My oldest got a 1400 on the SAT and is will likely to a college where the average incoming SAT is about 1000. I was always adamant with the kids that they needed to find the right situations for them and not do things just for status. My kids aren't always perfectly happy but they don't stress about certain things and it keeps us all much happier.

And rightly so. I had a hellish adolescence with zero support for my academic ambitions, so that door closed. Then I managed to get on with a Fortune 500 company who was going to send me to school and give me a career. But then it got taken over by the same kind of brilliant minds who killed Sears, and that fell apart.

Now, I'm carving out a niche as a cat behaviorist and trying to turn it into a business. The advantages is that this is mostly my own efforts, not those of others. And the competition is small

Now, this wasn't even a THING until recently. But my career up to this point makes me almost genetically suited to it. NOW I actually have a career.

And I had to mostly make it up as I went along.

I was in the band. Same team effort as sports but with no concussions.

My sister was on the debate team, team effort with brain exercise.

There are many ways to learn to work together without increases our chances for dementia later in life.

Me? I think schools, the places that are supposed to improve your brain put too much emphasis on an activity that degrades the players' brains.

Millions of dollars are spent, stadiums are full of people watching players potentially damage their brains.

It says the almighty dollar is more important to the school than the condition of their students' brains.

Obesity can be cured, dementia can not.

Don't let your child play football or any other concussive sport unless you don't like him or her. Paraphrased from a report by the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine.

IMHO it's worse than feeding them pizza. At least pizza has fat, protein, vegetables and sadly too much starch (get the thin crust kind).

Bob

My brother wanted to play high school football back in the day, Mom said NO you have straight teeth, not risking damage to those! No one even thought about brains I guess back then, but the teeth thing kept him out of harm's way. My kids gravitated toward music and art not sports so that worked out nicely. If my smart/talented teen chooses a local junior college (it has a good program in the field of interest) for starters I'd be just as happy as a bigger more famous place. Less tuition, too. Trying to relive one's life dreams through a child's parent-pushed success, not a healthy thing.

My step father was the PT for two football teams, our HS and local university. He was appalled kids can play before 16. Dr Amen put me onto the brain issues thhat are permanent; seems he was studying pro footballers long before others jumped in.

I see my boys do lots of stupid boy stunts...enough risk to brain without adding a contact sport.

Ah, but football is so PROFITABLE.

I refuse to watch any sports that create minor or major concussions. If we all did the same, the profits would be gone, and the health of our children wouldn't be so much in danger.

And yes, boys do other stupid things that risk their brains. So do grown men (usually after they say, "Hold my beer for a second"). but there is no reason to intentionally subject them to more.

Remember the fighter Ali? Why do you think he got Parkinson's? It could have been genetic or multiple blows to the head. I choose either the latter or both.

We have a responsibility to our children to keep them from harm. That includes sports and obesity. But in today's profit-motivated media saturated day and age, it's a very difficult thing to do.

Of course that means the parents shouldn't keep ultra-fattening foods around the house and they shouldn't glorify and/or watch athletes participating in body/brain damaging sports. Don't be a "Do what I say, not what I do" kind of parent.

OK, end of minor rant

Parkinson's, like MS, responds to ketosis.

But although you can control it, you can't cure it. All you can do is slow the rate of decline. My MIL eventually died from it and we did a lot of research.

Actually what works very well in alleviating the symptoms is PEMFT (Pulsed ElectroMagnetic Field Therapy). It must be N polarized, square wave, low frequency, and high gauss. We took her to therapy, and it immediately made a huge difference. Problem was the drive was 3 hours RT, so I used the advice of the doctor and bought a home unit. We put it under the bolster that she used to keep her head elevated in bed, and her friends immediately noticed the difference.

Bob

If only we as a nation could have far better prevention. So far, that is all talk....

Im on board with you Bob, my kids do eat better than their friends. And only pinch half an inch body fat or less.

One study I was told of says organized sports shorten our life span......food for thought there.

Being a math brain I look at the students walking to their rides late in the afternoon. Its much lower than 1:5 at their HS. I ask myself why?

