In a weak moment, I signed up for Alzheimer's Daily News. (I came close to canceling it the other day, when they posted the astonishing news that doing crossword puzzles can prevent AD. Decided to stick with it when another reader pleasantly wrote back to ... correct ... their message and they sent her answer to everyone.)
But ... couple-three good ones today:
A Link Between Dementia and Sound Processing
(Source: Medical News Today) - Researchers at the University of Washington report that people who find it difficult to hear in complex situations with competing noise (such as one conversation among many) are also likely to have mild memory impairment.
"Central auditory processing dysfunction" is the term that researchers use for this type of hearing disorder. The diagnosis "is applied to persons whose hearing in quiet settings is normal or near normal yet who have substantial hearing difficulty in the presence of auditory stressors such as competing noise and other difficult listening situations."
Dr. George Gates and colleagues studied 313 older adults who participated in a dementia surveillance program. Participants performed three tests to assess their central auditory processing and their ability to manage competing environmental signals.
The researchers found that those with dementia and mild memory impairment had significantly lower auditory processing test scores than the control group. "Central auditory function was affected by even mild memory impairment," concluded the authors.
(I found this particularly interesting, because that is one of the first funny behaviors I noticed in my husband. He used to be able to pick any soft conversation out, even from across the room, no matter how noisy things were.)
AAAA Nationwide Senior Housing Resource Launched
(Source: dBusiness News) - For more than 50 million family caregivers across the country, the Internet is becoming a first-line resource for support. This week the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a) is introducing an online navigational tool that can simplify the search for senior housing - for seniors and caregivers, no matter where they live.
The Senior Housing Locator is similar to the real estate industry's Multiple Listing Service. Consumers and professionals can search a database of more than 60,000 senior housing listings, including assisted living communities, nursing homes, residential care facilities, continuing care retirement communities and independent living communities - with the click of a mouse.
Go to full story: healthcare.dbusi nessnews.com http://healthcare.dbusinessnews.com/shownews.php?type_news=latest&newsid=163035
Webcast To Discuss Bapineuzumab Clinical Trial Results
(Source: PR-inside.com) - Elan Corporation and Wyeth announced that a webcast will be held at 7:00 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 to discuss the results of the Phase 2 clinical trial of bapineuzumab for Alzheimer's disease.
The live conference call will be simultaneously broadcast over the Internet and will be available to the general public.
This event can be accessed by going to www.elan.com or www.wyeth.com and clicking on the "Investor Relations" icon.
Go to full story: www.pr-inside.com/elan-and-wyeth-announce-webcast-to-r716124.htm
"Report: Aricept Prescriptions to Take Hit With Launch of Generic Razadyne Prescriptions of Eisai and Pfizer’s Alzheimer’s treatment Aricept may drop by as much as 20 percent after Shire and Janssen’s Razadyne, a competing drug, goes generic in December, according to a report by the Physician & Payer Forum."
I'm doing the happy dance. I only have to get one more set of 3 months at the expensive price and then I'll get the doctor to change the prescription to the generic for January.
Oh wow! Even with Plan D I spent over $1000. Next time we are in the donut hole. YES!!!!!
People suffering from Alzheimer's disease have a greater memory than was previously thought, psychologists have announced.
Researchers found those affected by the condition could retain knowledge into later stages of the illness, but found it harder to communicate it.
People who had been suffering from Alzheimer's for a few years were asked to define 32 words during the Dundee University-led study.
When they were asked to provide definition of words such as "monkey", "salmon" or "dog", they struggled.
But when they were asked specific questions, such as "is it an animal?" and "how many legs does it have?", many were able to provide answers.
Researchers said the results showed that rather than not retaining the knowledge, the patients had difficulty understanding what was being asked of them.
It is hoped the study findings could lead to the development of new treatments which might help Alzheimer's sufferers retain their memories for longer.
Professor Trevor Harley, dean of the school of psychology at Dundee University, said: "Dementia affects the whole brain and makes access to information harder to retrieve.
"The assumption has been that Alzheimer's disease causes this knowledge to be destroyed.
"However, we found that if you probe the patient in the right way with appropriate questions that support them to search their stored knowledge, they can often generate more detailed information. The knowledge isn't always lost, it's just not as accessible."
