Dr. Sam Cotton paid a special visit to the area this past Tuesday — sharing with the Cadiz Rotary Club and the frequent fliers of the Trigg County Senior Citizens Center some top general practices on the delaying and defying of degenerative cognitive decline.
The wife of Trigg County High School Class of 2004 graduate Bryce Cotton, and “daughter-in-love” of Bro. Norman and Tracey Cotton, she’s also a Knox County native and one of the Commonwealth’s foremost authorities on dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and other brain-related concerns.
It’s near Barbourville, and about 6- or 7-years-old, when she and her family first recognized changes in her grandmother.
The diagnosis, Cotton said, was Alzheimer’s disease — at times violent and aggressive — and ever since, she has been entrenched in social work and health research, especially as multiple members on both sides of her family had familiar paths.
As part of her doctoral program and looking to help others deal with those needing tailored, special care, she developed a targeted curriculum and training program for family caregivers, nursing staff and others — most of the language she created now used almost verbatim across the state.
Something, though, still wasn’t right.
With a family tree full of these concerns, did she have a genetic predisposition for cognitive failure? Or was it preventable?
The only way to find out, she said, was to test her genes — have a friend with a different family tree, and thus different possible outcomes, follow suit — and then compare external factors and alleles, or the variant nucleotides passed down from a mother and father, and into a DNA molecule.
Results, Cotton said, were surprising.
These findings, she noted, led her to eventually become a board certified practitioner of lifestyle medicine, and as a faculty member of the University of Louisville School of Medicine and employee of the Trager Institute’s Optimal Aging Clinic, she is constantly seeking answers on staving off, or altogether preventing, dementia and its umbrella from destroying lives.
As humans age, Cotton said several issues have their place in the declination of mental faculties, including:
+ the body’s proteins becoming increasingly more difficult to divide and develop
+ the body’s naturally lower immunity
+ the world’s high rates of pollution and radiation exposure
+ the inevitable, emotional loss of friendly and intimate social relationships
+ the increased use of alcohol, tobacco and other easy vices
+ the development of anxiety and stress, both mental and physical
+ and poorer metabolism rates
Naturally, she said defying these odds can come down to better habits and choices not just in later living, but as early as 25-to-30 years old, though later is better than never.
Where to start? She said to:
+ eat nutrient-dense foods in their natural state
+ downshift in the evenings, and work to get at least seven hours of uninterrupted sleep
+ try to at least manage 10-to-15 minutes of moderate exercise daily
+ and avoid “risky” substances, which can include drugs and alcohol, but also unneeded medications and supplements which can complicate health
FULL DISCUSSION:
