- Pacific
TELEVISION is the only mid-life recreation positively linked to developing Alzheimer's disease, says a report today.
Alzheimer's affects one in 20 aged over 65 and nearly a quarter of those over 85, causing bouts of dementia, loss of memory, wrenching personality changes and, eventually, death. The study found that the disease was linked to those less involved in recreation between the ages of 20 and 60 than healthy people of similar background.
The only exception was watching television, where Alzheimer's patients were more active viewers in mid-life, Dr Robert Friedland reports in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, with colleagues at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and the University Hospitals of Cleveland. He said: "Of all the activities we quantified - passive, intellectual and physical - Alzheimer's patients are in middle life less active in all of them - except for one, which is television." He accepts that it is possible for television to be intellectually stimulating "but probably that is not what is happening most of the time, especially in America, where people watch an average of four hours a day. "I think it is bad for the brain to watch four hours of television a day." The brain has been honed by evolutionary forces to be active, and learning is an important part of life. "When you watch TV you can be in a semi-conscious state where you really are not doing any learning."
The results suggest that recreational inactivity in mid-life may be either a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, a consequence of early, undetected symptoms of the disease, or both. Previous studies have shown that well-educated people are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease.
Scientists in one study reported that each year of education reduced the risk of developing the disease by 17 per cent. Researchers have paid relatively little attention to the relationship between recreational activities - a hobby, gardening, reading or any activity other than work - and the disease.
Dr Friedland's team questioned 193 patients who either possibly or probably had Alzheimer's and 358 of their healthy friends, neighbours or acquaintances about how frequently they took part in 26 recreational activities classed as intellectual, physical, or passive.
They report that the healthy had been more involved in all three activity categories in mid-life than had Alzheimer's patients. (3.06.2001, Roger Highfield) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/1325216/Scientists-hint-at-link-between-TV-and-Alzheimers.html
TV 'link' to Alzheimer's
Watching too much television, and doing too little physical activity could be linked to Alzheimer's disease, according to US researchers.A study looked at the hobbies of a group of people with Alzheimer's, compared to a healthy group. Dr Robert Friedland said watching TV was the only recreational activity, out of those studied, that Alzheimer's sufferers were more likely to participate in. But Dr Richard Harvey, director of research from the Alzheimer's Society said the US research did not prove there was any link. Alzheimer's affects over 700,000 people in the UK. One in 20 between 70 and 80 and one in five over 80 have the condition. The most common symptoms are memory, speech and perception problems.
'Less active'
Dr Friedland led the team of researchers from the Case Western Reserve University Hospital of Medicine and the University Hospitals of Cleveland. The researchers looked at three kinds of activity - passive, intellectual and physical - covering all kinds of ways people spend their time outside work, from visiting friends to playing an instrument and sports. He told BBC News Online: "The study showed that the Alzheimer's patients were consistently less active in younger life in all of these activities, except for TV."
Dr Friedland said: "The brain is an organ like any other organ which ages in regard to how its used. So learning is important for the brain - that's the purpose, like the heart pumps and the muscles constrict. The brain has been honed by evolutionary forces to be active, and learning is an important part of life. "When you watch TV, you can be in a semi-conscious state where you really are not doing any learning."
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggested that people who were relatively inactive had a 250% increased risk of developing Alzheimer's. It surveyed the carers of 193 Alzheimer's patients and 358 of their healthy friends, neighbours and acquaintances, and quizzed them about their different hobbies in middle-age. It found those with Alzheimer's were less likely to have had intellectual hobbies, and were unlikely to have had as wide a range of interests as their healthy peers.
Dr Harvey told BBC News Online Alzheimer's Disease was a complex condition, and that its cause was unlikely to be as simple as watching TV. He added that as the researchers had asked carers for the group with Alzheimer's about their habits rather than the patients themselves the data was likely to be inaccurate. Carers were more likely to remember periods of inactivity, he said. In contrast, he said the healthy people taking part could have been more likely to exaggerate the amount of physical activity they undertook.
Dr Harvey added that there was no direct cause identified for what was a complicated condition, but added: "There have been a lot of studies in the past that have shown an association between physical and mental activity and a reduced risk of Alzheimer's." (BBC, 3.06.2001) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1204894.stm
"To Achieve One World
Government it is necessary to remove from the minds of men their individualism,
their loyalty to family traditions and national identification." (Brock Chisholm - Director of the World Health Organization)
"A society whose citizens refuse to see and investigate the facts, who refuse to
believe that their government and their media will routinely lie to them and fabricate a
reality contrary to verifiable facts, is a society that chooses and deserves the Police
State Dictatorship it's going to
get." (Ian Williams Goddard)
The fact is that "political correctness" is all about creating uniformity. Individualism is one of the biggest obstacles in the way of the New World Order. They want a public that is predictable and conditioned to do as it's told without asking questions.
"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first." Thomas Jefferson