"Everyone's favorite 'Golden Girl' Estelle Getty has died, leaving millions in mourning. The actress was suffering from Lewy Body Dementia, a progressive brain disease.
'The Golden Girls' actress died Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles, according to her caregiver."
"Researchers said the results showed that rather than not retaining the knowledge, the patients had difficulty understanding what was being asked of them."
That certainly rings true in my experience with it. There is a huge difference in how competent he seems if you compare sitting and talking to his brother on the phone, bringing up topics out of his own head (he seems pretty good) and being asked a question--any question--where there is visual distraction, and especially if there is a motor response involved. There you see failure to process the question properly, then (even if you get through) failure to be able to apply simple instructions to an actual physical act.
Our local PBS radio station was criticized for mentioning the cause of death of the Golden Girl. Had it been cancer think of all the sympathy. Is demenia the other social disease. Mata Hari
People often have a difficult time with what they don't understand - remember when you hardly ever saw a person in a wheel chair? Now it is much more common and much more accpeted.
Sometimes, it seems like AD has to go through a similar process for acceptance.
I agree that they hold the memories a lot longer than many people originally thought. If they didn't how could they have some of the flashes of cognition that we sometimes see? When my DH was in the hospital earlier this year, my sister who he hadn't seen in over 6 months went to see him. DH asked her how her husband was by name. That floored all of us as DH has been forgetting names and people for quite a while.
A month ago when I was visiting him, he looked at me and thanked me for visiting him so often.
I truly believe that there is a person in there that can't always connect with the outside world. You look into their eyes and there seems like something is there even those that don't talk anymore.
bluedaze, I guess it is not that surprising that some would be uncomfortable about it, given the lack of understanding that exists. Certainly I didn't know that much till it became personal. I've seen it mentioned on a lot of sites and her son was quite upfront about her lack of function across the board, and her co-stars mentioned it by name (varied, as did her diagnosis of the moment). PatB
therrja, I think you're right -- there's a lot that's still in there, our ADLOs just don't know how to get it out.
One of the things I've noticed is that when my husband keeps asking the same question over and over, if I change the way I answer it -- not the core of the response, but differences in the words I use, the little things I may add to dress it up a bit -- he will suddenly say yes, you told me that before, didn't you. If I answer with exactly the same phrases every time, he NEVER manages to remember.
By the way, I always used the answer with different words approach no matter who I was talking to who needed to hear what I said a second time, but that is exactly what you are told NOT to do in at least one book, article or web page I've read. So I think your insight is very interesting. I'd expect it to work the way you say because that was what worked for me before my husband was diagnosed. And not just with him.
Starling I was told the same thing a long time ago, to answer the question the same way in the hopes it would sink in. I read here in the Things I wish someone had told me back in Stage 2-3 thread and trisinger had said " 14. If you have answered a question ("We'll leave in 20 minutes") and they ask again, rephrase the answer. "We'll leave after I talk to Jane", "We'll go when the TV show is over." Sometimes a different answer finds a pathway into the brain
So I started trying it, I am not sure if he just got tired of asking the question, or if it DID find a pathway he could understand. Either way, this is what I will do from now on too
I have found a lot of similarities in talking to a person with AD and talking to someone who is hard of hearing. In both cases, they may miss a word or words that will make what you are saying to them make sense. Saying it once more the same way and then switching to another way often bridges the gap. The other thing that helps a lot is to make sure that there are no other distractions, that they are looking at you and focused on you. Slow down just a bit too - they need time to translate and process the sounds that they are hearing.
The above also works with people who are learning English.
Starling and Nikki, I've been told the same thing, and I think they're flat-out wrong. It seems as if certain answers get "hard-wired" into a track in the brain that leads to a dead end. If I give the same answer, it gets routed to the same dead-end, no matter how often he hears it. If I give a slightly different answer, it can get assigned to a "new" route that CAN be recovered/remembered. I've tried to explain this to the longitudinal researchers, etc, but I obviously am not explaining it clearly enough. I just get a "pat on the head" reaction.
