cognitive decline Archives - Alzheimers Support

7 Overall Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s, Dementia, and Cognitive Decline

Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s

On a Daily basis I scour issues of Health and Medical magazines and Alzheimer’s Newsletters, hoping for more news on which fruit to eat, or how many miles to walk, or which vitamin or mineral to pop every morning with breakfast.

As a person with high-blood pressure and other heart related issues, I exercise daily, eat lots of fruits and vegetables and read the content label on every boxed-food I purchase. Still, I worry about the risk factor for Alzheimer’s.

I like having that regimen in my life as a way of preventing Alzheimer’s Disease. I keep thinking there must be something I can do to circumvent the genes I’ve surely inherited from a Mom who died of Alzheimer’s.

Yet news of Prevention, Cure or even Diagnosis about Alzheimer’s Disease is never a sure-thing. One day we hear that coffee causes Alzheimer’s the next day we hear that coffee helps Alzheimer’s. We know for a fact that long-term alcoholism can cause it’s own version of dementia, yet it’s often projected that a couple beers a day are good for you. Which is it?

It’s all questionable to me. I tend to read each new study with a “grain of salt” and follow the ones with the biggest numbers.

But this week, a new finding announced at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2011 in Paris (AAIC) has made an announcement that I can accept.

Scientists used mathematical modeling to calculate the percentage of Alzheimer’s cases that may be attributable to diabetes, mid-life hypertension, mid-life obesity, smoking, depression, low educational attainment and physical inactivity. The researchers caution that these estimates make an important assumption that has not yet been proven – but there is a causal relationship between the risk factors examined and Alzheimer’s disease, and modifying the risk factors will lower Alzheimer’s risk.

These are lifestyle-based risk factors that when changed appear to result in fewer cases of Alzheimer’s. That sounds good to me. It means there is something I CAN DO.

They found that roughly half of Alzheimer’s cases may potentially be attributable to modifiable risk factors. Together, seven modifiable risk factors contributed to as many as 17 million Alzheimer’s cases worldwide and nearly 3 million cases in the U.S.

At the AAIC 2011 Conference, the researchers reported those seven risk factors:
Specifically in the U.S. those Risk Factors included:

physical inactivity 21 percent
depression 15 percent
smoking 11 percent
mid-life hypertension 8 percent
mid-life obesity 7 percent
low education 7 percent
diabetes 3 percent

These Seven Risk Factors contributed to about 50 percent of the Alzheimer’s cases. In the US that would amount to (54%, 2.9 million people). The list is a broad spectrum for sure. But it includes all the things we should do to improve our health anyway. And most of us are probably working on a few of these areas in our life right now; trying to stop smoking, trying to walk a mile a day, trying to lower the stress in our life. Maybe we just need to try harder.

In one sample group of older healthy adults with little cognitive decline, the researchers found that the most significant factors related to maintaining healthy cognition included low scores on measures of stress, anxiety, depression and trauma. This group of people showed resilience in the face of distressing life events, likely related to positive coping styles and the personality trait of “conscientiousness.”

This group of people had healthy coping styles, remaining positive, getting advice, and finally taking proper action when predicaments arose. A few other traits shown by this group of cognitively healthy adults were order, dutifulness, achievement striving and self-discipline.

From studies so far, healthy adults with good cognition are already working on the 7 Risk Factors in their lives. Whether Alzheimer’s is in your genes or not–Tackling this list of 7 Factors will improve your life.

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Healthy at 100: The scientifically proven secrets of the World’s healthiest and longest-lived people

READ THE FIRST CHAPTER FREE BELOW

John Robbins has written just such a book to help us on this road to a healthy lifestyle. Robbins challenges readers to give up bad habits and adopt smarter routines concerning food, exercise and work, he distills the familiar philosophies of Dean Ornish and other gurus and serves up some hippie-dippy pap (“Dance in the moonlight”). His advice is commonsensical and scientifically sound, and readers seeking that elusive fountain of youth would be wise to listen up.

