Does a difficult childhood increase the chance or contracting AD?

daizee

Registered User
Mar 31, 2006
51
0
Broken Hill, Australia
Does a difficult childhood increase the chances of contracting AD?

Hello everyone , I know this might sound like an odd question, but as you can imagine the old 'why him ' questions still pop into my mind ,and I can remember in my earlier research into AD years ago , I read sort of a typical AD sufferers profile, that suggested that having had a very difficult childhood seemed to be a common thread amongst sufferers. I know this is true in my husbands case, and was wondering if anyone else felt this was a valid observation......................Cheers Daizee
 
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Amy

Registered User
Jan 4, 2006
3,454
0
Hiya Daizee,
I've never heard that idea before. Was it referring to physical or mental hardships?
Helen
 

daizee

Registered User
Mar 31, 2006
51
0
Broken Hill, Australia
Does a difficult childhood increase the chances of contracting AD?

Hi Amy, I must go through my stuff to find the exact reasoning behind it but I think it was basically saying 'difficult ' as in being forced to take on adult responsibilites at too young an age , you know fending for oneself, the worry that comes with poverty , trying to work out ways to get things they and there family needs, with or a missing stable family through the obvious reasons , suggesting a childhood were kids are forced to live adult lives everyday all the time, leading I guess to early burnout. Anyway I found it an interesting theory.................... Cheers Daizee
 

twink

Registered User
Oct 28, 2005
265
0
71
Cambridgeshire UK
difficult childhood

Just to add my little bit Daizee, my husband is 55 and has AD and he had a pretty bad childhood. His father left home when he was 12 and my husband didn't know where he was, his mother lived with and then married a man who wanted her but not her kids and was extremely strict witrh them and pushed them out. My husband left home the day after his 16th birthday and I won't go into it all as it's boring for others but yes, he had a pretty rough time when he was young. I've never heard of that theory either but it makes you think.

Twink/Sue
 

daizee

Registered User
Mar 31, 2006
51
0
Broken Hill, Australia
Does a difficult childhood increase the chances of contracting AD?

Hi Twink, yes it is interesting , as I have said before ,my husband is 53 and in the end stage of AD. In his case , he was the youngest of 12 children,however his father was killed in a shooting accident while his mother was pregnant with him so he was born into a very large family with no Dad, no 'breadwinner' and no kind of insurance . When his mum had to go out to work there was basically no supervision. He often talked about feeling as if he belonged to no one, he was just a nuisance to older brothers and sisters, and was often left alone. From a very early age he supported himself with a push bike and rabbit traps, a few chooks (chickens) and a few odd jobs. He also learned that you can sell a homing pigeon more than once.................seriously though,pretty dam hard......................Daizee
 
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mandyp

Registered User
Oct 20, 2004
150
0
Glasgow
Hi

Mum was diagnosed at 54, an only child with 2 parents and a perfectly normal, happy childhood.

Mandy
 

Brucie

Registered User
Jan 31, 2004
12,413
0
near London
Jan had a normal childhood, though she was a 'late' baby - born some years after her sisters and probably a surprise for her Mum.
being forced to take on adult responsibilites at too young an age
she studied hard all her childhood - music - and went to university. In those days more of a strain than today, but she enjoyed it all.

Brucie said:
she was a 'late' baby
maybe that's another area to research. As babies are born later to women, perhaps, as with the possibility of Downs Syndrome, dementia is another risk factor for the child. Now that would be scary......:eek:
 

Tender Face

Account Closed
Mar 14, 2006
5,379
0
NW England
Hiya Daizee.... fascinated by this theory (love the nature/nurture debate and all that stuff!!!) ....

First thought, given my parents were brought up in an impoverished inner-city area through the Depression, had to forsake an education to go out to earn what pittance they could to help feed their younger siblings .... ('First up, best dressed' was my dad's motto!) - should they and their peer group and millions like them not all have suffered AD?

I think this is a really serious issue... 'first world' countries may not have the same scale issues of child poverty and deprivation, but what are we 'banking up' for future generations in countries where children still suffer terribly through natural or man-made disasters?

This must sound awfully sceptical, but IF there was a case to be proven here I think AD would get a much higher profile..... sad to say, (and right sometimes) but when children's welfare and/or future well-being comes into the equation, people (Joe Public, governments, charities etc) generally take more notice....

Look forward to hearing more on this one - thanks for raising another perspective....

Love, Karen, x
 

johnw

Registered User
May 14, 2006
34
0
manchester
not at all

I've just opened the forum on `new posts` and just couldn't beleive what I read about a difficult childhood and AD. I won't go through the life of `John & Family` that started in the 30's because I know many thousands of other people have `got the tee shirt` but I can truly say that it can't be true. My life story would bring tears to a dictators eyes:mad:
I don't think anyone will ever put their finger on the full cause of AD, but I do think aluminium and lead being ingested over the years, (Pans etc and cold water piping) to mention a couple of things, have a definate contribution.
One also wonders about the gene theory to.
 

Tender Face

Account Closed
Mar 14, 2006
5,379
0
NW England
johnw said:
I don't think anyone will ever put their finger on the full cause of AD,

Hi John, I guess I seem to be annoyingly optimisitic at the moment, but that's a horrible thought, if you don't mind me saying. If we think that way, what is the point of the AS at all? Just to be there for those who are experiencing dementia and their carers in the 'here and now' ... isn't our hope in managing the best we can now with what we are dealt with ..... and our legacy to others to alleviate - God willing, even eradicate - suffering for others...????

