“New studies show that individuals who experience the greatest loss of hearing are at a higher risk of having Alzheimer’s

disease or other forms of dementia when compared to individuals with mild or no hearing loss.”

For several years I’ve felt certain that my Mom’s cognitive decline began with her hearing loss. She had worn a hearing aid for many years and I falsely assumed that the hearing aid was providing Mom with the equivalent of “normal” hearing.

When Mom first began to show symptoms of repeating herself, asking the same question over and over, and being unable to carry-on a simple conversation, I blamed it on her hearing loss. She’d worn the same hearing aid for years and replacing the batteries did not improve the situation.

Finally, I convinced Mom to go for hearing tests and possibly a new hearing aid. As soon as the technician checked Mom’s old hearing aid, she let us know that it hadn’t worked for, probably, years. Through demonstrations with me speaking to Mom from behind her back–then face to face, I was surprised to learn that Mom was reading my lips and never heard a single word. I had no idea. She had pretended to hear for so long, she was very good at it.

After Mom was fitted with a brand new hearing aid, the technician read a list of 100 words and asked Mom to repeat each one back to her. Although Mom could hear the technician without issue, she did not repeat a single word correctly.  ‘Red’ was repeated back as ‘bed’, ‘tin’ was ‘pin’, ‘pill’ was ‘till’, and on and on it went.

“No wonder she couldn’t handle conversations,” I realized. Instead of hearingrational sentences, Mom was hearing gobbeldy gook. The technician explained to me, that Mom had not heard for so long that she could no longer differentiate betweenconsonants. So when Mom repeated the words back to the technician, none of theconsonants that Mom used were correct.

The condition could be corrected, the Technician told us. By adhering to a rigorous schedule of wearing the new WORKING hearing aid, Mom’s cognition for consonants would return over time.

The technician did warn, though, that Mom might show symptoms of cognitive impairment if she didn’t  wear the new hearing aid for the specified times recommended.

Without it, Mom understood very little of anything that was said to her. With it, she was slightly confused since she wasn’t hearing language correctly. But–overtime, the technician assured us, the consonants would come back to her if Mom wore the hearing-aid for the scheduled times .

Mom was 79 years old at that time; set in her ways and hard-headed. She had grown accustom to her silent world and she liked it. Small sounds of  every-day living annoyed her; a fan blowing, the hum of the refrigerator, the click of a light switch. She refused to wear the new hearing aid at all.

Two years later Mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. And I’ve always blamed the hearing loss, despite many who thought it was foolish conjecture.

Now, this study finds a correlation. The study lasted nearly 20 years, initiated by the National Institute on Aging and Johns Hopkins. “Researchers found that people with some level of hearing loss to start the study were also more likely to eventually suffer from dementia. Individuals with severe hearing loss were five times as likely to eventually develop dementia when compared to individuals without any hearing loss.”

“Experts explain the link between dementia and hearing loss is currently unknown, but this study provides some insight as to a potential relationship between the two, and the potential risks of individuals failing to treat hearing loss as it begins.”

I have not inherited my Mom’s hearing issues, but my younger brother has and I nag him no-end to get a hearing aid before he suffers any cognitive losses! If you have any hearing issues, I urge you to have your hearing tested and wear a hearing aid if it’s recommended!

*Published:  http://www.free-alzheimers-support.com/wordpress/hearing-loss-may-be-associated-with-dementia-alzheimers/

For many years it was thought that memory loss was nothing more than hardening of the arteries suffered by most people during the natural aging process. Often called “senility,” it was common to equate the behaviors of someone with Alzheimer’s as “old age senility.” At 93, my grandmother was considered “senile” and her children forced to place her in a nursing home due to erratic, odd behavior.

The question for many is: What is the difference between Alzheimer’s or dementia or “old age memory loss?”

During the last few years of her life, my grandmother spent her days wandering the halls of a nursing home searching for “her” new-born baby whose cries haunted her day and night. The baby needed to be “nursed,” my grandmother surmised, and spent many hours crying about that neglected child. That was fifty years ago. Today, we know better.

There is a difference between Alzheimer’s and dementia. In fact many things can cause dementia, but Alzheimer’s is the Number #1 cause of dementia.

Today, my grandmother might  be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and given a baby doll to end her constant search for that crying baby. Just as her daughter (my mother) was given a light-weight pocket-book to carry because she was paranoid about someone stealing her money.

