Brain Exercises May Slow Cognitive Decline Initially, But Speed Up Dementia Later

...at the end of the day, you're spending a lesser proportion of your lifespan in a cognitively dependent, demented state, which I think is what we're all after...

By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer's Reading Room

The media jumped all over a newly released research study that was conducted by Robert S. Wilson, PhD, neuropsychologist, Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center.

Somehow, reporters concluded that brain exercise is a bad thing because while brain exercises can slow decline in thinking skills, they might speed up dementia later in life. In other words, if you are predisposed to Alzheimer's disease.

Please pay close attention to this quote from Dr. Wilson.

"We think what a cognitively active lifestyle does is help delay the initial appearance of cognitive impairment in old age and allows a person to have a longer period of cognitive vitality and cognitive independence.

"Then, if the person lives long enough and the underlying disease is progressing nonetheless, when dementia does become clinically manifest, we think that this sort of lifestyle is associated with a slightly less protracted course of the disease," he added. "So that at the end of the day, you're spending a lesser proportion of your lifespan in a cognitively dependent, demented state, which I think is what we're all after."

Keeping The Love Alive: Fun Is A Food Group

By Sheryl Lynn
Alzheimer's Reading Room

How important is having fun to you?

Do you create time each day to do something that is fun for you or your loved one or maybe even both of you?

If the joy of living seems to be on a permanent vacay, how can you bring it back?

Alzheimer's Caregiving -- Sobering Statistics about Alzheimer's Wandering

How many people suffering from Alzheimer's go missing each day?...

By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer's Reading Room

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How many person with Alzheimer's wander each day? I have never seen this number reported.

An educated guess -- around 125,000 in a year. However, as far as I can tell, there are only about 30,000 reported cases in a year. So the range in any given day is between 82 and 342. A sobering thought.

Current statistics indicate that about 60 percent of persons suffering from Alzheimer's will wander. This makes the potential pool around 3,000,000 individuals.

Beatitudes for Friends of the Aged

Alzheimer's Reading Room

Beatitudes for Friends of the Aged

Esther Mary Walker

Blessed are they who understand

My faltering step and palsied hand.

Blessed are they who know that my ears

today

Must strain to catch the things they say.

Blessed are they who seem to know

That my eyes are dim and my wits are slow.

Blessed are they who looked away

When coffee spilled at table today.

Blessed are they with a cheery smile

Who stopped to chat for a little while.

Blessed are they who never say,

“You’ve told that story twice today.”

Blessed are they who know the ways

To bring back memories of yesterdays.

Blessed are they who make it known

That I’m loved, respected, and not alone.

Blessed are they who know I’m at a loss

To find the strength to carry the Cross.

Blessed are they who ease the days

On my journey home in loving ways.

Gleevec -- Scientists Identify Protein that Spurs Formation of Alzheimer’s Plaques

Alzheimer's Reading Room

“Anti-amyloid therapeutic drugs represent a valid approach to treating Alzheimer’s disease, but their inability to accumulate in the brain has limited their usefulness,” says Greengard, who is head of the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience.

“The development of compounds that work like Gleevec, but have the ability to pass the blood-brain barrier and target GSAP, could revolutionize the treatment of this disease.”

A version of the cancer drug Gleevec could form the basis of a new class of drugs that block the development of brain-damaging plaques in Alzheimer's disease.

The latest study shows γ-secretase activating protein (GSAP) increases the production of beta amyloid. Blocking the protein in genetically engineered mice kept Alzheimer's brain plaques from developing.

Type 2 Diabetes, Gait, Balance and High Blood Pressure Linked to Alzheimer's and Dementia

By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer's Reading
Room

This research interests me. First, my mother's triglycerides have been high for at least 20 years.

Of all the doctors we had, not a single one has ever suggested medication. In addition, my sister has diabetes. On top of the that, my mother's mother had diabetes and died at a young age.

I have also mentioned previously how my mother started scraping her feet on the ground about ten years ago. Next, she started walking slower and slower.

Finally, when I first came to Delray Beach my mother was falling down often. Once she fell and broke her finger. Another time I found her lying in the parking lot and she was unable to get up. She was shaking like a leaf.

Community Bands Together in the Fight Against Alzheimer's Dementia

Let’s just have a nice cup of tea: The story of a community working together to raise awareness about dementia and funding for much-needed support services....

By Cass Alexander
Alzheimers New Zealand

In the midst of a hectic conference, where I was seen with a mobile phone in each ear, organising television crews and frantically answering journalists’ questions about a new dementia drug subsidy, I was approached by the calm-looking president of Alzheimers Marlborough.

Diane Johnson grabbed me, while I grabbed an on-the-run muffin and a cup of coffee and said,

“Cass, we’ve got something big we think would do wonders for publicity during Awareness and Appeal Week. Something really big.”