New Study On Dementia Shows They are No Closer To Answers IMO

Hello All,

Hope this nasty blast of cold is not hitting you to hard. In Michigan it was another brutally cold day today, but the weather man says by the weekend 50's are forecast, hope Al is right.

"More education leads to less cases of dementia, yet we live in the most educated time of the past 200 years and then they say that the number of overall cases is going up."  -New England Journal of Medicine

A new study just published and referenced by NPR titled
"Can Dementia Be Prevented? Education May Bolster Brain Against Risk"
shows in my opinion that they are no closer to having answers about these brain disorders plauging the world. Here is some of what the article stated and then I will share some of my experience with you to prove my point. 

In part is what the article stated:


"The odds of getting Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia are declining for people who are more educated and avoiding heart disease, a study finds.- The results suggest that people may have some control over their risk of dementia as they age."

This isn't the first study to find that the incidence of dementia is waning, but it may be the best so far. Researchers looked at 30 years of records from more than 5,000 people in the famed Framingham Heart Study, which has closely tracked the health of volunteers in Framingham, Mass.

They found that the incidence of dementia declined about 20 percent per decade starting in the 1970s — but only in people who had at least a high school education. The decline in people diagnosed with Alzheimer's wasn't statistically significant, but there were fewer people with Alzheimer's, which could have affected that result.

Meeting With VA For Fiduciary Account This Week

Hello Everyone, 

Well the Super Bowl is over tomorrow is Fat Tuesday and the weather is still not that bad here in Michigan. All this means we are marching ever forward toward spring...hooray !

This week we finally will be meeting with the person from the VA to set up the fiduciary account for my mother's Aid and Attendance Benefits. Now mind you she has been getting monthly benefits since June of last year so that tells you how far behind the VA is in getting stuff done. 

For those of you who are working with the VA setting up a fiduciary account may be in your future too. Just what is a fiduciary and why do we need to go through this process? I will try and explain to the best of my knowledge.

When we applied for mom's benefits she was, because of her dementia, deemed unable to manage her finances by the VA. We already knew this as she no longer could remember to even ask about her finances which was quite a change for her. All her life she was sharp as a tack when it came to money. She worked hard and saved her money wisely. She knew where her money was and when things came due etc... Because of her failing eyesight myself or my sister have been helping her with her bills for years but she always knew exactly what was what. Then about a year and a half ago she just stopped showing interest in it. By this time she was living at my sisters and my sister was a signer on her accounts so I guess mom knew in her mind everything was taken care of. 

The Plague of Dementia Hit Robin Williams Too - What is Lewy Body Dementia ?

An underlying brain disease may have been the cause of his depression.

 

This past Tuesday morning as I always do, I sat enjoying my coffee watching the morning news when an interview took by breath away. The interview was with Susan Williams, the wife of the amazing actor and comedian Robin Williams. I sat silent, tears in my eyes as she spoke for the first time about the death of her husband. The heart wrenching interview struck quite a nerve for this caregiver when she revealed that Robin's autopsy showed he was suffering from Lewy Body Dementia or LBD for short. As a caregiver I have seen many people suffering from dementia - to many! LBD is the second most common form of dementia next to Alzheimer's. It is estimated that 1 million Americans suffer from LBD. 

Susan spoke about Robin's sudden rash of symptoms that started popping up about a year prior to his death. She said he complained about things like severe pain in his gut, sleeplessness and constipation. She even thought he might be a hypochondriac. But then he was diagnosed with  Parkinson's disease in May 2014.

Moving Mom Into An Adult Foster Care Home For the Aged

Hello Everyone,

After another fall and a return to rehab for several weeks my sister and I have finally taken the steps to move mom to and Adult Foster Care Home ( also called Homes for the Aged ) on a full time basis. This was one of the hardest,  heartwrenching decision we have ever had to make, but it was best for all.

AFC - a house like you or I would live in, only with some modifications inside to accommodate the residents.

My mom as you may know from my previous posts has lived with either myself or my sister since 2001 when dad passed away. She is now almost 92 and has started to develop dementia. My sister and I are not getting any younger and the increased care my mother required was making it very difficult. She could no longer be left alone even for a few hours to go shopping so we had to have someone with her around the clock and night time care literally meant no sleep for my sister, who has and needs to keep her daytime job as her husband was laid off after 27 years, leaving them with one income.

We therefore decided it was time. Time to make things better for all involved, especially mom. We searched and searched and finally found a wonderful Adult Foster Care Home only 10 minutes from both of us.