Know the 10 Signs: Early Detection Matters

Alzheimer's Association

The Alzheimer's Association is launching "Know the 10 Signs: Early Detection Matters," an unprecedented campaign designed to heighten awareness of the warning signs of Alzheimer's disease and explain the benefits of early detection and diagnosis.
"Know the 10 Signs" encourages Americans to seek a diagnosis from a doctor if they exhibit any of the warning signs. Early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease allows individuals to consider treatment, plan for the future and enroll in clinical studies.
Funded in part by proceeds from the 2008 American Express Members Project, the "Know the 10 Signs" campaign launched on CBS stations Sunday, May 17. This morning on "The Early Show" on CBS Dr. Jennifer Ashton introduced the 10 Signs. Tune into "The Early Show" on Wednesday May, 20 and Friday, May 22 to see Dr. Ashton present additional segments and learn more about early detection. Video interviews with Alzheimer's Association Early Stage Advisors and caregivers will illustrate the signs through real-life experiences.
Educational materials related to the campaign are now available on www.alz.org/10signs. In the upcoming months, workshops will be held in communities across the country in order to reach a wider audience. Corporations are joining the effort by enrolling in the Alzheimer's Early Detection Alliance (AEDA) as an way to educate their employees and customers. Our hope is that through these actions, we will empower individuals to make important choices about their own health and future.
For more information about the benefits of early detection and the warning signs of Alzheimer's disease, visit www.alz.org/10signs or call our toll-free line at 877-IS IT ALZ (877.474.8259). Spread the word to your friends and family

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Getting the word out about dementia

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Drugs cause confusion in elderly

By Mary Brophy Marcus, USA TODAY
Commonly used medications could be a culprit in some older peoples' memory problems, a new report shows.
Elderly patients are often more susceptible to "drug-induced dementia and delirium," says Public Citizen, a consumer research and advocacy group, in an article posted Wednesday at worstpills.org. The report includes a list of 136 commonly prescribed drugs that are potentially dangerous to seniors' cognitive health
Sadly, doctors don't always recognize cognitive impairment as a side effect, so many patients needlessly suffer from this debilitating but reversible condition," says Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group.

The article says a host of factors can cause cognitive-related drug problems in the elderly, including....read the whole article

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Virtual Dementia Tour

CBS
She's given goggles that impair sight... headphones that give off distracting noises... a pair of gloves with popcorn kernels in the finger tips to simulate arthritis... then more kernels are placed in her shoes. To finish it off, sister stella tapes some of her fingers together for limited dexterity.

Amy Kennedy is now ready to take the virtual dementia tour...an experience designed to give perfectly healthy individuals a chance to see what day to day life would be like if they suffered from alzheimer's or dementia. She admits, "You can do all that dementia training, i've had every dementia training there is, but making yourself go through it is a lot different than hearing it in a classroom."

But the tour is much more than just a crazy outfit. Once you're garbed up, you're taken into the testing room, which is designed to look like a residence room. Then, you're given 5 simple, everyday tasks to do... sounds easy, right? Turn's out, it.....read the whole story

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Gender-wise absorbent briefs differ in more ways than 1

If your loved one with dementia is incontinent, you may be interested in this
Kimberly-Clark to introduce new product for $1.2 billion market
By Bill Glauber of the Journal Sentinel

Neenah - On a conference room table inside the sprawling campus of Kimberly-Clark Corp., Greg Fries lays out the past, present and future of adult absorbent underwear.

There's a 1980s version of the Depend brand of incontinence products, an all-white, padded item that looks to the untrained eye like a giant diaper. There's a 1990s version, what amounts to unisex underwear, no-nonsense and no-frills.

And, coming to store shelves by early spring, there is what the company calls "its first line of gender-specific adult absorbent underwear."

That would be Depend protective underwear for men and women. There's a pink waistband for women and a blue one for men. Moreover, the leg opening for men is narrower than it is for women.

"One of the key insights we got was.......read the whole story

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Brain scan may reveal risk for Alzheimer's disease

CNNhealth.com
Key structural changes have been identified in the brain images of some patients with mild cognitive impairment which could help determine who's at greatest risk for developing Alzheimer's disease
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, studied MRI scans of 84 patients with Alzheimer's disease, 175 patients with mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, and 139 images of healthy brains.

"Our initial goal was to locate similarities in the patients with Alzheimer's disease to those with MCI, in the hopes of finding a method to predict [MCI patients'] likelihood of developing the disease," said lead study author Linda McEvoy, assistant project scientist at UCSD's department of radiology.