Mom would loop the strap of her pocket-book over her arm and grip that purse firmly with her other hand to prevent anyone from stealing her money. The coin purse inside that pocket-book guarded 2 dollars and 25 cents but it might as well have been a million dollars because that’s the value my Mom put on that pocket-book.

Mom remembered that money long after she’d forgotten me, and she checked that purse hundreds of times a day to be certain it was still there.

And yet, my Ninety-something Uncle (Mom’s brother) is healthy and fit, both physically and mentally, and will argue against my modern day assertion that his mother (Mom’s mother and my  grandmother) could ever have suffered something as horrible asAlzheimer’s.

“She was old,” he will argue instead, “and old age made her senile and made her imagine that crying baby, nothing more.She didn’t have Alzheimer’s like Jane (my mother/his sister).” He will argue the natural aging process causes all the symptoms of Alzheimer’s too, despite the fact that he is nearing 90 without a single sign of cognitive decline. For him, set in his way, there is no Alzheimer’s, old age senility took the mind of his mother.

Thankfully, most know better, and the awareness of Alzheimer’s along with the Stages and Symptoms are readily available for anyone to find. Hopefully, the difference between Alzheimer’s and dementia will be common knowledge one day soon.

With more awareness, more people will understand the basics of coping with the behaviors of the Alzheimer’s patient. “You can’t force someone with Alzheimer’s to remember something just because you want them to. You must change yourself, accept the loss of their memories and build on what they do know.”

With awareness new research studies will find better ways to diagnose and new medicines will be prescribed earlier, to delay symptoms for those who suffer.

—————–

Is it Old age or Dementia or Alzheimer’s?

That question can actually be answered simply–

• As the brain ages it is not unusual to forget the name of someone, particularly if you haven’t seen them in awhile.

• Aging can make it difficult to find the right word when speaking or writing, or hard to remember the name of an object that isn’t used often.

• With older age, it takes longer to learn new skills or accept new ideas. It may take longer to react to things since reflexes slow down with the aging process.

• A characteristic of the normal aging process is that general intelligence (which medical scientists call “psycho-motor functions” or “cognitive functioning”) remains normal, and reasoning abilities and judgment are not altered with aging.

———————————————–

Symptoms of Alzheimer’s are much more Problematic than simple lapses of memory

• Difficulties with ordinary tasks and daily activities

• Making Unusual decisions or acting inappropriately

• Difficulty learning new things

• Dependency- fear of leaving familiar surroundings suspicious of the activities of others; overly dependent

*Published 5/29 at http://www.free-alzheimers-support.com/

Posted: Friday, September 5, 2014 9:39 am |Updated: 12:31 am, Sat Sep 6, 2014.

NewsUSA@NewsUSA.com (NewsUSA)

By: Jane E. Brody

Paul Divinigracia does not consider himself a saint. But to observe how he cares for his wife, Virgie, now 11 years into Alzheimer’s disease, you might think otherwise.

The Divinigracias celebrated their 50th anniversary in August. At 75, Mr. Divinigracia still calls his 87-year-old wife “dear,” and he clearly means it, even after he has answered the same question a dozen times within a few moments. Patience, he said in an interview, is the watchword of his existence.

“We laugh a lot — laughter definitely helps,” he said. “I make jokes out of many of the problems. Maintaining a sense of humor enables me to stay in balance.”

Lest he run out of things to laugh about, he and his wife watch amusing programs on Filipino television (both are natives of the Philippines). “It reduces the tension,” he said.

But there is no question that being the full-time caregiver of a family member with Alzheimer’s or any other form of dementiarequires constant adjustments. New challenges frequently arise. Mr. Divinigracia’s latest is trying to persuade his wife to bathe.

“Sometimes I offer a reward, like telling her, ‘We’re going out for lunch or dinner, and the restaurant won’t let us in unless we smell good,’ ” he said.

Mr. Divinigracia could easily have been the subject of one of the 54 stories in a new book, “Support for Alzheimer’s and Dementia Caregivers: The Unsung Heroes,” by Judith L. London. Dr. London is a psychologist in San Jose, Calif., whose first book, “Connecting the Dots: Breakthroughs in Communication as Alzheimer’s Advances,” broadened her contacts with family and professional caregivers facing, and often solving, everyday problems related to dementia.

She based each of the stories on situations confronting caregivers she has encountered, offering suggestions that could help others in similar circumstances.

The challenges include convincing patients or other relatives that something is really amiss, that lapses are not only a result of the gradual decline in memory that can accompany aging, as well as keeping people with dementia from slipping unnoticed out of the house and getting lost. (Double deadbolts on all the doors are a common and effective deterrent.)

