Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Perfect last minute gifts for your mom with dementia

Over 5.2 million Americans have dementia.Over half are women.Is one of them your mother?Get anyone with Alzheimer’s disease a gift that will keep on giving long after Mother’s Day is gone.
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Sunday, April 20, 2008

Dementia Caregiver? 4+ Ways You Can Take a Break

You may know about art therapy for people with Alzheimer's and other dementias. But caregivers can benefit by using the arts, too -- as a break. It's an often-overlooked, quick pick-me-up, handy if a vacation is only a daydream and you're not into meditative breathing.

Gay Hanna, executive director for the National Center for Creative Aging, which offers a resource directory on arts programs, says the benefits of art definitely work to heal cared-for and caregiver alike. So....

WRITE

Keep a diary. Write a letter. Pour your heart out on looseleaf and burn it up after. Or join this online study by Dr. Howard Butcher at the University of Iowa, who's researching the effects of writing as stress relief for dementia caregivers specifically. Lots of studies have shown that writing has mental and physical health benefits for people in other stressful situations.

Or, of course, blog! Nikki of Dementia... Read more

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Saturday, April 19, 2008

Lipitor No Help for Dementia of Alzheimer’s Patients

April 18, 2008, 3:40 pm
Posted by Jacob Goldstein
More news from that big neurology meeting : Lipitor doesn’t help slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients, researchers said this week.

That’s something of a disappointment, given that it was a big, randomized study, and earlier data had showed promise. On the other hand, Alzheimer’s patients who took Lipitor at least didn’t seem to do any worse than those who took a placebo. All patients in the study also received Aricept, Pfizer’s Alzheimer’s drug.

Despite the fact that statins have been connected to anecdotal reports of memory problems, there were a few reasons to think the cholesterol drugs might help slow cognitive decline
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Saturday, April 12, 2008

Here are two more dementia fighting reasons to eat right

If you eat a poor diet, you are at a much higher risk to develop Type II Diabetes and high blood pressure.

Even though there are other reasons you can develop either of these conditions, diet is one thing you can control.

According to many sources, both high blood pressure and diabetes increase your chances of gettting dementia.

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Friday, April 11, 2008

Wine may protect against dementia

There may be constituents in wine that protect against dementia. This is shown in research from the Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

The findings are based on 1,458 women who were included in the so-called Population Study of Women from 1968. When they were examined by physicians they were asked to report how often they drank wine, beer, and liquor by selecting from seven categories on a scale from ‘never’ to ‘daily.’ The researchers know nothing about how much they drank on each occasion, or how correct the estimates were. For each beverage the women reported having drunk more than once a month, they were classified as a consumer of that particular beverage.

Thirty-four years after the first study, 162 women had been diagnosed with dementia. The results show that among those women who reported that they drank wine a considerably lower proportion suffered from dementia, whereas this correlation was not found among those who had reported that they regularly drank beer or liquor
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Monday, April 7, 2008

Best Mind Stimulating Activities For Those With Dementia

Before you begin to design or use an activity with persons with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia, it is of the utmost importance that you know their likes and dislikes. You should know their strengths and weaknesses. Also helpful is knowledge of the persons' past life and experiences.

Here are several activities that can be done independently or in small groups with most, early to mid-stage, dementia folks

These activities use a deck of playing cards and are especially good for persons who love numbers, have worked with numbers, relate to numbers, like to play cards, or have played cards in the past
click here to see the activities
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Fitness is important in dementia prevention. Click below for more info