Battling Alzheimer

Alzheimer’s disease is such a hot topic, it’s hard to keep up with everything that is being said about it. Here are some blog posts and articles that you may have missed earlier this month.

The February 7 issue of Nature, quoted by HealthCentral, reports that amyloid plaques, considered the main sign of AD, can form in one day in laboratory mice. At least one doctor cautions that, despite the headlines, this doesn’t mean that AD can form in one day. AD develops more slowly. The study also found that soon after the plaque appeared, specialized cells called microglia appeared. Doctors wonder if microglia might actually fight the growth of plaque.

The Alzheimer’s Association is reaching out to African-Americans, who are more susceptible to high blood pressure, diabetes, strokes and heart disease, problems that have been linked to increased Alzheimer’s symptoms. They offering a Healthy Heart and Brain Kit. Some assembly required?

More →

We don’t call Alzheimer’s disease “the Monster” for nothing. As recent blog posts suggest, Alzheimer’s terrifies many people. For some, any possible advance in research and treatment is grasped like a straw, or a lifeline. For others, Alzheimer’s disease is a daily, grinding burden as they care for a loved one, or sometimes, face it themselves. For still others, dementia causes them to look at life and their own health in a new way.

We think of Alzheimer’s disease as something that causes people to forget, but for the Memory Bridge project, it’s a call to remember and to bring generations closer. They’ve developed interview questions that are used for the Library of Congress’s Veterans History Project, a school curriculum, and a highly-recommended documentary.

More →

I feel guilty. Here I’m writing for a blog called “Battling Alzheimer’s” and instead of telling you about the newest drugs, or the latest theories, I’m telling you about washing dishes with my grandmother.

But when I look at the research into new drugs and new preventions, and when I remember my grandmother, I keep thinking that a lot of the researchers are all wrong. They look at Alzheimer’s disease as if it were an infection that you can vaccinate against or take a pill for. Most of the solutions they’re promoting require you to put something into your mouth. I don’t think the mouth is the key to Alzheimer’s. I think the mind is.

More →

Since Christmas, my wife and I have spent a lot of time at the local nursing home. Not checking out the rooms to see which one I like the best, but visiting a retired schoolteacher whom my wife met while we were Christmas caroling.

You can call her Mrs. Watson, though that’s not her real name. She’s from a small town near a larger town an hour from Ft. Worth, Texas, but when she was born in 1910, it probably took a lot longer than an hour to get to Ft. Worth.

More →

Reviewing the corporate world’s latest news releases about Alzheimer’s disease, instead of Alzheimer’s helmets and instant shots in the neck:

When it comes to Alzheimer’s treatment, where does the hype end and the future begin? A panel of leading experts in Alzheimer’s disease talk about the treatment approaches with the most promising early data in a new report, “Thought Leader Insight & Analysis: Alzheimer’s Disease.” The report discusses acetylcholinesterase (butyrylcholinesterase) inhibitors, NMDA, M1, 5-HT, alpha-7 nicotinic acetylcholine agonists, active and passive immunotherapy, gamma-secretase and beta-secretase inhibitors, insulin related mechanisms (IDE, RAGE), plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, anti-TNF, GSK3 and more.

More →

The 81-year-old retired physician in Los Angeles didn’t know his doctor’s name, what state he lived in, or what date it was. (Personally, I never know the date, until I look it up. My grandma never knew the date either, because she couldn’t see the calendar). Then doctors injected etanercept, an anti-inflammatory drug approved to treat arthritis, into his neck. When they tested him again ten minutes later, he could tell them that he lived in California and what day it was. He seemed less frustrated and more calm. His score on the Alzheimer’s diagnostic test had improved from 7 out of 30 to 15 out of 30.

According to the Journal of Neuroinflammation, the doctors had previously injected the drug into 15 other patients, but had never tested its immediate effects. Said his wife, “He’s not the same person he was…. We almost fell off our chairs watching this.” Said his son, as quoted by BBC News, it was the “single most remarkable thing I’ve seen.”

More →

So many things are different about most Alzheimer’s patients, besides Alzheimer’s. Many of them have multiple troubles, any one of them which would affect the mind of an ordinary person. Just the lack of sensory input can cause the loss of mental capacity, my grandmother’s doctor told me. Add macular degeneration, hearing loss, sensory damage caused by strokes, and general aging-related losses, and you end up with someone like my grandmother who can’t see well, can’t hear well, can’t feel well, can’t smell well, and can’t taste well. After the doctor told me that, I began to wonder if my grandmother’s dislike of her hearing aid might be having more serious consequences.

Social as well as medical factors can affect your mind. Last week I mentioned a study of teenagers who were treated with the same neglect as elderly people. Imagine what condition your mind would be in if you had as little human interaction as the residents in many assisted living homes. If you’ve ever spent all day caring for a baby, you might already know.

More →

My grandmother was never in a nursing home. No, I take that back. Into her seventies, she did private duty nursing for elderly people. And before that, she worked in nursing homes. I wonder why she made her children promise never to put her in one? So I took care of her in her own home, where she had lived since the Eisenhower administration.

Still, as a caregiver, I was profoundly influenced by GENTLECARE® system of dementia care, though it was developed for institutional use. Actually, I didn’t even finish reading the book, but it changed my attitude toward my grandmother. I was first a student of my grandmother - that’s the most important part. But the philosophy of “prosthetic life care” guided the study of my grandmother.

More →

By Linda J Bruton

Alzheimer’s disease gets its name from Alois Alzheimerwho was born in Southern Germany in 1864. Dr Alzheimer first described the disease in 1906 after performing an autopsy on the brain of one of his patients. Dr. Alzheimer discovered that the brain had virtually turned to a “sticky goop” with abnormal clumps and tangled bundles of fibers.

Today, these plaques and tangles in the brain are considered signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Alzheimer had been treating the patient for a mental disorder that he described as “madness” but realized that the brain of the patient had literally been destroyed.

More →

By Riley Hendersen

When the Alzheimer’s Association was formed in April of 1980, many people were still doubting the disease existed. In the years before the Alzheimer’s Association was formed, many people thought the symptoms of the disease where simply a sign of getting older.

The mission of the Alzheimer’s Association is “a world without Alzheimer’s disease,” according to the organization’s website. Individuals and businesses fund the nonprofit organization, that in turn funds research and local programs.

More →