Do Family Caregivers Experience Greater Health Risks?

An aging America means more demand for caregivers who help care for the elderly, but a looming shortage of caregivers could endanger many of the most vulnerable.

Book Review: The 36-Hour Day

The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for People with Alzheimer Disease and Memory Loss in Later Life

This best-selling book is the "bible" for families caring for people with Alzheimer disease...offering comfort and support to millions worldwide. In addition to the practical and compassionate guidance that have made The 36-Hour Day invaluable to caregivers, the fourth edition is the only edition currently available that includes new information on medical research and the delivery of care.

The new edition includes:

new information on diagnostic evaluation-resources for families and adult children who care for people with dementia-updated legal and financial information-the latest information on nursing homes and other communal living arrangements-new information on research, medications, and the biological causes and effects of dementia.


Tami Greene said...

This book has been the single most helpful tool my family has been given to help us help my mother as she progresses with Alzheimer's Disease. While other books have touched on many of the topics in this book, no where else have we found as much practical information on how to avoid confrontations with her; ways to improve her daily living; ideas to keep her involved with us and to provide meaning to her life; questions to ask her doctors; types of resources that are available (depending on your area); what to expect as the disease progresses; and how to help each other as we take on the many different roles needed to provide care for her.

I highly recommend this book to others; in fact, I have purchased multiple copies to share with family members and donate to my local library - that's how helpful and important this book is!

Arthur Jones said...

This is a excellent book and reference for those learning to deal with Alzheimer. Plenty of resources and ideas of what to look for when caring for someone with this disease. You can get a good idea of what to expect and how to help those suffering with this devastating disease. Easy to understand and read. Can't recommend this book enough.

Alzheimer's Activities: Hundreds of Activities for Men and Women With Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders

I missed the early signs of Dementia (Alzheimer's)

Looking back, there is little doubt in my mind I should have realized my mother was suffering from dementia sooner. Sadly, I didn't have the proper education, information, or frame of reference. Most people tend to ignore the early symptoms of the disease believing they are simply signs of "old age". Anyone who ends up in my shoes knows and understands that a person in the early stages of Alzheimer’s can function normally--even drive a car. Only when they deteriorate or some "event" takes place do we wake up to reality.

Sometimes these changes can be quite subtle but if detected raise a “red flag”. Behavior changes slowly in the elderly and as they begin to suffer cognitive impairment these changes are hard to detect.

If my mother had been enrolled in any of the studies listed below, I feel certain she would have been diagnosed sooner. This would have allowed me to get her in an exercise program, get her proper nutrition, and insured that she was taking her medication as prescribed. I learned in the last four years how important these factors are in the quality of her life.

The woman in the picture is my 91 year old mother (yes the picture is current). She suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. I am her CareGiver.

Sensors could help catch first signs of dementia
Monitors and online tests track subtle changes in daily mobility, behavior

Source Associated Press and MSNBC

WASHINGTON - Tiny motion sensors are attached to the walls, doorways and even the refrigerator of Elaine Bloomquist’s home, tracking the seemingly healthy 86-year-old’s daily activity.

It’s like spying in the name of science — with her permission — to see if round-the-clock tracking of elderly people’s movements can provide early clues of impending Alzheimer’s disease.

“Now it takes years to determine if someone’s developing dementia,” laments Dr. Jeffrey Kaye of Oregon Health & Science University, which is placing the monitors in 300 homes of Portland-area octogenarians as part of a $7 million federally funded project.

The goal: Shave off that time by spotting subtle changes in mobility and behavior that Alzheimer’s specialists are convinced precede the disease’s telltale memory loss.

Simple early signs

Early predictors may be as simple as variations in speed while people walk their hallways, or getting slower at dressing or typing. Also under study are in-home interactive “kiosks” that administer monthly memory and cognition tests, computer keyboards bugged to track typing speed, and pill boxes that record when seniors forget to take their medicines.

More than 5 million Americans, and 26 million people worldwide, have Alzheimer’s, and cases are projected to skyrocket as the population ages. Today’s medications only temporarily alleviate symptoms. Researchers are desperately hunting new ones that might at least slow the relentless brain decay if taken very early in the disease, before serious memory problems become obvious.

So dozens of early diagnosis methods also are under study, from tests of blood and spinal fluid to MRI scans of people’s brains. Even if some pan out, they’re expensive tests that would require lots of doctor intervention, when getting someone to visit a physician for suspicion of dementia is a huge hurdle. And during routine checkups, even doctors easily can miss the signs.

Bloomquist, of Milwaukie, Ore., knows the conundrum all too well. She volunteered for Kaye’s research because her husband died of Alzheimer’s, as did his parents and her own mother.

