is supported by *multiple reputable and reproduced* large-scale studies. Then you won't have to live in fear for no reason. As for "people in other countries" -- they don't do studies to the extent that is done in other parts of the world where medical science is a priority. Studies are labor intensive, time-consuming and expensive, so without a *reason* to do the study, plus government funding or grants -- they don't happen. Medtech companies fund studies because they have financial interest in the research and outcomes.

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Coincidence. It might be the building materials used by the developer since you probably spend more time inside than outside. Grew up on a farm and was exposed to all sorts of pesticides, herbicides etc. Still going strong at 83.

Just saying there's a lot of wild guessing in some of these responses.

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It is scientifically KNOWN that herbicides (many of them formerly in use) are toxic to animals. Whether that has anything to do with DEMENTIA clusters is not yet proven. But many things ARE proven about them. And yes, wild guessing is what is done with clusters until/when/if they are fully investigated. Anyone's guess counts. Maybe it is the surplus of cow patties! Hee hee.
The link between pesticides and Parkinson's is now VERY GOOD, but of course will require more and more numbers to study. One cannot take a cluster, move it, and see what happens when it does NOT live in the Central Valley. Same with asthmatic children.
The Camp LeJeune studies in which we consider it now proven why these guys got so ill due to the numbers and the specificity of the agents, are quite interesting. Accepted of course by the government in that we are paying a hefty price for it.
As an RN I am kind of the last person into a good conspiracy theory, but we have indications a-plenty now. IMHO.

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Not bizarre to me at all. In any group of people over 70 you will see dementias developing.

The causes of vascular dementia are known - strokes, high blood pressure, things that disrupt the blood flow to the brain cells. It has nothing to do with where you live.

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datanp97, while doing my family tree, many of my relatives came over from the old country and were farmers. Vast majority of them lived into their 80's and 90's and were still farming, most died from heart related issues. Yes, some had memory issues but that is to be expected when one gets up into their 90's.

Many of the wives (if they didn't die in childbirth) and daughters who continued to live on the farm, passed at even older ages.

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Freqflyer, ‘the vast majority..were still farming’ is a bit surprising. My take on it is that in their 80s and 90s most couldn’t do the physical work of farming (still can't these days), more or less just ‘pottered’ while the next generation took over the work, dropped down their food intake in favor of the younger people, and often died roundabout their late 70s - early 80s. Much the same for women, who had worked just as hard in a kitchen that was more like a small factory. The 'daughters who continued to live on the farm' were doing age care.

Perhaps the records favored the longer lived? Which was your relevant 'old country'?

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Increased dementia has more to do with increasing life expectancies rather than where you live. Nobody got dementia when everybody was dying at 62.

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It’s three different types of dementia, so they didn’t catch it from each other or from the same source. It’s a dreadful co-incidence, but don’t make yourself feel worse by developing a ‘conspiracy’ theory about it – or by giving yourself the stress of moving again. The time frame for development means that it's NOT 'chemicals and plastic' in this piece of ground. Sympathy, Margaret

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Datanp97, I do think your concerns are valid. It is well known in the biochemical field that certain chemicals are neurotoxic. If you have an interest in exploring this you may be interested in this NIH paper: "Role of neurotoxicants in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease: a mechanistic insight". I am sorry about your husband and wish you both the best.

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Not enough information. Correlation isn't always causation.

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Bizarre but true. Connection between dementia and farming?

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