Alzheimer's of Central Alabama

Serving people with Alzheimer’s, caregivers and professionals in central Alabama through education, caregiver services and research grants.

ACA’s Weekly Email April 12, 2024

ACA will host the Garden Art Party, May 4 at Haven.  This incredible auction has raised money for ACA’s essential services for low-income families living with Alzheimer’s since 1997.  Donations for the auction are welcomed.  Purchase tickets here:  https://alzca.org/gap/

Restorative Chair Yoga for Caregivers led by Frannie James at Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church.  6-week series (Tuesdays 11:30am-12:15pm) April 23-May 28.  Restorative chair yoga is an opportunity to help alleviate the isolation that caregivers often feel – to help reduce stress, depression, and anxiety by practicing some self-kindness and compassion. Each session will consist of gentle movements to help build strength, flexibility, and – perhaps most importantly – inner calm. There is no cost, but donations are accepted. For more information or questions, please send an email to foundersplace@saint-lukes.com or call 205.802.6218.  Registration link: https://bit.ly/3xGCQbi.  To learn about Frannie James, please visit: https://franniejamesyoga.com/

Support Group Meetings:

April Webinars from Alabama Lifespan Respite: https://alabamarespite.org/events2/

Alzheimer’s News:

The consequences of chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) may extend well beyond physical discomfort, potentially leading to faster aging of the brain, new research showed.  CMP affects more than 40% of the world’s population and has been shown to have a harmful impact on cognitive function, although the exact mechanisms remain unclear. Prior research suggests that inflammatory markers associated with brain aging are higher in patients with CMP, suggesting a link between brain aging and CMP.  To investigate further, researchers explored patterns of brain aging in healthy people and people with four common types of CMP — chronic knee pain, chronic back pain, chronic neck pain, and chronic hip pain.  Using structural MRI data from more than 9000 adults with knee osteoarthritis (KOA), investigators developed a brain age model to compare an individual’s brain age with their chronological age. Those with KOA showed a much faster rate of brain aging than healthy individuals.  The acceleration in brain aging was largely driven by the hippocampus and predicted memory decline and incident dementia during follow-up. Inflammation, a key player in osteoarthritis, might be playing a double agent, wreaking havoc not just on your joints but potentially on your memory too. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/chronic-pain-linked-accelerated-brain-aging-2024a10006u9?ecd=wnl_dne7_240411_MSCPEDIT_etid6436092&uac=407526BK&impID=6436092

Alzheimer’s disease and dementia inevitably cause changes in behavior as the disease progresses.  Your loved one might become angry, get anxious, or have hallucinations. For caregivers, these unpredictable changes add stress to an already tough job. Understanding these dementia behaviors and their causes helps you deal with them more effectively and reduces uncertainty and stress.  The Lewy Body Dementia Association has written a free guide that explains common behavioral symptoms of dementia and shares helpful tips for reducing and managing challenging dementia behaviors.  These tips apply to all types of dementia, not just Lewy Body:  https://www.lbda.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/understanding_behavioral_changes.pdf

Delerium is tied to a significantly increased risk for dementia and death in older adults, with men at particular risk, new research showed.  Incident dementia risk was more than three times higher in those who experienced just one episode of delirium, with each additional episode linked to a further 20% increase in dementia risk. The association was strongest in men.  Patients with delirium also had a 39% higher mortality risk than those with no history of delirium.  Among patients with at least one episode of delirium, the rate of incident dementia was 3.4 times higher than in those without delirium.  https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/delirium-linked-threefold-increased-risk-dementia-2024a10006u0?ecd=wnl_dne10_240411_MSCPEDIT_etid6436092&uac=407526BK&impID=6436092

Pets offer a range of benefits for our physical and mental health. Several recent studies add to the list, finding that pet ownership can help slow cognitive decline and prevent dementia in older adults.  In a study of nearly 8,000 older adults, researchers found that among those living alone, having a pet was associated with a slower rate of cognitive decline (specifically composite verbal cognition, verbal memory and verbal fluency). https://www.psychiatry.org/News-room/APA-Blogs/Pets-Can-Protect-Cognitive-Health-in-Older-Adults?inf_contact_key=904a6678686b580b2dd2839ca473f7592ec2094b0cea6b68b61d0db7a8f697f7

A recent study found that people who feel lonely are 1.64 times more likely to develop neurodegeneration than those who do not.  Chronic loneliness can be as detrimental as obesity, physical inactivity and smoking according to a report by Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general. Depression, dementia, cardiovascular disease and even early death have all been linked to the condition. Worldwide, around one-quarter of adults feel very or fairly lonely, according to a 2023 poll.  That same year, the World Health Organization launched a campaign to address loneliness, which it called a “pressing health threat”.  Over the past few years, scientists have begun to reveal the neural mechanisms that cause the human body to unravel when social needs go unmet. Although the picture is far from complete, early results suggest that loneliness might alter many aspects of the brain, from its volume to the connections between neurons.  https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00900-4?inf_contact_key=0a2b141c4a11696096b00e60875233e1121216c3a82d754a88f6751e8a28a7b5

A history of herpes simplex virus (HSV) is associated with a more than doubling of the risk for dementia in older people, results of a prospective epidemiological study showed. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/oral-herpes-tied-double-dementia-risk-older-adults-2024a1000429?ecd=mkm_ret_240406_mscpmrk_neuro_brain-diet_etid6423445&uac=407526BK&impID=6423445

Last day to participate!  The Alabama Department of Senior Services (ADSS), in partnership with the area agencies on aging want to hear from you. Every four years, ADSS completes a State Plan on Aging that acts as a blueprint of advocacy efforts and services to help meet the needs of senior adults, people with disabilities, and caregivers so they can live at home for as long as possible.  If you are a senior adult, person with a disability, caregiver, and/or someone who’s interested in people living at home and their communities for as long as possible, please complete the short anonymous Needs Assessment, by April 12.  https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=b13dvvy81EaRjX-yEOV4l8RCyObzOTREljif-c2_ESxUNkVNRUM1SEQ4Uzg0QTBOR1BLREU0RTFZUyQlQCN0PWcu

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