I've mentioned the cancer vs. dementia debate on a different thread.....I think dementia is the 'dirty word' cancer once was..... and many cancers are now 'beatable' ..... that's because it gained a high profile, secured funding, research into treatments as well as causes..... if patients/carers and medics had given up and said ' we ain't ever going to put a finger on this' - what then?

PLLLEEEAAASSSE! Don't give up fighting and hoping!

Love, Karen, x
 

Kayla

Registered User
May 14, 2006
621
0
Kent
Causes of dementia

My Mum was a teenager during the war and stayed in London during the Blitz and also worked in a factory making parts for aeroplanes. Her brother was listed missing for three years before it was known that he died in a Japanese POW camp. These experiences probably caused Mum's periods of depression that she has always suffered from, but nearly everybody in that generation must have lost a close relative. I think the steroids for her rheumatoid arthritis are more likely to be a contributary factor. More research needs to be done so that dementia can be prevented or treated more sucessfully.
Kayla
 

twink

Registered User
Oct 28, 2005
265
0
71
Cambridgeshire UK
That's interesting Kayla as Steve has rheumatoid arthritis and was diagnosed in 1999 and has been on a lot of steroids for the past few years. It seems the arthritis is only stable when he has 6 prednisolone per day for 5 days, 4 for 10 days and then back to his usual two. He also had a steroid injection last week. He was diagnosed with alzheimer's in August last year but was showing signs for 3 maybe 4 years before that.

Twink/Sue
 

Kayla

Registered User
May 14, 2006
621
0
Kent
Steroids

Dear Twink,
Mum has had rheumatoid arthritis for 25 years. It has not been possible to reduce the dose of Prednesolone below 7.5 mg because her joints are so inflamed. The doctors have said that she has one of the most severe cases of the disease and everything has been tried, including a very expensive Gold Treatment, which just made Mum worse. There are no more drugs to help her. Any drugs used to help her Vascular Dementia have to be very carefully monitored and balanced by the nursing home staff. I think her physical disability problems are far greater than her mental problems.
Kayla
 

Lila13

Registered User
Feb 24, 2006
1,342
0
My mother had a harder time than her siblings, yet many other people suffered much worse hardships in the Depression and the War, and some of them just seemed to be able to "move on" when the hard times were over. If my mother had had proper psychotherapy when she was younger she might have been happier. But whether that would have prevented her brain disease, how can anyone know?

Lila
 

daizee

Registered User
Mar 31, 2006
51
0
Broken Hill, Australia
Does a difficult childhood increase the chances of contracting AD?

Hi everyone, as I was reading these posts a thought hit me like a brick, my own words had answered me ,My husband was the youngest of....12',....with no Dad or breadwinner, all the kids were out fending for themselves and he's the only one with AD.......................hello.................. seriousy though, as we have been unable to trace a family history anywhere of AD,...............(hello again)............. I have tended to think that the answer might lie in the fact that for years in his business as a crash repairer and spray painter my husband worked with a large amount of paints ,solvents and other toxic chemicals............probably a much more likely cause, but I will still go on wondering if there was a definite cause, so for the future at least 'prevention is better than, 'no cure'............Cheer Daizee
 

Jodie Lucas

Registered User
Dec 3, 2005
57
0
Eastbourne
difficult childhoods

Hi there,

There is a school of thought that believes that a number of people with dementia have the disease as a result of pscychosoical and environmental factors. Think it would make a really interesting peice of research.

Maybe I should consider doing it for a masters........

Jodie
 

Lila13

Registered User
Feb 24, 2006
1,342
0
My mother attributed her illness to flea-powder poisoning, an incident which took place 5 years ago. Of course it might be true, doctors didn't believe her.

Lila
 

Lila13

Registered User
Feb 24, 2006
1,342
0
Two people in previous generations in my mother's family had senile dementia. Cousin P.... "went mad" when she heard her husband had died in an accident, (and went out to church wearing her long-johns and nothing else), and had to be put in an asylum, and was never visited. Auntie M.... had to be put in a nursing-home, my grannie visited a few times but was told her visits upset her so was advised to stay away. In those days it was more usual for people with dementia to be put away in an asylum or nursing-home, and their stories hushed up. They probably died soon of neglect or chest infections. Both those people were described as always difficult and aggressive by those who knew them when they were younger, but perhaps it was their circumstances that made them difficult.

Lila
 

mel

Registered User
Apr 30, 2006
1,656
0
66
Sheffield
My mum was one of 8 children....4 boys and 4 girls. her eldest sister died in her thirties of cancer,the other 2 sisters developed dementia in their 70's...mum also showed signs of dementia when she was about 78....this became more noticeable after the death of three brothers in 2002....both her sisters died in 2000.....(her eldest brother disappeared before the war after a family argument) a lot for anyone to cope with to see your siblings wiped out in the space of 2 years.Mum was the youngest....none of the men were affected by dementia and lived well into their 90's....they all smoked and drank heavily....the women neither smoked or drank..
Wendy
 

Libby

Registered User
May 20, 2006
625
0
66
North East
My mum is one of six and always seemed to have a happy family life. We lived on a farm and neither mum or dad smoked or drank a lot. She did lose her sister, and a cousin within a few years, as well as a close friend to cancer. My sister split up with her partner and then 2 people that she knew were killed in a horrible accident. Then of course, dad was daignosed with prostate cancer about 7 years ago and she was always worried about being on her own.

She passed out one day when she was bowling and her memory deteriorated from then on.
 

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