This article on the smoothie really caught my attention. Why? I drink one of those almost every day. Oddly, when I try to get my mother, the Alzheimer's patient, to drink one along with me she refuses.A simple fruit smoothie could soon help improve thinking and memory in Alzheimer's patients.
Fruit Smoothie Could Improve Thinking, Memory In Alzheimer's Patients
St. Louis University is the only U.S test center to study whether the drink actually works. The beverage isn't a new drug, but a nutritional drink with a combination of vitamins, antioxidants and lipids that are consumed once a day. The smoothie comes in peach or cappuccino flavors.
Dr. Theodore Malmstrom is one of three researchers looking into what could soon be a very important weapon in the fight against Alzheimer's.
"There is increasing evidence that concentrated components of natural foods can improve memory so those components have been put in a drink and we are hopeful it will help," said Malmstrom.
The goal now is to get actual patients to test it out.
SLU researchers need at least 10 Alzheimer's patients to take part in the study. They are looking for people recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's, but not currently taking medications.
Patients will be divided in two groups. One group will get a daily supply of drinks with nutritional supplements. The other group will get a similar drink but without the nutritional additions.
Results of the 24-week study will hopefully end with good news.
"There is always great hope whenever you can have new research emerging. One of the Alzheimer's Associations mission (is) to fund research programs so we are very excited," said Stephanie Rohlfs-Young, the outreach director for the St. Louis Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association.
The risk of side effects from the drink are very minor compared to side effects from the five FDA-approved medications that treat Alzheimer's.
For more information, contact Malmstrom at 314-577-8745.
Someone Develops Alzheimer's Every 72 Seconds....More Than Five Million in the United States now have Alzheimer's.
The Alzheimer’s Association today reports that in 2007 there are now more than 5 million people in the United States living with Alzheimer’s disease. This number includes 4.9 million people over the age of 65 and between 200,000 and 500,000 people under age 65 with early onset Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
Read more about this topic at The Alzheimer's Reading Room
About a third of those who take care of loved ones with the disease feel 'more religious' because of their experiences, a new national study says.
'There is no minute in which the caregiver can afford not to be vigilant over the patient, and that makes for a very trying kind of challenge.'
— Dr. Jeffrey L. Cummings, founder and director of the UCLA Alzheimer's Disease Center
Source LA Times
By Tami Abdollah, Times Staff Writer
March 14, 2007
Each morning Frances Chavis sneaks out of her house for 6 a.m. prayer, hoping to get back before her husband wakes up.
Chavis, whose husband Lemuel, 72, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2003, spends her days as a "shadow" — watching over her husband and the house, making sure everything is done correctly — and, when she can, she naps.
And every morning, after about two hours in church in the Crenshaw area, she returns to her home with the motivation and strength to go on.
"I have to realize that when it's too hard for me," Chavis says, "it's just right for God."
A survey to be released today indicates that Chavis' experience is not unique. The study found that about one-third of people caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's disease felt "more religious" because of the experience. The study, which surveyed 650 adults nationwide, was conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.
The survey found that 36% of respondents, who identified themselves as religious or nonreligious, said they felt "more religious." This feeling was more pronounced among African American respondents, with 48% saying that's how they felt.
"When you're dealing with disease, sickness and tragedy, people get shaken out of their lethargy and begin to ask the ultimate questions," said Father Paul Kowalewski, rector of St. James' Episcopal Church in Los Angeles. "And when they do, they find God, or God's presence."
More than 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, a neurodegenerative illness characterized by memory loss and disorientation, among other symptoms. Alzheimer's disease, more common in the elderly, worsens over roughly a 10-year period and is fatal.
There is no cure, and only "modestly successful" treatments exist, said Dr. Jeffrey L. Cummings, founder and director of the UCLA Alzheimer's Disease Center.
About 20 million Americans are caring for someone with Alzheimer's, according to the foundation. Most of the caregivers are family members, spouses or adult children.
Because caregivers bear heavy burdens — for example, the frustration of patients who frequently do not remember that they don't remember — they may die younger and can lapse into substance abuse and depression, Cummings said.
"It's been called, the '36-hour day,' " Cummings said. "Because there is no minute in which the caregiver can afford not to be vigilant over the patient, and that makes for a very trying kind of challenge."
Although Chavis was previously religious — she was raised a Baptist and attended church on Sundays — she said that after her husband's diagnosis, the church anchored her even more.
"I couldn't do it alone, and even though I was centered around God, I had to seek him even more, because it started to get more hectic, and there were no answers," she said.
For Chavis, 51, the anxiety and stress ultimately led to an ulcer that put her in the hospital for five days last November. She said that since then, she started attending the morning prayer at West Angeles Church of God in Christ.
Lemuel Chavis, a former Los Angeles elementary school principal, used to be upbeat, his intelligence obvious, his wife said. Married nearly 12 years ago — it's his third marriage and her first — they enjoyed taking short trips to San Diego or Palm Springs. Sometimes they went to the beach.
Many evenings, she said, he would read poetry to her, including "If" by Rudyard Kipling and "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes. But still, a "tough guy," he rarely cried.
Now, Chavis said, she sees her husband reduced to tears a couple times a week, complaining of the "splitting" in his head or his inability to do something. Like caregivers for Alzheimer's patients all over, she watches helplessly. And so she pushed herself closer to God.
