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 December 1, 2023

Cahaba Ridge is hosting their annual Festival of Trees, December 9.  Three-foot trees will be decorated by volunteers and auctioned off to raised money for ACA.  1 – 3 pm, 3090 Healthy Way, 35243.

Join ACA for a Support Group Christmas Reunion Celebration on Tuesday, December 19, from 12:30 – 2, after our regular zoom meeting.  Please plan to come by the ACA office (300 Office Park Drive, Suite 225, 35223) for some holiday cheer!

Support Group Meetings:

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

Alzheimer’s News:

Holidays—even joyous ones—can be stressful and unchecked stress can lead to poorer health. Simply knowing the holidays can trigger a stress reaction can help you plan to reduce it.  Susan Wehry, MD, Dementia Action Alliance Board member, offers tips for handling the top 5 holiday triggers:

  • Family dynamics and unresolved conflict:  Practice forgiveness, patience and understanding. Chances are everyone is feeling the effects of holiday stress.  Holidays are not the best time to address grievances.  Wait for a more appropriate time!
  • Food. Too much of a good thing or altered eating rituals:  Try to eat and drink in moderation.  Keep a regular schedule as much as possible
  • Finances:  When shopping, plan purchase and your budget in advance. Stick to the budget to avoid stress down the road.
  • Fun:  Decide on the best size gatherings in advance. We all have our limit, but people living with dementia may find themselves more easily overwhelmed by too many visitors, especially all at once.  Plan for a quiet area to get away to.  Take a breather when you need to
  • Forgetting one’s own needs:  Be realistic. Ask for help. Create new and simpler rituals.      Learn to say no. Try to keep health habits steady like exercise, meals, downtime.

May this season be filled with hope and light for all.

Holiday Resources from DailyCaring: 

Being Patient offers 9 Good Gift Ideas for People With Alzheimer’s or Dementia:  https://www.beingpatient.com/holiday-gifts-dementia/?utm_source=Being+Patient+Newsletter&utm_campaign=2cce4631d2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_11_06_03_59_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_95b92454c1-2cce4631d2-109213217

Relish offers a wide range of Alzheimer’s and dementia products that bring joy and engagement to people at any stage of their dementia journey. They are great for the elderly too. https://relish-life.com/us/all-dementia-products?utm_source=Newsletter%20Subscribers%20US&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Gift%20guide%20for%20Christmas%20US&_kx=oUeL1bsu20J6yN7A0NQfXfgi6blalbbb7wdj5dwW6wc%3D.Uv5g2d

Give the gift of Alzheimer’s artwork this holiday season.  ACA’s 2024 calendar, Caregiver Voices, is available for $15.  Packs of 6 notecards featuring original artwork are available for $12. (Prices include shipping).  Visit alzca.org/calendars – to order your holiday gifts today.

Excessive television-watching is tied to an increased risk for dementia, Parkinson’s disease (PD), and depression, whereas a limited amount of daily computer use that is not work-related is linked to a lower risk for dementia.  Investigators analyzed data on 473,184 people aged 39-72 years from the UK Biobank.  Participants reported on the number of hours they spent outside of work exercising, watching television, and using the computer.  Compared with those who watched TV for under 1 hour per day, those who reported watching 4 or more hours per day had a 28% higher risk for dementia, a 35% higher risk for depression, and a 16% greater risk for PD.  However, moderate computer use outside of work seemed somewhat protective. Participants who used the computer for 30-60 minutes per day had lower risks for dementia, PD, and depression compared with those who reported the lowest levels of computer usage.  Replacing 30 minutes per day of computer time with an equal amount of structured exercise was associated with decreased risk for dementia and PD.  The association between extended periods of TV use and higher risk for PD and dementia could be explained by a lack of activity.  Sedentary behavior is, associated with biomarkers of low-grade inflammation and changes in inflammation markers that could initiate and or worsen neuroinflammation and contribute to neurodegeneration.  https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/excessive-tv-watching-tied-elevated-risk-dementia-parkinsons-2023a1000tw2?ecd=wnl_dne5_231201_MSCPEDIT_etid6113238&uac=407526BK&impID=6113238

