If you could know, would you want to?

LabRat529
LabRat529 Posts: 1,323 Member
edited October 5 in Chit-Chat
I just went to this awesome seminar on normal aging and Alzheimer's disease. There's this newish technique- it's not common and its super expensive, so right now its mostly used for research- but with this technique, you can image senile plaques in the brain BEFORE you start getting the mental declines associated with Alzheimer's disease. These senile plaques are very closely linked to the disease... and so the idea is... you can predict that someone is going to get Alzheimer's disease before they start showing symptoms. Which made me wonder.... would I want to know?

The problem is... you can't do a damned thing about it. There aren't any drugs you can take. Exercise might help a little tiny bit, but its not going to keep you from getting the disease if you're going to get it. A healthy diet will help, but again, its not going to keep you from getting the disease if you're gonna get it.

So with that in mind... I don't think I'd want to know.

What about the rest of you? Would you want to know if you were going to get Alzheimer's disease?

Or for that matter... would you want to know you were going to get any terminal disease before you actually got it?
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Replies

  • infamousmk
    infamousmk Posts: 6,033 Member
    If there's no cure, and a very slight chance I can do anything at all to even help a little to prevent it, then no way, no how would I want to know. I like to think I live my life to it's fullest now, and if I had the knowledge of a terrible illness down the road, I think I'd stress too much about making sure I did everything right in the moment.
  • Contrarian
    Contrarian Posts: 8,138 Member
    I would want to know. I hate surprises.
  • Qarol
    Qarol Posts: 6,171 Member
    Too late. I have it now.
  • madubil
    madubil Posts: 131 Member
    I'm not sure I would want to know- although I would appreciate th heads up bc I might do more things in my life before it strikes. But who would want to live every day knowing it was coming down the road...
  • Laura_Ivy
    Laura_Ivy Posts: 555 Member
    There is no effin way I would want to know.... Alzheimer's scares the crap out of me. Especially since there is no cure.... *shivers*
  • macpatti
    macpatti Posts: 4,280 Member
    I would want to know. I would want to be able to tell my family (especially my children) that one day it may appear that I have no idea who they are, but deep within, without being able to communicate it, I will know.

    I have a 43 year old sister with early signs of Alzheimer's. She's not speaking to me right now because she thinks I owe her money for a present she bought for my mom years ago that I never paid half of. Sucks.
  • UponThisRock
    UponThisRock Posts: 4,519 Member
    No, just let me drift off into my own little world.
  • babyworms
    babyworms Posts: 1,304 Member
    I would want to know so that i could get everything in order before i declined - Power of attorney and guardianship, Advanced directives, make sure my family know my wishes... I spend my days around people with dementia who have not got things in "order" before declining, and it's a painful mess for the family, and it's not fair on the patient.

    Also my hope is that by the time i'm old enough to get dementia (yes, i know it's happening younger and younger!), the legal view point on euthanasia has changed, so i would want to make sure that my family knew my wishes on that point as well.

    And i would want to do everything i'd always put off before i got too muddled and couldn't do it anymore.
  • ilookthetype
    ilookthetype Posts: 3,021 Member
    I would want to know. I would want to prepare things, set certain things into motion before it was too late.
  • Iamfit4life
    Iamfit4life Posts: 3,095 Member
    I'd want to know. I'd want ot write letter upon letter to my friends and family to be passed out every year after I get bad.
    Telling them how much I loved them and care about them. Special things about them.

    That way, they know at one point I knew.
    I remember how bad it felt to hug a family member who had no clue who I was.
  • SinIsIn
    SinIsIn Posts: 1,865 Member
    I think I would like to know.. hopefully I remember that i already knew it was going to happen tho.
  • La_Amazona
    La_Amazona Posts: 4,855 Member
    NO! I don't want to know. I'd probably live paraonoid and scared. I rather live the rest of my life, whether that's 1 day or 50 years to the fullest. If I knew when I was going to die, what diseases I'm going to get, what's going to happen, I'd live sheltered and afraid.
  • Tujitsu56
    Tujitsu56 Posts: 392 Member
    I think I'd want to know. In fact, I think I do know that it's going to happen at some point. I don't remember much as it is from when I was a kid, I'm only 24 now:)

    Anyway, knowing would be further motivation for fitness and healthy lifestyle. I'll take it wherever I can get it.
  • Tujitsu56
    Tujitsu56 Posts: 392 Member
    The real question is what would you do once you found out?
  • cjpg
    cjpg Posts: 433 Member
    I would want to know because it would be selfish to keep that from the ones you love.
  • JediMaster_intraining
    JediMaster_intraining Posts: 903 Member
    I wouldn't want to know. I am already a paranoid person! I can't imagine what crazy things I'd do and think until it strikes!
  • manderson27
    manderson27 Posts: 3,510 Member
    I would want to know so that i could get everything in order before i declined - Power of attorney and guardianship, Advanced directives, make sure my family know my wishes... I spend my days around people with dementia who have not got things in "order" before declining, and it's a painful mess for the family, and it's not fair on the patient.