“I have to be very observant of what’s going on at all times,” Mr. Divinigracia said. “She’s become very obsessive about safety, constantly checking to be sure all the doors and windows are locked and plugs are unplugged, and wanting to take out the garbage.” One day, after putting garbage in a pail outside, Mrs. Divinigracia forgot where the house was and had to be brought home by a neighbor.

The Divinigracias often visit family. Their daughter has taken to putting notes everywhere in her home, reminding her mother what to do and what not to do. “She does read the notes and follow the instructions,” Mr. Divinigracia said.

“Caregiving is an act of love, even for paid caregivers,” Dr. London said in an interview. “You put so much of yourself out there all the time, especially with Alzheimer’s patients. The average span of the disease is seven years and it can go on as long as 20 years, and the challenges only increase with time.”

Dr. London worries a lot about the stress on these caregivers, and rightly so. According to the data from Stanford University and the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 15 million people provide unpaid care for family members or friends with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia. The strain of the task has been shown in many studies to increase the risk of a variety of illnesses, and even death.

Mr. Divinigracia loves to travel, and he’s discovered that taking trips stimulates his wife in a positive way. “Her attention spanincreases, and information is better retained from the new places we visit,” he said. On a recent drive from Fremont, Calif., where they live, to Seattle for a family event, they passed through beautiful mountains north of San Francisco.

“She just loved that and can recall it, even though she can’t remember what I told her two minutes ago,” he said. To maximize quality time together in whatever time they have left, he’s planned trips to Hawaii in April and Europe in September.

Sometimes, though, returning to an old activity can be stimulating and fun. In one of Dr. London’s stories, a caregiving wife gets her husband, who has serious dementia, to again enjoy golf, his former passion, by saying she wants to play. Once at the driving range with club in hand, he suddenly remembered what to do and sent the ball flying.

The message: “Once you get him started, he may still know how to do something he could do years before. What a thrill!” Dr. London wrote.

Likewise, there may be ways to awaken pleasant memories through new experiences. Dr. London tells the story of a woman who picked a sprig of rosemary during a walk around a lake. The smell reminded her husband of how much he liked her rosemary chicken, and he said so in the first complete sentence he’d spoken in months.

One of the most common, distressing challenges faced by caregivers occurs when dementia patients become agitated or physically or verbally abusive, situations that are emotionally exhausting and sometimes dangerous for patients and caregivers alike.

Laura N. Gitlin, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, works with a team of occupational therapists to find ways to cope with such situations without drugs. They prescribe activities that patients and caregivers can do together tailored to the patients’ abilities, needs and interests. The result is patients who are calmer, safer and more engaged, and caregivers who are less stressed. Still, there are times when even the most astute and clever caregiver fails to overcome a challenge, particularly when an Alzheimer’s patient becomes violent. When one woman’s husband seemed possessed by demons, screaming curses and menacing her with a knife, Dr. London wrote, she finally realized that she could no longer care for him safely at home. Reluctantly, she had to place him in a home so that both of them could be safe.

From conversations with others and participation in a semimonthly Alzheimer’s Association support group, Mr. Divinigracia knows that the worst is yet to come. He continues to learn effective ways to cope with the challenges that arise, and how to take them in stride.

Still, Dr. London said, “caregivers are often the casualties, the hidden victims, of Alzheimer’s disease.

“No one sees the sacrifices they make,” she said.

It is vital for caregivers to take good care of themselves, she added, by exercising, eating and sleeping properly, and getting respite care when needed.

Originaly Published: New York Times February 17, 2014

Joel Chaffins, President, Owner / Operator, No Place Like HomeCare, LLC

"40 Under 40"

With a slight country drawl and red guitar strapped over his shoulder, Joel Chaffins makes his way around town, visiting each of his “75 grandparents.”

Chaffins owns No Place Like Home Care, a private company that connects nurses and caregivers to adult seniors who prefer to stay at home rather than move to a facility. The company services clients in Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties.

“We’re not just a referral or scheduling company,” Chaffins insists. He keeps close tabs on his 100-plus providers, popping in for visits every other week. He also personally answers calls from out-of-state adult children who want to check-in to see if “mom and dad are doing OK,” Chaffins says.

Within four years of opening, No Place Like Home Care became a $1 million company. Chaffins says the firm is on its way to reaching $1.5 million this year, and the goal is to hit $2 million next year.

