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It's long been known that Alzheimer's patients often retain musical memories, even when recall of names, faces and places has been lost as the disease relentlessly destroys key areas of the brain.
Now Canadian researchers believe they know why, thanks to the power of MRI brain scanning.
Dear Candid Caregiver:
My dad is having around-the-clock home care, which was his choice early on when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. He’s in the later stages now, but he keeps telling his caregivers, including me when I take a shift, that he wants to go home. I read an article that you wrote where you said that asking to go home didn't necessarily mean any particular home, but your comments were directed toward the idea of someone living in a nursing home. Since Dad is in the home where he lived for nearly 40 years, you'd think he'd feel some comfort from that. In fact, that's one reason we've continued to stretch the finances to keep all of this care in his home. What could he possibly want that we aren't delivering?
– Sad and Bewildered
November is Alzheimer's Awareness Month and National Family Caregivers Month, when millions of people who care for loved ones with the disease are recognized for a job that can take a serious toll.
“I worry about my mom, but then like, she has to worry about me. So I just wish there was more of a balance,” 14-year-old Hailey Corum told NBC News special anchor Maria Shriver.
Once again researchers have found evidence of the critical role quality sleep plays on our overall health. And addressing the common causes of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) could have huge implications for the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease.
From sleep apnea which, left untreated, can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, depression, diabetes and other ailments, to Alzheimer’s disease, researchers continue to discover why we need to sleep. Now investigators from the Intramural Research Program (IRP) of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) are saying feeling excessively sleepy during the day could be a sign of increased risk for the brain pathology of Alzheimer’s disease.
Lindsay Jurist-Rosner had a secret. One she’d kept since she was a kid.
Her mother had multiple sclerosis, and Jurist-Rosner was her on-again, off-again caregiver.
“It took on many different forms over the years,” said Jurist-Rosner, now 38.
As she grew up, Jurist-Rosner’s role intensified from helping around the house to making sure her mom was up, dressed, and fed in the morning—all before rushing to her full-time job in marketing.
World-leading brain experts at West Virginia University’s Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute are celebrating the historic breakthrough Alzheimer patients around the globe have been awaiting.
“For Alzheimer’s, there’s not that many treatments available, despite hundreds of clinical trials over the past two decades and billions of dollars spent,” said Dr. Ali R. Rezai, a neurosurgeon at WVU who led the team of investigators that successfully performed a phase II trial using focused ultrasound to treat a patient with early stage Alzheimer’s.
When Nancy Daly was helping to care for her late mother, who had Alzheimer’s disease, the stress was so great that she would often shut herself in a bathroom and cry into a towel. For more than two years, Daly regularly flew from her home in California to her mother’s in Maryland, eventually to no recognition. “It was as if my entire childhood was erased, when she did not know me,” says Daly, 59. “But I had to grit my teeth and bear it. It was my job to be there.”
Caregivers in California aren’t taking full advantage of the state’s Paid Family Leave benefit as they fulfill care duties for loved ones, according to a new report by the California Work and Family Commission and Human Impact Partners.
IT STARTS OUT SLOWLY, almost imperceptibly. The misplaced keys. The forgotten birthday or anniversary. Using the wrong word or losing the thread in mid-conversation. These are often dismissed as typical signs of aging, but in some people, they may be the earliest signs that something bigger is at work – the development of dementia or Alzheimer's disease. When a doctor diagnoses dementia or Alzheimer's in your loved one, you should be sure to ask a lot of questions to make sure you understand your loved one's current state of being and so you can appropriately prepare for how this progressive disease could change over time.
Researchers have discovered a vicious feedback loop underlying brain degeneration in Alzheimer’s disease, which may explain why so many drug trials have failed.
The study also identifies a clinically approved drug – fasudil – that could break the vicious cycle and protects against memory loss in animal models of Alzheimer’s.
An Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis isn’t just devastating for the person with the condition. Many people will end up serving as caregivers for loved ones with Alzheimer’s, which can be incredibly distressing, isolating, and life-altering.
We spoke with several Alzheimer’s caregivers for their best advice on how to look after someone with the disease—and how to care for yourself in the process, too.