82-Year-Old Woman With Dementia Gets Her Memory Back After Changing Her Diet

Recently, an 82-year-old woman who suffered from dementia, who couldn’t recognize her own son has miraculously got her memory back after changing her diet.

When his mother’s condition became so severe that for her own safety she had to be kept in the hospital, Mark Hatzer almost came to terms with losing another parent.

Sylvia had lost her memory and parts of her mind, she had even phoned the police once accusing the nurse who were caring for her of kidnap.

A change in diet, which was comprised of high amounts of blueberries and walnuts, has proven to have had a strong impact on Sylvia’s condition that her recipes are now being shared by the Alzheimer’s Society.

Sylvia Hatzer

Sylvia also began incorporating other health foods, including broccoli, kale, spinach, sunflower seeds, green tea, oats, sweet potatoes and even dark chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa. All of these foods are known to be beneficial for brain health.

Mark and Sylvia devised to diet together after deciding that the medication on its own was not enough, they looked into the research showing that rates of dementia are much lower in Mediterranean countries and copied a lot of their eating habits.

Mark, whose brother Brent also died in 1977, said: “When my mum was in hospital she thought it was a hotel – but the worst one she had ever been in."

“She didn’t recognise me and phoned the police as she thought she’d been kidnapped.”

“Since my dad and brother died we have always been a very close little family unit, just me and my mum, so for her to not know who I was, was devastating.”

“We were a double act that went everywhere together. I despaired and never felt so alone as I had no other family to turn to.”

“Overnight we went from a happy family to one in crisis.”

“When she left hospital, instead of prescribed medication we thought we’d perhaps try alternative treatment.”

“In certain countries Alzheimer’s is virtually unheard of because of their diet.”

“Everyone knows about fish but there are also blueberries, strawberries, Brazil nuts and walnuts – these are apparently shaped like a brain to give us a sign that they are good for the brain.”

There were also some cognitive exercises that Mark and his mother would do together like jigsaw puzzles, crosswords and meeting people in social situations.  Sylvia would also exercise by using a pedalling device outfitted for her chair.

Mark said, “It wasn’t an overnight miracle, but after a couple of months she began remembering things like birthdays and was becoming her old self again, more alert, more engaged.”

“People think that once you get a diagnosis your life is at an end. You will have good and bad days, but it doesn’t have to be the end. For an 82-year-old she does very well, she looks 10 years younger and if you met her you would not know she had gone through all of this.”

“She had to have help with all sorts of things, now she is turning it round. We are living to the older age in this country, but we are not necessarily living healthier.”

This story just goes to show how resilient our bodies really are if given the right environment. Most of these types of diseases are often related to diet in the first place so that means that they can indeed be reversed with a proper diet. Sure, some of them are genetic and you might be a carrier of the gene, but that is not a guarantee that it will become active, there are things you can do to minimize the risk. Our health is our greatest wealth. We have to realize that we do have a say in our lives and what our fate is.

(Source:  https://peoplestrusttoronto.wordpress.com/2018/04/27/82-year-old-woman-with-dementia-gets-her-memory-back-after-changing-her-diet/)

Chinese courier takes elderly Alzheimer's mother on rounds with him because she cannot be left alone

A courier in southwest China has been taking his elderly mother along with him on his rounds for the past seven years to ensure she is looked after at all times.

Cai Yujun, 52, has modified his electric bike to ensure that his 92-year-old mother Yang Suxiu has a more comfortable seat on the back.  

He also uses a couple of ropes to secure her to the frame as he makes deliveries to computer shops in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province.

Yang was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s seven years ago and can longer take care of herself, according to the news website report.

“Mother has laboured her whole life for our family. So, no matter how hard life is, I cannot shirk my responsibility for taking care of her,” Cai told the website.

The pair have traveled to every corner of the city together, and the report said Cai always holds his mother’s hand when delivering products to prevent her from getting lost.

Cai’s colleagues and friends have also helped out by keeping an eye on her when she cannot follow her son into some of the buildings he visits.

“Many friends like to chat and joke with her,” Cai added.

