How Does Weight Affect Your Risk of Developing Dementia?
This article includes the studies referenced above and provides more information on the association between dementia and weight.)
How Does Physical Exercise Reduce Your Dementia Risk? (Need motivation to exercise? This may help.)
The Connection between Type 2 Diabetes and Alzheimer's Disease (People with obesity have a higher risk for type 2 diabetes, and those with type 2 diabetes have a significantly higher chance of developing dementia.)How Does Weight Affect Your Risk of Developing Dementia? originally appeared on About.com Alzheimers Disease on Sunday, January 26th, 2014 at 16:44:52.Permalink | Comment | Email this ...
Source: About Alzheimers Disease - January 26, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Trading in Restraints for Alarms: Doing More than Just Turning Off The Noise
Back in the day, the fear of people falling or wandering was so significant that those with dementia were often tied into their chairs. The goal was to provide safety at all costs. Even worse, sometimes those restraints were for the sake of convenience. Fortunately, things have changed. As restraints were studied, researchers found that in general, more injuries- not less- and more serious ones, occurred when people were restrained.
In today's world, restraints are used infrequently and many facilities have a restraint-free policy. This is great, but now we've exchanged restraints for many alarms. Bed alarms, chair alarm...
Source: About Alzheimers Disease - January 19, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
How Abstract Reasoning Affects Communication in Dementia
Abstract reasoning (the ability to think beyond concrete ideas) is a concept developed as children grow and mature into young adults. So what does it have to do with Alzheimer's disease?
As Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia progress, abstract thought processes become more difficult. One area we see this is in the ability to interpret proverbs. For example, someone with dementia might not be able to understand or explain what this proverb really means: "While the cat's away, the mice will play. " If questioned, they might respond that if the cat is out of the room, the mouse will play more- a very concrete un...
Source: About Alzheimers Disease - January 12, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Disaster Planning & Winter Weather Safety for Alzheimer's Disease
Bbbbrrrrrr... it's cold outside. (At least it is by me.) And depending on where you live, there's a ton of snow out there, too!
Winter weather, like what some of us are experiencing right now, can complicate anyone's life. But in the case of someone with Alzheimer's or another dementia, these type of temperatures and snow can not only complicate life- they can endanger life.
Take a moment to review these thoughts on safety, and feel free to add to them by commenting below. Stay safe and warm!
Winter Weather Safety for People with Dementia
Assembling a Disaster Kit for Those with Dementia
Disaster Planning for Al...
Source: About Alzheimers Disease - January 5, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Make this New Year the One Where You Reduce Your Risk for Dementia
Do you follow the tradition of making New Year's resolutions? I used to skip making resolutions, feeling like they were empty promises to myself that would all be shortly broken. However, in the last several years, I've changed that. I figure that any improvement in the areas of physical exercise, diet or mental health habits is helpful. To me, that potential benefit is worth the risk of a broken resolution.
If you're pondering making a New Year's resolution, what better topic to choose than to incorporate some things into your life that have been shown to reduce the risk of dementia? If you decide that's your goal, here ...
Source: About Alzheimers Disease - December 29, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Agitation in Dementia: What Is It and How Should You Respond?
Agitation in dementia... If we were pressed for a concise definition, one might not come immediately to mind. Yet, many of you know it when you see it. Restlessness, calling out, wandering, combativeness with care and paranoia, in addition to many other behaviors, have all been classified as "agitation."
What's more important, however, as we look at agitation, is knowing how best to respond. Perhaps these feelings are familiar?
"What should I do?"
"It's so frustrating!"
"I want to help but I don't know how."
"I wish she'd just calm down."
So, what to do?
First, what NOT to do. The first step to take when someon...
Source: About Alzheimers Disease - December 22, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Smell That? Good! You Might Have a Lower Risk of Developing Alzheimer's
If you were asked to list some early signs of Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia, you might come up with symptoms such as confusion, memory loss or word-finding difficulties. But how about another one-- a decreased sense of smell.
Scientists have noticed that people with early dementia often have an impaired olfactory sense. In other words, they can't detect, identify or distinguish odors. Multiple studies have been conducted to determine if this is scientifically accurate, and three main results have been identified:
People with cognitive decline were more likely to demonstrate an impaired sense of smell.
...
Source: About Alzheimers Disease - December 15, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Fact or Fiction: High Blood Pressure Increases Your Risk of Dementia
Have you heard that heart health is connected to brain health? If you're anything like me, you might wonder how much of that is actually based on research, as opposed to general health improvement strategies.
