Living Well Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Alzheimer’s’

Exercise and the “Mediterranean Diet” the best options to prevent Dementia, including Alzheimer’s

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

Preventing Dementia and Alzheimer's DiseaseIn a recent article appeared on The Hartford Courant of Connecticut , the fact of Alzheimer’s disease being  uncurable and sriking 1 in 8 of us alarmed many. Nonetheless, the article explains that  doing your part by eating the right kind of diet and keeping your body and brain engaged can help to prevent  dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.

The article explains recent data connected to the benefits of exercising regularly, keeping a diet rich in Omega 3, olive oil, and wine…yes, wine… staying cognitively engaged, and avoiding depression is ultimately the most reasonable approach  not only to prevent dementia but also “… to treat conditions like hypertension, high cholesterol, heart disease, obesity and diabetes…”

Read more…

Alzheimer’s Association reports on optimism among scientists to solve the Alzheimer’s puzzle!

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

Living Well with ALzheimer'sThe Alzheimer’s Association presented an article published by the Health Day News for Healthy Living where the outlook for Alzheimer’s disease research is promising, even as the disease’s looming impact on society grows, experts say. Work is being done on scans and tests that could lead to early detection, and researchers are also identifying genetic and biological markers that could indicate if a person is at increased risk for developing Alzheimer’s.

The Health Day Article by Dennis Thompson states “…Research into Alzheimer’s disease has reached a point of significant potential, even as the disease’s looming impact on society grows more and more dire, experts say. Some leading scientists, in fact, worry that we may not be doing enough to press forward with key advances and new insights into Alzheimer’s, the most common type of dementia among older people…”

Read the article

Wandering Seniors at Risk of Getting Lost and Even Dying.

Monday, July 5th, 2010
Living Well Assisted Living at Home combines individualized care with smart technology to keep seniors safe from getting lost.

Smart technology: GPS shoes for wandering seniors!

Some of the common symptoms of Alzheimer’s and any other type of dementia are lack of memory, confusion, and wandering. These symptoms usually lead to  loosing track of familiar surroundings and thus getting lost. Understanding the symptoms of dementia might help safeguard elderly people who are at risk for getting lost. While infections, tumors, and head injuries can all cause dementia, Alzheimer’s disease is most commonly behind the phenomenon of wandering. For patients who hallucinate, their risk for wandering might depend on how well they trust their caregiver. If they hallucinate, they may be at low risk or high risk, depending on their trust for the caregiver. If they are suspicious, they might try to get out.

In 2008, Texas Legislature enacted a statewide communication system to help find mentally impaired senior citizens. “I think they are a really good idea,” said Hester, a Lubbock Police sergeant. “(A Silver Alert) could have helped those people. I mean, nobody knew where they were.” But Silver Alerts alone can’t keep seniors safe. On Monday, police officials were preparing an alert for 70-year-old Lubbock resident Jim Hardy Clary, who left home for a doctor’s appointment he didn’t keep. He was found dead before a statewide alarm was raised. Read More about this article

In Virginia, law enforcement officers are learning how to search for missing persons who may not know they are lost. A  4-minute video produced by Kassie Bracken for The New York Times tells us the lessons they have learned.

See the video: lessons from the Lost

Listening to the Voices of Alzheimer’s

Monday, July 5th, 2010
Living Well with Alzheimer's

Voices of Alzheimer's

A series of videos presented for The New York Times by Karen Barrow explores the frightening and confusing world of Alzheimer’s. She captures the voices of both patients and loved ones who are struggling with issues of independence, long-term care and making the most of the time they have left.

Listening to people who say that Alzheimer’s is not a normal part of aging but a disease that affects the patient and all family members equally, brings your awareness of the challenges of this disease that affects people “just out-of-the-blue…”

A common desire of people affected with Alzheimer’s is that they want to live life at its fullest and stay in their homes for as long as they can.

See the videos: Patient Voices: Alzheimer’s Disease and read the related article: “The Voices of Alzheimer’ by Tara Parker-Pope

How to Be Safe at Home and Prevent Falls?

Sunday, June 27th, 2010

Seniors and fall riskOne of the most common reasons why seniors are forced to leave their homes and move into an institution is the occurrence of a fall or the existence of a high fall risk. Adult children and friends are scared of finding their loved one, who has fallen, a little too late. Time is important when a senior falls and help an immediate response  is needed.

Despite of the widely use of the “emergency response buttons”, we realized that most of the times these devices are  not being used at the moment of the fall. The risk of falling increases with age and falling is the number one cause of injury in adults over 65. These numbers are cause for great concern, but awareness and prevention can help decrease the likelihood of falls in the senior citizen years.

Living Well Assisted Living at Home has researched thoroughly different alternatives to bring safety at home and enable seniors to live independently while keeping seniors safe at home and providing real time report and request for assistance. We partner with Grand Care System, Halo Monitoring, and Universal Design to tailor made the house to the senior’s needs and bring peace of mind to the family members and friends.

ABC News recently featured a video about how preventing dangerous falls.

Watch ABC News Video on Preventing Falls

Trisha Kellog supports independent living with some assistance and in a recent blog entry, Trisha stresses the need for systems that supports safety. She states that “…With age comes the risk of falls and falls can lead to serious injury or death. Improving health and being aware of potential hazards will help ease the mind of you or your loved-one…” Read the article

There is No Evidence that Current Strategies Prevent Alzheimer’s

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
Living Well with Alzheimer's

Living Well

In a recent article published on the Wall Street Jurnal online, by Shirley Wang (April 28, 2010), we learn that after a panel discussion led by specialists at the National Institute of Health (NIH), there are not clinical or other interventions that had proven effective in the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. They concluded “…There’s not enough evidence to suggest that medicines or dietary supplements prevent Alzheimer’s disease or cognitive decline, an independent committee of experts convened by the National Institutes of Health concluded today.

The three-day meeting of 15 experts took a critical look at the state of science surrounding the memory-robbing disease, which is now the sixth-leading cause of death in the U.S. The main conclusion: there’s not enough good research out there to show that any intervention prevents the disease. Read the panel’s draft statement here.

Some factors that appear to be related to decreased risk of Alzheimer’s include “cognitive engagement” like training people in reasoning and memory, walking and a Mediterranean diet. But there’s no consistent evidence that multivitamins, gingko biloba or other supplements can do anything to stave off the disease.

The experts didn’t find evidence that Alzheimer’s drugs like Pfizer and Esai’s Aricept and Forest’s Namenda, approved to treat memory loss and other symptoms of the disease, are also effective in slowing or preventing dementia. Read More

Technology Can Help Track “Wanderers” with Dementia

Monday, May 10th, 2010

High Tech - High Touch to keep seniors safe at homeThe need for special training and smart technology to help track the rising number of people with dementia who wanders beyond logic patterns was raised in a recent article by Kirk Johnson in The New York Times, Johnson explains that “…For generations, the prototypical search-and-rescue case in America was Timmy in the well, with Lassie barking insistently to summon help. Lost children and adolescents — from the woods to the mall — generally outnumbered all others…But last year for the first time, another type of search crossed into first place here in Virginia, marking a profound demographic shift that public safety officials say will increasingly define the future as the nation ages: wandering, confused…” Read more

Living Well Assisted Living at Home, Inc. proposes combining smart technology with specialized services can help to keep these people safe at home. Models like the one they called High Tech-High Touch offers a solution to the challenge of caring for elders who experience any type of dementia or cognitive decline and want to stay at home instead of going to an institution.