(Source:  South China Morning Post, 18 April 2018)

STUDY FINDS TREATING DEPRESSION LOWERS ALZHEIMER’S RISK

There is no one reason why some people get Alzheimer’s and others do not. Most scientists point to genetics and lifestyle as the main factors, but there are many subcategories within those factors that all play a part in overall risk: education level, sex, obesity, whether or not someone is a smoker or has high blood pressure, and age itself, among others. Some of these, like smoking, can be controlled; others, like genetics, are just the luck of the draw.

And then there’s depression, which a large body of research points to as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s. Older adults with depression have been identified as twice as likely to develop dementia, and 65 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer’s. People cannot control whether or not they’ll get depression, but they can treat it, which a new study says can help prevent how it affects Alzheimer’s risk.

According to a new study from Boston University School of Medicine, getting evaluated and treated for depression can improve or maintain cognitive function in patients with mild cognitive impairment (M.C.I.), which is considered to be the first stage of Alzheimer’s by most researchers. People with M.C.I. can still function in their day-to-day life, but tasks like paying bills or grocery shopping are noticeably harder.

Researchers looked at data from over 6,700 people with an average age of 72. The participants were evaluated at the beginning of the study for cognitive ability, then followed for two to 12 years.

While results showed that people who started as normal were more likely to progress to M.C.I. if they had depression, anxiety or other mood symptoms, one-third of those who had M.C.I. were able to go back to normal cognition, and those who reverted back had a reduction in depressive symptoms.

Researchers highlighted that successfully identifying and providing effective treatment for these neuropsychiatric symptoms, including depression, may potentially improve or maintain cognitive functioning in many older adults.

Researchers still don’t know if late-life depression causes dementia or contributes to it, or if it’s the other way around—those who are pre-symptomatic may experience depression as a result of changes in the brain that will lead to dementia.

It is highlighted that there are many possible explanations for these findings and further research is needed to address this important issue.

(Source:  Being Patient, 11 April 2018  – This study was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.)

LONGER LIVES, BETTER LIVING - WHY I’M DIGGING DEEP INTO ALZHEIMER'S

By Bill Gates, 13 November 2017

In every part of the world, people are living longer than they used to. Thanks to scientific advancements, fewer people die young from heart disease, cancer, and infectious diseases. It’s no longer unusual for a person to live well into their 80s and beyond. My dad will celebrate his 92nd birthday in a couple weeks, a milestone that was practically unimaginable when he was born.

This fact—that people are living longer than ever before—should always be a wonderful thing. But what happens when it’s not?

Investing In The Fight Against Alzheimer’s

The longer you live, the more likely you are to develop a chronic condition. Your risk of getting arthritis, Parkinson’s, or another non-infectious disease that diminishes your quality of life increases with each year. But of all the disorders that plague us late in life, one stands out as a particularly big threat to society: Alzheimer’s disease.

You have a nearly 50 percent chance of developing the disease if you live into your mid-80s. It is the only cause of death in the top 10 without any meaningful treatments that becomes more prevalent each year. That trend will likely continue as baby boomers age, which means that more families will watch their loved ones suffer from cognitive decline and slowly disappear. Despite this growing burden, scientists have yet to figure out what exactly causes Alzheimer’s or how to stop the disease from destroying the brain.

I first became interested in Alzheimer’s because of its costs—both emotional and economic—to families and healthcare systems. The financial burden of the disease is much easier to quantify. A person with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia spends five times more every year out-of-pocket on healthcare than a senior without a neurodegenerative condition. Unlike those with many chronic diseases, people with Alzheimer’s incur long-term care costs as well as direct medical expenses. If you get the disease in your 60s or 70s, you might require expensive care for decades.

These costs represent one of the fastest growing burdens on healthcare systems in developed countries. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, Americans will spend $259 billion caring for those with Alzheimer’s and other dementias in 2017. Absent a major breakthrough, expenditures will continue to squeeze healthcare budgets in the years and decades to come. This is something that governments all over the world need to be thinking about, including in low- and middle-income countries where life expectancies are catching up to the global average and the number of people with dementia is on the rise.

The human cost of Alzheimer’s is much more difficult to put into numbers. It’s a terrible disease that devastates both those who have it and their loved ones. This is something I know a lot about, because men in my family have suffered from Alzheimer’s. I know how awful it is to watch people you love struggle as the disease robs them of their mental capacity, and there is nothing you can do about it. It feels a lot like you’re experiencing a gradual death of the person that you knew.

