Hi @sakota, your experience with peanut butter caught my attention -- partly because I switched to almond butter three years ago (to avoid the sodium that piques my blood pressure) and partly because you're "forgetting a lot of things," as I do. But my experience should calm any stress you may feel over dementia. I have been under treatment for hypertension for 35 years, and it has been a growing problem -- with rising dosages of more medications -- every since. However, I'm on three antihypertension meds now, and I have tried and dropped 13 others over the years -- partly because my nephrologist found a genetic defect in my kidneys, partly because of potassium starvation discovered 10 years ago, partly because I developed atrial fibrillation five years ago, and partly because of a small stroke almost three years ago. Those events forced big changes in my medication regimen, with hypertension and threats of stroke the leading factors in my therapies.

My medical team and I concluded three years ago that "forgetting things" is due to 1) aging (I'm almost 84) and 2) my medications, not dementia. Three factors drove us to those conclusions: 1) a thorough examination and testing by a neurologist, 2) stabilized ability to remember that matches stability that has developed in my medical regimen, and 3) recognition that almost everybody in my age group has trouble calling up recently used information and names along with rarely used information and ideas. Historically, my father and my maternal great grandmother both lived to 95, and I'm aiming for at least that goal. Hope you'll join me in the years ahead. Martin