Readers Reach Out to Alzheimers Patients, Caregivers -- Here come the Wonderful People

clipped from www.alzheimersreadingroom.com Newsday (the New York Newspaper) has the best coverage, collection of stories, and video on Alzheimer's on the Internet -- hands down. It appears to me that they are doing more to educate the public, and bring an understanding of Alzheimer's into the public awareness than any other publication. "The most surprising fact about all this is how much people really care," said Karen Henley, who lives in Westbury. "Everyday people, who are struggling themselves, just want to reach out to help. I didn't think that many people cared about Alzheimer's disease, but I think Mike's age shocked everyone." Original content Bob DeMarco, Alzheimer's Reading Room

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Bob DeMarco is the editor of the Alzheimer's Reading Room and an Alzheimer's caregiver. The Alzheimer's Reading Room is the number one website on the Internet for news, advice, and insight into Alzheimer's disease. Bob has written more than 800 articles with more than 18,000 links on the Internet. Bob resides in Delray Beach, FL.

Original content Bob DeMarco, Alzheimer's Reading Room

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Popular Articles on the Alzheimer's Reading Room -- September (Top Landing Pages)

Test Your Memory (TYM) for Alzheimer's or Dementia in Five Minutes (#1 June, July, August, September)
A new cognitive test for detecting Alzheimer's disease is quicker and more accurate than many current tests, and could help diagnose early Alzheimer's, dementia, or mild cognitive impairment.
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Dementia and the Eight Types of Dementia
Dementia is a an illness that usually occurs slowly over time, and usually includes a progressive state of deterioration. The earliest signs of dementia are usually memory problems, confusion, and changes in the way a person behaves and communicates.
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Five Ways to Keep Alzheimer's Away
A recently released study showed that regular exercise is one of the best ways to reduce your risk of dementia and can help slow progression of Alzheimer's disease. Less well known is the fact that if you have a big belly in middle age the chances that you could suffer from dementia are tripled.
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The Combination of Aricept and Namenda Helps Slow the Rate of Decline in Alzheimer's Patients
"The results of this study should change the way we treat patients with Alzheimer's disease. Cholinesterase inhibitors are approved for use in mild to moderate dementia, while memantine has been approved for advanced dementia. But it looks like there is an advantage in prescribing both drugs as initial treatment."--John Growdon, MD
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A Simple Three Minute Test Can Detect the Earliest Stage of Alzheimer's Disease
The study shows that the combination of a very brief three-minute cognitive screening test, called the Mini-Cog (MC), with a Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ) -- administered to a family member or friend -- could accurately identify individuals with MCI and undiagnosed dementia.
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Subscribe to The Alzheimer's Reading Room--via Email

Bob DeMarco is the editor of the Alzheimer's Reading Room and an Alzheimer's caregiver. The Alzheimer's Reading Room is the number one website on the Internet for news, advice, and insight into Alzheimer's disease. Bob has written more than 800 articles with more than 18,000 links on the Internet. Bob resides in Delray Beach, FL.

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Original content Bob DeMarco, Alzheimer's Reading Room

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100 Million Adults Touched by Alzheimer's

HBO Alzheimer's Project / Harris Interactive Census

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The Memory Loss Tapes

Announcement.

Subscribers to the Alzheimer's Reading Room can now obtain a free, complimentary, copy of the Memory Loss Tapes from HBO.

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The Alzheimer's Project -- Caregivers

clipped from www.alzheimersreadingroom.com “Caregivers” is a collection of five family portraits that illustrate caring for the different stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

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Wii a Useful Tool for Alzheimer's Caregivers

Back in May I wrote about Wii Fit suggesting it would be an excellent tool for older people and those suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

The game satisfies two needs: social interaction and exercise.

Recently, I am reading articles about how Wii is being adopted by Senior centers and assisted living facilities all across the country. The game of choice seems to be bowling. Wii bowling provides moderate exercise and allows groups to get together much like they would at a bowling alley.

Ninetendo offers hundreds of games that can be played with Wii. You can exercise your body and even exercise your brain with Wii Brain Academy.