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What is the difference between Alzheimer’s dementia, old age memory loss?

05/293 Comments

Difference between Alzheimer’s dementia and old-age memory loss?

For many years it was thought that memory loss was nothing more than hardening of the arteries suffered by most people during the natural aging process. Often called “senility,” it was common to equate the behaviors of someone with Alzheimer’s as “old age senility.” At 93, my grandmother was considered “senile” and her children forced to place her in a nursing home due to erratic, odd behavior.

The question for many is: What is the difference between Alzheimer’s or dementia or “old age memory loss?”

During the last few years of her life, my grandmother spent her days wandering the halls of a nursing home searching for “her” new-born baby whose cries haunted her day and night. The baby needed to be “nursed,” my grandmother surmised, and spent many hours crying about that neglected child. That was fifty years ago. Today, we know better.

There is a difference between Alzheimer’s and dementia. In fact many things can cause dementia, but Alzheimer’s is the Number #1 cause of dementia.

Today, my grandmother might be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and given a baby doll to end her constant search for that crying baby. Just as her daughter (my mother) was given a light-weight pocket-book to carry because she was paranoid about someone stealing her money.

Mom would loop the strap of her pocket-book over her arm and grip that purse firmly with her other hand to prevent anyone from stealing her money. The coin purse inside that pocket-book guarded 2 dollars and 25 cents but it might as well have been a million dollars because that’s the value my Mom put on that pocket-book.

Mom remembered that money long after she’d forgotten me, and she checked that purse hundreds of times a day to be certain it was still there.

And yet, my Ninety-something Uncle (Mom’s brother) is healthy and fit, both physically and mentally, and will argue against my modern day assertion that his mother (Mom’s mother and my grandmother) could ever have suffered something as horrible as Alzheimer’s.

“She was old,” he will argue instead, “and old age made her senile and made her imagine that crying baby, nothing more.She didn’t have Alzheimer’s like Jane (my mother/his sister).” He will argue the natural aging process causes all the symptoms of Alzheimer’s too, despite the fact that he is nearing 90 without a single sign of cognitive decline. For him, set in his way, there is no Alzheimer’s, old age senility took the mind of his mother.

Thankfully, most know better, and the awareness of Alzheimer’s along with the Stages and Symptoms are readily available for anyone to find. Hopefully, the difference between Alzheimer’s and dementia will be common knowledge one day soon.

With more awareness, more people will understand the basics of coping with the behaviors of the Alzheimer’s patient. “You can’t force someone with Alzheimer’s to remember something just because you want them to. You must change yourself, accept the loss of their memories and build on what they do know.”

With awareness new research studies will find better ways to diagnose and new medicines will be prescribed earlier, to delay symptoms for those who suffer.
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Is it Old age or Dementia or Alzheimer’s?

That question can actually be answered simply–

As the brain ages it is not unusual to forget the name of someone, particularly if you haven’t seen them in awhile.

Aging can make it difficult to find the right word when speaking or writing, or hard to remember the name of an object that isn’t used often.

With older age, it takes longer to learn new skills or accept new ideas. It may take longer to react to things since reflexes slow down with the aging process.

A characteristic of the normal aging process is that general intelligence (which medical scientists call “psycho-motor functions” or “cognitive functioning”) remains normal, and reasoning abilities and judgment are not altered with aging.

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Symptoms of Alzheimer’s are much more Problematic than simple lapses of memory

Difficulties with ordinary tasks and daily activities

Making Unusual decisions or acting inappropriately

Difficulty learning new things

Dependency- fear of leaving familiar surroundings suspicious of the activities of others; overly dependent

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For More Details see –> The Stages

What is Cognitive Decline? and Why does it Define Alzheimers dementia?

09/28Leave a Comment

What is Cognitive Decline?

The signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s can be confusing. My mom looked perfectly fine, she spoke in full sentences. She walked without a limp despite a swollen arthritic knee, and even her friends could hardly believe she was 83 years old. On the surface, this lady with Alzheimer’s looked just like you or me.

