BR AIN POWER
America’s Approach to Brain Health is
Demented “I thought I did everything right, and I still got dementia! What of daily living, and compromised executive function. As did I do wrong?” Whitehouse and George point out, our civilization does a lousy The answer, of course, is that it’s not your fault. Not entirely. job of learning from past mistakes. We can’t seem to figure out The development of what we call dementia is not under your how to share resources in a way that keeps the entire planetary personal control. You may be able to control some aspects of organism healthy. We systematically poison the air we must your own behavior, but you exist as part of a larger breathe, we pollute the water we must drink, and environment, as part of a complex set of ecosystems. BY MICHAEL C. we remove nutrients from the food we eat and turn PATTERSON And our ecosystems are ailing. Our stewardship of them into addictive poisons. We embrace beliefplanet earth is demented. Our political and economic systems systems that are fantastical and self-destructive. Are these not despoil the very environments that should sustain us and keep symptoms of dementia? us healthy. Until we control our systemic dementias we will There is now a wealth of scientific evidence that systemic, continue to suffer unnecessary personal dementia. environmental problems like poverty, pollution, deforestation, These points were brought powerfully into focus when I read wealth inequality, and inequal access to education and health the book, American Dementia: Brain Health in an Unhealthy care contribute to cognitive decline and dementia. We know, Society and spoke to the authors, Peter Whitehouse and Danny for example, that elevated levels of lead in our drinking water George. They present a powerful argument that America’s cause a lifetime of significant damage to the cells of our body, approach to the so-called Alzheimer’s epidemic is caused including brain cells. Our drinking water is gradually destroying primarily by demented policies, practices, and institutions. our brains. But, because of demented political and economic Keep in mind that the symptoms of dementia include factors and ill-conceived budgetary priorities, government and memory loss, a diminished ability to conduct the activities industry have done little to address the problem. Dementia is
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3rd Act magazine | summer 2022
www.3rdActMag.com