    Also my hope is that by the time i'm old enough to get dementia (yes, i know it's happening younger and younger!), the legal view point on euthanasia has changed, so i would want to make sure that my family knew my wishes on that point as well.

    And i would want to do everything i'd always put off before i got too muddled and couldn't do it anymore.

    With out a doubt this.
  • brit49
    brit49 Posts: 461 Member
    ignorance is a bliss!!
  • Rae6503
    Rae6503 Posts: 6,294 Member
    I would like to know. I'd take a lot of vacations, spend extra time with kids, grand kids, etc. Spend all my retirement money.
  • luluadelmann
    luluadelmann Posts: 5
    I thought about your question and at first thought I wouldn't want to know. But then I thought about my husband. I would want to prepare financially. I would want to seek out care facilities and make sure my husband knew that he should get on with his life without any guilt. I would need to do that while I was still in control. I might also want to do something earlier rather than putting things off. I might also want to focus on different things for the time I had left. anything that I could to relieve my husband's suffering, I would want to do.
  • maradanielle
    maradanielle Posts: 47 Member
    I wouldn't want to know. I have had three family memebers(dad and two aunts) pass from early onset Alzheimer's and one (uncle) currently fighting all from the same family, all diagnosed in late 40's early 50's, and yet I still would't want to know. but because i know it is in my family history that recently I am working on getting healthy and making sure that all my affairs(will and POA,etc.) are in order as a just in case.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,453 Member
    Interesting question.

    No. I wouldn't want to know the future.

    I already have a will, a Power of Attorney, and a Living Will, which supposedly lays out my wishes should I become incapacitated in any way. In reality, I don't blame anyone for any choices they may make in my behalf in the future. Life takes turns and people make the choices they have to make and they do the best they can at the time.

    Life is short, and it's a mystery. I like that. Mystery suits me.
  • Beastette
    Beastette Posts: 1,497 Member
    No. Not because I wouldn't want the information, but because it wouldn't really have any real influence on my behavior. Everything I would do to prepare for it, I should probably already be doing.

    I've had several people in my life to die unexpectedly and suddenly in the last two years, so I think about loss pretty often.

    However, if the information were being collected to help find a cure or something like that...I'd do it immediately.
  • CakeFit21
    CakeFit21 Posts: 2,521 Member
    I would absolutely want to know.
  • jecka31
    jecka31 Posts: 284
    During my undergrad I took a genetics course where were assigned a genetic disease. One of the questions we had to discuss was the ethics of testing for our disease. I had Alzheimer's. I made the same argument as you, If I can't do anything about it, I don't want to know.
  • odusgolp
    odusgolp Posts: 10,477 Member
    .... self editing... don't go there Odus... don't go there...
  • sandrinamsilva
    sandrinamsilva Posts: 651 Member
    No, just let me drift off into my own little world.

    This
  • wells0707
    wells0707 Posts: 251 Member
    Yes I would. I would write myself letters to remind me of things I never want to forget.
  • Artemis_Acorn
    Artemis_Acorn Posts: 836 Member
    I am watching my own father decline with Alzheimer's. We had a lot of familial denial in addition to his denial that anything was wrong. Now my mom is faced with trying to care for him, sell the house, make legal arrangements to allow her to proceed with the hard choices she's facing. She is exhausted and emotionally sucker-punched by the changes in him, in their relationship, in their life. She is also in declining health herself, which is being made worse by the stress of what she is going through.

    If we had known while he could have helped with all of these things, rather than hindering them, the burden on my mother would be much less severe. Not eliminated, but far more manageable. My siblings and I do what we can, but it doesn't come close to bridging the gap.

    So, if I could have a heads up, although it would be devastating and painful to face, yes, I would want to know so that I could do as much as possible to prepare - get my affairs in order, and not postpone the things we all think we'll do when we retire. I actually consider his diagnosis to be something of a heads up already. It could happen to me.
  • christine24t
    christine24t Posts: 6,063 Member
    This is so interesting to think about. Personally, I know I have a family history of it. My grandpa and all of his siblings except one who died young died of Alzheimer's, so I know I have a high chance of it. With that being said, I already know I'm at increased risk so I don't think I would want to know. I couldn't live life knowing this would affect me later.
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