Neuroimaging results for the patients with Alzheimer's disease were.....read the whole article

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Employers to be trained to recognize early symptoms of dementia

What do you think about this?
Do you think it will do more good than harm?
TOPNEWS
you can use
Submitted by Amit Pathania on Sat, 02/07/2009 - 20:20 Health TNM United Kingdom
Around 700,000 people in Britain suffer from the degenerative brain condition with the number expected to double over the next 30 years.

According to national dementia strategy, launched this week employers will help government in its fight against degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Under new strategy around....read the whole post

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Apple Juice Can Delay Onset Of Alzheimer's Disease, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily(Science News) — A growing body of evidence demonstrates that we can take steps to delay age-related cognitive decline, including in some cases that which accompanies Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

Thomas B. Shea, PhD, of the Center for Cellular Neurobiology; Neurodegeneration Research University of Massachusetts, Lowell and his research team have carried out a number of laboratory studies demonstrating that drinking apple juice helped mice perform better than normal in maze trials, and prevented the decline in performance that was otherwise observed as these mice aged.

In the most recent study Shea and his team demonstrated that mice receiving the human equivalent of 2 glasses of apple juice per day for......read the whole story

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'Sunshine vitamin' link to cognitive problems in older people

eScience
Eureka
in Health & Medicine

Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School, the University of Cambridge and the University of Michigan, have for the first time identified a relationship between Vitamin D, the "sunshine vitamin", and cognitive impairment in a large-scale study of older people. The importance of these findings lies in the connection between cognitive function and dementia: people who have impaired cognitive function are more likely to develop dementia. The paper will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Geriatric Psychology and Neurology. The study was based on data on almost 2000 adults aged 65 and over who participated in the Health Survey for England in 2000 and whose levels of cognitive function were assessed. The study found that as levels of Vitamin D went down, levels of cognitive impairment went up. Compared to those with optimum levels of Vitamin D, those with the lowest levels were more than twice as likely to be cognitively impaired.

Vitamin D is important in maintaining bone health, in the absorption of calcium and phosphorus, and in helping our immune system. In humans, Vitamin D comes from three main sources – exposure to sunlight, foods such as oily fish, and foods that are fortified with vitamin D (such as milk, cereals, and soya drinks). One problem faced by older people is that the capacity of the skin to absorb Vitamin D from sunlight decreases as the body ages, so they are more reliant on obtaining Vitamin D from other sources.

According to the Alzheimer's Society, dementia affects 700,000 people in the UK and it is predicted that this figure will rise to over 1 million by 2025. Two-thirds of sufferers are women, and 60,000 deaths a year are attributable to the condition. It is believed that the financial cost of dementia to the UK is over £17 billion a year.

Dr. Iain Lang from the Peninsula Medical School, who worked on the study, commented: "This is the first large-scale study to identify a relationship between Vitamin D and cognitive impairment in later life. Dementia is a growing problem for health services everywhere, and people who have cognitive impairment are at higher risk of going on to develop dementia. That means identifying ways in which we can reduce levels of dementia is a key challenge for health services."

Dr Lang added: "For those of us who live in countries where there are dark winters without much sunlight, like the UK, getting enough Vitamin D can be a....read the whole article

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When to stop Aricept and Namenda

Alzheimer's and Dementia Weekly
Question:
My mom has been taking Aricept for three years and Namenda for two. She is in Assisted Living and continues to decline. I am not sure that these meds are helping her at all. The physician does not want to take her off the meds because she "May or May not" face a decline.

My question is: how do you go about getting good information on when its time to stop the meds, or do you have stay on them forever.
Answer:
Nurse Dina
The decision of if or when to discontinue medications varies from individual to individual. This type of decision must be made in collaboration with the treating physician who will hopefully have the patient's entire treatment plan in mind when deciding.

Certain medications can be stopped abruptly. Others require being slowly tapered down. The medications in question slow the progression of the disease but do not cure it. There is a good chance that there would be a more.....read the whole answer

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9 Genes Are Linked to Alzheimer's

US NEWS and World Report
Finding also bolsters tie between vitamin D and the brain disease
HealthDay News) -- Researchers have identified nine genes that might make people more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease.

In addition, they confirmed earlier reports that a variation in the vitamin D3 receptor gene, on chromosome 12, might also increase risk for Alzheimer's. Low levels of vitamin D have been found in people with Alzheimer's and other dementias, leading researchers to suspect a link....read the whole article

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