Thoughts - news and research on dementia care

[mojo1943]

Hi Dora

Many thanks for the link - will check it out after this post - if my mouse will let me - turned it off = seems to help it stop jumping all over the page -

Yes pls post any more scientific links you have as I cant post a link yet (need>10 posts) on the BBC health slot check out the 5 mysteries of the brain = good background info.

also in todays daily telegraph is First signs of Alzheimers discovered on brain scans by Prof Scott Small of columbia Uni USA by MRI on 12 live patients

 

[LizzyA]

Hi

I am sure that VaD can be 'treated' and its effects reduced by diet and a systematic system of mental recall of present and past events.

any other carers feel the same?

Hi Mojo. My mum is due to be treated with a course of cognitive stimulation therapy at the memory clinic soon. She has mixed dementia (part vascular dementia). She also does sudoku and crosswords to try and help her memory (she is traditionally brilliant at both and puts me to shame!). I don't know if it helps, but to me, it makes sense that it would. X

 

[creativesarah]

have you heard of this website by Dr jennifer Bute? she has early onset Alzheimers but is very proactive in doing what you can to retain as much function as you can.
I met her at the Alzheimers User Group and found what she had to say interesting
www.gloriousopportunity.org

I do crosswords and braintraing every day too I struggle with sequential things like cooking but I am determined to stick at it for as long as my friends find the food edible!
Sarah

 

[mojo1943]

Hi Liz & Csarah

Many thanks for very useful posts - Im just rehanging a new stairs grab rail so mrs mojo has more to grab when not using her stairlift (BTW Meditech Stair lifts are superb & 1/3 the cost of Acorn etc)
Will check you kind links - Im trying to use - I think - education.com/reference/article/principles-montessori-method/ well thats nearly a link & it seems to me CBT is down the same road..
I wonder if this post will get past the mods...

 

[mojo1943]

BBC Health is a gold mine

CBT thanks to BBC Health very well explained - nearly a link below ...mmmm looks like its science & not health

bbc.co.uk/science/0/23590545

 

[LYN T]

I'm not sure about the claims that physical exercise and mental stimulation holds off dementia. My Husband is 67 and has severe stage Alzheimers. He was always involved in sport; tennis, badminton;cycling;jogging-you name it he's done it
He was also an English Lecturer and read on a daily basis. He is a non smoker and kept off the wine except for socially.

He has just been dealt a poor hand in life.

However, the healthy/stimulating lifestyle may help for others.

Take care

Lyn T

 

[mojo1943]

Hi Lyn

Many thanks for your post - sadly although hindsight is usually 20 /20 none of us can say what would have been , could have been with life style changes in our past. It is for sure that we are what we eat (& drink) also our bodies & minds need exercise to function - drug & calorie abuse are both harmful.
For me & mine VaD is a new and deadly challenge at any age but especially cruel after three score years and then...we should be very thankful for having had previous good health - alas that's all too easy to take for granted.
Anything that slows the inevitable decline is a good thing - having just reread that - the noble exceptions who retain their full mental capacity to finally falling off their perch - if only we knew how & why.....

 

[Witzend]

Hi Lyn

Anything that slows the inevitable decline is a good thing - having just reread that - the noble exceptions who retain their full mental capacity to finally falling off their perch - if only we knew how & why.....

Genes, if you ask me. My MIL and her younger brother did all the right things and both died of cancer in their 60s. Their elder brother drank like a fish and smoked like a chimney and outlived them both by about 15 years, and never got cancer, or dementia come to that. But he was also a very selfish man who always did exactly as he liked, regardless of anybody else. I do think the sort of person who is often worried or stressed about other people is more prey to certain illnesses, if not most of them.

 

[mojo1943]

Hi Witz
Im sure you are 100% right about our genes being the major influence in our medical performance and one year ? another generation humans will be able to select and also reject their preferences for the rest of their lives - will that be any better than the lotto method nature uses now I wonder?
Yes any sort of stress is best avoided but how? my simple method is to imagine a Worst Case Scenario WCS and when it dosent happen forget all about it but thats easier posted than done
Most Happy seasons Greetings to all viewers and posters.

 

[mojo1943]

The Musical Brain BBC Health = well worth listening to...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01n9gvm

 

[Witzend]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01n9gvm

About a year ago I took up the piano again after so many decades I almost had to start again from scratch. HUGE concentration needed, page to brain to fingers, but a big improvement in a year, and presumably forging a lot of new pathways. Don't know whether it'll help stave off dementia - didn't do it for that - but enjoying it anyway.

 

[Witzend]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01n9gvm

About a year ago I took up the piano again after so many decades I almost had to start again from scratch. HUGE concentration needed, page to brain to fingers, but a big improvement in a year, and presumably forging a lot of new pathways. Don't know whether it'll help stave off dementia - didn't do it for that - but enjoying it anyway.

