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https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/health-news/women-get-alzheimers-way-more-than-men—and-stress-could-help-explain-why/ar-AAFqzZG?ocid=spartandhp


The cited study had only less than 1000 participants, but cites other studies.


Apparently the factor is cortisol, a stress hormone.


There are other interesting issues, such as the effect of daily stress vs. intense periodic stress (such as that contributing to PTSS).


Several years ago, after my sister died, I did some online research on trauma related issues. arising from caregiving. I have only vague memories of the specific articles I read, but there was one overwhelming conclusion: that people in caregiving roles had an IL-6 level close to that of someone in the 90 year old range.


W/o getting into medical detail which I'm not qualified to interpret, IL-6 is a "proinflammatory cytokine" associated with multiple diseases, A very good description is summarized in the Abstract section of this NIH article:


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC166443/


I don't think it's a revelation that we caregivers suffer high levels of stress, but I thought the relation to Alzheimer's Disease is important. And it might be something that others have read, or determined already.


The questions are ones which are hard to answer: what can we do about the stress, and the challenges we face? The number of questions here that raise that issue are supportive of our concern, and recognition of these issues.

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I think we cannot get stressed about this!
Seriously, it has taken great effort with my personality, to learn to not react to things that would be upsetting. I still curse at behaviors that make me nuts, but I cherish my little private victories like how I mostly blew it off when, after leaving two outfits to pick from on her bed, nice outfits...mom shows up at a small anniversary lunch wearing a resale shop special.
If this research is accurate and the country is concerned about the potential for increased numbers of people needing assistance and costing $$$ then they should invest $$$ now in helping us with our stress, by providing more coverage with help, support, income assistance if we need time to caregive.
Also check out Ai Jen Poo (spelling?) who believes in a decent wage and good training for caregivers...this gives people respectable jobs and better care for our loved ones, or god forbid ourselves.
BTW, sort of related, with some challenge I signed on for a caregiver support program where one can arrange for in home help so they as the caregiver can have some respite. It's been very educational but also has taken more time and energy and generated more stress than it helped relieve.
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Stress really does effect everything.
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That's certainly an interesting article...thanks for sharing!
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Look at the one you care for and decide if you want to be in a position like them regarding dementia - if you do then keep going, but if not your only option as a woman is to find them a suitable home before you literally lose your marbles as a result of caring,
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GardenArtist, thank you for the link, very informative.

Oh my gosh, it wasn't until my parents needed me to helicopter over them that the stress took over. I was outside of my comfort zone as I had no training for this new journey. It wasn't like I could call Triple A and order a Triptik to guide me.

Just had a light bulb moment, some folks think that dementia is in the DNA of a family. Now I wonder if there are stats that show that if grandmother had taken care of her own mother, grandmother developed memory issues.... thus grandmother's daughter was called in be the caregiver and later she also developed dementia... the domino affect. Thus, maybe dementia is more stress related then DNA related.

I know for myself, I read up on everything related to dementia just in case. Well, my Mom didn't develop it until she had a major head trauma from a fall at 98. My Dad didn't start with sundowning until he was 95. Neither one was a caregiver for their own parents. Yet my mind can be scattered at times.

Now I am thinking about my cousins. My Godmother lived to be 99 and didn't have memory issues until that final year. Yet, her son who was her caregiver is now having memory issues at 78. Hmmm, my maternal grandparents didn't have dementia, but my Mom's sister who was the main caregiver, as she lived just down the street from them, developed dementia.
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Truly frightening when you think about all the stress we are continually under as caregivers. I have been trying to think about what to do, I mean I know exercise, meditation, not being a perfectionist are all things I absolutely need to do to try and help myself but it is so hard. I'm so tired, even with 8-9 hours of sleep.

I saw Teepa Snow at a conference and she said the 5 things that we can use to see if our people are changing for the worse are the same 5 things we can use for ourselves to see if we are okay.

-Stress level
-Sleep (different sleep patterns or wake/sleep patterns)
-Social engagement (withdrawl from)
-Exercise
-Food

If we can at least have 2 things "right" in that group and try to add more that is healthy for us as caregivers. I've got 0 working for me. It makes me afraid for myself.
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Yes it's a high price we pay for worrying too much, (wanting to control everything?). Anxiety isn't worth the state of alarm it keeps us in. For me, it boils down to a compulsion to make everything perfect for my LOs...& not being able to let go of my mistakes. Would've been much better for me to ask God (& trust Him), for each of my situations.
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Alva, the symptoms you described are exactly what I experienced.  Like another poster here, I thought there was something wrong with me - there was!   It took a while, different pace, different focus, and a lot of thinking to recognize what was happening.  And it still does.

Thanks for the medical insight. 

(and avoiding that stress is exactly why I'm taking a day off today.)
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AlvaDeer Aug 2019
Boy, personal AND medical for me. I know the drill. I am 77, and I never fully recognized my own anxiety disorder until this last year when my brother became ill. I knew my daughter, 57, has one for years that, along with depression she has learned to battle righteously. But I didn't see it as so familial as I do now. My brother's early Lewy's is SO much worse when he becomes anxious. Me, with my ordered easy life heretofore could not have begun to imagine what it all feels like to go out of control anxious until I had to deal with it. Wow, has it been an education.
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I do keep warning people about anxiety and cortisol levels. They are NOT good, and they are not good for anything at all. I can see the effect of anxiety on patients suffering from Alzheimer's. Those of us who suffer from anxiety at all can assure you that we often FEEL as tho we already have dementia when we don't. Cannot think. Literally it can be like a barrage of sites and sounds incoming that cannot be sorted. It is as though time freezes in place. It is like being immersed in a fog. You cannot react sometimes. Cannot find things and put things in ridiculous places. Cannot multitask or do more than one thing at a time without great concentration. When someone with a brain already altered by an early dementia is visited by anxiety the affect is profound. If caregivers cannot get breaks for themselves they will break, indeed. Women live longer than men statistically, so they are definitely going to be getting more age-related diseases just by that, but I surely do agree with the stress and the cortisol levels. They are deadly.
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