ACA’s 12th annual Glow for a Cure night golf tournament, July 26th, Highland Park Golf Course. Spectator tickets are only $30 and include live entertain, auction, BBQ dinner, beer and specialty cocktail. There are only a limited number of team slots still available, and this event has sold out every year. The tournament is presented by our Junior Board and supports the Lindy Harrell Pre-doctoral Scholars Program in Alzheimer’s Research at UAB. ACA has funded 7 student researchers since 2019. https://alzca.org/glow/
AFA is hosting a live, Interactive Webinar Training: Sexual Health and Intimacy in Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia: A Continued Commitment to Holistic Health, July 17, 1:00 pm – 3:10 AFA live webinar
Contenu is hosting a retreat that focuses on health and wellness activities for the person with a serious illness and their caregiver, August 24, New Water Farms, Dadeville, 8 am – 4:30 pm. This retreat will focus on health and wellness activities for the person with a serious illness, and their caregivers, with the aim of giving attendees a space to refresh, recharge, and relax. Com. e and enjoy a day of health and wellness. Activities will include sessions like movement and mindfulness, fruit farming, and taking a boat ride. The cost is $50. Contenu Retreat
Support Group Meetings:
- ACA’s support group with Miller & Vance, Tuesday, July 16, 11 – noon CT. Call (205) 871-7970 or mpiggott@alzca.org. Join us on zoom:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85247427423
- CJFS CARES, Mondays at 3 pm, contact Pam Leonard, pam@cjfsbham.org.
- St Lukes Episcopal Church on Tuesdays at 10:15. Contact Betsy Smith (smith35213@gmail.com) or Janis Cole (janiscarole3@aol.com).
- West Alabama Area Agency on Aging, Caregiver Support Group, Tuesdays, contact Nikki Poe, nikki.poe@westal.org.
- M4A’s Caregiver Support Group, 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month, 10 – 11:30 am, Montevallo. Contact Robyn James, rjames@m4a.org.
- The Oaks on Parkwood, 4th Tuesday’s, 10:00 am, Contact: Karen Glover, karenrglover@gmail.com.
- CJFS CARES, Tuesdays, 7:00 pm, contact Pam Leonard, pam@cjfsbham.org.
- United Way Area Agency on Aging of Jefferson County, 3rd Tuesday of each month 11:30-12:30, contact Valarie Lawson, vlawson@uwaaa.org
- Leeds, 1st Tuesday, 6:30 pm. Contact Julie Slagle jslagle@lakesidehospice.org
- Pell City, 2nd Tuesday, 2:30 pm. Contact Julie Slagle, jslagle@lakesidehospice.org
- M4A virtual support group, 3rd Wednesday’s 2:00 – 3:00 pm. Contact Chalane Mims, cmims@m4a.org.
- Trinity United Methodist Church, every Thursday at 2:30 pm, contact Ernie at 205-370-0032 or email ewillis@trinitybirmimgham.com.
- Asbury United Methodist Church 1st and 3rd Thursdays at 1:00, contact Maggie Dunaway at mdunaway@asburyonline.org.
- AFTD support group, second Tuesday of the month. Amber Guy: 251-281-5344.
- Discovery United Methodist Church, Hoover, the first and third Thursday of each month. Peggy Harrison: pharrison@discoveryumc.org.
- St. Mark’s UMC, Vestavia Hills, Fridays at 1 pm. Contact Donna Baird: (205)717-9880.