 

[mojo1943]

Hi Witz
BTW my only musical school report said young mo43 helped the class by attentive listening = even Andre Rieu needs attentive listeners.
Whatever lights your fire & does u good is a good thing & as Tesco says Every little bit helps (a lot)
Best wishes for all of 2014 to u & yours
mo43

 

[garnuft]

Hi Witz
BTW my only musical school report said young mo43 helped the class by attentive listening = even Andre Rieu needs attentive listeners.
Whatever lights your fire & does u good is a good thing & as Tesco says Every little bit helps (a lot)
Best wishes for all of 2014 to u & yours
mo43

What do you do when the things that used to 'light your fire' have disappeared, atrophied along with your brain function?

In my opinion, it's no good talking as if it's a 'use it ot lose it' option.

Nobody used it more than my mother, she is away with the fairy's.

These 'cure/prevention' suggestions are erroneous until science is able to pinpoint a way to halt the progress.

In my opinion it is a degeneration that will go alongside old age, regardless of the lifestyle... and some catastrophic versions of dementia will happen before old age is lucky enough to be borne.

Some lucky old people will escape cancer, ill-health and dementia...some will endure all three...happy are the ones who live to a ripe old age without encountering any of them and die quietly in their own bed.

We expect too much for the end of life.

 

[mojo1943]

Hi Garn

What do you do when the things that used to 'light your fire' have disappeared, atrophied along with your brain function?

Being callous, the person concerned does nothing, its only their friends and family that despair.

Use it or loose it means just what it says - and can only apply when some relative mental activities are still present -doing nothing is a valid option and in some cases the only show left in town - until, perhaps in the future, it wont be necessary to get a single ticket to Zurich.

Given all the trap doors & pitfalls during life - just getting to an old age is an accomplishment and given the profits made by Big Pharma its not at all unreasonable to at least hope for a reasonable deal before being run over by the # 29 Bus.

mo43

 

[Fed Up]

mojo when you've lived with a person suffering from VD/A for a number of years the one thing you do know is no matter how many times you go over some things the sufferer is simply unable to commit to memory the "task" like turning off the bath taps, not putting the electric kettle on the hob to boil, even wether they have had lunch. That part of the person has gone, it is in my view (but I hope I can be proved wrong) simply delusional to have expectations that in the early stages the later stages can be cured? by retraining the brain. And the stress on the sufferer and their carers would be horrendous.
I have no idea why my beautiful, horseloveing, dancing, but paranoid mum developed VD, but have only a hunch that her healthy outdoor, fresh food (from the farm) eggs from her chicken and she was teetotal kept her body fit so her brain aged beyond the point where she might have expected to die of old age. In other words her brain aged but her body has not caught up, so she is alive whilst her brain is dying
I'm so sorry if your partner is young and has this awful disease it just proves life is a lottery, I hope you find acceptance and consolation with support with the love of your family and friends.

 

[mojo1943]

Hi Fed

A real pleasure to read your helpful supportive post - my view is to try and make the best of the situation we find ourselves immersed in - & that means, in essence, is to be as practical as possible.

Yes agree 100% life is a Lottery & its so unfair I don't win every time I gamble - but its said we only gamble because of the delight of spending the MONEY until the lucky balls roll out of the barrel = life's reality.

I hope some clever viewer can help me locate the Christmas Lecture which featured - so I was told - how our memories are stored...

http://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures/history

mo43

 

[Wildflower]

Hi mojo, You come across as a really caring and optimistic person who does not want to be defeated. I admire you for that. I also think you are probably very intelligent. I don't have any answers, but I don't like it (not that you have done this) when people are lulled into a false sense of security. One of my particular annoyances is the promotion of coconut oil on this site in the past, people sell it to make money. But like I've said, I don't have the answers. So I don't dismiss these things entirely, just hate the idea of people who are desperate being conned. And by this I mean the carers, because we are all desperate. All I know is my dad was a fit healthy, mentally alert man who served in the Royal Navy. He is now nearly 88 years old, he's looked after his body, does not look his age, is still handsome, but his brain is completely scrambled.

 

[mojo1943]

Hi Wild bud

Thank you for your kind words - you are right I will never give up or in & yes my elevator still goes up to the top floor (in spite of my trying to do an external PhD in DoomBar by Sharps Brewery Cornwall) &
BTW its well worth visiting the Montparnasse Tower Paris France as its lift goes up 56 floors in about 3 seconds and its taller than the Eiffel Tower.
http://www.tourmontparnasse56.com/en/
I agree lots of snake oil sellers everywhere - I also think that if your going to have Dementia then VaD is the easier option as it seems to me - as maybe proved by mrs mojo recent pacemaker implant which has given her increased blood flow does / has improved her mental situation.
However we are all unique at the start, have different working lives & retirement - so its no wonder some of us so easily move through the minefield of life (eg mo43 so far so good mmm...) while others sadly do not.
Thats why any effective treatment will have to be to your specific DNA and that's at least a generation away - in my humble opinion.
Till then Keep on Dancing.....
mo43

 

[Wildflower]

Love your sense of humour mojo, and at least we agree about the snake oil sellers, but I never could dance, dad could though.