Alzheimer’s disease, a degenerative brain malady, is the most common form of dementia. Normal aging causes memory decline in varying degrees in people who are otherwise healthy. Alzheimer’s kills brain neurons and appears to target a different spot in the brain’s memory center than regular aging does. Research shows that some seniors’ brains can actually work around the damage aging causes and build new pathways when old ones disintegrate.

Scientists like Dr. Denise Park, the director of the University of Illinois’ Center for Healthy Minds, see an emerging need to determine how to slow down cognitive aging since the population is living longer. One proven way to fight against time’s destruction is basic physical exercise, like walking. The brain and body both profit from exercise. According to RIchard Suzman of the National Institute of Aging, research suggests that interventions like controlling diabetes and hypertension may have positive ramifications on improving aging mental abilities. Cognitive training, ranging from brain-training games to crossword puzzles, may also have positive implications, but this has not yet been proven.

People with higher educations and challenging occupations have a cognitive reserve buildup. This seems to delay Alzheimer-related memory loss. Once the condition takes hold, however, better-educated people decline more rapidly than their counterparts. This study was recently published in the journal “Neurology.” Researchers at Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine found that every year of education a person had achieved delayed the accelerated memory decline that precedes dememtia by about two and one-half months. The bad news is that once memory loss begins with these individuals, the rate of decline is faster for each year of education that they have. Based on these findings, an individual with 16 years of schooling might experience memory decline 50 percent faster than someone with only four years of eduation.

For more information, click on Alzheimer’s Care for the Denver Metro area

Gerri Tyber
Operations Manager, Barton Home Care

Caring for those with Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia

Because of our aging population, some states have seen the need for a new system to help law enforcement agencies find elderly people who have wandered away. It is called the “Silver Alert” system. It is like the Amber Alert system which goes into action immediately when a child goes missing. If a senior citizen is reported missing and they are considered to have a serious health condition, such as Alzheimer’s or dementia, law enforcement will enter their information into the system, and all media will be immediately notified. Generally with senior citizens the first 48 hours are the most important, because they often have serious health issues.

Every state has an Amber Alert program, while only five states currently have a silver alert program. Three more states are presently working on adopting silver alert legislation. Oddly enough, Florida has no such law and has the highest population in the country of people over 65. In late February of 2008, an elderly woman signed herself out of the home for seniors where she lived in Key Largo, Florida. She planned to do some shopping. She had suffered from bouts of dementia in the past, but according to her daughter she had shown recent improvement and had made other similar short trips in the last month. Unfortunately, her body was found about a week later in Clearwater, Florida. Authorities and divers are looking for her car in the water nearby. This tragedy could possibly have been averted.

The Alzheimer’s Association affirms that six out of ten people with dementia will wander at least once. It is predicted that tracking the elderly will become a full-grown industry when 78 million baby boomers reach old age.

Gerri Tyber

Operations Manager, Barton Home Care

When it comes to eldercare, you’ll see that the following alert requires immediate family intervention and assistance.

We know that Alzheimer’s Disease is a progressive and fatal brain disease. People with this ailment have memory, behavior and thinking problems. Alzheimer’s, insidious by its very nature, has been found even it its earliest stages to affect financial decision making and the capacity to resist fraudulent schemes.

A recent study conducted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham compared healthy elderly adults with elderly adults diagnosed with mild Alzheimer’s. Both groups were given a number of financial planning-type tasks. These tasks ranged from simple financial concepts like identifying coins and their values to more complex ones like describing investment options and returns. Conclusions of the study determined that financial capacity is significantly impaired in patients diagnosed with mild Alzheimer’s. This impairment grows exponentially in just a one-year period. Decline in the ability to perform both simple and complex tasks is significant.

If you suspect or know that a family member is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, there is an immediate need to see that financial supervision and planning is available for them.

Eldercare can be involved … this should be a priority for family members.

Gerri Tyber
Operations Manager, Barton Home Care