Sometimes b12 from food doesn’t get absorbed in the body so people get b12 shots once a month. Severe deficiency can cause muscle weakness and memory loss.
Thanks, but I am sure nutritional deficits have been explored. She has been seeing neurologists as well as naturopaths.
She has had concentration problems for quite a while, but I attributed that to her overall stress level.
I also have problems with short term memory, it has been negligble for the last ten years, and it wasnt great before that, but I have only known her for 20 years, I hadnt noticed that she was getting a great deal worse, until her diagnosis, when I started to pay more attention.
I will encourage her to listen to more music. I think one of her biggest frustrations, is verbal. She is a writer/editor, and knows several languages, but lately the word she wants seems to be elusive.
Stress affects me like that. When I am stressed, I stutter, and I cant express myself.
Meditation, has been helping, although I dont do it everyday.
Learning how to destress, is something we all can benefit from.
Contact the nearest major teaching hospital and ask what support it offers Alzheimer’s patients. If it doesn’t have a program, it should be able to direct your friend to a good one.
There are always clincial trials. Now, obviously, most of these don’t work, but personally, I think just the extra attention and support given participants can help.
As depressing as it may seem, she might want to visit Alzheimer facilities where she might go when things get bad. That way, she’l feel like she has some control over her future.
She should also update her will, her end of life instructions, health care proxy, etc. while she is still able to comprehend what’s going on well enough to do so.
@ bus driver while looking for info about longevity clinic ’ especially dr Jerry mixon.
I found this -
http://www.casewatch.org/board/med/mixon/charges_2011.shtml
WAIT, I think we’re reading that chart wrong in the publication I linked. I read it as, “38% of all people over age 85 have Alz.” In fact, since all the numbers on that chart add up to 100%, it’s supposed to mean that “Of all people with Alz, 38% of them are over 85.”
Big difference.
^ attended a regional alzheimers conference last week, and as I recall 38% of people older than 85 have dementia.m
“Age” is the biggest factor…
http://m.alz.org/causes-and-risk-factors.asp
38% - 50% a tsunami of dementia diagnosis coming our way.
House of Reps- just passed 300 million more for research- bipartisan support for this !
Emerald city- very, very sorry to hear about your friend’s diagnosis. Just devastating - awful!
Dear friend’s husband,now 82, showed symptoms 5 years ago, diagnosed with alz/ vascular dementia 2 yrs ago
She highly recommends a book **" Singing in the Rain". ** would be for your, Emerald , to read.
Teepa Snow- dementia guru,( you can google her) recommends - A Dignified Life: The Best Friends™ Approach to Alzheimer’s Care: A Guide for Care
http://www.amazon.com/Dignified-Life-Approach-Alzheimers-Partners/dp/0757316654
At alz organization presentation last week at our library- this web site was recommended - excellent.
Alzheimersreading room.com
This was mentioned at regional alzheimers conference a couple weeks ago, by neurologist -
Axona- prescription nutritional supplement -
Axona. IIRC, has not been found to be particularly beneficial. Try coconut water. To cheaper. And not much different.
Yes,@SouthJerseyChessMom, I had read that before. He’s not my doctor, but apparently he had a relationship with a patient, might be his wife now, I don’t know. And I’m surprised there aren’t more accusations levied against him than just the growth hormone thing, as traditional medicine here is not a believer in what these clinics do. Which is figure out what your specific risk factors are, and prevent the disaster before it happens. In the US, they like to wait until you’re sick, then treat. Very little serious prevention, except for mammograms, colonoscopies and cholesterol checks.
@busdriver my husband’s father has advanced alzheimers, and my husband has been following neurologist, dr permutter 's program for prevention. The book is called " grain brain". I agree with you, this disease, must be stopped probably twenty years before symptoms start.
I saw the "grain brain " guy on TV and we stopped eating bread. I asked a neurologist and he said to take Methyl B-12, E, D , and fish oil. But I’m not sure this is normal but I can’t remember some people that I used to work 5 years ago, even when the name was mentioned, I can only remember the first name but not the last name. I used to have good memory but lately I can remember a lot of names.
“@busdriver my husband’s father has advanced alzheimers, and my husband has been following neurologist, dr permutter 's program for prevention. The book is called " grain brain”. I agree with you, this disease, must be stopped probably twenty years before symptoms start."
