{"id":3651,"date":"2010-08-24T04:55:41","date_gmt":"2010-08-24T09:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/?p=3651"},"modified":"2021-09-12T10:05:20","modified_gmt":"2021-09-12T15:05:20","slug":"will-alzheimers-skyrocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/24\/will-alzheimers-skyrocket","title":{"rendered":"Will Alzheimer\u2019s Skyrocket?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2006, the very dark comedy Idiocracy<\/strong><\/em><\/a> played local theatres for what seemed like a few hours before disappearing into DVD bins and obscure cable channels. Its Rip van Winkle story involves a not particularly bright Army librarian, recruited into a Pentagon hibernation program, awakening centuries into the future and finding himself the most intelligent person in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not because he\u2019s particularly bright, but because everyone else has become seriously stupid. They\u2019ve long forgotten how to read, operate self-service gas pumps, open Coke bottles. Get the drift? You can rent Idiocracy here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, rated R for language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But perhaps Idiocracy the reality will be here far sooner than the movie\u2019s half millennium. Researchers now know that three important lifestyle choices help prevent Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first is exercise.<\/strong> It doesn\u2019t take much, roughly 30 minutes a day three or four times a week. However, polls reveal<\/strong><\/em><\/a> we exercised even less in 2009 than we did in 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obesity is a second risk factor for Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/strong> But between our unhealthful diets, the craze for gargantuan portions, and our inactivity, we\u2019re morphing into a nation of fat people, it was reported last week, with Mississippi leading the pack. I was in North Carolina last week and was astonished to see very large people in restaurants shoveling food into their mouths as if the Taliban had invaded South Carolina and this was the last meal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third Alzheimer\u2019s risk factor is an overall lack of brain activity.<\/strong> Intellectual stimulation of any kind is preventive. Many studies have confirmed that cognitive decline with age can be slowed by a lifetime of staying engaged in daily mentally challenging activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here\u2019s the rub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every bit of available evidence shows that Americans are dumbing themselves down. Bob Herbert\u2019s important op-ed piece in the New York Times, Putting Our Brains on Hold<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, informs readers that the US, which once led the world in percentage of students with college degrees has during the past decade plummeted to 12th among developed nations, according to data from the College Board. Herbert worries \u201cwe\u2019re allowing ourselves to become a nation of nitwits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And just a day before Herbert\u2019s piece was published, the bookstore chain Barnes & Noble put itself up for sale. Last year Borders went bankrupt in the UK and it\u2019s been teetering on it here since 2009. Independent bookstores have gone the way of the great auk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts in the industry attribute this trend not only to internet competition, but to an overall decline in reading over the past 20 years. The amount of your day devoted to media of any stripe is referred to as your \u201cmedia time,\u201d and during the past ten years the amount of that media time devoted to the physical act of sustained reading has plummeted to a barely visible wedge on a pie chart, unable to compete with offerings like MySpace and Facebook, your iPod, TV, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a historical basis, sociologist Susan Jacoby\u2019s The Age of American Unreason<\/strong><\/em><\/a> points out that the US has never really been a nation that values intellect. Our \u201cindependent pioneer spirit\u201d is accompanied by an actual hostility to education that\u2019s resulted in vast areas of our nation becoming dumber and dumber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if we\u2019re now on the obese, slothful, and kind of dumb side, with no tsunami of self-improvement on the horizon, it may be safe to say we can expect more Alzheimer\u2019s. A real American \u201cIdiocracy\u201d arriving a lot sooner than anyone ever dreamed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PS: For The Onion’s usual enlightened perspective on this, click here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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