RE: Re: Off Topic: Blood Sugar Control Linked to Memory Decline, Study Shows

[Guest guest]

So good to hear about Jan. We love hiking and backpacking--Zach's dad hiked the AT back when he was in college--so it is great to hear that your daughter is such a good hiker. Z is 1 1/2 right now and not even crawling yet, so it is fun to think we have good hikes with him to look  forward to.Today is Zach's very last day of chemo!!! sonAssociate Professor of English and Graduate Literature CoordinatorSan Francisco State University, Humanities 5371600 Holloway AvenueSan Francisco, CA 94132(415) 338-3107 On Jan 11, 2009, at 2:33 AM, Rick Dill wrote:Well, most of you know where I am on this. Whether it is memory, mobility, general health, or blood sugar, real exercise (and diet control) are very important. When Jan went through her five year bout with autoimmune disease, stroke, AML, and finally the return of AML and the transplant, she was regularly brought to a very low level physically. Exercise was our recovery from the time it started as walking across the room to long hikes in the hills. She was diabetic at times in this period and that is why I am currently pushing her hard to keep exercising. Today we discussed what hike she would take. She had a four mile hike with over a thousand feet vertical which I thought was good. When I came back from an interesting afternoon on a technical review of a robotics project some high school kids were doing, she confessed that she had taken the short (in our minds minimum) hike that is an easy three miles and less altitude. I suggested a half hour on her exercise bike. She told me at supper that she'd done it.It has taken a long time to get to this point, but when she tells me what she has done, she is honest. She actually likes the hikes and usually prefers to do them by herself because she then sets the pace. It is slow,but I only complain if she comes back too close to dark.Her Mom still runs in the park and I regularly hike myself, so this isn't something that we just tell her to do.On the other hand, although she also walks probably ten miles during the week, she doesn't get the diet supervision and typically I face a 3-5 pound increase when she's on her own for a week. We are working on that, which is largely impulse control on junk food, but it will be a long time. In the net, we are holding her weight, but not getting it down. I'd really like her 30 pounds lighter and I know she'd feel better.The good news was that her last physical was great. The blood tests came back all normal. We are five years out from the transplant and she's on absolutely no meds.Yes I worry about the early onset of Alzheimer's plaques in people with down syndrome. We've even been told that it is 100% by age 40. Still we don't see any memory decline. Now I'm somewhat older and can't make the same claim, even though my blood sugar has never been a problem. So far among her peers, we don't see signs of dementia, at least as we would recognize it.Rick ... dad to 35 year old Janp.s. exercise isn't a new thing to Jan. She started gymnastics at about 5 and along with an active family, she was always pretty fit. Yes, I had a role in that as well.

[Guest guest]

Congratulations on the last day of Chemo!!! How exciting for

your family.

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf

Of son

Sent: January 12, 2009 12:38 PM

Subject: Re: [ ] Re: Off Topic: Blood Sugar Control Linked to

Memory Decline, Study Shows

So good to hear about Jan. We love hiking and backpacking--Zach's dad hiked

the AT back when he was in college--so it is great to hear that your daughter

is such a good hiker. Z is 1 1/2 right now and not even crawling yet, so it is

fun to think we have good hikes with him to look forward to.

Today is Zach's very last day of chemo!!!

son

Associate Professor of English and Graduate Literature Coordinator

San Francisco State University, Humanities 537

1600 Holloway Avenue

San Francisco, CA 94132

(415) 338-3107

On Jan 11, 2009, at 2:33 AM, Rick Dill wrote:

Well,

most of you know where I am on this. Whether it is memory,

mobility, general health, or blood sugar, real exercise (and diet

control) are very important. When Jan went through her five year bout

with autoimmune disease, stroke, AML, and finally the return of AML and

the transplant, she was regularly brought to a very low level

physically. Exercise was our recovery from the time it started as

walking across the room to long hikes in the hills.

She was diabetic at times in this period and that is why I am currently

pushing her hard to keep exercising. Today we discussed what hike she

would take. She had a four mile hike with over a thousand feet vertical

which I thought was good. When I came back from an interesting

afternoon on a technical review of a robotics project some high school

kids were doing, she confessed that she had taken the short (in our

minds minimum) hike that is an easy three miles and less altitude. I

suggested a half hour on her exercise bike. She told me at supper that

she'd done it.

It has taken a long time to get to this point, but when she tells me

what she has done, she is honest. She actually likes the hikes and

usually prefers to do them by herself because she then sets the pace.

It is slow,but I only complain if she comes back too close to dark.

Her Mom still runs in the park and I regularly hike myself, so this

isn't something that we just tell her to do.

On the other hand, although she also walks probably ten miles during the

week, she doesn't get the diet supervision and typically I face a 3-5

pound increase when she's on her own for a week. We are working on

that, which is largely impulse control on junk food, but it will be a

long time. In the net, we are holding her weight, but not getting it

down. I'd really like her 30 pounds lighter and I know she'd feel better.

The good news was that her last physical was great. The blood tests

came back all normal. We are five years out from the transplant and

she's on absolutely no meds.

Yes I worry about the early onset of Alzheimer's plaques in people with

down syndrome. We've even been told that it is 100% by age 40. Still

we don't see any memory decline. Now I'm somewhat older and can't make

the same claim, even though my blood sugar has never been a problem. So

far among her peers, we don't see signs of dementia, at least as we

would recognize it.

Rick ... dad to 35 year old Jan

p.s. exercise isn't a new thing to Jan. She started gymnastics at about

5 and along with an active family, she was always pretty fit. Yes, I

had a role in that as well.