My family history isn’t the sole reason behind my interest in Alzheimer’s. But my personal experience has exposed me to how hopeless it feels when you or a loved one gets the disease. We’ve seen scientific innovation turn once-guaranteed killers like HIV into chronic illnesses that can be held in check with medication. I believe we can do the same (or better) with Alzheimer’s.

I’ve spent considerable time over the last year learning about the disease and the progress made to date. There’s a lot of amazing work being done in this field to delay Alzheimer’s and reduce its cognitive impact. What I’ve heard from researchers, academics, funders, and industry experts makes me hopeful that we can substantially alter the course of Alzheimer’s if we make progress in five areas:

·     We need to better understand how Alzheimer’s unfolds. The brain is a complicated    organ. Because it’s so difficult to study while patients are alive, we know very little about  how it ages normally and how Alzheimer’s disrupts that process. Our understanding of what happens in the brain is based largely on autopsies, which show only the late stages of the disease and don’t explain many of its lingering mysteries. For example, we don’t fully understand why you are more likely to get Alzheimer’s if you’re African American or Latino than if you’re white. If we’re going to make progress, we need a better grasp on its underlying causes and biology.

·       We need to detect and diagnose Alzheimer’s earlier. Since the only way to diagnose Alzheimer’s definitively is through an autopsy after death, it’s difficult to identify the disease definitively early in its progression. Cognitive tests exist but often have a high variance. If you didn’t sleep well the night before, that might skew your results. A more reliable, affordable, and accessible diagnostic—such as a blood test—would make it easier to see how Alzheimer’s progresses and track how effective new drugs are.

·       We need to better understand how Alzheimer’s unfolds. The brain is a complicated organ. Because it’s so difficult to study while patients are alive, we know very little about how it ages normally and how Alzheimer’s disrupts that process. Our understanding of what happens in the brain is based largely on autopsies, which show only the late stages of the disease and don’t explain many of its lingering mysteries. For example, we don’t fully understand why you are more likely to get Alzheimer’s if you’re African American or Latino than if you’re white. If we’re going to make progress, we need a better grasp on its underlying causes and biology.

·       We need to make it easier to get people enrolled in clinical trials. The pace of innovation is partly determined by how quickly we can do clinical trials. Since we don’t yet have a good understanding of the disease or a reliable diagnostic, it’s difficult to find qualified people early enough in the disease’s progression willing to participate. It can sometimes take years to enroll enough patients. If we could develop a process to pre-qualify participants and create efficient registries, we could start new trials more quickly.

·     We need to use data better. Every time a pharmaceutical company or a research lab does a study, they gather lots of information. We should compile this data in a common form, so that we get a better sense of how the disease progresses, how that progression is determined by gender and age, and how genetics determines your likelihood of getting Alzheimer’s. This would make it easier for researchers to look for patterns and identify new pathways for treatment.

By improving in each of these areas, I think we can develop an intervention that drastically reduces the impact of Alzheimer’s. There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about our chances: our understanding of the brain and the disease is advancing a great deal. We’re already making progress—but we need to do more.

I want to support the brilliant minds doing this work. As a first step, I’ve invested $50 million in the Dementia Discovery Fund—a private fund working to diversify the clinical pipeline and identify new targets for treatment. Most of the major pharmaceutical companies continue to pursue the amyloid and tau pathways. DDF complements their work by supporting startups as they explore less mainstream approaches to treating dementia.

I’m making this investment on my own, not through the foundation. The first Alzheimer’s treatments might not come to fruition for another decade or more, and they will be very expensive at first. Once that day comes, our foundation might look at how we can expand access in poor countries.

But before we can even begin to think about how we do that, we need lots of scientific breakthroughs. With all of the new tools and theories in development, I believe we are at a turning point in Alzheimer’s R&D. Now is the right time to accelerate that progress before the major costs hit countries that can’t afford high priced therapies and where exposure to the kind of budget implications of an Alzheimer’s epidemic could bankrupt health systems.

This is a frontier where we can dramatically improve human life. It’s a miracle that people are living so much longer, but longer life expectancies alone are not enough. People should be able to enjoy their later years—and we need a breakthrough in Alzheimer’s to fulfill that. I’m excited to join the fight and can’t wait to see what happens next.

