Tag Archive | Age-Related Illnesses Caregiver Support

Memories of Mama (July 11, 2021)

Jul11

Mama March 2, 2003Eleven years ago today – July 11, 2010 – which was also a Sunday, the sometimes bizarre, always unpredictable behavior that Mama had been regularly exhibiting since the fall of 2008 reached its critical mass. The week before had been very stressful. Mama’s paranoia and anger were at full-tilt and she spent the week crescendoing out of control.

I visited her every day at her apartment in the retirement community she had just up and decided to go to in late 2005. It served her well, but I can remember my surprise when she just suddenly announced to me that she was moving out from living with me to this community in town. Continue reading →

Limbic-Predominant Age-Related TDP-43 Encelopathy (LATE) Dementia Identified

Apr30

LATE Dementia IdentifiedA new type of dementia has been identified. While it may look like Alzheimer’s disease, it differs in significant ways. Researchers suspect it’s even more prevalent than Alzheimer’s disease – and may be part of a mixed-dementia diagnosis – but that remains to be seen.

The new type of dementia is called limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encelopathy or LATE dementia. The symptoms of LATE dementia and Alzheimer’s disease can appear to be similar, but while Alzheimer’s disease is the accumulation of plaques (beta-amyloid proteins) and tangles (tau proteins) in the brain, LATE dementia occurs because of the misfolding of accumulated TDP-43 proteins in the brain.  Continue reading →

Guidelines for Finding the Right Live-In Carer

Jan23

The Good Care Group is based in the UK, but these guidelines are useful for all of us, regardless of what country we live in, who may be seeking live-in caregivers for our loved ones with dementias and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Three Useful Tips to Finding The Right Live-in Carer

Live-in carer dementias Alzheimer's Disease

When considering live-in care, one of the many questions you are likely to ask yourself is “what steps should I take in order to choose a carer who is right for me?”

Continue reading →

Profiles in Dementia: Glen Campbell (1936 – 2017)

Aug9

Glen Campbell 1967 (Alzheimer's Disease)Glen Campbell was one of the first country artists to make the successful crossover into Top 40, blazing the trail in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s for a few other country artists (Alison Krauss, the Dixie Chicks, Jason Isbell, and Sturgill Simpson, to name a few) who would follow him decades later to also be successful crossover artists.

My parents liked his music and that is how I became aware of Glen Campbell. Continue reading →

Lifestyle Factors That Affect the Risk of Developing Dementias

Jul25

There are many lifestyle factors within our control that can increase our risk of developing dementias if we don’t make the right choices about them now.

Lifestyle Facts that Affect the Risk of Developing Dementias

Hearing Loss Linked to Cognitive Decline and Development of Dementia

Jul23

Hearing is a neurological process that when impaired can lead to brain atrophy, cognitive impairment, and dementiaA fairly recent longitudinal study of older people with hearing loss that was conducted by John Hopkins University discovered that, over a period of 10 years, people who entered the study with any form of hearing loss showed a much faster rate of brain atrophy – hearing is a neurological process that takes place in the left and right auditory cortices located in the frontotemporal region of the brain – than people who had entered the study with normal hearing. Continue reading →

A Reminder That Applies to All People, Including Our Loved Ones with Dementias and Alzheimer’s Disease

Jul10

One of the things that has become increasingly obvious in our society – and it seems to have been underwritten by the ubiquity of social media – is an almost total absence of civility among the human race.

We have, it seems, cast off all restraints that might have led us to be gentle, kind, compassionate, empathetic, sympathetic, polite, respectful, and courteous, and we’ve become brutishly uncivil in our words, our behavior, and our actions toward each other. Continue reading →

The Little Things – Mother’s Day 2017

May14

Mama and DaddyIt’s the little things that I think and dream about now that Mama is gone. Some of them are real and some, those in my dreamworld, are reconfigured to how I wished or hoped they had turned out.

As time passes between my parents’ deaths, I find more and more Daddy and Mama are together, the two of them and sometimes with my sisters and and sometimes just with me, but we all seem to be younger, when our lives were more together than they are now and we shared the little things that glued us together.
Continue reading →

The Link Between Brain Injuries and Neurological Disease

Mar12

There is irrefutable proof that repeated mild-to-moderate traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), single major traumatic brain injuries, and CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) will eventually lead to the development of dementia.

However, new research is showing us what happens in the brain at the genetic level when the brain is mildly injured many times or severely injured one time to cause neurological deterioration over time and the eventual development of dementia. Continue reading →

Good Sleep: A Key Factor in Neurological Health

Dec18

How much sleep and the quality of that sleep plays a key role in the health of the brainSleep – how much and the quality of it – has a profound and lifelong impact on the brain. When we get enough sleep and that sleep is deeply restful, the brain does beneficial housecleaning that sweeps away the toxins and waste products that accumulate in the spaces between brain cells during our waking hours.

Many of these toxins, including the beta amyloid proteins associated with Alzheimer’s Disease, if not removed, are directly responsible for neurological damage and decline, resulting in eventual cognitive impairment and dementia. Continue reading →