The Wii game My Fitness Coach would be particularly effective for both the person suffering from Alzheimer's and their caregiver. I know from personal experience with my mother that exercise is both necessary and important. I have written here many times about the immediate positive effect exercise has on my mother.

Dear Caregiver, you could use this tool to improve socialization by inviting friends and neighbors over to play along with you.

Friends and family of caregivers, Wii is a great gift. Perhaps you could consider "chipping in" and purchasing this for a loving caregiver or suffering family member.

Don't get detered by the name of the game. If you are older you can sit in a chair while doing the majority of the exercises. When my mother attends the Silver Sneakers program at Gold's gym she sits for most of the exercises. Keep in mind, my mother is 92 years old and suffers from Alzheimer's.

My Fitness Coach is like having a personal trainer right in your home. You can get coaching on 500 exercises including strength training, cardio fitness, and flexibility training. The game includes includes nine diiferent environments and music. If this sounds intimidating you can always go with Wii Fit. Wii Fit is less rigorous, contains hundreds of exercises, and also has a Body Mass Module. Wii Fit uses the Wii Balance Board.

I believe Wii is a wonderful tool that can be used by caregivers to satisfy personal and caregiving needs. Wii could improve your day. There are hundreds of games--so you can have fun. Both you and the person you are caring for will benefit.

What is Wii
Wii Sports (includes: Tennis, Baseball, Golf, Bowling and Boxing)
Wii Big Brain Academy
Wii Play inlcudes: The shooting gallery, Mii-matching game, billiards, air hockey, tank battles, table tennis rally, Mii poses and a cow-riding race)
Wii FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Exercise may improve function in dementia patients

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Organized exercise designed to increase strength, flexibility, mobility and coordination may improve overall physical function among nursing home patients with Alzheimer's disease, researchers report.

Alzheimer's disease patients who have physically deteriorated are less able to perform activities of daily life, which, in turn, affects their quality of life. Despite the well-known physical benefits obtained from exercise, Professor Alejandro Lucia and colleagues in Spain found comparatively little research has focused on exercise training among patients with Alzheimer's disease.

To address this, Lucia, of the Universidad Europea De Madrid, and collaborators compared the outcomes of 16 Alzheimer's disease patients who were randomly assigned to receive normal care involving no programed exercise or to a12-week exercise program as part of their nursing home care.

Each group consisted of five women and three men of similar functional capacity at the start of the study. Participants' average age was 73 years in the normal care group and 76 years in the exercise group, the investigators report in the International Journal of Sports Medicine.

Exercise sessions, held 3 days each week, included 75 minutes of warm-up and cool-down stretching, inside walking, joint mobility activities, elastic exercise-band resistance training, and coordination exercises using foam balls.

Lucia's team reports the exercise group had significant improvements in measures of upper and lower body strength and flexibility; agility and balance; walking abilities; and endurance. Exercise participants also showed greater ability to independently perform activities of daily living such as rising from a chair, transferring from bed to chair, bathing, or dressing.

By contrast, the normal care group showed no changes over the 12-week period.

These findings show that shorter duration exercise programs "are sufficient to induce significant improvements in patients' functional performance and independence," the investigators state. Adherence to the training program was nearly 100 percent, they add.

While more evidence of efficacy is needed from larger study populations, Lucia and colleagues suggest similar programs could be included in the overall nursing home care of Alzheimer's disease patients.

SOURCE: International Journal of Sports Medicine, October 2008.

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Bob DeMarco is a citizen journalist, blogger, and Caregiver. In addition to being an experienced writer he taught at the University of Georgia , was an Associate Director and Limited Partner at Bear Stearns, the CEO of IP Group, and a mentor. Bob currently resides in Delray Beach, FL where he cares for his mother, Dorothy, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. He has written more than 500 articles with more than 11,000 links to his work on the Internet. His content has been syndicated on Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Pluck, Blog Critics, and a growing list of newspaper websites. Bob is actively seeking syndication and writing assignments.

