Six years ago, at age 49, Julie Gregory paid an online service to sequence her genes, hoping to turn up clues about her poor circulation, blood-sugar swings and general ill health. Instead she learned she had a time bomb hidden in her DNA: two copies of a gene variant, ApoE4, that is strongly linked to Alzheimer’s. Most Americans with this genotype go on to develop late-onset dementia.
Learning to care for dying’s forgotten
In most U.S. medical schools, lessons about death naturally focus on the care of the dying patient. But there is another group of people to whom health professionals need to learn to attend: the dying patient’s family and friends. In nearly every case, mortality’s collateral damage reaches more widely and endures longer than the patient’s travails, which cease at the moment of death.
8 Common Alzheimer's Myths
Alzheimer's disease affects newly learned information or recent memories first. Memories of the more distant past -- including arcane details such as names and places -- may endure for some time. The majority of longer-held memories don't typically erode noticeably until the middle stage of the disease. That's why someone recently diagnosed can often recall things in the past quite well.
Raiding Your Retirement to Pay for Caregiving
In a stark illustration of the financial sacrifices that older Americans make when caring for a loved one, nearly 1 in 5 caregivers say they’ve had to raid their retirement savings as a result of taking on this responsibility, according to a recent study.
But while the direct and indirect costs of caring for a relative or close friend can be great, families often overlook resources that can lighten their financial burden, says a financial planner who works with clients on eldercare issues.
10 Ways to Help a Caregiver
Within each caregiving arrangement, the extent and type of care required will likely evolve, as will the personal needs of the primary caregiver. Half of caregivers receive no outside assistance at all, but not always because it’s not offered and certainly not because it’s not available.
10 Sanity-Saving Long Distance Caregiving Tips
In a past blog post, I talked with three daughters who have all cared for their ailing mothers. The specifics of each situation are unique but one thing the trio has in common: They have all been -- or still are -- long-distance caregivers.
For two years, Barb Silver made a monthly trek to her mother's home on the other side of the country for a five-day visit. She says that period of her life, before her mother died, is a blur because she was sleep deprived and jet lagged much of the time. Judi Kaplan spent 18 months shuttling back and forth between her home in San Francisco and her mother's Santa Monica address before recently relocating her to the Bay Area. Janice Shapiro continues to make regular visits to her frail 93-year-old mother, now in a nursing home on the East Coast.
Should Patients With Dementia Be Able To Decline Spoon-Feeding?
People who abhor the thought of being kept alive with feeding tubes or other types of artificial nutrition and hydration have, for years, had a way out: They could officially document their wishes to halt such interventions using advance directives.
Even patients diagnosed with progressive dementia who are able to record crucial end-of-life decisions before the disease robs them of their mental capacity could write advance directives.
Caregiving's Taboo Subject: Coordinating The Finances
During our parents’ last years, my sister and I wound up becoming their “financial coordinators,” handling everything from getting their bills paid to balancing their checkbooks to managing their investments to dealing with their health insurers. A new, groundbreaking Merrill Lynch/Age Wave study, The Journey of Caregiving, documents just how common this responsibility is for family caregivers — and how difficult it can be.
This is the side of caregiving you don’t hear much about.
As Alzheimer's Numbers Soar, New Poll Focuses On Caregivers
A new study suggests that caregivers need and want to access support resources and that perhaps the experience of caregiving has made them consider the possibility of their own future needs. And there is no doubt that the current number and expected increase in the foreseeable future of individuals with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease will necessitate it.
According to the Alzheimer's Association, "the number of Americans living with Alzheimer's disease is growing — and growing fast. An estimated 5.5 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer's disease."
When Short-Term Memory Fades, Researchers Try Tapping Into Procedural Memory
For people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, short-term memory fades first.
While this may not seem like the best time in a person’s life to start learning a new skill, researchers at the Mayo Clinic are realizing that learning a new procedure or habit, is not only possible, it could also have long-term benefits for patients as their dementia progresses.
New Grant Funds Alzheimer’s Research
Researchers have long known that genetics play a role in causing the dementia of Alzheimer’s disease, but genes, it turns out, are only part of the story. What’s come to light over the last several years is the incredible complexity of the disease, which involves not only genetic factors but also the vasculature of the brain. It’s not clear, however, what goes wrong within the cells of the brain’s blood vessels, how they accumulate clumps of toxic proteins, or how that process contributes to cognitive decline. A team of researchers on Mayo Clinic’s campus in Florida has received a grant of $3.5 million from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), of the National Institutes of Health, to better understand the interconnected genetic and vascular pathways involved in Alzheimer’s.
Dementia takes us Piece by Piece, but this is the Last Piece to Go.
I’ve raised my voice to my mother a few times in my life.
Granted, it mostly happened when I was a teenager, but a few years ago, it was because she was in the middle of a full-blown conspiracy delusion about the doctor, my sister, and a truck load of crazy.
And I made her cry. It’s quite a gift to make a woman in her 80s cry—well done, self.
In my defense, I didn’t really understand dementia then, even though it’s a growing worldwide problem.