Alzheimer's Statistics, Insight, Reading List

• Test Your Self for Alzheimer's Dementia
• Alzheimer's Statistics
• What is Alzheimer's? What are the Eight Types of Dementia?

From the Alzheimer's Reading Room -- Featured Articles

This is a list of popular articles that I wrote on the Alzheimer's Reading Room.

• Alzheimer's Wandering Why it Happens and What to Do
• Does the Combination of Aricept and Namenda Help Slow the Rate of Decline in Alzheimer's Patients
• 10 Good Reasons to Subscribe to the Alzheimer's Reading Room Now
• Test Your Memory (TYM) for Alzheimer's or Dementia in Five Minutes
• World Health Care Spending and Performance Ranking by Country (Table)
• What is Dementia?
• Five Ways to Keep Alzheimer's Away
• Dimebon Connection Study
• Are Alzheimer's Caregivers the Forgotten?
• A Simple Three Minute Test Can Detect the Earliest Stage of Alzheimer's Disease
• Is it Really Alzheimer's or Something Else?
• Wii a Useful Tool for Alzheimer's Caregivers
• 2009 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures
• The Mini-Cog Test for Alzheimer's and Dementia
• The Alzheimer's Reading Room--Press Release
• Walmart and this Alzheimer's Caregiver

Alzheimer's Reading Room: Diagnosis and Treatment of Alzheimer's and Dementia

These guidelines were developed for physicians and teachers. However, if you look through the list you will see that these guidelines are useful for caregivers. This is especially true for caregivers that are new and overwhelmed by the diagnosis.

If you know a caregiver you should consider forwarding this list of guidelines. I find that I need to refer to my own lists often. As a caregiver we tend to focus on the right now and today. However, unless all contingencies are considered enormous problems could present themselves down the road.

People with mild to moderate dementia (and Alzheimer's) are usually cared for by the family personal care physician and the patient's family. The personal care physician is often very busy and is not a specialist in the area. The family is often ill equipped to take on this task due to lack of formal training, education, and experience. Family caregivers and the primary caregiver usually take a learn as you go approach. A team of physicians, teachers, and researchers have created a set of guidelines for personal care physicians on how to manage dementia once a diagnosis is made. This article should be read by physicians but I found it very helpful as a caregiver. From the caregiver perspective it will help you understand the services you need and help you interact with your family physician to assure that appropriate actions are being taken and treatments rendered.

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Etanercept (Enbrel) in Action, see Alzheimer's patient's memory come alive (Video)

clipped from alzheimersreadingroom.blogspot.com To watch the video on how this works with Alzheimer's patients click here The Institute for Neurological Research To read about the on going research study click here Arthritis Drug Success With Alzheimer's Prompts Calls For More Investment In Research To read my previous detailed post on this topic click this link 'Instant' Alzheimer's Drug Claim, Enbrel (Etanercept) Read more about Alzheimer's at The Alzheimer's Reading Room One of the videos shows how the treatment affected 82-year old Marvin Miller. Miller can be seen muttering incoherently in response to questions from a nurse. He can't name objects like a pencil or a bracelet. Miller is then given his first etanercept injection, and according to the video, five minutes later he recognizes and embraces his wife when she comes up to him. Mrs Miller said he had not done this for years, because until that moment he did not know who she was. She appears visibly shocked by her husband's improvement.

Discovery suggests new ways to treat Alzheimer's cause, not just symptoms

clipped from www.newsroom.ucla.edu For some time, scientists have blamed Alzheimer's disease on a small molecule called amyloid beta protein (A beta) that leaves large gummy deposits in the brain. Recent studies suggest that these A beta proteins stick together to form floating toxic clumps that kill brain cells. Now, UCLA scientists have identified a tiny loop in A beta as the likely culprit behind the adhesion process. The UCLA team discovered that gene mutations in A beta increase the loop's flexibility, enabling it to join easily with loops from other A beta proteins and form clumps. The loop also appears in the region of the protein that regulates how — and how much — A beta is made. Principal investigator David Teplow, professor of neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, is available for interviews. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the findings in its Oct. 10 online early edition. For a PDF of the study, see www.eurekalert.org/pio/tipsheetdoc.php/237/zpq7481.pdf.