One of the most common reasons patients get upset with neurologists is when we tell them they should no longer drive. Most older folks are very independent, and when you take their car away from them, they are not happy. In fact, many become belligerent and act as if you’re personally out to get them.

The most common reasons for prohibiting driving include seizures, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia.

What is dementia? It is very broad term that encompasses all the hundreds of things that can lead to poor brain function. In addition to impairing memory and overall cognitive ability, dementia greatly diminishes reflexes and reaction time, visual-spatial processing, as well as hand-eye-leg coordination. And it is very common.

How common? It’s estimated that 5-10% of the population aged 65 years or older has it. My guess is that amounts to millions upon millions of unfit drivers.The scary thing, however, is that no one is doing anything about it.

The laws are incredibly strict when it comes to punishing and taking away licenses of people who get DUIs (driving under the influence of alcohol). And rightly so, of course. We don’t want them killing us or our children.
But what about the tens of millions of drivers over 65 that are demented? I believe they also represent a major road hazard, and need to have their licenses pulled.

Came across an article on physorg.com that recently notes:

Researchers at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and elsewhere have developed a three-hour workshop that trains health care providers to identify potentially unsafe drivers with dementia and to encourage appropriate retirement from driving.

This is all well and good, but the vast majority of primary care physicians are too busy taking care of medical issues to have to worry about this sort of thing, and many are not expert enough in neurological assessment to determine when “appropriate retirement from driving” should take place.

If a state can make laws prohibiting cell phone use while driving, why can’t they make laws subjecting everyone over 65 to another driving test?

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People who regularly act out their dreams at night have a disorder called REM sleep behavioral disorder (RBD). Frequently, these patients can injure themselves or their spouses and not even realize it.

During normal REM sleep, the part of the brain that activates movement of the arms and legs is gated closed and silenced, so that your limbs are paralyzed. When this mechanism fails, RBD ensues.

A recent study done by the Mayo clinic indicates that a startlingly large number of people with RBD (two-thirds!) will, within 11 years time, go on to develop a synucleinopathy: a neurodegenerative disease like Parkinson’s disease or Lewy Body dementia.

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Reading through the latest issue of Neurology Today, came across some interesting tidbits on how beneficial exercise can be for your brain:

• As mentioned in earlier posts, exercise leads to the creation of new brain cells in the hippocampus (the memory engine of the brain)
• A study from the Annals of Internal Medicine reveals that seniors who exercise three or more times per week were 60 percent less likely than their sedentary counterparts to develop dementia during the course of the six-year study
• Dr. Muriel Koehl and colleagues from the University of Bordeaux now believe that beta-endorphin, which is released during exercise, may play a pivotal role in regulating new brain cell growth. Endorphins are morphine like chemicals in the brain that mediate pleasure.
• A study from Neurology found that vigorous exercise in youth reduced the risk of Parkinson’s disease in men by 60 percent.

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I stopped regularly drinking milk years ago for health reasons, and- based on the sheer volume of milk propaganda going around- have always felt the dairy industry has had an unnatural grip on American dietary habits.

From the site www.milksucks.com:

Dairy products are a health hazard. They contain no fiber or complex carbohydrates and are laden with saturated fat and cholesterol. They are contaminated with cow’s blood and pus and are frequently contaminated with pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics. Dairy products are linked to allergies, constipation, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and other diseases.

The late Dr. Benjamin Spock, America’s leading authority on child care, spoke out against feeding cow’s milk to children, saying it can cause anemia, allergies, and insulin-dependent diabetes and in the long term, will set kids up for obesity and heart disease, America’s number one cause of death.

And dairy products may actually cause osteoporosis, not prevent it, since their high-protein content leaches calcium from the body. Population studies, backed up by a groundbreaking Harvard study of more than 75,000 nurses, suggest that drinking milk can actually cause osteoporosis

Came across a very recent study showing that the more milk you drink each day, the more likely you are to get Parkinson’s disease- a horrible degenerative disease of the brain that is surprisingly common in the elderly.

Men who consumed more than 16oz of milk a day were 2.3 times more likely to develop Parkinson’s than those who drank no milk at all.

The study, conducted by researchers at Korea University, was published in the journal Neurology.

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