One of those claims regarding heart health has to do with high blood pressure and how it affects your chances of developing Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia. I recently spent time reviewing the research that's been conducted on blood pressure and dementia, and found that the results suggest it's definitely worth keeping your blood pressure in check. High blood pressure has been associated multiple tim...
Source: About Alzheimers Disease - December 8, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Try These Gift Ideas for Your Loved One with Dementia
Got all of your presents purchased, wrapped and ready to go? Well then, you're more on top of it than I am, though sometimes that doesn't take much!
In case you're still searching for that perfect gift- and the person for whom you're searching is someone with Alzheimer's disease (or another kind of dementia) or a caregiver, I've put together a few ideas that might help with that dilemma of, "What do I buy? What do they really need? What would be a meaningful gift?"
First, for the person who is in the early stages of dementia, here are some ideas that hopefully would be helpful and encouraging: Gift Ideas for People with ...
Source: About Alzheimers Disease - December 1, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
How Can Thankfulness Exist in the Middle of Coping with Alzheimer's?
Thanksgiving- the time of year when we pause to be intentional about gratitude. You may be overflowing with thankfulness this year and not even sure where to start when listing off the reasons you have to be thankful this year.
Or not.
If you're in the "or not" category, where, when you try to think of specific reasons for gratitude, you're coming up empty, this is for you.
Thanksgiving doesn't have to mean that you place your rose-colored glasses on your nose and decide that all is right with the world around you, when that clearly isn't the case. It doesn't mean that you have to be thankful for your cancer or your Alz...
Source: About Alzheimers Disease - November 24, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Sing It, Baby! Research Shows Music Improves Cognition in People with Dementia
Recently, two research studies looked at how music affected people with Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia. The aim of these studies was to figure out if music did more than just calm people with dementia- an already established important benefit.
One study was published in The Gerontologist and involved 89 people with dementia whose mental ability was measured prior to the study with a variety of cognitive tests. For 10 weeks, they participated in one of three randomly assigned groups- a musical singing group, a musical listening group or a usual care (control) group. After the 10 weeks, their cognitive ...
Source: About Alzheimers Disease - November 17, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Celebrate Caregivers and Alzheimer's Awareness Month
It's November. In addition to being the month in which we celebrate Thanksgiving, November is also designated as Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month and National Family Caregivers Month, two causes that are near and dear to my heart.
So, let's talk about Alzheimer's disease awareness. Perhaps you're painfully aware of Alzheimer's disease, whether you're trying to cope with a recent diagnosis of it yourself or walking along side a friend or family member who's struggling with its effects. But are those around you also aware?
Perhaps you could share a few facts with them at an opportune time. After all, until someone speak...
Source: About Alzheimers Disease - November 10, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
What Kind of Quality of Life Do People with Alzheimer's Disease Have?
Do you ever wonder about the quality of life for people who have dementia? I'm not talking about someone's last few days in end-stage dementia. I'm talking about the early and middle stages of Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia, where people might struggle with finding words to express what they're feeling, forget that they're mother passed away twenty years ago, or require care in a nursing home. What about these people? What kind of quality of life do they have?
As with many things, it depends on whom you ask. Fortunately, the Alzheimer's Society in the United Kingdom conducted an exciting study in 2010 on ...
Source: About Alzheimers Disease - November 3, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Can't Sleep? Learn about a Rare Type of Insomnia that Can Cause Dementia
For those who struggle with insomnia, lying awake at night can be extremely frustrating. But for a very few people in the world, it can be deadly.
Fatal familial insomnia is a rare neurological disorder that causes sleep problems, difficulties in movement, personality changes and dementia. It's a progressive disease, meaning that it gets worse over time and eventually leads to death.
Like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (the more well-known and often misnamed "mad cow disease"), fatal familial insomnia is a hereditary prion disease. Fortunately, it's extremely rare, so the next time you're unable to sleep, this is one conditi...
Source: About Alzheimers Disease - October 27, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Is Alzheimer's Disease a 3rd Type of Diabetes?
Perhaps you've heard lately of a different label being used almost as a nickname for Alzheimer's disease- "Type 3 Diabetes". If you're anything like me, you may be wondering why they- the researchers- are using this term, and if there's any truth in it.
Being intrigued, I read up on "Type 3 Diabetes," and thought I'd share some interesting facts with you.
First, as mentioned in an earlier post here, people who have type 2 diabetes are at a higher risk to develop Alzheimer's disease.
Second, Alzheimer's affects the brain's ability to process glucose, but unlike type 1 and type 2 diabetes, the dysfunction in type 3 diab...
Source: About Alzheimers Disease - October 20, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