Since the person with dementia looks the same, and isn’t physically impaired, we expect them to behave like you or me. So our list of complaints about their outrageous behavior to the contrary goes on and on.

1. They ask what day it is a million times a day.
2. They keep telling the same story over and over and over.
3. They wear the same clothes every day and refuse to change.
4. They won’t take a shower or bath or stay clean.
5. They spit their food, or refuse to swallow.
6. They never sleep all night but wake up and prowl around or howl into the night.
7. They cry and complain and beg to go home–when they are home!
8. They wear their heaviest coat in the summer and swim trunks in the winter.
9. They walk outside and think they’re in a different city.
10. They beg for breakfast at 10:00 P.M.
I could go on and on– If you’re a caregiver for an Alzheimer’s patient, I’m sure you have a multitude of anecdotes that you could add to my list as well.

The person with Alzheimer’s may “look” totally normal so we expect them to act totally normal.

Yet, we don’t “see” their brain.

If we saw their brain we’d realize quickly enough that their brain does NOT look like yours or mine— (unless, of course, Alzheimer’s is in our future too) their brain looks different.

If you had a friend who suffered a brain injury in an auto accident, you would feel sympathy for their plight. However, the auto accident victim would most likely have an outward scar or injury to proclaim and remind of his brain damage. This isn’t true for the Alzheimer’s victim, yet they do have brain damage equally as destructive as any auto accident.

Brain Damage causes loss of Cognitive Thinking: “Losses pertaining to cognition, the process of knowing and, more precisely, the process of being aware, knowing, thinking, learning and judging.”

Dementia is Cognitive Decline.

Alzheimer’s is one form of Dementia. And the Dictionary definition of Dementia is: This condition is generally caused by deterioration of brain tissue… Major characteristics include short- and long-term memory loss, impaired judgment, slovenly appearance, and poor hygiene. Dementia disrupts personal relationships and the ability to function occupationally

The simplistic description of this invasion to the Alzheimers brain is “Tangles and Plaques.” [Amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Plaques are extracellular deposits of abnormally processed amyloid precursor protein, and tangles are intracellular accumulations of the cytoskeletal protein tau. These tangles and plaque appear to overrun parts of the brain and destroy the connections that normally form in the brain.]

For a more complete description…[Read More]

This brain damage results in the outrageous behaviors we see from the Alzheimer’s patient as well as the many sorrows the Patient suffers as they lose more and more of their ability to function normally from day to day. The brain tends to unravel backwards, the newest knowledge forgotten first until the patient may only recollect their family of origin.

As caregivers, the most important thing we can do is make life as comfortable as possible as our loved one transitions through each new loss. If you’ve found any activities or ideas that help the busy caregiver of today, please share your idea here!

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Comedies and Musicals are fine DVD’s with little concentration requiredMore info Digital Clocks are readable by those with dementiaMore info Most elderly womae with dementia love baby dollsMore info Springbok Puzzles have 36 piecesMore info Springbok the Sewing BoxMore info Springbok The Jungle BookMore info

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To learn more about Cognitive Decline, the following books will help

Diet and Nutrition in Dementia and Cognitive Decline Anti-Alzheimer’s Action Guide: How to Avoid America’s Most Dreaded Disease The Alzheimer’s Solution: How Today’s Care Is Failing Millions On Pluto: Inside the Mind of Alzheimer’s

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My Mom was arrested through the mail? Alzheimers 101

07/246 Comments

Mom was arrested … or Alzheimer’s 101

For as long as I can remember, my Mother kept a neat and tidy home. Even when my brothers and I were youngsters, terrorizing the place by sliding down waxed floors in socked feet, our home was neat as a pin.

My Mom was a gentle woman raised in the era shortly after the depression. End tables hid beneath hand-crocheted doilies and flowery table toppers. Trinkets, pottery and carnival-glass bowls sat on every flat surface or shelf. Dusting was an endless task but Mom didn’t mind. That was her chore on Saturdays.