Therrja, my husband IS hard of hearing. :-) And you are so right, I do have to get right in front of him, make sure he's looking at me (he does read lips a little, which helps him understand what people are saying), and speak slowly and in simple sentences (well, I'm still trying to learn that one). If he's been watching TV, HE will promptly turn off the set before he'll let me speak, he knows he'll have trouble understanding me otherwise. He can't tolerate even soft noises that could distract or confuse.
The common perception of AD is that "people loose their memory," but after dealing with it for 8 years, I wouldn't describe it that way at all. It's more accurate to say that they lose ACCESS to every function of their brain. The stuff is there, they just can't get to it. Sometimes taking a different route will help, but eventually all the routes are closed except pure feeling. My husband is in end stage and I feel that I can still reach him though loving touch and soft soothing sounds - like an infant.
That's another thing people say - treating them like children is demeaning - I completely disagree. It looks to me like they are regressing through the stages of childhood and dealing with them on that level WORKS. When a 2 year old or an AD person has a tantrum leaving the room works, distraction works. With end stage, patting, hugging, rocking, singing work.
Beenthere, i agree completely with you as well. treating them as they are mentally works in my book as well, many say here its demeanin, i say not as it reinforces a connection again at any level including a twoyr olds. and yep doing what you say, leaving the room in a tantrum or ignorng bad behaviour does work. my DH stands infront of my tv monitor to block my posting, and he knows it aggravates me, and so i just gotup and got some peach cobbler and gave it to him and he is eaating away happily and now i can write again:))) gotta luv em. divvi
Beenthere, there is a web site that describes it exactly the same way that you do. As if they were growing through childhood in reverse.
www.bigtreemurphy.com
She is on the other side of the journey but she has some great advice. And when she put up those pages there probably wasn't anything like it out there. It is a pity it is so hard to actually find her page on search engines. She has also written a book, but I've never seen it or read it.
The latest issue of Preserving Your Memory Magazine is now available. This magazine is printed quarterly by the Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research Foundation. To subscribe (which means they send you an email notification when the new issues are available online), or to just pull a copy of the current issue, go to:
http://www.alzinfo.org/about_us/pymmag.asp
The current issue also has an article on the seven stages of AD.
Also, it mentions that NIA has reissued an updated version of the book "Alzheimer's Disease: Unraveling the Mystery." This is available for free -- by download:
http://www.nia.nih.gov/Alzheimers/
or by calling the NIA's Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral Center at 800-438-4380.
My husband worked years around printing presses and I always feared the chemicals and loud noise. The last few years he seems to not hear even though he says he hears fine - just not me. Maybe it is related to his MCI. Hmm
I think that treating an ADLO like a child can have different meanings. I agree that leaving the room or ignoring bad behavior is a good idea. However, the issue of preserving dignity is where treating like a child can be tricky. We recently had dinner at a restaurant with a family that has an ADLO, the daughter-in-law order soup for him and proceeded to feed him--it was too hot. So they pushed it aside, he ate his burger by himself, and then back to the soup. Before she could stuff a spoon in his mouth, he grabbed the cup of soup and drank it like coffee! As if to say, get away from me with that spoon, I'm not a child! She also patted crumbs off his chest while making little singsong noises--just like you would with a toddler--instead of saying "Dad I noticed some crumbs on you--now they're gone". Who knows what is going on in his mind, if he knows the difference, but clearly this family has no concern about preserving his dignity.
Marilyn, it is a fine line as to what constitutes dignity. My husband has me cut up his steak into bite-sized pieces for him. This keeps him from having the steak slide off of his plate and/or making noise when the knife hits the plate instead of the steak. Any other items that he would have trouble with - such as waffles, I also cut up for him. I only do it upon request. I do NOT "feed" him - he can do that himself. I have leaned over to kiss him while removing a drop of mustard from his chin that he missed. I would not take a napkin and clean his face, nor pat his chest for crumbs. They reach a point where they need help, and you do it in a matrer-of-fact way, where there is no embarassment to them or to others at the table. That DIL needed lessons in how to help. She had good intentions, but she needed instruction. <grin>
When my kids were toddlers, I could say "NO" and they would stop what they were doing (for a moment, anyway!). Not my husband! If I say "Honey, we'll put that away later" or "Daughter is going to do that. Please let her handle it." first, and he doesn't pay any attention and proceeds to pick it up and place it where it doesn't belong - I'll say "no" to give me a chance to get to it before he takes action. And he ignored me completely. (And I have had his hearing checked, so I know he can hear - physically. AD may have some times that it can prevent the words from reaching his brain.) So now, we just go behind him and pick it up and put it where it rightly belongs. It keeps our stress level down. One of us just watches him all the time. <grin>
They are like toddlers, but at their sizes, we can't treat them like toddlers.
