Have Multiple Sclerosis, Family History Of Alzheimer's Disease. Next Step To Delay Onset Of Disease?

Hi! I am trying to make sure I get a good quantity and variety of antioxidants and at least 2 grams phytosterols. Do you know of a web-site that can help me keep track of these additional components? Presently, I keep track on Calorie Counter but it doesn t include a number of other components that are important to me. If you can refer me to any learning sources that would be especially helpful, I would greatly appreciate it. I am trying to keep my chances of Alzheimer s as low as possible. It is on both my parents sides of the family. So far my mom [age 77] has been recently diagnosed with it [the fast kind, I m told, as she is loosing her abilities quite quickly]. I don t know anything about her family medical history, other than alcoholism in rampant and her mom died [age 19] in delivery of a Hydrocephalic son when mom was 2 years old. Her dad suffered from greatly from alcoholism [died on skid row] and couldn t look after her, so his sister adopted her. [My mom survived 2 Hydrocephalic deliveries and I just barely survived 1. All these babies died in delivery or soon after. We are in the rare 4% category of all Hydrocephalus cases - being carriers of hereditary Hydrocephalus.] Mom loved crossword puzzles and kept a huge vegetable garden until she just couldn t manage it anymore. She smoked for many years and drank quite a bit for awhile but has quit both for a few years now. My dad had 2 cousins and 1 aunt who had Alzheimer s [from 3 different families but all from the same blood line]. Alcoholism is also rampant in his family but it avoided my dad. He did smoke for many years. So far my dad [age 77] has not been diagnosed with Alzheimer s, but does have Atherosclerosis , high BP and has had at least 1 heart attack and several mini-strokes. He has no hobbies at all but does go to the community senior center most mornings and serves on the board of directors on most terms so he does have some level of active lifestyle. My research to date tells me that so far, I have a 30% chance of getting it myself because of my mom being definite, depending on whether her case is congenital or not. If my dad does get it, I know that my chance increases to 50%. My dad has had poor memory since childhood so it is considered not to look at that as a present Alzheimer s symptom. Both of them did not follow the healthiest of diets nor did they get much exercise or social benefits outside of their daily routines. I don t know much about dad s cousins and aunt s lifestyle choices other than they were not outside of typical for their generations. All my cousins on my dod s side plus myself have Chronic Bronchitis , each having 2 smoking parents. My present age is 56. My smoking career was a long time ago and only lasted a couple years as the Chronic Bronchitis was too much to handle. I have only drank socially and not much at that. I have had lab work done recently for lipid levels. The HDL and Triglycerides are at normal levels and the Chol/HDL Risk Ratio is low. The cholesterol and LDL show to be just a shade higher than normal, as is typical for me. Maybe my body is one that makes a little extra on its own since all my lipid testing has shown pretty much the same result through the last 25 years that I have paid attention to getting tested. I will tell you a bit about some of my lifestyle choices as I know lifestyle choices are important when it comes to Alzheimer s. Mine have been quite different from my parents , maybe due to circumstance. I like being mentally active. I have been to college 3 times and when not in college, I always attended 2 evening adult education courses when classes were available [1 educational, 1 fun]. Ten years after high school graduation [Academic-Arts level], I finally had my interests narrowed down and started my 1st college course [2 years - Clothing Technology and Fashion Design ] which was extremely demanding with 21 of the original 40 dropping out [at graduation, we were introduced as the survivors ]. I was determined to graduate, even though the last few months were a huge struggle - I was booked for a hysterectomy the day after graduation. I worked in the chosen field for 8 years then went to college again, this time for 6 months memorizing all medical terminology before starting the actual Nursing Unit Clerk course. I graduated with a 96% average and worked in the hospital system for a number of years. Soon after I started a long medical testing & elimination process for MS, I enrolled in a 2 year Holistic Nutrition college course, graduating with a 94% average [eventual Relapsing-Remitting MS diagnosis]. I chose to study via the option of correspondence so I could work at my own pace, then worked as a Nutritional Consultant out of my home, also so I could work at my own pace. My social activity has also been busy over the years. I joined a large choir in 1992 and toured Europe, singing in 8 countries in 21 days. I was very active with Toastmasters from 1994-2006, often serving as the club VP Education and 1 year as Area Governor [reached gold level in speaking and was 1 project short of getting the advanced level for leadership]. I took a course in playing Bridge, then played at least once a week in the community bridge club. I was a member of the Rotary Club for 3 years, serving as Program Co-ordinator during the last 2 1/2. I was very involved with Women s Ministries at my church and served as Head Co-ordinator for part of my involvement. When I got re-married after 24 years of divorce, I didn t have time for most of the involvement mentioned above and had to drop most of it to be a wife and a step-mom of 7 with 4 still at home. I ve also had to take full disability pension to keep my health as good as possible. We registered with the local International Student Program, housing 1-2 students from different countries each school term, to increase my income level. Our youngest graduates this year, so my life will be changing again in a couple months. I have been blessed with the MS not advancing past a manageable level but I have had to learn how to slow down, always pace myself and be assertive in order to stay in remission as much as possible. I still keep mentally active but mostly learning through the internet and playing games on my ipod. Presently, the things I need to increase are my physical activity levels and my social levels. I know this seems like a lot of information. I like to make informed decisions so when I m asking someone for information or advice, I give them whatever I can so they can make informed decisions on my behalf. Whatever suggestions you may have to help guide me to the next step or to direct me to a helpful web site will be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for your time and attention. — Dianne