“It’s hard to know when people begin Alzheimer’s,” she reflects. “Alzheimer people do very well socially for short periods of time. If it’s just a casual conversation, they rise to the occasion.”

‘Typical’ days monitored

Measuring how people fare at home — on bad days as well as good ones, not just when they’re doing their best for the doctor — may spot changes that signal someone’s at high risk long before they’re actually demented, Kaye told the Alzheimer’s Association’s international dementia-prevention meeting last week.

“If you only assess them every once-in-a-blue-moon, you really are at a loss to know what they are like on a typical day,” Kaye explains.

High-tech monitors under study:

Researchers at New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine are heading a study that ultimately plans to recruit 600 people over age 75 to help test in-home “kiosks” that turn on automatically to administer monthly cognitive exams. A video of a smiling scientist appears on-screen to talk participants through such classic tests as reading a string of words and then, minutes later, repeating how many they recall, or seeing how quickly they complete connect-the-dot patterns.
An Oregon pilot study of the motion sensors tracked 14 participants in their upper 80s for almost a year. Half had “mild cognitive impairment,” an Alzheimer’s precursor, and half were healthy. Impaired participants showed much greater variation in such day-to-day activities as walking speed, especially in the afternoons.

Why? The theory is that as Alzheimer’s begins destroying brain cells, signals to nerves may become inconsistent — like static on a radio — well before memories become irretrievable. One day, signals to walk fire fine. The next, those signals are fuzzy and people hesitate, creating wildly varying activity patterns.

Study receives unique grant

The pilot study prompted a first-of-its-kind grant from the National Institutes of Health to extend the monitoring study to 300 homes; 112 are being monitored already, mostly in retirement communities like Bloomquist’s. They’re given weekly health questionnaires to make sure an injury or other illness that affects activity doesn’t skew the results.

In addition, participants receive computer training so they can play brain-targeted computer games and take online memory and cognition tests. The keyboards are rigged to let researchers track changes in typing speed and Internet use that could indicate confusion.

Finally, a souped-up pill dispenser called the MedTracker is added to some of the studies, wirelessly recording when drugs are forgotten or taken late.
Electronics giants already sell various medical warning technologies for the elderly, including dementia patients, such as pill boxes that sound reminder alarms at dose time. And the Alzheimer’s Association and Intel Corp. are jointly funding research into how to use television, cell phones and other everyday technology to do such things as guide dementia patients through daily activities.

The next step of companies selling early symptom monitoring isn’t far off, and unbiased data on what really helps will be crucial, Kaye warns.

The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for People with Alzheimer Disease and Memory Loss in Later Life

Kids bring joy to Alzheimer's Sufferers

The following article shows that our children can really play an important community service role in our society. The kinds of interactions with Alzheimer’s patients that are described not only benefit the patients they give the children important lessons in life. I found this article uplifting.

On a personal note, I can tell you my mother is reacts very positively to children. A child always brings a smile to my mothers face. If you look closely you can see she is experiencing real feelings of joy and happiness. On those days where my mother has interactions with children or young adults she usually has a better, brighter day.

Source Sioux City Journal

The generations appear to mesh seamlessly when kids from Building Futures Child Care, a public program of the Boys & Girls Home, make their weekly visit to the Alzheimer's Association's Adult Day Services room.

Without being told, the youngsters eagerly fill in the couple of empty chairs at each table. The clients who came Thursday have been chatting, listening to music or just sitting. Soon, the children's teacher, Julie Bell, and aide Cindy Levering, are passing out clear plastic suncatchers and squeezing splats of bright-colored paints into trays for each person.

The children, ages 4 to 10, have come for an hour or two every Thursday this summer. They play board games, read a library book or do a craft and then share a snack with the clients. Both generations benefit from their time together, even if not everyone remembers it well.

'I love it'

"My middle name is Mess-up," client Marian Persinger laughed as she fixed a drip on her suncatcher. She said she enjoys the children's visits. "The camaraderie. Whatever (craft) they bring, we do. We frosted cookies with them last week," she remembered.

"I know. We made caterpillars," Dylan Thompson, 5, offered. It's not clear whether he meant last week or another time. It doesn't matter.

"Oh, I love it," client Kay Erskine said. "Seeing these kids and watching them, it's really neat."

The children provide a flashback to a happy time for Linda Young, as well. She has attended the center nearly every day for the past three years, since suffering a brain injury in a fall at work.

"It's my first time. I'll watch," said one man who actually comes to the center five days a week. Matt Elgert, 6, unperturbed by the disconnect, painted his suncatcher and talked about playing Candy Land on an earlier visit.

Client Mike Biderman, a retired Navy man who comes to the center often, said he thinks the interaction is good for the children, too. "They should have some exposure to adult life as early as possible," he said.



