“An international scientific consensus is steadily gaining ground that points to Alzheimer’s as one of the diseases on the spectrum of auto-immune conditions, along with mutiple sclerosis, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis and many others. Again, these are the diseases in which the body’s immune system turns against the self. In autoimmune illness, there is a blurring between what is self and non-self–foreign matter to be attacked.
“Autoimmune aggression” is how Russian researchers recently characterized the pathological process in Alzheimer’s. …The inflammation of brain tissue in Alzheimer’s–called inflamm-aging by a group of Italian scientists–has been successfully slowed by the same anti-inflammatory drugs employed for the treatment of arthritis. Spanish investigators have found immune-system components, including specialized immune cells and chemicals, in the brain tissue of affected patients. Scientists have identified unique anti-brain antibodies manufactured by the confused immune system. According to Austrian researchers, “There is little doubt that the immune system plays a role in the neurodegenerative process in Alzheimer’s disease.”” Gabor Mate, M.D. WHEN THE BODY SAYS NO
Scientists officially link processed foods to autoimmune disease http://www.trueactivist.com/scientists-officially-link-processed-foods-to-autoimmune-disease/
Alzheimers has been described by many Medical Intuitives as a way of withdrawing and shutting down from life. I witnessed this myself , with my father, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in the early 1990’s.
Dad was a business man, a father, a husband, a salesman and a world war II veteran. For more than 40 years he was an integral part of a huge corporation. In his senior years with the company, his ambitions carried him to the Director’s position.
Father spent many days in quiet study concentrating, persisting on self-help and bio-feedback books his mind shuffling, distilling and ingraining the bytes of information. Words and phrases of great importance to him were underlined, recorded and analyzed. Doubts were aimed and fired back at his self image his habitual misdemeanors questioning his ability to play the game of life. Why and how did this intelligent and soul-searching man’s mind and life switch off and shut-down?
METAPHYSICAL CAUSES
In Alzheimer’s……”there is a withdrawal of the life-giving emotional input (blood), resulting in deep mental trauma. This trauma may be an intense fear of what lies ahead in old age and death, so much so that there is a reversion to childlike behaviour and a shutting down of present-day awareness as a way of ignoring the future. This state has also been described as a preparation time, a period when we can play out our fears and fantasies while living in a semi-alive state, a state that can even border on keen awareness and understanding. Then, when death comes, it is not so fraught with the terror of letting go…” DEB SHAPIRO
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Louise Hay claims “Alzheimer’s is a desire to leave the planet. The inability to face life as it is.”
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Compassionate Dragon http://www.compassionatedragon.com/metaphysics5.html also sees Alzheimer’s as rooted in fear. He goes on to say…..“Alzheimer’s is a way of dying without actually going through the process. the brain shuts down over a long period of time. People who do Alzheimer’s are doing a rather intense drama not only for themselves but for those around them. It is a way of being the centre of attention in doing the drama of death. In a manner of speaking, Alzheimer’s is a way of staying on the planet long after the DNA programming says we should leave. Alzheimer’s may be seen as one of the down sides of modern medicine. It is one response to lengthening the life span by man-made means. Not the only response of course, and not necessarily a response we need to judge badly. Living on borrowed time, as it were, gives us second chances to learn the lessons we have come here to learn.
Life makes less and less sense. Brain diseases represent that which does not compute in our lives. So, life does not compute, and one retreats further and further from it until there is nowhere left to go but onto the next step. Alzheimer’s is another one of those diseases of the 20th century that appeared only rarely on the planet before. As more and more people choose this particularly dramatic way of exiting this life, I believe, we have more and more opportunity to grasp the role of spirit and the implications of overcoming DNA programming.
In other cultures in other times, such people were looked on with reverence. They were seen to be in direct contact with the spirit world. They were sacred and holy in a way, even if it made them crazy in this world.” **
It is confusing to try and understand the true cause of Alzheimer’s. I’ve wondered if other factors could be involved, like a bacteria or even a virus that can hide in the body’s cells, undetected for years. Yes, I know that certain proteins (amyloid) as well as aluminum and flouride can contribute to this disease. Cholesterol and thyroid disease has been researched with Alzheimer’s too and of course old age. But if the latter is true, why are some people being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in their 40’s and 50’s?