July Webinars from Alabama Lifespan Respite: https://alabamarespite.org/events2/
Alzheimer’s News:
Vestavia Hills Methodist Church is set to open Restore, a new respite ministry, in August. The program will be open on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s from 10 – 2 for $40. Participants must be able to eat, toilet and ambulate independently. There are also opportunities for volunteers to support this ministry. Contact Nancy Mosely at 205-769-0153 or nmosley@vhnc.org. Here’s the list of respite programs and adult day care centers:https://alzca.org/adult-day-care-centers/
In a shifting landscape in dementia risk factors, cardiovascular health (or the health of your heart and blood vessels) is now taking precedence. That’s according to researchers who analyzed 27 papers about dementia that had data collected over more than 70 years. Top risk factors for dementia over the years have been hypertension, obesity, diabetes, education, and smoking, but the prevalence of risk factors has changed over the decades. Researchers found smoking and education have become less important risk factors because of “population-level interventions,” such as stop-smoking campaigns and compulsory public education. On the other hand, obesity and diabetes rates have increased and become bigger risk factors. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, remains the greatest risk factor. Cardiovascular health
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Eli Lilly’s anti-amyloid donanemab (Kisunla) once-monthly injection for intravenous infusion for adults with early symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which includes mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild dementia stage of disease with confirmed amyloid pathology. Once-monthly donanemab is “the first and only amyloid plaque-targeting therapy with evidence to support stopping therapy when amyloid plaques are removed, which can result in lower treatment costs and fewer infusions,” Eli Lilly said in a statement announcing approval. This approval marks another step forward in evolving the standard of care for people living with Alzheimer’s disease that will ultimately include an arsenal of novel treatments, providing much needed hope to the Alzheimer’s community. According to Eli Lilly, the price of each vial of donanemab is $695 before insurance. A 6-month course of treatment would cost $12,522; a 12-month course, $32,000; and an 18-month course, $48,696. Patients’ out-of-pocket cost for donanemab will depend on their length of treatment and their insurance. FDA Approves Donanemab
Drugmaker Alzheon is currently running clinical trials on a new disease-modifying Alzheimer’s treatment: valiltramiprosate, or ALZ-801. A new class of Alzheimer’s drugs has entered the scene in the past two years. They’re “disease-modifying” drugs meaning that, unlike every other Alzheimer’s treatment that preceded them, they don’t just put a band-aid on symptoms — they actually treat the root pathology of the disease itself. One of the drawbacks of the first two of these drugs to achieve some degree of FDA approval, however, is that they’re administered by infusion. The new Alzheon drug, on the other hand, comes in the form of a pill. Another key difference between ALZ-801 and the newly FDA-approved disease-modifying Alzheimer’s drugs to date — Leqembi and Aduhelm — is that Alzheon’s drug isn’t designed to attack the problematic beta-amyloid protein plaques that build up in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s. Rather, it comes at the problem from a different direction, prevents good forms of beta-amyloid from turning into toxic plaques. New disease-modifying Alzheimer’s treatment
Watch this National Institute on Aging to learn six tips to help manage behavior changes in people with Alzheimer’s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzkcSyae_nU
DailyCaring offers 3 tips for peace of mind when using an in-home caregiver: DailyCaring
UsAgainstAlzheimer’s applauded the House Ways and Means Committee for its unanimous vote to advance a bipartisan bill aimed at improving early detection and diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). The Committee package includes The Concentrating on High-Value Alzheimer’s Needs to Get to an End (CHANGE) Act, which improves the Welcome to Medicare and Medicare Annual Wellness Visits by requiring clinicians to use tools identified by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to complete the cognitive assessment component of the visits, improving early detection of ADRD. By improving the early assessment processes, this legislation works to provide timely and effective care for families affected by Alzheimer’s and related dementia. The CHANGE Act could help clinicians detect and ultimately diagnose Alzheimer’s and related dementias at its earliest stages. UsAgainstAlz
Benzodiazepines are commonly prescribed in older adults for anxiety and sleep disorders. Though the short-term cognitive side effects are well-documented, the long-term impact on neurodegeneration and dementia risk remains unclear. Some studies have linked benzodiazepine use to an increased risk for dementia, whereas others have not. New research supports current guidelines cautioning against long-term use of benzodiazepines. The study of more than 5000 older adults found that benzodiazepine use was associated with an accelerated reduction in the volume of the hippocampus and amygdala — brain regions involved in memory and mood regulation. However, benzodiazepine use overall was not associated with an increased risk for dementia. Benzodiazepines
An Alabama woman celebrated her 108th birthday on July 7. Helen Denmark celebrated with a party thrown by her friends and caregivers at Brookdale Assisted Living in Birmingham. Denmark said she doesn’t feel any older than she did when she was 107, and says she stays feeling youthful by “drinking wine, eating dessert, and flirting with men with mustaches.” 108th birthday