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Before ugly symptoms of Alzheimer’s occurred, I began to notice that Mom wasn’t quite as fastidious as she once was. Her home was clean enough, that was not the issue.

But stacks of mail, in various stages of being opened, had begun to clutter every flat surface from kitchen to bedroom— stacks and stacks of letters and envelopes, opened and unopened mail.

As a rule, I did not snoop into my mother’s business so I wasn’t certain if the mail was bills, business correspondence or just junk. She didn’t appear concerned so I avoided the subject too, though I felt seriously compelled to learn more about this every growing waste of trees.

Several weeks passed as I mulled the dilemma of whether to mention the clutter of mail-overload before I finally got the phone call that forced me to ask.

She was hysterical and even after I calmed her, she struggled through breathless gulps to tell me, “They’re coming to arrest me! You need to get over here quick!”

“What?” I held the phone closer and tried to make sense of the gibberish mumbled between crying sobs. “Mom, calm down. Who’s coming to arrest you? and Why?”

My little, white-haired mother had never done anything in her entire lifetime to garnish an arrest and certainly not now, at age 82, where her longest excursion always ends around the corner at Safeway.

“Mom, calm down. Calm down and tell me what you’re talking about. I’m sure you’ve misunderstood something. What makes you think you’ll be arrested.”

“This letter!” she was wailing now. “It says they are coming to arrest me.”

“What letter?” I could only imagine Mom panting and waving an envelope in the air.

“This letter In my hand. It says they are coming to arrest me.”

“Mom, it’s probably junk mail. Who sent such a letter? Read the return address. Who sent it to you?”

“Return address?”

“Yes Mom…’Return Address ‘ Who sent it? Where did the letter come from?”

“How would I know where it came from?” At least she had stopped crying.

“The return address, Mom,” I felt frustration building. Mom was not dumb so I didn’t know why she was pretending now.

“Return address? What does that mean? Where would that be?”

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Oh my goodness, I was flabbergasted. Mom continued reading aloud, clearly “arrest” was mentioned, but I didn’t have a clue who had sent the letter and couldn’t swear that it was actually intended for Mom. She seemed mystified by the simple term “return address,” which had me near pulling my hair out.

“Okay Mom,” I mustered an authoritarian voice. “I’ll be there in an hour. Everything will be fine. No one is going to arrest you.” Since we lived more than an half-hour apart, I raced to change clothes and make the drive to Mom’s place.

I didn’t like the thought, but I began to wonder about Mom’s state of mind. I had had more than one foolish call from her in the previous two weeks; calls to ask about the number of her grandchildren, the day of the week, and the age of Bob Barker.

Not to mention the call from her neighbor because Mom had accidentally locked herself out of her home near 9:00 o’clock at night, dressed only in her nightgown and robe. I never got an explanation for that incident, but Mom wore a house key on a chain around her neck– permanently now.

Now Mom was being Arrested, she said. And all that mail! I vowed silently as I drove, that mail would be sorted, trashed and filed before I left Mom’s house today!

Mom met me at the door, less hysterical but still crying and sniffing. “I don’t know why they would want to arrest me,” she cried.

I took the letter, which was actually an over-sized post card, and forced Mom into a chair at the kitchen table where I joined her. A quick scan over the post-card had me laughing despite my vain attempt at a straight-face for Mom’s benefit.

“Mom…” I took her hand. “It’s a summons…for jury duty. In all this mess–” I glanced at the pile of unopened envelopes tossed on the kitchen table, “there is probably a letter for jury duty here somewhere. When you ignored that, they sent a summons. It only states that they may issue a warrant for your arrest if you don’t show up for jury duty.”

Mom clutched her throat. “See, I told you they are going to arrest me!” she sniffed. “When?”

It took much longer than I thought it should have to explain the jury-duty process and what happens if you don’t appear. I don’t think Mom truly understood by the time I had finished. I stuck the notice in my purse and made a note to write the city a long letter of explanation.

