A new study from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies implies that THC, a chemical found in marijuana, may stop the production of beta amyloid and stop nerve cells in the brain from being destroyed.
Family Caregiver stress peaks during the holiday season
With the holiday season upon us, many Canadians are scrambling to fit a host of extra errands and activities into their already jam-packed lives. For most of us, stress levels can rise during the holidays, but new data from Elizz shows this time of year can be especially challenging for the millions of Canadians who act as family caregivers.
Maria Shriver Continues Tireless Fight Against Alzheimer’s
It’s Giving Day on Tuesday, November 29 and Maria Shriver, a fierce, longtime Alzheimer’s advocate, wants everyone to make a donation in support.
“When I first got involved with Alzheimer’s disease, it was hopeless,” she says. In 2003 her father, Peace Corps founder Sargent Shriver, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which now afflicts 1 in 9 Americans over age 65. “Nobody knew what it was. There was so much shame and fear. People were terrified.”
Baby Boomers, Relax. It Probably Isn’t Dementia
Memory loss, a possible symptom of dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease, is usually associated with old age. But as a geriatric psychiatrist and head of a memory center, I am seeing more patients age 50 to 65 who complain of increasing memory lapses and other cognitive issues.
These people are in the prime of their lives, and the very thought of having dementia is causing them to panic. They are particularly fearful of Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, knowing it is incurable and difficult to detect early on.
Everyone needs to take a deep breath.
Elderly Americans will depend more on friends, extended family as country ages
Family members already form an "invisible workforce" that cares for America's frail elderly. But changes in policy and family structure — from elderly divorce to smaller families — suggest that friends and extended family will play even more important roles as caregivers in coming years.
Eighteen million Americans already care regularly for a fragile older relative, most often a spouse or a parent, and the number is expected to at least double by 2050.
Fighting LGBT Discrimination in Long-Term Care
Patrick Mizelle and Edwin Fisher, who have been together for 37 years, were planning to grow old in their home state of Georgia.
But visits to senior living communities left them worried that after decades of living openly, marching in pride parades and raising money for gay causes, they wouldn’t feel as free in their later years. Fisher said the places all seemed very “churchy,” and the couple worried about evangelical people leaving Bibles on their doorstep or not accepting them.
U.S. Dementia Rates Are Dropping Even as Population Ages
Despite fears that dementia rates were going to explode as the population grows older and fatter, and has more diabetes and high blood pressure, a large nationally representative survey has found the reverse. Dementia is actually on the wane. And when people do get dementia, they get it at older and older ages.
Previous studies found the same trend but involved much smaller and less diverse populations like the mostly white population of Framingham, Mass., and residents of a few areas in England and Wales.
Gene Therapy Delivered by Modified Virus Provides Hope for Alzheimer's Cure Prior to Symptoms
According to the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2016 figures, five million American’s are living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. Additionally, this year Alzheimer’s and other dementias will cost the U.S. $236 billion, not to mention the over $18 billion of unpaid care provided by unpaid family caregivers (2015 figures).
Without a medical breakthrough, projected figures show that by 2050 the number of people age 65 and older with Alzheimer's disease could triple to nearly 14 million people, with some projections adjusting the figure to 16 million.
Valuing The Person, Not Just The Patient, In Health Care
(Next Avenue invited our 2016 Influencers in Aging to write essays about the one thing they would like to change about aging in America. This is the latest submission.)
It is time to modernize our ideas and actions toward aging and health care so older Americans can get the right care at the right time for the right cost. Therefore, I challenge the health care industrial complex and most particularly its leaders — those that design, regulate, pay for and provide services — to deliver on the promise, not just the provision, of better health and health care.
Dementia now leading cause of death
Dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, has overtaken heart disease as the leading cause of death in England and Wales, latest figures reveal.
Last year, more than 61,000 people died of dementia - 11.6% of all recorded deaths.
The Office for National Statistics says the change is largely due to an ageing population.
People are living for longer and deaths from some other causes, including heart disease, have gone down.
Family Caregiving Actually Costs So Much More Than Anyone Knew
Family caregivers are now spending on average 20 percent of their income providing care to a family member or other loved one, according to a new AARP Research Report, “Family Caregiving and Out-of-Pocket Costs: 2016 Report.”
The situation is so dire that, the report said, caregivers may be putting “their own economic and retirement security at risk” by stepping up to help a loved one. Hardest hit are Latino and low-income family caregivers who are spending an average 44 percent of their total annual income to care for aging relatives.
Survival Tips for the Sandwich Generation Caregiver
When Polly Shoemaker, RN, BSN, MBA, looks back on early 2016, she doesn’t know how she juggled everything. As director of clinical systems at Tulsa, OK-based St. John’s Hospital, Shoemaker already had a challenging job. But when her father’s esophageal cancer took a southward turn, she not only had to carry the logistical load of his care, but also keep up with work and family. “I don’t know how I did it, but I needed to and wanted to, so I did,” she says of her struggles as a sandwich generation caregiver.