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Susan Berg has been a healthcare professional and educator for over 20 years. She was the, activity director, of many years, at Hunt Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Danvers. While there, she has gained much dementia care and activity experience and knowledge. Now Susan consults with those needing advice about caring for those with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia. She has had special training in dementia care and dementia activities through the Alzheimer’s Association and other educational forums. Berg is the author of Adorable Photographs of Our Baby-Meaningful, Mind-Stimulating Activities and More for the Memory Challenged, Their Loved Ones, and Involved Professionals, a book for those with dementia and an excellent resource for caregivers and healthcare professionals. You may visit at her blog at http://dementiaviews.blogspot.com or http://activitiesdirector.blogspot.com

She also writes for Activity Director Today and Alzheimer's Care Guide Magazine

Friday, November 12, 2010

Algal DHA Improved Memory and Learning in Healthy Adults Age 55 and Older

Here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professinals,

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here is a way for nurses administrators, social workers and other health care professionals to get an easyceu or two

Here are more interesting dementia brain boosting activities

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The Memory Improvement with Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) Study (MIDAS) published online in March 2010 and in the November print issue of Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association showed that algal DHA improved memory function in healthy aging adults, by giving them memory skills of someone three years younger..
MIDAS is the first large, randomized and placebo-controlled study demonstrating the benefits of algal DHA in maintaining and improving brain health in older adults. The goal of MIDAS was to evaluate the effects of algal DHA on cognitive outcomes in healthy elderly people with a mild memory complaint. The study was funded by Martek Biosciences.
MIDAS found that healthy people over age 55 with memory complaints who took 900 mg algal DHA capsules for six months had almost double the reduction in errors on a test that measures learning and memory performance versus those who took a placebo,. The DHA was tolerated well and the people taking the DHA also had a lower heart rate, providing a benefit to their heart.
Another study, published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), conducted by the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) group, found that treatment with DHA did not show statistically significant benefit in cognitive function over placebo in a population that already had an Alzheimer's disease diagnosis and was also receiving concomitant prescription therapy. However, the study authors noted that intervention with DHA might have been effective if initiated earlier in the course of the disease in patients who do not have overt dementia. An editorial published in JAMA accompanying the study noted the same, stating that effective treatment strategies to prevent progression of Alzheimer's disease will likely need to be initiated earlier and that the treatment of mild to mo derate AD may be "too late."
Of great interest, the ADCS study demonstrated a significantly

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