Monthly Archives: May 2009

I have been a huge Los Angeles Lakers fan since I was a child. I am really excited about my team being in the NBA Finals for the second year in a row.

What I’m not as excited about is a video I recently watched on the ESPN website (http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4210837) about Lakers star Lamar Odom and his massive addiction… to candy. In it, you can see the 6-foot 10-inch forward gobbling up massive quantities of sugary treats.

Odom has been a giant source of frustration for Lakers fans. He is unbelievably talented, but often acts like a space cadet during games. Once, when he was taking the ball out on the sidelines, he walked onto the court before he threw the ball in, causing a turnover.  During the Lakers last home game against the Denver Nuggets, Kobe Bryant threw him a pass, but the ball hit him on the shoulder because he had spaced out and was not paying attention.

On sports talk shows, Odom is constantly criticized because no one knows if he will play well or not. He can play great, and be worth his 14 million-dollar salary, or he can act like he is “missing in action.”

Odom freely confesses that he just can’t help himself when it comes to the sweet stuff and always keeps a stash on hand of Gummi Bears, Honey Buns, Lifesavers, Hershey’s white chocolate, Snickers bars, cookies, and more. He eats the sugary snacks morning noon and night, and even says he sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night, chows down on some treats, then falls back asleep.

This is bad news for the Lakers. I’ve been telling my patients for years that sugar acts like a drug in the brain. It causes blood sugar levels to spike and then crash, leaving you feeling tired, irritable, foggy, and stupid. Eating too much sugar impairs cognitive function, which may explain why Odom doesn’t always make the smartest decisions on the court.

Excessive sugar consumption also promotes inflammation, which can make your joints ache, and that’s definitely a bad thing for a professional athlete. It is also linked to headaches, mood swings, and weight gain. Weight gain isn’t a problem now for Odom, but it is for the average person who isn’t playing full-court basketball for hours each day.

As a fan and a physician, it concerns me that our professional sports organizations and players are not more concerned about brain health, which includes nutrition. My advice to Odom and to all sugar addicts is to get your sugar consumption under control. You’ll feel so much better and your brain will function better, too. And, maybe the Lakers can get their 15th championship and Odom can get his first.

You can read the article I wrote for ABC News here.

This article is from my friend and colleague Dennis Fortier from Medical Care Corporation, dedicated to the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss.

5 Truths that Spawned 5 Myths about Alzheimer’s and Dementia

Sometimes the truth can be very misleading.  This is often the case with complex topics when an “expert” makes a narrow but accurate statement that is subsequently generalized by the lay public.  This is a common phenomenon in the fields of Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Here are five examples of true statements that have been so commonly misinterpreted that they have spawned five harmful yet well-entrenched myths.  

Narrow Truth: There is no cure for AD.

General Myth:  Because there is no cure, nothing can be done for patients diagnosed with this disease. 

Like diabetes and hypertension, we cannot yet cure Alzheimer’s disease.  However, physicians can intervene and manage the symptoms with more success than most headlines would indicate.  In fact, with a timely diagnosis, a physician can prescribe a treatment plan including pharmaceutical therapy, improved diet, physical exercise, mental and social activity, and certain OTC supplements.  When this approach is combined with an educated caregiver, disease progression can be commonly slowed for some meaningful period of time.

Narrow Truth: The only certain method for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease is to inspect a sample of brain tissue during autopsy.

General Myth: Alzheimer’s disease cannot be accurately diagnosed until death.

If “certain” means 100% accuracy, then there is no certain diagnostic method for many well known diseases (Lou Gehrigs disease springs immediately to mind).  However, physicians following published diagnostic guidelines can get a highly accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (90%-95), even at a fairly early stage of the disease.  This diagnostic accuracy is on par with commonly accepted clinical practice.

Narrow Truth:  Current treatments do not stop the progression of AD.

General Myth: Since the disease will continue to progress, there is no need to bother with treatment.

There is no doubt that reversing all memory loss would be the best treatment result and halting further memory loss would be better than ongoing decline.  However, this does not mean that slowing the pace of further decline is not a worthy pursuit.  We all want better treatment options in the future but until they arrive, preserving quality of life during a patient’s final years is definitely a worthwhile and attainable goal.

Narrow Truth:  Cognitive decline is a part of normal aging.

General Myth: Pronounced cognitive deficits just need to be expected and tolerated

As we age, all of our organic functions tend to slow.  Our ability to think, make calculations, use judgment, and store and retrieve information is not immune to this process.   However, a pronounced loss of cognitive capacity severe enough to impact a person’s ability to lead an independent life is not normal.  When such decline occurs, there is some underlying pathological explanation that can be identified and treated by a physician.  Accepting significant loss of mental function as a normal artifact of aging is a tragedy.

Narrow Truth: It’s best not to know if you have Alzheimer’s disease

General Myth: It’s best if the problem stays undiagnosed

This final “truth” is a stretch to begin with.  I can imagine that, if it were possible, an Alzheimer’s patient might enjoy life more if they could receive the highest standards of care without ever knowing they had a terrible disease.  However, this does not make the case that the problem should be ignored.  The published evidence in favor of managing the symptoms and prolonging a higher quality of life outweighs the presumed benefits of bliss.  Additionally, patients need to know about their condition if they are to participate meaningfully in their own care and end of life decisions. 

I hear and read these narrow “truths” in the media everyday.  I also see first hand how the public mischaracterizes them and takes away a broader and more harmful message than is intended. 

Education remains a major barrier between our current ability to care for AD patients and the higher standards that are within our immediate grasp.  To address the educational gap, leading researchers distill the daily news through a non-commercial blog called “Brain Today” (it can be viewed at http://braintoday.blogspot.com). 

Through this and many other educational efforts, I hope we can begin to divorce ourselves from these sound bites of misleading truth and begin to see the Alzheimer’s picture with more clarity.

Dennis Fortier

President & CEO

Medical Care Corporation