Blogs
The First Year
Bob DeMarco writes on “Decision Resource’s” finding that approximately 70% of Alzheimer patients did not receive treatment within the first year of being diagnosed. Denial is cited as the predominate reason for this neglect to act, on the children’s and physician’s part's. Often, early signs are ignored.
In the beginning, I decided to move into my mother's condominium and keep her in her own home. I did this because I concluded after reading some of the literature that moving her into a new environment would be too difficult and disconcerting for her. As a result, I ended up living in an over 55 community with a large fraction of the residence 75 years or older. When it comes to Alzheimer's and dementia I have received an eye opening education.
One by one I have watched friends and acquaintances of my mother fall into dementia. More often than not their children do little or nothing as the disease starts to progress. The children often watch the parent deteriorate until there is no alternative to full time care. I watched as one person had one automobile accident, then a second before their children concluded there was something wrong. I watched another go from mild dementia to full blown Alzheimer's almost overnight because nothing was being done by the family, or the personal care physician.
I suggested to them that they get some memory testing, and/or a neurological or geriatric consult. They didn't listen.In the future I will start adding this, I hope you don't regret your decision not to move on this. (I'll say this to myself, I hope I am wrong and it doesn't get worse -- much worse -- then you could ever imagine).
It is only after you become a caregiver that you begin to understand the importance of early diagnosis. Believe it or not, as hard as caring for someone with Alzheimer's can be, it is likely to be much worse if you stick your head in the sand.
Read More at Alzheimer’s Reading Room
AlzCare in Texas. Quality Alzheimer’s treatment in a home setting. San Antonio, New Braunfels, San Marcos, Waco, Fredericksburg, Victoria.
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Alzheimer's and Tau Dysfunction
Report from “Science Daily” on the findings of a recent study by “Translational Genomics Research Institute” that show how varying proteins can dismantle connections in brain cells, and how this may link to Alzheimer’s disease.
"The ultimate result of tau dysfunction is that neurons lose their connections to other neurons, and when neurons are no longer communicating, that has profound effects on cognition -- the ability to think and reason,'' said Dr. Travis Dunckley, an Associate Investigator in TGen's Neurodegenerative Research Unit and the scientific paper's senior author.
Tau performs a critical role in the brain by helping bind together microtubules, which are sub-cellular structures that create scaffolding in the neurons, allowing them to stretch out along bridges called axons. The axons support the synaptic, or chemical, connections with other neurons.
Under normal circumstances, kinases regulate tau by adding phosphates. This process, called tau phosphorylation, enables the microtubules to unbind and then bind again, allowing brain cells to connect and reconnect with other brain cells.
"That facilitates synaptic plasticity. It facilitates the ability of people to form new memories -- to form new connections between different neurons -- and maintain those memories. So, it's an essential function,'' Dr. Dunckley said.
However, sometimes the tau protein becomes hyperphosphorylated, a condition in which the tau creates neurofibrillary tangles, one of the signature indicators of Alzheimer's
Alzcare in New Braunfels. Caring treatment for Alzheimer’s patients in Texas in comfortable, home settings.
| | | | | New Website to Assist those affected by Alzheimer's
A piece by Jessie Moniz of “The Royal Gazette”, on musician Judith Stewart’s journey with Alzheimer's, and how this has affected her daughter, Elizabeth Stewart. Includes information on Ms. Stewart’s website http://www.alzbermuda.com.
Ms Stewart said after her mother's diagnosis, there was no support from the medical community. "We left the doctor's office, and that was it," Ms Stewart said. "We were never to hear from anybody again."
Ms Stewart said she and her mother felt a terrible sense of isolation after the diagnosis.
"You don't have anyone telling you what to do next," she said. "In other countries you would have someone assigned to your case who would come in and assess and make suggestions about what you should do. Here you are just left to your own devices."
For this reason, Ms Stewart is in the process of setting up a website to act as a clearing house of information for Bermudian families dealing with the illness.
"The website is really meant to be a one-stop-shop of information about the disease," said Ms Stewart. The website will include advice on hiring a caregiver in Bermuda, advice for caregivers who might be suffering from burn out, and legal advice, among other things.
Read more at The Royal Gazette
AlzCare in Texas. Quality Alzheimer’s treatment in a home setting. San Antonio, New Braunfels, San Marcos, Waco, Fredericksburg, Victoria.
| | | | | Dr. Oz on Alzheimer's
Bob DeMarco from the “Alzheimer's Reading Room” blog writes about viewing Dr. Oz’s television program, on growing awareness of the disease, and on what Alzheimer's care is like from the “front row.”
A Harris Interactive study showed that 100 million Americans have been touched by Alzheimer's. The same study indicated that 33 million Americans are worried about Alzheimer's. That study is almost a year old. I have to assume the numbers are growing.
Our children and our children's children are now being exposed to Alzheimer's. In my opinion a sad thing. But, a good thing -- awareness is growing.
As more people see Alzheimer's from the front row, understanding of the disease will grow. At some point, people will stop shunning those suffering from Alzheimer's disease. People will start to understand that they need to help Alzheimer's caregivers.
Right now, I believe most people believe that Alzheimer's care giving is like baby sitting. I wish I could say what I think about that right here -- for now I won't.
Recently, one of our readers wrote to me about his brother who is the full time caregiver for his mother. He wrote that his sister was constantly berating the brother for venting. She was putting him down. The care giving brother suggested that his sister take the mother for a month. She readily agreed. Want to guess what happened?
The sister lasted two days. Two days. She sent her mother back to her brother. She is no longer berating her brother. She now has a better understanding of what it is like to live Alzheimer's from the front row.
Read more at Alzheimer's Reading Room
AlzCare in Texas. Quality Alzheimer’s treatment in a home setting. San Antonio, New Braunfels, San Marcos, Waco, Fredericksburg, Victoria.
| | | | | Windows to the Soul
In this article, the Daily Mirror reports on new research that in the next few years retinal scans could be used to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease. This research, though in it’s early stages, indicates a possible new detection method.
This was animal research looking at whether they could detect the death of nerve cells in living rats and mice as it happened. Nerve cell death is a key feature of diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and glaucoma. It is not yet possible to detect nerve-cell death in the brain while it is occurring. In this study the researchers tested a system for looking at nerve-cell death in the retina of the eye. Because of similarities between nerve cell death in the eye and in the brain, they hoped that this technique might give insight into brain nerve cell death.
This initial stage of experimentation could not be performed in humans, but it can provide a clearer picture of whether this new technique might work in humans. However, it will take much further research to determine how the technique might be successfully used in humans.
Although the newspapers have highlighted the technique’s potential for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease, nerve-cell death occurs in the brain in various neurological and eye diseases, including Parkinson’s and glaucoma. In its current form, this technique would only be useful in detecting neurological diseases where there is nerve cell death in the eye. Another challenge for the researchers developing this technique would be ensuring that this test would be able to distinguish between different conditions causing nerve cell death in the eye.
Alzcare in New Braunfels. Caring treatment for Alzheimer’s patients in Texas in comfortable, home settings.
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