Then we found a large plastic trash bin and one large shoe box and tackled the avalanche of paper flooding Mom’s house. I was shocked to find post marks dating back 3 years. She had done a good job separating bills from junk-mail for quite awhile as we only found 1 gas bill that was several months past due.

Once I gave myself permission to clean my Mom’s house, or discuss problems such as the mounting mail, or heaping laundry, or many other little things that occur for the elderly it became easier and easier to discuss more serious issues that came up before she was finally diagnosed and her increasingly odd behavior had a name–Alzheimer’s.

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The Alzheimer’s Diet Chicken Soup Alzheimer’s Treatment On Pluto: Inside The Forgetting Garden Coloring The 36-Hour Day Learning Alzheimer’s:

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Memories of a Shopping Trip …or Not — When Alzheimer’s steals memories

05/072 Comments

Alzheimer’s Steals Memories

After Mom went to live at the “Group-Home” with 9 other folks who had dementia, we continued our shopping trips as often as possible.

Shopping trips had become a tradition that Mom never remembered afterwards but we certainly enjoyed at the time. We laughed and talked and shared childhood memories; some hers, some mine. Either way, They were always new and fresh because Mom had no memory of our recent times together. I think she still remembered when I had my tonsils removed at two years old, which was 50+ years ago, and that was about as recent as her memory could get.

Our trips away from the “Group Home” generally depended on her mood. Mom took several medications, both for physical ailments and agitation induced by the affects of Alzheimers. Sometimes she felt really good and other days she dipped into sadness and depression.

On one particularly “good” day, we set off for a morning of shopping and an afternoon lunch at McDonald’s so Mom could watch the children in the “play area.” Mom’s all time favorite thing to do. On this day we’d had an exceptionally good time. Mom’s mood was jubilant and we’d laughed and chatted till our sides hurt. By the time we headed back to the Group-Home we were giggly, happy, laughing, and arguing over who got the bathroom first after our arrival.

We had been gone for more hours than usual and the last store we visited had no restroom. Now, I could only hope we both had dry pants by the time we pulled into the Mom’s driveway.

“I’m going first, Mom,” I teased feigning a serious tone, as I swung the car door open.

“Not if I beat you,” Mom grinned as mischievously as any child playing games– We sounded more like children than Mom and daughter, both pushing the elderly category.

We laughed as we filled our arms with shopping bags, boxed Donuts, and an over-sized, Puppy with mournful eyes that Mom could not resist. And thankfully, Mom made no attempt to out-run me as we headed toward her room.

In Mom’s suite we piled our goodies in a tall heap like icing atop her freshly-made bed.

“I beat you,” I squealed as I pushed into the bathroom first and closed the door behind me. It could not have been a sweeter day. Mom had been free of depression or sadness for the entire day.

With relief, I washed my hands and swung the bathroom door open wide into Mom’s bright and cheery bedroom.

Mom stood facing the dresser with her back to me but her eyes staring at my reflection through the mirror from behind her. She spun around quickly with a frightened look on her face.

“What’s wrong,” I asked. Thinking surely she wouldn’t think a stranger would be entering through her bathroom. “Mom, it’s me.”

“You scared me,” she said as the dark shadow melted away and her lips finally parted in a smile. “Oh my gosh,” she said. “You scared me to death. When did you get here?”

Then she pointed to all the packages, and added, “What is all this stuff? Why did you bring me so much stuff today? I didn’t even know you were coming. Is it my birthday?”

I felt like crying, “No,” I said instead. “I just went shopping this morning and found a few things I thought you might like.” My smile was strained, and I felt little joy.

Inside, I wanted to cry. All the fun we’d had, all the good memories we’d shared, such a pleasant day, a sweet memory for me but already forgotten for Mom. In her limited recollections–it never happened at all.

Sometimes great happiness can also bring deep sadness. But I still remember that day and all the fun we had. And I also remember that Mom was right there beside me, feeling and knowing the same pleasures. Now, I’m grateful for all those days we shared while we could.

No matter how deep into dementia our loved one may be, we can make many sweet memories to savor for a lifetime.

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