“The beauty of our business is there is very little overhead,” Chaffins says. “We charge the patients x, we pay our nurses y, it’s very straightforward.”

His clients range from senior adults who need someone to stop by a couple days a week for meals or doctor appointments, to those with more serious medical issues that require around-the-clock care.

Chaffins and his wife, Danielle, recognized the opportunity seven years ago, while working in medical sales for Johnson and Johnson. The couple now splits business duties, with Danielle running the books and Joel in charge of marketing and client assessments.

They enjoy keeping the small-business feel, even as No Place Like Home Care grows. They’ve brought their Boston Terrier, Bartleby, to work for the last seven years. Now the couple brings their 11-week old daughter Samantha Elle to the office.

Growing up in a family of contemporary Christian musicians, Chaffins claims music was his first love. Today, bringing his guitar to work is just a bonus.

Every Friday, he plays for long-term care patients at a nursing home. He also keeps his guitar in the car while on his client visits, always ready to play some tunes, upon request.

If Chaffins doesn’t get his fill for music during the week, he also performs as lead singer for the Bay Players Club, a 10-piece band in the area that plays weddings and large corporate events.

— Traci McMillan Beach

 

City of residence: Redington Shores

Birthplace: Prestonsburg, Ky.

Twitter handle(s): @jchaffins (Personal) and @NPLHomeCare (Business)

Years on the Gulf Coast:  10

Marital status/children:  Married to Danielle E. Chaffins with one daughter, Samantha Elle Chaffins (6 weeks old)

The most important business lesson I’ve learned: People generally want to do business with someone they like, trust and respect. Therefore you must treat every client or perspective customer with kindness, compassion, and a lasting impression that their needs are important.

One website that makes your job easier: Our own:  www.NoPlaceLikeHomeCareLLC.com (We market aggressively and use SEO to help find new families in need.)

Two people, dead or alive, you’d like to have dinner with: Abraham Lincoln and Elvis Presley

Who would play you in a movie about your life: Justin Timberlake

Best award you ever received: Region Sales Representative of the Year – A Johnson & Johnson Medical Device and Pharmaceutical Company.  Most “Fun”:  Provider Idol Winner (Senior Business Providers competing in an American Idol-style competition).

Business Observer "40 Under 40"

Study found 2-year lifespan gain, fewer disease symptoms

THURSDAY, Sept. 12 (HealthDay News) — Americans are living longer and healthier lives than ever before, according to a new study.

Researchers analyzed government data collected over the last three decades and found that people today can expect to have two more years of healthy living than they could just a generation ago.

The data also revealed that people are reporting fewer disease symptoms and less trouble with everyday activities such as standing and walking. This was true for all groups examined in the study: blacks, whites, females and males.

"What we're talking about in this study is not simply life expectancy, but quality-adjusted life expectancy," Susan Stewart, a researcher at the National Bureau of Economic Research, said in a Harvard University news release.

"Many studies have measured this in different ways, but this is really the first time we've been able to measure it in the entire U.S. population using such a rich measure over a long period," Stewart explained.

The study was published Sept. 12 in the American Journal of Public Health.

"Ironically, many of the clearest gains have come at older ages, where people were once disabled by things like vision problems and cardiovascular disease," David Cutler, a professor of applied economics and a professor in the Harvard department of global health and population, said in the news release.

"Those conditions today are far more treatable than they were in the past, so what we're left with at the very oldest ages are things like Alzheimer's and dementia, while at younger ages we're seeing problems that appear to be related to a sedentary lifestyle," Cutler noted.

He said some of the improvements found in the study are almost certainly the result of improvements in health care.

"There are a number of conditions, such as heart disease, that used to be very, very impairing. It used to be that after a severe heart attack, people would essentially be bedridden, or they would wind up in nursing homes. We're not seeing that very much anymore," Cutler said.

Instead, chronic, degenerative conditions that are mostly untreatable, such as Alzheimer's, have taken the place of treatable diseases, he noted.

"We're coming to where those are the dominant health issues reported for the elderly, rather than heart disease or stroke-related impairment," Cutler said.

Along with the good news, the researchers also uncovered some troubling trends in younger age groups. Since 2001, anxiety has become an increasing problem among young and middle-aged Americans, and walking difficulties have seen a significant increase among the nonelderly population, the study authors noted.

The study provides insight into the past and current state of the health care system, but its value will increase over the next few years as provisions of the new health reform law are implemented as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to Cutler.