'Bring somebody joy'

Mary Jo Sikkema, director of the Alzheimer's Association, said the children's visits are important. They keep clients busy, stimulate their brains and give them an opportunity to socialize with other people. She said it's rare that a client doesn't want to participate, or gets agitated.

Stephanie Altamimi, director of Day Services, said she think the clients especially like doing crafts with the children because they feel they are helping the kids. And, she said, the adults feel a connection to all children who visit the center, whether it's the day care children or a family member's child.

Levering said she was surprised at first at how well the children handle their visits. "They're so patient with the clients," she said.

Bell added, "I explained to them they're volunteering their time to bring somebody joy. They really got the concept."

Altamimi said other young people also visit the Day Center. She said sometimes a church or high school group will come and stay most of the day. Some have played band instruments, or drummed up a game of chair volleyball with clients. "We don't ever turn anybody away," she said.

Bell said her group plans to keep its visits going, even after summer ends. They'll come to the center on all the "early out" Mondays of the school year. Days when classes end at 1 p.m., the kids in her program will assemble at the Alzheimer's Day Services Center for crafts, snacks -- and bringing joy.





The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for People with Alzheimer Disease and Memory Loss in Later Life

The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for People with Alzheimer Disease, Other Dementias, and Memory Loss in Later Life

This best-selling book is the "bible" for families caring for people with Alzheimer disease...



Read the full text review at The Alzheimer's Reading Room

Americans Fear Alzheimer’s More Than Heart Disease, Diabetes or Stroke

A recent study by the MetLife Foundation found that Americans fear getting Alzheimer's disease more than heart disease, stroke, or diabetes. Alzheimer's ranks second in the minds of American's only to cancer.

Alzheimer's Reading Room: Americans Fear Alzheimer’s More Than Heart Disease, Diabetes or Stroke

Fruit Smoothie Could Improve Thinking, Memory In Alzheimer's Patients

This article on the smoothie really caught my attention. Why? I drink one of those almost every day. Oddly, when I try to get my mother, the Alzheimer's patient, to drink one along with me she refuses.

A simple fruit smoothie could soon help improve thinking and memory in Alzheimer's patients.



Fruit Smoothie Could Improve Thinking, Memory In Alzheimer's Patients

St. Louis University is the only U.S test center to study whether the drink actually works. The beverage isn't a new drug, but a nutritional drink with a combination of vitamins, antioxidants and lipids that are consumed once a day. The smoothie comes in peach or cappuccino flavors.

Dr. Theodore Malmstrom is one of three researchers looking into what could soon be a very important weapon in the fight against Alzheimer's.

"There is increasing evidence that concentrated components of natural foods can improve memory so those components have been put in a drink and we are hopeful it will help," said Malmstrom.

The goal now is to get actual patients to test it out.

SLU researchers need at least 10 Alzheimer's patients to take part in the study. They are looking for people recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's, but not currently taking medications.

Patients will be divided in two groups. One group will get a daily supply of drinks with nutritional supplements. The other group will get a similar drink but without the nutritional additions.

Results of the 24-week study will hopefully end with good news.

"There is always great hope whenever you can have new research emerging. One of the Alzheimer's Associations mission (is) to fund research programs so we are very excited," said Stephanie Rohlfs-Young, the outreach director for the St. Louis Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association.

The risk of side effects from the drink are very minor compared to side effects from the five FDA-approved medications that treat Alzheimer's.

For more information, contact Malmstrom at 314-577-8745.

Alzheimer's Disease Rate Rises to More Than Five Million in the United States

Someone Develops Alzheimer's Every 72 Seconds, According To New Alzheimer's Association Report.

The Alzheimer’s Association today reports that in 2007 there are now more than 5 million people in the United States living with Alzheimer’s disease. This number includes 4.9 million people over the age of 65 and between 200,000 and 500,000 people under age 65 with early onset Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.


Read more about this topic at The Alzheimer's Reading Room

Exercise slows decline in Alzheimer's patients

I can attest, exercise makes a difference. My mother now has the tendency to sit around all day. On those days when I can get her to go to Gold's Gym with me she is a completely different person. The look on her face, from dull to smiling, is more than enough to tell me that exercise works to her benefit.


"Nursing home residents with Alzheimer's disease who participate in a moderate exercise program have a significantly slower deterioration than those who receive routine medical care, researchers have shown."


Read the article in its entirety at the CareGiver: The Book Weblog

Myriad Genetics Presents Additional Flurizan Phase 2 Study Data

Myriad Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN) (www.myriad.com) announced today that it presented additional results of its completed Phase 2 follow-on study of Flurizan™ in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease at the annual meeting of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP), held March 1-4, 2007 in New Orleans.

Read the release in its entirety at The Alzheimer's Reading Room Weblog