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Kindle 2: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation)

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Is Etanercept the Cure for Alzheimer's

I'm sure anyone suffering from Alzheimer's that has the financial where with all will be tempted to try this treatment.

I find myself thinking, why not?

clipped from www.alzheimersreadingroom.com Alzheimer's is the sixth leading cause of death recently surpassing diabetes. If a cure is not found, ten million baby boomer's can expect to suffer from Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's treatment is likely to be an enormous market so you can expect all kinds of alternative treatments to be popping out of the woodwork. Here comes Dr. Edward Tobinick and his claim that he has the cure--etanercept. Dr. Tobinick claims he injects a shot of etanercept--a drug approved for arthritis-- into the neck of his patients. Unfortunately, in the video provided below, he closed the door when it was time to demonstrate the procedure. He says,

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Using the Internet Promotes Memory and a Healthy Brain

I just finished reading an article about how using the Internet promotes memory and a healthy brain. This should be of great interest to the millions of baby boomers facing the possibility of Alzheimer's disease in their future. A Pew/Internet study showed that seventy five percent of Leading Boomers (age 51-59) use the Internet. The numbers are lower for Matures (age 60-69) at fifty four percent.

The brain study found that Internet savvy users that use search experienced greater brain activity. While there are no conclusive studies at this time, boomers should be thinking about ways to keep the brain healthy and memory sharp as they age. It appears the use of the Internet helps.

"This suggests that just searching on the Internet may train the brain -- that it may keep it active and healthy," said Small, whose research appears in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Also see: Ten Million Baby Boomers likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s during their lifetime

Original content the Alzheimer's Reading Room

Workout for brain just a few clicks away

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Searching the Internet may help middle-aged and older adults keep their memories sharp, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles studied people doing Web searches while their brain activity was recorded with functional magnetic resonance imaging scans.

"What we saw was people who had Internet experience used more of their brain during the search," Dr. Gary Small, a UCLA expert on aging, said in a telephone interview.

"This suggests that just searching on the Internet may train the brain -- that it may keep it active and healthy," said Small, whose research appears in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Many studies have found that challenging mental activities such as puzzles can help preserve brain function, but few have looked at what role the Internet might play.

"This is the first time anyone has simulated an Internet search task while scanning the brain," Small said.

His team studied 24 normal volunteers between the ages of 55 and 76. Half were experienced at searching the Internet and the other half had no Web experience. Otherwise, the groups were similar in age, gender and education.

Both groups were asked to do Internet searches and book reading tasks while their brain activity was monitored.

"We found that in reading the book task, the visual cortex -- the part of the brain that controls reading and language -- was activated," Small said.

"In doing the Internet search task, there was much greater activity, but only in the Internet-savvy group."

He said it appears that people who are familiar with the Internet can engage in a much deeper level of brain activity.

"There is something about Internet searching where we can gauge it to a level that we find challenging," Small said.

In the aging brain, atrophy and reduced cell activity can take a toll on cognitive function. Activities that keep the brain engaged can preserve brain health and thinking ability.

Small thinks learning to do Internet searches may be one of those activities.

"It tells us we probably can teach an old brain new Internet tricks," he said.

(Editing by Will Dunham and John O'Callaghan)

Original content the Alzheimer's Reading Room

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Guidelines For The Diagnosis And Treatment Of Dementia

Alzheimer's Reading Room: Guidelines For The Diagnosis And Treatment Of Dementia

People with mild to moderate dementia (and Alzheimer's) are usually cared for by the family personal care physician and the patient's family. The personal care physician is often very busy and is not a specialist in the area. The family is often ill equipped to take on this task due to lack of formal training, education, and experience. Family caregivers and the primary caregiver usually take a learn as you go approach. A team of physicians, teachers, and researchers have created a set of guidelines for personal care physicians on how to manage dementia once a diagnosis is made. This article should be read by physicians but I found it very helpful as a caregiver. From the caregiver perspective it will help you understand the services you need and help you interact with your family physician to assure that appropriate actions are being taken and treatments rendered.

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