For years we’ve been taught to think that dementia is a disease of old age.
That most of us could make it well into our 60s or 70s before those embarrassing senior moments — like forgetting where you parked the car — started to flare up.
But an alarming new study proves that we’re not safe from dementia at 60… or 50… or even 40 anymore.
America is in the middle of a full-blown dementia epidemic, and the victims are getting younger than ever. But fortunately we know what’s causing the outbreak — and I’m going to show you two simple things you can do starting today to keep yourself safe.
First, let me share some numbers with you — because they’re going to change how you look at dementia forever. In a new study in BMJ, British researchers tracked neurological diseases in 21 developed countries from 1989 to 2010.
They found that people are developing dementia a full decade earlier than they were just 20 years ago — especially in the United States. And for folks over 75, death rates for neurological diseases, especially dementia, have nearly doubled.
The culprit is something I’ve told you about before — environmental pollutants, especially pesticides. You see, lots of pesticides carry dangerous levels of heavy metals like arsenic — and the food companies are using more of this poison than ever before.
In fact, if you looked at two charts side by side — one on pesticide use in America over the past half century, and the other on the number of dementia cases — you’d see they were both climbing in lock step.
Now, you’d like to think that when we’re exposed to pesticides, heavy metals and other toxins, our bodies just excrete them through our urine or stool. But many of us have a genetic defect that keeps us from processing and eliminating these poisons, so they pool in our tissues.
And that includes our brains.
Of course, there are a couple of very simple things you can do to keep yourself safe.
First, limit your exposure to pesticides by choosing only organic fruits and vegetables for yourself and your family. Aside from being pesticide-free, organic produce has been proven to have higher levels of vitamins and antioxidants.
Second, ask your doctor to test you for common heavy metals (especially mercury and lead) and other toxins. There are safe therapies like chelation that help usher metals out of your body and bring your levels back down to normal quickly.
And that can stop those senior moments that are starting to show up long before folks blow out their 65 candles or get their AARP card.
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