Eat + Run

Dementia in general, and Alzheimer's disease in particular, count among the most frightening prospects of our senescence. My patients routinely convey this worry to me. I'm right there with them. And most of us know—first hand, through our social networks, or via media portrayals—how devastating it is for patient and family alike to deal with a condition that leaves intact the appearance of health, while destroying its inner essence.

And so most people are eager to know what they can do prevent dementia. There is abiding interest in brain-specific "superfoods," cognition-enhancing supplements, and pharmacotherapeutic advances. There is as well a booming market in mental calisthenics, from crossword puzzles to Sudoku, which purportedly keep the brain in fighting trim.

Continue reading »

At 5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 29, I took the chicken out of the oven and put the finishing touches on the ravioli sauce. My salad was already assembled, and I continued to ignore the flickering lights and the weather reports, blaring across the radio waves, warning of Hurricane Sandy's imminent approach. We live in an evacuation zone, and by that time, I had already lost touch with neighbors who described the same flickering lights about a half-hour earlier.

Minutes later, we were in the dark. All I could think about was the food that filled my refrigerator and freezer. This was the food that took me hours to shop for, pack up, and unpack; it included the best produce I could pick, fresh fish and poultry, and enough milk, cheese, and yogurt to make a dairy farmer smile. All would be destroyed within hours. And then I thought of all of the people who go hungry each night, and how much they could benefit from my loss. This was a painful gap that could not be bridged.

Continue reading »