More blood pressure worry: It's linked to dementia

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100126/ap_on_he_me/us_med_healthbeat_dementia_blood_pressure

This is an interesting article.

Ahead of the Curve

I was talking to one of my colleagues from NASA (Ed Erickson) this past week about how inaccurate some of the facts on Alzheimers are. Just take a look at my earlier post on the stages and you can see Dad doesn't exactly fit in any of the categories. There are still things he excels at, and of course things he absolutely cannot do. Ed explained to me that when doctor's study diseases the data is analyzed in a bell curve. Most of what we are reading is what falls right in the middle.
We know dad ate turmeric just about everyday, fish once a week, and ran all the time, but he still got Alzheimers. Those preventative measures against Alzheimers are for the average person, I guess. Dad's never really been average. If you've been to any of Dad's doctor's appointments with Dr. Ribaudo, you'd know he still aces the math portions, but he can't read a clock, he can write complete sentences and draw that diagram with shapes, but he can't remember those three words. According the data Stage 6-7 patients should start seeing physical health decline. Dad's been surviving on those Parle-G biscuits for over a year. His health seems to be doing okay, considering. Like usual Dad's falling ahead of the curve...

Guhoroy

I know I completley misspelled his name, but can either Jayant or Pankaj interview the dude and get his perspective on Dad! I mean, he must have some stories!!

Me as Dad

In sixth grade, most kids are in the mode where they rebel against their parents and want to be nothing like them. I could write a thousand words to describe how I went against the grain in this regard, or simply share this picture of my sixth grade graduation. There I was in 1992, the start of grunge era.

Ruby took one look at this picture and burst into laughter. She said to me, "You look like an engineer."

Indeed. I was wearing one of my father's shirts, had pleated pants on and even had a Parker pen, sans pocket protector, in my pocket. I wanted to be my dad.

Unrelated: i never got beat up in elementary school.

Dad and my nicknames

Dad always had a nick name for me.. It was always soo enduring to hear him call me by his created nick name... It start from when I was a little girl, he would call me Rani to when I was in my twenties, he would call me Cookie. Never understood why, just always accepted that, that was our relationship. Something I will always cherish.

Dad and Rekha 2007

Dad still remembers Rekha but he is slowly starting to forget her too.  The other day he asked if this girl was my daughter.  So I pulled this from the archives of when Rekha was just a few weeks old

Dad and Anju

I love this picture.  As you all know, Dad was not able to participate in Anju's wedding.   It was a tough decision to make to not take Dad to the wedding.  We decided it would be too stressful for him.  He gets extremely confused when he leaves the house.  Anju had only one wish the morning of her wedding, and that was to get a pic of her and Dad together.  We had to wake him up to do it.  And I could tell Dad knew something was going on, but he couldn't grasp it.