"Who would I turn to?" she said. "I've tried talking to my friends, I've tried having a cocktail or two, I've tried … thinking about other things…. And I know it's going to get worse."
The experience, Chavis said, has taught her to trust in God's ways. She recalled moments of prayer: "I would say, 'You made him, you made the universe, you have to help me. You know the answers, I don't.' "
Peter Hill, a psychology professor at the Rosemead School of Psychology at Biola University in La Mirada, said that for some people, facing a loved one with a terminal illness is what makes them aware of their own mortality. The experience causes them to search for meaning beyond themselves, for "a sense of transcendence," he said.
Sometimes spirituality can help caregivers deal with the dissonance between the person the caregiver once knew and the person who is before them, said Glen Milstein, an assistant professor of psychology at City College of New York.
"The real bottom line to all of this is that care-giving for persons with chronic illnesses is hard," Milstein said. "So you're going to use everything that will help you cope. What is it to mourn a living person? What is the ritual of mourning a living person? Where else but religion would the human go?"
In the United States, there are more than 260,000 religious communities — synagogues, parishes, mosques and other centers of worship — and about 80% of Americans affiliate themselves with a religious institution, Milstein said.
Chavis said she has found comfort and strength in her religious community, its prayers and hymns, particularly the song "The Battle Is Not Mine, It's the Lord's."
According to the Alzheimer's Foundation, the disease affects nearly 50% of those over age 85. By 2050, almost 16 million Americans are expected to have it.
"When it gets down to illness and you are facing the ultimate realities, you could have all the science in the world," said Kowalewski, the St. James rector. "But you're really facing humanity. There's an old saying, 'there's no atheists in the foxholes,' and it's sort of like that."
tami.abdollah@latimes.com
Health and wellnessWeblog
My mother can no longer cook an egg, but one thing she can still do is cook delicious spaghetti sauce. Go figure huh?
So today was the day to go to Mario’s in Delray Beach and pick up all the material for spaghetti sauce and meatballs. I may as well digress right here and mention the key to really delicious meatballs is a combination of hamburger, veal and pork all in the just right amounts. The good news, you can buy it already mixed at Mario’s.
They make fresh baked bread at Mario’s, so I went over to the bakery section to get an Italian Bread. The women told me they would be out in about five minutes. This caused an immediate Pavlovian response in my mouth. We waited and ended up with a nice hot, fresh, Italian bread in a paper bag. Yummy.
When we arrived home I divided up the giant Italian bread into three parts. One part was for tonight when we eat the ravioli with the sauce and meatballs.
As I was cooking the ravioli I looked for the Italian bread so that I could warm it up. I looked here and looked there and I finally even looked in the refrigerator. No Italian bread. Hmm. At this point my brain goes “boing” and I wonder to myself, did mom eat the Italian bread? So, I look in the garbage can and sure enough there is the empty wrapper I had placed it in.
Yes, she ate the whole thing. Fortunately, we also purchased a nice new rye bread and in this instance I can assure you something is better than nothing.
I can also say that this is the kind of thing that would have driven me crazy a year ago. Now? The kind of story that makes me smile, laugh and think.....
Health and wellnessWeblog
I can attest, exercise makes a difference. My mother now has the tendency to sit around all day. On those days when I can get her to go to Gold's Gym with me she is a completely different person. The look on her face, from dull to smiling, is more than enough to tell me that exercise works to her benefit.
The article on the next page talks about the effects of exercising on Alzheimer's patients.
"Nursing home residents with Alzheimer's disease who participate in a moderate exercise program have a significantly slower deterioration than those who receive routine medical care, researchers have shown."
Exercise slows decline in Alzheimer's patients
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Nursing home residents with Alzheimer's disease who participate in a moderate exercise program have a significantly slower deterioration than those who receive routine medical care, researchers have shown.
Dr. Yves Rolland, of Hospital La Grave-Casselardit in Toulouse, France, and colleagues examined the effects of a program of exercise for one hour twice weekly on activities of daily living, physical performance, nutritional status, behavioral disturbance and depression among 134 Alzheimer's disease patients in nursing homes.
The patients were 83 years old on average. They were assigned to the exercise program, which focused on walking, strength, balance and flexibility training, or to routine medical care for 12 months.
As reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 110 participants completed the study. Among the 56 subjects in the exercise group who completed the study, the rate of adherence to the program was about 33 percent on average.
At the end of the 12 months, the average activities-of-daily-living score was significantly more improved in the exercise group than in the routine medical care group, Rolland's team reports.
In addition, average walking speed improved significantly more in the exercise group than in the routine medical care group at 6 months and 12 months.
However, the exercise program had no apparent effect on behavioral disturbance, depression or nutritional assessment scores.
ORIGINAL SOURCE: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, February 2007.
Myriad Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN) (www.myriad.com) announced today that it presented additional results of its completed Phase 2 follow-on study of Flurizan™ in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease at the annual meeting of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP), held March 1-4, 2007 in New Orleans.
Read the release in its entirety at The Alzheimer's Reading Room Weblog
This article on the smoothie really caught my attention. Why? I drink one of those almost every day. Oddly, when I try to get my mother, the Alzheimer's patient, to drink one along with me she refuses.