the fine line is just that like mary says. when we go out to eat i always ask for a secluded table more private as i know DH may have dining issues. on many occasions i have helped him eat his meal and i dont see that as deragatory or demeaning when done in a respectable manner. he actually enjoys my help at times. or i take it home and he eats it later. getting out among fellow humans allows him AND me to be still interact with people and if i have to help him so be it. in the bathroom or a restaurant-there is no shame in that-i would hope other folks would be tolerant and understand there are diseases that limit ones capacity and not be judgemental. goodness forbid it should be them in our shoes..divvi
When I was a young teen, I remember being a candy striper (not stripper, striper! <grin>) at our downtown nursing home. Several old people (to a teen) were perfectly sane, but weak and either bedridden or in a wheelchair. Their relatives rarely visited (if at all) and we fed them and read them letters and put lotion on their arms and hands. They were so grateful to us. I left in tears every time wondering why their relatives didn't take the time to visit. They were so lonely. There were also those who weren't quite "there". (We didn't call it dementia then) There was one lady who was fiesty and had a doll she carried around with her all of the time. All of the older people accepted her as normal. I guess it was a good lesson to me to have had the opportunity to help there. It has stayed with me all of these years.
your story mary, reminds me of my young son (maybe 6yrs old then) when he was taken to visit his great grandmother in a NH once..when he walked in he told me later there was a "frenzy of wheelchairs coming towards him-all the old people had their arms out to me"....today at 6'6' and 250lbs. hes still afraid of NH..:) but isnt it sad that all the old folks wanted contact and just to touch a child...sigh. i am sure there are so many out there without anyone living out their days alone..Divvi
Dementia looks different in diabetic brain: study Mon Jan 12, 2009 4:00pm EST
CHICAGO (Reuters) - People with diabetes who develop dementia have different types of brain changes than others with dementia, a finding that could change the way drug companies think about treatments for Alzheimer's, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
"It suggests that there may be two pathways contributing to the dementia," Suzanne Craft of the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound in Washington, who worked on the study, said in a telephone interview. "These two pathways may require different forms of treatment."
Her study, reported in the Archives of Neurology, is among the first to compare different brain injuries in diabetics and others with dementia, and it found some curious differences.
Non-diabetics with dementia had an excess of sticky clumps in the brain known as beta-amyloid plaques, while diabetics, especially those who took insulin, had injuries to small blood vessels in the brain known as arterioles and more swelling in nerve tissue, Craft and colleagues found.
She said most of the people in the study had Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, and most shared similar symptoms of dementia before their deaths.
"Despite those similarities, they had very different patterns of injury to the brain," she said.
Craft and colleague Dr. Joshua Sonnen of the University of Washington, Seattle, analyzed the brains of 196 people who agreed to the autopsies after death as part of a study of dementia.
Their cases were divided into four groups: those with diabetes and dementia, those with diabetes but not dementia, those with dementia but not diabetes and those without either disease.
The team found little difference in the brain structures of 125 people without dementia, regardless of whether the person had diabetes.
But among the 71 people with dementia the researchers saw distinct differences.
Those who had dementia with no diabetes had bigger buildups of beta-amyloid, a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. Those with diabetes had more damage to tiny blood vessels, but only those who had received treatment for diabetes, most often insulin.
Patients with dementia and untreated diabetes had beta-amyloid build-up similar to non-diabetic patients with dementia.
Craft said the study raises a lot of new questions, including what role insulin plays in the development of Alzheimer's, particularly in diabetics, who are more prone to dementia than others.
"Things get murkier before they get clearer. That is the state we are in now," she said.
She said the findings may lead to a better understanding of what causes people to develop dementia in the first place, and it might suggest ways to prevent dementia.