Battling Alzheimer

An article published in Neurology, December 11, 2007, suggests that more than 85% of older Americans have some form of brain disease, even if they have no symptoms. In other words, you can have the plaques and tangles in your brain which are typical of Alzheimer’s disease, and practically speaking, it may not be Alzheimer’s. That is, it may not affect your behavior or thinking at all.

The study done at the Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, like the Nun Study of Dr. David Snowdon, involved dissecting brains, not living people. Both studies came to similar conclusions about multiple causes for dementia. I recall Snowdon’s surprise when he discovered that the brain of one sharp, intelligent participant was full of Alzheimers’s-like structures. His conclusion, and the conclusion of the Rush University researchers, was that if you never have a stroke, symptoms of dementia may never appear.

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I’m not a professional Alzheimer’s caregiver. I’m a grandson. I’ve been recognized for my work in taking care for my grandmother at a home health conference, but I’ve never formally studied the disease. I’ve just studied my grandmother. Through this blog, I’ll be sharing some of what I’ve learned, and what others have learned, about how to face and fight Alzheimer’s disease. My grandmother died in 2006 in her early nineties. We could have done much better for her. You can read more about this blog on our About page.

During the two years that I lived with my 90-year-old grandmother and helped her with her Alzheimer’s, I had to explain her condition to many healthcare workers, respite workers, and well-meaning relatives. I wrote pages and pages of instructions. And what were in those instructions? Of course, I explained her routines and habits, suggesting how to make her feel more comfortable. Like many elderly Alzheimer’s patients, she also suffered from blindness, deafness and arthritis, so she was challenged, as they say.

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