Alzheimer's disease education tools and communication

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alzheimer's disease education tools and communication

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Patients eating from red plates consumed 25 percent more food than those eating from white plates

As Alzheimer's or dementia progress getting a patient to eat a nutritious meal, or to eat enough, can become a problem.

What Was the First Sign of Dementia in Your Case?

Was memory loss the first sign of dementia or did something else tip you off that something was wrong?

Dementia & Alzheimer's

What is the difference between Alzheimer's and dementia is a frequently asked question.

There is confusion about the difference between dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

The confusion is felt on the part of patients, family members, the media, and even healthcare providers.

How Dementia Patients Experience Cognitive Decline

There are three major patterns of cognitive decline in Dementia patients.

Bob DeMarco
+Alzheimer's Reading Room

One of the things that makes Alzheimer's different is that is impossible to know at what rate any given patient will experience cognitive decline. This state of "unknowing" is disconcerting to dementia caregivers.

One of the questions I was often asked, what stage of Alzheimer's is Dotty in? I was very familiar with the stages of Alzheimer's, but I couldn't answer that question. I just didn't know.

Yahoo Search - does anthesthesia cause dementia

Does anesthesia increase the odds of developing dementia later in life?

"Music Therapy" and Dementia

"As a family, we didn't know what to do when our father was diagnosed with this Alzheimer's disease. We have been through so many stages and now he seems to just be deteriorating to nothing. However, the music seems to have brought back some of his brain to him!"

By Nicholas Simmons-Stern

Dementia Quote of the Day - The Abandoned

Like it or not, if you are a family member or friend of an Alzheimer's caregiver and you are not helping them -- you have abandoned them.

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Are Alzheimer's Caregivers the Forgotten?

+Bob DeMarco -- +Alzheimer's Reading Room

Sudden Tears or Laughter

Pseudobulbar affect (PBA), emotional lability, labile affect or emotional incontinence refers to a neurologic disorder characterized by involuntary crying or uncontrollable episodes of crying and/or laughing, or other emotional displays.

Dying from Dementia, Suffering Often Unnecessary

This discussion and research on Dying with Dementia and the unnecessary care that often accompanies the late stages is necessary reading in the Alzheimer's and dementia community.

+Alzheimer's Reading Room

Since individuals with advanced dementia cannot report their symptoms, these symptoms often are untreated, leaving them vulnerable to pain, difficulty breathing and various other conditions. 

We shouldn't allow these people to suffer. We should be providing palliative care to make them more comfortable in the time they have left.

As a teenager, I had the unfortunate but ultimately career-shaping experience of watching my maternal grandmother decline from Alzheimer's disease. 

She resided in a nursing home, where her final months were marked by repeated courses of antibiotics for infections and the use of restraints or medications to control her agitation before she died from one last infection. 

Seeing my grandmother in that state was so distressing that my mother eventually stopped taking the grandchildren to visit. My grandmother had little in the way of either comfort or company toward the end. 

~ Greg A. Sachs, M.D.

One of the Things that Helped My Mother's Anxiety

I also learned that saying "I love you" whenever your loved one becomes anxious quells fears and leave both parties basking in its glow.

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From the Collective Brain -- One of the Things that Helped My Mother's Anxiety

+Bob DeMarco +Alzheimer's Reading Room

When a UTI Goes Undetected in an Dementia Patient

Urinary Tract Infection, You Can Learn From My Experience

+Bob DeMarco , +Alzheimer's Reading Room

To learn more about Alzheimer's and Dementia visit the Alzheimer's Reading Room

Dementia For Schools

Creating a Dementia Friendly Generation

The young people of today are the employers, employees and carers of tomorrow. Six key reasons have been identified for educating young people about dementia:

1. Young people want to know
2. Increased exposure of young people to dementia
3. Wrong exposure gives the wrong message
4. Optimum learning – relevant to wide parts of the national curriculum, especially PHSE/ PSHEEC
5. The right disorder for connecting first and last generations
6. Public health and early opportunities for health education

To Learn More Go Here

Dementia For Schools

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+Bob DeMarco , +Alzheimer's Reading Room 

To learn more about Alzheimers and Dementia care visit the Alzheimer's Reading Room

Google Keyword Search - what are the side effects of namenda

More and more patients living with dementia are being treated with the combination of Aricept and Namenda.

Google Search Recommends

Side Effects of Aricept and Namenda Combination

+Bob DeMarco, +Alzheimer's Reading Room

5 Free Memory Tests

A list of the best free memory tests backed by reputable science.

Test Your Memory for Dementia (5 Best Memory Tests)

Hospital Stays Can be Catastrophic for Dementia Patients

Alzheimer’s patients experience adverse outcomes, delirium

These findings are reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The state of acute confusion and disorientation known as delirium can stem from a serious illness, surgery or infection, and often develops while patients are in the hospital. 

Now a new study confirms that for patients with Alzheimer's disease, hospitalization and delirium pose a particular risk and can lead to adverse outcomes, including hastened cognitive decline, institutionalization and death.

Led by researchers at Harvard Medical School affiliates Hebrew SeniorLife and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), the study appears in the June 19 on-line issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

"Evidence has shown that older patients with Alzheimer's disease [AD] are much more likely to be hospitalized than other older patients," says lead author Tamara Fong, MD, PhD, assistant scientist in the Aging Brain Center, Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife and Assistant Professor of Neurology at BIDMC. "Because our previous research had found that AD patients experienced a three times faster decline in mental function if they had experienced delirium, we wanted to determine if AD patients who are hospitalized are at greater risk for poor outcomes than AD patients who are not hospitalized, and if there is any additive negative outcome when hospitalized AD patients develop delirium."