“Memory loss and cognitive impairment have a multitude of causes that have nothing to do with the effects of aging. I have found that many patients with symptoms similar to those of early-stage Alzheimer’s or of age-associated memory-impairment, do not suffer from either of these maladies. Aproximately 50 percent of all memory disorder patients actually suffer from a range of non-Alzheimer’s problems, including depression, repeated minor strokes, toxic reactions to drugs, long-term effects of alcoholism, brain injury, chronic fatigue syndrome, [Fibromyalgia] and severe allergies.” Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. “BRAIN LONGEVITY”
Alzherimer’s isn’t just a physical problem, it’s a cultural issue too. Culture is steeped in human consciousness; it is the sum of our beliefs, attitudes, thoughts and creativity. It determines how we cope with the world and how we react to everything that happens to us….it determines the way we think about getting old. Old age is supposed to be the best years of our life, yet we dread the thought of growing old and find ourselves being haunted by it.
Have the elderly in our society lost their respective role as wise teachers to the younger generations? Is our generation too focused on preserving and holding onto our youth hoping death will pass us by? Are we so afraid of getting old that we neglect, ignore and shun our elders, leaving them alone to die in nursing homes and hospitals?
So many questions to ponder! Deb Shapiro talks of fear and fear can bewilder and disorient us to the point we think we’re losing our minds. Adrenaline floods the limbic system of the brain, we feel intense terror.
When we have been through a traumatic event a mild form of shock takes over. The bodily systems shut down because it can’t comphrehend…..it’s the body’s way of taking care of itself. And during that time we feel spacey, fuzzy and unable to concentrate. Eventually these bewildered fears go away as our adrenaline stabilizes and we feel ‘normal’ again. But if we continue to focus on the fear, we create more adrenaline and cortisol which produces more bodily symptoms and confusion. Is this what Shapiro is talking about?
Quoted from an excellent site on Dementia and Alzheimer’s http://www.brainbiocentre.com/content.asp?id_Content=1028
“When we are under extended periods of stress, our body produces the adrenal hormone cortisol. However although cortisol is a powerful anti-inflammatory hormone, raised cortisol can damage the brain and avoiding non-stop stress is therefore important for reducing Alzheimer’s risk . Prolonged stress can eventually lead to a lack of cortisol, which also increases inflammation. There is some evidence that an adrenal hormone called DHEA may be helpful in restoring a normal balance of adrenal hormones in those with Alzheimer’s with evidence of adrenal burn out.”
EMOTIONAL IMBALANCE AND DETACHMENT
“Alzheimer’s – Loss of power, inability to deal with life, too many suppressed emotions. Overwhelmed by life, wanting to run away to another time. Not wanting to remember or be present. Feeling lost and confused”. THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF YOUR BODY: The Essential Guide to Health and Wellness ~ Inna Segal
As we mature and evolve through life we learn to ‘tolerate’ the different point of views of others. We detach/hide from emotional dramas, thinking of them as unnecessary burdens. The problem with this is, we miss out on learning more about ourselves and our potentials of being human. Closing off our many channels of communication, causes the thinking part of our brain to shut down instead of searching inside and outside for answers.
Suppressing our emotions usually makes them worse than what they are. Keeping them inside holds us down causing confusion, despair and all sorts of diseases and emotional imbalances. Eventually they become internal wounds imploding and draining our lifeforce and crippling our spirit.
In actuality, the only person your hurting is yourself. Stagnated emotions don’t go away. They sit in your auric field and in the muscles and cells of your body that makeup your energy. This will begin resonating with similar patterns in your environment and with events or other people. People will mirror to you what you’re holding back. Instead of escaping from your emotions you will continue to take them with you, increasing as the years go by. If you are holding onto a lot of pain, then your life will begin to reflect it back to you. You will be projecting onto others your inner thoughts and emotions.
In the process of cutting yourself off from your pain, you will also cut yourself off from life and your body/mind will start degenerating. Your cells are constantly processing what you’ve experienced, so physically you turn into the interpretation you internalized. Holding back your emotions and feelings causes depression, confusion; it reflects onto the surfaces of your skin, your blood becomes thicker, stickier and more prone to clumping. The brains output of neurotransmitters becomes depleted, hormone levels drop, sleep is interrupted and this critically affects your balance, coordination and brain function.