All these kids are cherry picked based on grades, an interview, behavoral issues......Mostly A students coming out of 8th grade.

Makes me really focus on why A students are the thin trim students.....

Combine that with food pantry and free meals observations and Im CERTAIN its a matter of finances and food access.

We we brought in fresh vegies to the free meals and the pile of veg is jumped on.

How do we change access to quality food in our own communities....?

I have no idea how to change access to quality food in our communities.

I do know that it is important for my DW and I to make good choices for our body types. Our first priority is to act locally, and protect our own health.

We don't want to proselytize but if anyone is interested, we are happy to help. We may drop a hint and if it leads nowhere, we drop it.

The problem as I see it is corporate farming. A corporation has only one goal, to make money. That's it's primary function. It can do that by cutting operating costs and increasing yield. None of this is mutually inclusive with nutrition and sadly a lot of it is mutually exclusive with nutrition.

How does a community compete with corporate advertisements for frosted sugar bomb type cereals, toaster pastries, chips, fructose infused drinks, and tons of other high profit junk foods. I haven't watched TV since 1989 but I suspect the ads are all over the airwaves.

Walking through the interior aisles of a grocery store is like walking in toy store. Primary colors, cartoon characters, and all kinds of attractions jumping off the shelves for frankenfoods.

In the checkout line I see obese people with carts full of things that do nothing but add fat to their bodies. I feel sorry for them, because without your health, you have nothing, and all that extra fat will most likely take its toll on their bodies and it will probably be too late to completely un-do it.

I play music for retirement communities, yacht clubs, country clubs and other adult venues to make a living. It's a huge market in Florida. I see people who can't get out of their chairs to dance. I talk to 300 pounders telling me about their hip or knee replacements.

We go back again and again so we know many of the people. They tell us their sorrows and their joys. Much of our audience is like our extended family.

Have a friend/fan who got cancer 5 or so years ago. We felt we could tell him about the sugar connection. You know the first thing to say, "When they want to find out where the cancer is, what do they do? Inject some sugar that has a tracer added, and where does it go? Straight for the cancer."

We've been playing at a marina for 12 years, one day a week, at lunch time. They sit up front, and after their lunch husband and wife have huge sugar laden desserts. I said something once, I won't nag. After clearing the cancer up years ago, it's back, all over his body, and it's stage 4. They are such nice people, it brings a tear to my eye knowing I'm going to lose them.

Is a piece of pecan pie or a huge slab of chocolate cake worth that?

And to get back on track. The children and grandchildren often come to visit the grandparents here in Florida and the children are more often than not obese. Or you will see fat parents with skinny kids and you know those kids are headed in the same direction. Now matter how hard we try to teach our children better, they often turn out just like their parents. You have to set an example.

You have to not only set an example but also uuse positive reinforcement to get them to do what you want them to do. It's important to start that when they are very young and like a puppy, want to please you. You have to let them know how, praise them, and keep that up through adulthood. Save the punishment and negative reinforcements for important things.

Sorry, I'm on a rant.

Take care of yourselves, and try to get your loved ones to do the same.

We only have one vehicle to take us through life. If it breaks, the repairs are never as good, and there will come a time when it cannot be repaired. The proverbial ounce of prevention is the best way to take care of that vehicle so it will serve you well until the end.

Bob

We have community gardens where all food is donated. Needs folks to take care of a row, or help harvest...

An older lady I knew (she passed away) use to work for Family Services, it's funded by united way. She would be sent in to homes that were ordered help with food. She said she would come in, make a nice pot roast and in the morning she would come back only to find out that they wasted it by leaving it out on the stove all night. It exasperated her because she was there to teach them but they didn't want to learn.

There will always be problems like this. Better yo ask people what they want. Maybe they prefer chicken.

I taught my kids to cook via cookies. Got them into the kitchen.

The key is to focus on those that do want better.

Those programs can be awful, though. Around here, they teach the kids that grandma's cooking is trash. Not the right way to do it.