If you forget to pick up your dry cleaning once or twice, it’s unlikely that dementia is around the corner (although your favorite silk dress may be). Letting a few errands slip isn’t a sure sign of the disease. Really important symptoms include loss of control over speech, trouble completing simple tasks like balancing a checkbook, and confusion about where you are. In fact, your memory losses may simply be due to a shortage of vitamin B12. According to Harvard research, a deficiency can produce symptoms similar to dementia and Alzheimer’s. There’s plenty of the vitamin in meats, chicken, fish, dairy products, and fortified breakfast cereal.
Still worried? Consider talking to a therapist if you’re superanxious about memory loss. A study by the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago found that people plagued by worry, anxiety, or depression are more prone to developing a condition that’s a precursor to Alzheimer’s.
Maybe I’m the wrong ex-patient to be telling you this: Experimental surgery erased stage III colon cancer from my shell-shocked body six years ago. But even I’ve got to admit that all is not well in America’s operating rooms. Please don’t get me wrong. I’d go back under the scalpel in a minute if I had a gastro-tumor recurrence (like White House press officer Tony Snow did) or some totally unrelated, unforeseen orthopedic emergency (a knee injury, for instance). But at least 12,000 Americans die each year from unnecessary surgery, according to a Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) report. And tens of thousands more suffer complications.
