How peanut butter is helping to cure memory loss
On October 9, 2013, a research study was conducted with peanut butter and patients with early Alzheimer’s and dementia. In the project, the distance from which a patient with their eyes closed could smell a tablespoon of peanut butter from the nose was measured. It was found that patients with early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease were impaired in their left nostril, not being able to smell the peanut butter as well as they could with their right nostril. Patients without AD showed no such disability. At the moment, this test can be used as a probable detector and diagnosis procedure for Alzheimer’s patients, but more study needs to be done in order to further understand this curious case. More information about this article can be found here.
With so many advances in technology just in the past 20 years, it’s easy to remain optimistic that one day a cure for such diseases can be found. It’s hard living with cancer or Alzheimer’s in your own family as you know how it touches lives.
Warning, sad topic ahead.
The reason for this peculiar topic is that my grandpa has Alzheimer’s and when I saw this article it just caught my attention. AD is not one of those diseases than can be treated, but it is still beneficial to catch it early on. In the end, the results are still solemn.
The first few years, it’s forgetting that you already made dinner and then making it again or putting on two pairs of pants. Slowly, you start losing touch of days, weeks, years. When I went to visit him in China two years ago, he had no idea that 10 years passed since I last saw him. I smiled as he called me by a name I no longer use and watched as he would instinctively look down every time he tried to talk to me.
Recently, he has lost touch of who my mom and dad or any of his grandchildren are. He only knows the aunt and uncle who stand by him day and night, and sometimes he forgets their names too. Clinging on to the memory of a grandma who long passed, he refuses to leave the house for fear that she will be lonely when she gets back. Hopefully, he never slips past the point of breaking, as most unfortunately do.
On Sunday, October 13, the Alzheimer’s Society of Calgary is hosting their 23rd annual Thanksgiving Memory Walk & Run, an event I will be participating in. It would mean a lot if even one of you would check out this event. Just as with any other cause, we walk, run, and bike in hopes of reaching a brighter future where no one will have to suffer.