"Part of the reason we want to do this type of study is because we need to know what's happening to the health of the population," he said. "That information is valuable in and of itself, but it's also important that we have a baseline that we can use to measure whether and how things change once the ACA goes into effect."

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians outlines what you can do to maintain your health.

Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

A new study suggests that older people who occasionally forget some things or memories should not be terrified that they may have Alzheimer’s as it is something reversible.

Dr. Eric Kandel, lead author of the 2000 Nobel Prize research which identified the molecular basis of age-related memory loss, and his team studied eight human brains from the New York Brain Bank at Columbia University donated by people aged 33 to 88. All of them do not have brain disease when they died.

The researchers removed two structures in the hippocampus, the portion of the brain believed to be the center of the emotion, memory, and automatic learning. These structures are the dentate gyrus (forms new intermittent memories, unaffected by Alzheimer’s) and the entorhinal cortex (stores the memory, linked to Alzheimer’s).

Kandel’s team observed the genes active in each structure and noticed that the 17 genes present in the dentate gyrus decrease as the brain age increase. Most significant gene they found was RbAp48 which distinctly dropped to 50 percent of its original number as a person age. They looked at 10 more human brains with ages between 41 to 89, as well as old mice, to verify their conclusion. The result remained the same.

Their final analysis aimed to link the said protein to age-related memory loss by extracting it from young mice through genetic engineering. The results show a decline in memory comparable to mice four times their age. The mice were placed in a water maze to measure memory performance. Afterwhich, they injected the protein back to the mice which immediately restored their cognitive performance.

"With RbAp48, we were able to reverse age-related memory loss in the mice," Dr. Kandel wrote in the study. "Unlike in Alzheimer's, there is no significant cell death in age-related memory loss, which gives us hope it can be prevented or reversed."

However, the researchers admitted that they couldn’t explain yet how the protein RbAp48 affects the memory. They believe though that this discovery may help in finding a way to treat or prevent Alzheimer’s.

By Julie S | Aug 29, 2013 09:35 AM EDT

The study was published in the online journal Science Translational Medicine.

  Exercising for 150 minutes each week may be the best treatment for Alzheimer's, according to a study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Public Health conducted the study, which reveals that exercise could improve cognitive function in people at risk of Alzheimer's by improving the efficiency of brain activity.

The study analyzed 17 participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) – early memory loss associated with Alzheimer's disease – alongside 18 controls. Both groups were of similar age, gender, education, genetic risk and had similar medication use.

The participants were asked to carry out a 12-week exercise program, which consisted of walking on a treadmill at moderate intensity while being supervised by a personal trainer.

Before and after the exercise program, both groups were asked to complete memory tests.

The first was a fMRI famous name discrimination task. This is a memory test requiring the participants to identify famous names as their brain activity was measured.

The second was a list learning task. This test involved the participants recalling words read to them from a list over five consecutive attempts, and again after being distracted with a different list.

'No drug can do what we showed'

Results of the study showed that both groups improved their fitness levels by around 10%.

But the fMRI test taken after the exercise program revealed a significant increase in the intensity of brain activation in 11 brain regions as the participants correctly identified famous names.

The areas of the brain activated with improved efficiency were the same areas of the brain that lead to a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. The areas included were the precuneus region – the area involved in episodic memory, the temporal lobe and the parahippocampal gyrus – an area that plays a role in memory encoding and retrieval.

Dr. J. Carson Smith, assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the university, says:

"We found that after 12 weeks of being on a moderate exercise program, study participants improved their neural efficiency – basically they were using fewer neural resources to perform the same memory task.

No study has shown that a drug can do what we showed is possible with exercise."

Results of the study also showed improved memory recall within the list learning task.

Dr. Smith adds:

"People with MCI are on a very sharp decline in their memory function, so being able to improve their recall is a very big step in the right direction."

Memory boosted by 'moderate exercise' levels

The researchers say that what makes these results even more interesting is that these results were achieved using the levels of exercise that are in line with physical activity recommendations for older adults.

The guidelines encourage moderate intensity exercise over most days, totaling 150 minutes each week, the researchers add.

The study authors say that this research suggests that exercise could limit the need for over-activation in the brain in order to recall memory. They add that this is encouraging for those who want to preserve brain function.

Dr. Smith says for further research, he would like to look at a larger study involving more participants who are healthy but have a higher risk of Alzheimer's genetically.

Written by Honor Whiteman

Copyright: Medical News Today