Sounds like an interesting book…but I don’t know if I can give up my bread!! I don’t eat a lot of it but how do you make a flatbread pizza or eat pasta without grains? Oh no!
That is smart of your husband to be looking at his genetics and taking action. My grandmother had Alzheimers, and I wonder if my dad has some dementia issues. I think I didn’t miss many questions on my cognitive test today, so I suspect they will tell me I’m doing alright. However, I’d like to stop it before I even take one step down that road, if it’s not too late.
@jym626 and others, you are misinterpreting the pie chart. The pie chart indicates that of the population of persons who have an Alz dx 38% are over age 85 and 43% are between the ages of 75 and 84. (Elsewhere in the article there is a statistic of 1 out of 9 persons over the age of 65 has an Alz dx.) In other words, the pie chart is describing the age distribution of people who have an Alzheimers diagnosis.
I don’t trust those cognitive tests much. My mom, 76, has been a little “foggy” for awhile now. She won’t remember things we discussed just a few minutes earlier. My sister and I have been bugging her to get tested for a long time. My dad finally took her. The neurologist put her through quite a battery of tests and said she tested fine! It’s especially frustrating for my sister, who lives in the same town and interacts with Mom quite a bit.
There is a difference between dementia and Alzheimer’s. My MIL was like that but she didn’t have Alzheimer’s. She remembered everybody, the only thing was my husband had to repeat things quite often.
I guess I don’t understand the difference between age related dementia, and Alzheimers.
oh- a recipe for you bus driver.
http://www.cricketflours.com/cricket-flour-pizza/
We have familial high Cholesterol, but now they say it isn’t the high cholesterol you have to worry about.
Although my grandfather had two heart attacks and my grandmother, several of her sisters and my mom had carotid artery disease.
that doesn’t do your brain any favors either.
All I want is to live long enough so that I can have a relationship with both my kids, while I still know who they are!
Ah gross, crickets!!! There’s got to be something better. That tastes like donuts.
I wonder, MaineLonghorn, how accurate the tests are. I guess I’ll find out more on Friday, but I thought they were way too simple, except for one, where they showed you eight items, made them disappear, and then you had to figure out where they went. I don’t think I could have nailed that at any age. But a big part of what they are testing, is to establish a baseline, so they can retest you later. Though now I’ve figured out some tricks to do a better job next time, so? I dunno.
I have had a screening test, but it was really simple.
if I had difficulty with those questions, I wouldn’t have been able to make it to the drs office by myself.
I have read that it is very difficult to gauge the decline of people who spend their lives with a strong IQ’s. If your loved one starts out at 140 and now tests at 120, you will notice a decline. The doctors, however, may feel that 120 is a great number so they will not view this as a negative.
This is why baselines are so important.
Yes, those nearest and dearest who spend the most time with the individual will likely pick up declines sooner than any test because their baseline is knowing the person all those years/decades and being able to remember before vs now. It’s hard watching loved ones decline, whether it’s age or other causes, but we can do our best to help them stay safe and continue enjoying life. Many of the elders in my life are in their 80s and 90s, and while still amazing, are not as sharp as they were even a few years back. It’s part of the circle of life.
Emerald, so sorry to hear about your friend. I was in Ohio earlier this month with H, visiting his side of the family. We just found out that my lovely sister-in-law (the older sister, just above H) was also recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. She’s 64years old. We are devastated. She, on the other hand appears to be taking it all in stride. Her youngest is a lawyer, so they’ve been taking the necessary steps to arrange for her care as the disease progresses, and to tie up all the details of finances and end-of-life decisions into a manageable plan.
My 81 yr. old father use to be a man of fair intelligence (He was the only black man chosen to train as an Army cryptographer at a time when most blacks served as soldiers, manual laborers, and mess cooks. He graduated 5th in his cryptography class of 50). And few people I know were able to craft as well reasoned an argument as my dad (which use to drive me nuts growing up). But, for about the last 5 years or so, he’s begun to exhibit some cognitive decline. It isn’t alarming yet, but it’s definitely noticeable. Truth be told, Alzheimer’s (along with ALS) is the disease that I most fear in the world. To have a disease rob you of everything that makes you yourself has got to be one of the cruelest fates possible.