Alzheimer’s is “the disease of the century….it is the worst of all diseases, not just for what it does to the victim, but for is devastating effects on families and friends. It begins with the loss of learned skills, arithmetic and typing, for instances; it progresses inexorably to a totall shutting down of the mind. It is, unmericifully, not lethal. Patients go on and on living, essentially brainless but otherwise healthy, into advanced age, unless lucky enough to be saved by penumonia.”LEWIS THOMAS
My father passed away not from alzheimer’s but from what Lewis Thomas mentioned above, pneumonia. I, like many others who have lost loved ones with alzheimers, questioned where and how this disease could have started. There had to be an underlying psychological cause that affected their mental and emotional states. Some of the things I did notice as my dad’s dementia progressed was severe mood changes, anger withhout a cause, impatience and snappiness. After his outbursts he seemed depressed, confused, lacked confidence and his overall appreication for life seemed lost. He craved silence, darkness, alienating himself from family, friends, as well as social and spiritual structures that had supported him in the past. Why?
My dad believed in tradition and traditions have lost their flavor in the modern or ‘new age’ world. The problem with losing old traditions is that new values and new beliefs haven’t been securely established yet. This can leave our seniors and many people feeling disconnected, disoriented and unstable, especially if there is no solid frame of reference for them to fall back on. It has been said our world is accelerating and shifting into a new consciousness. Although this may sound very esoteric, the earth and its people have been going through a social, political, economic and spiritual re-invention. Religion has lost its stranglehold on society. Those that cannot tune into this new frequency feel disconnected, powerless. Fears take over and fear also alienates and separates us from others.
FUTURE SHOCK
I’ve seen the future, brother; it is murder.” Leonard Cohen
“Future shock is the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time. Alvin Toffler”
A couple of weeks ago, I was looking over the many shelves of a second hand bookstore and came upon an ‘old’ book called Future Shock. Our future world of accelerating and radical change is NOW.
Alvin Toffler spoke of increased human emotions and feelings, intensified violent crimes, more antidepressant drugs and serious mental illness. He talked of heart palpitations, tremors, insomnia, unexplained fatigue, confusion and irritability. Toffler also said we humans are ’slow to change’ and not as adaptable as we should be. This lack of flow and flexibility could be our downfall and the cause of many illnesses such as Heart Disease, Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia and Alzheimers.
Unexpected change forces us into the unknown and the only control we have over this, is, how we handle it.
“The influence of the Aquarian energy, for both the individual and the collective, now brings not only the innovative and expansive into our lives, but also the erratic and unexpected. This means that all of us must be expected to receive and handle change at a pace that was unimaginable a few decades ago. For many of us, life now tends to feel chaotic. The chaos comes from not being able to see clearly what direction to take. The best way to adapt to this fast pace of change, is to trust the change will shift us into the right place.” Joyce Petschek
Interesting!!! New Technology being developed for early detection of Alzheimer’s http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-technology-alzheimer-sxsw-prize.html
“By monitoring the way a person moves their eyes, and watching how they view novel images versus familiar images, we’re able to detect perturbations that exist on the hippocampus,” Kaplan said, referring to the part of the brain that handles memory.
The hippocampus is part of the limbic brain where our memories and histories are stored along with the emotional association with those memories. During moments of extreme stress, the hypothalamus digs up our most wounded memories creating the flight-or-flight response. It then alerts our sympathetic nervous system to increase our heart rate, breathing, muscle tension, metabolism and blood pressure. Our hands and feet become cold as blood is directed away from our digestive system and tissue/organs into the larger muscles that help us either fight or run. In other words some very important functions that keep the body healthy are being shut down.
Many people with persistent or chronic stress don’t see their intensity as being intense. That’s because they lived their childhood and even their adult years in this heightened state. People suffering from stress could reveal their hyperactivity in the brain, skeletomuscular, cardiovascular, and/or gastrointestinal system.
“The hippocampus is the part of the brain that is particularly vulnerable to stress and stress hormones. Some researchers have reported that high cortisol levels are linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease…While cortisol levels fluctuate through the day, they often soar when a person is faced with a stressful situation. Studies have shown this stress also affects memory..[for instance] people taking cortisone pills which change into cortisol in the body were not good at remembering a list of words as people taking placebo pills.” The Encyclopedia of Alzheimer’s Disease by Carol Turkington, Deborah R. Mitchell
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