A history of military service is associated with a 26% increased risk for amyloid plaque and 10% increased risk for elevated tau tangle levels, underscoring the urgent need for amyloid screening among veterans.  The research study examined 597 male decedents who donated their brain to one of two Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) brain bank programs between 1986 and 2018.  https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/998767?src=FYE

There has been much media attention around Camp Lejeune and specifically trichloroethylene (TCE) as a cause of Parkinson’s.  Researchers had previously showed that in twins who were exposed to this through their work (it’s widely used as a degreasing agent) or hobbies (it’s used in printing and painting, by varnish workers, or by anyone that needs it as a solvent) had a 500% increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. Importantly, in that study, they showed that there was a lag time of 10-40 years between exposure to that chemical and the diagnosis of the disease.  Camp Lejeune is a Marine base in North Carolina where many Marines are trained. Between 1953 and 1987 at that Marine base, the drinking water was contaminated with TCE, perchloroethylene, and other toxic chemicals. The reason Camp Lejeune is so infamous is because the Marines knew about the contamination for many years and covered it up.  Researchers examined Parkinson’s among Marines who served at Camp Lejeune during the 1970s and compared that with rates in Marines who served Camp Pendleton on the West Coast. It turned out that the Marines who served at Camp Lejeune had a 70% higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than the Marines who served at Camp Pendleton.  https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/997021?src=FYE

Years of research has shown that keeping your blood pressure in check is good not just for the heart but also for the brain, lowering your risk of heart attack, stroke and dementia. Now a new study showed just how effective blood pressure lowering can be in helping to keep the brain in good working order. It found that in older people with high blood pressure, lowering systolic blood (the top number) by an average of 22 points through a rigorous blood pressure treatment program reduced the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia by 15 percent. https://www.alzinfo.org/articles/prevention/lowering-your-blood-pressure-can-lower-your-dementia-risk/

In the latest episode of BrainStorm, Meryl Comer talks with author Mary Lou Falcone about Lewy Body Dementia, the second most progressive form of dementia and often confused with Alzheimer’s.  Listen in as they talk about her search to find an accurate diagnosis of this disease for her late husband Nicky Zann, an accomplished musician and a world-renowned cartoonist and painter. Their journey inspired her to write the book I Didn’t See It Coming: Scenes of Love, Loss and Lewy Body Dementia, which details her experience as a caregiver and the challenges she faced. https://www.usagainstalzheimers.org/brainstorm/mary-lou-falcone-breaking-through-silence-and-stigma-lewy-body-dementia?utm_source=ea&utm_medium=email&utm_content=ep52&utm_campaign=2023brainstorm&=&emci=a3c1fe13-258e-ee11-8924-6045bdd47111&emdi=5ead851c-c18e-ee11-8925-002248223cba&ceid=812012

Our memories are like a bottomless drawer. The amount of information they can store is infinite, but it is not always easy to access. This is because our brains tuck away things that they consider to be less important at any given moment. The more hidden a piece of information is, the more difficult it is to retrieve.  The scent of freshly baked cakes or bread, the chlorine of a swimming pool in summer, a salty sea breeze, coffee, and rain are smells that cause our minds to recover memories and emotions that we thought long forgotten.  Numerous scientific studies have tried to discover how we can recover memories and sensations from the past through a particular smell. This is known as olfactory memory.  The sense of smell is strongly connected to different areas of the brain, such as the limbic system and the orbitofrontal cortex. The former is essential in creating emotional responses to smells, while the latter helps to identify and distinguish them, as well as linking them to specific experiences and memories.  Before it reaches the cerebral cortex, information from the other senses must first pass through a control system, the thalamus. The sense of smell, however, has a VIP pass, and it bypasses the thalamus to connect directly to the brain’s memory circuits, located in the hippocampus.  For this reason, a familiar smell activates the same areas of the brain as those related to emotional memory. In fact, scent induced memories tend to be connected to past experiences with a greater emotional significance than other senses. https://www.beingpatient.com/why-smells-transport-us-back-in-time/?utm_source=Being+Patient+Newsletter&utm_campaign=2cce4631d2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_11_06_03_59_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_95b92454c1-2cce4631d2-109213217

 

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