(Source: GatesNotes Insider)

HOW DEMENTIA IMPACTS BEHAVIOUR

In the initial stages, patients appear so normal that people around them forget that they are suffering from a disease that has affected their brain. While theoretically people know that the patients have a disease, they do not correlate the apparently inconsistent or inconsiderate behaviour of the patients with the disease. Caregivers may assume that the patient is being uncooperative or stubborn or just not trying hard enough, and therefore get irritated or sad or angry. Patients sense this emotion and this, too, affects their behavior.

The intention of this page is to give caregivers some idea on how behavior is impacted by problems that dementia patients facing.  It is by no means an exhaustive list; it only aims to help caregivers orientate themselves to dementia behavior so that they set realistic expectations and can think of ways to handle behaviors that could harm the patient and others around them. 

• The brain gets damaged in dementia
• How dementia affects the ability to do things
• How dementia affects the emotional state of the patient
• What caregivers can remember about dementia behaviour

In order to see how dementia affects behaviour, we need to understand that the diseases that cause dementia affect the brain, and that the patient’s problems occur because of these organic changes to the brain.

The brain is a very complex organ, with billions of cells (neurons) that communicate with each other so that we can do things. Different parts of the brain perform different tasks. Dementing diseases affect the brain. The parts of the brain affected, and how the damage increases over time, depends on the disease causing the dementia. Image on left courtesy of : National Institute on Aging/National Institutes of Health

The damage to the brain increases as dementia progresses. The damage may become more severe, and more areas of the brain may also get damaged.

To illustrate the increasing damage to the brain, the image panel below uses images of brains of patients with Alzheimer’s Disease, the leading cause of dementia (Coutesy of National Institute on Aging/National Institutes of Health).

Images showing Pre-clinical Alzheimer’s Disease, Mild Alzheimer’s Disease and Severe Alzheimer’s Disease

   

   

HOW DEMENTIA AFFECTS THE ABILITY TO DO THINGS:

	Explanation	Impact on behaviour
Image courtesy: National Institute on Aging/National Institutes of Health	Different patients have damage in different parts of the brain. When the disease progresses, it may affect different parts in different people.	Different patients will face different types of problems. For example, some may have more problems walking, while others may have more problems while speaking. Over time, the patient’s ability to do things will get worse.
Image courtesy: National Institute on Aging/National Institutes of Health	As dementia progresses, the damage to the brain increases. More areas of the brain may get impacted.	Visible symptoms increase depending on the areas of the brain affected, and the severity of the damage. As more and more parts of the brain are impacted, the patient’s ability to perform activities of daily living keeps decreasing. Communication is often impacted. Memory loss is common in many types of dementia. Major personality changes are seen in some types of dementia. There is an overall deterioration. In the final stages, the patient is fully dependent and often unable to communicate.
	Every task we do has multiple steps. Inability to do any step results in inability to complete a task.	If the dementing disease has affected the patient’s ability to do part of a task, the patient will not be able to do that task independently and will need assistance.
	Every task requires coordination of various parts of our body and the ability to pay attention. Multiple parts of the brain have to function properly to perform this. For example, to light the gas stove, we need to position the lighter near the burner and click its button at the exact moment that we turn the corresponding knob of the gas stove. As dementia progresses, at least some parts of the brain required for this coordination and focus are likely to be damaged.	Patients will no longer be able to do complex tasks that require precision and coordination. Attempts to do such tasks are likely to lead to frustration or accidents.
	All of us have some fluctuation in our abilities over days, depending on our mood and health and energy. In dementia patients, we often find fluctuations in the abilities to do a specific task or remember something. Fluctuations in cognitive ability are particularly common in Lewy Body Dementia	To persons interacting with dementia patients, it seems strange to see the person able to remember something on one day, and not be able to remember it later. When they see the patient do something on one day and not be able to do it the very next day, people begin thinking the person is not trying hard enough. It is helpful to know that such fluctuations may be characteristic of their dementia.
	Often, patients get disoriented because of problems like loss of memories, visio-spatial problems, discomfort with too much stimulus or noise, inability to understand objects around them, etc.	This leads to multiple problems, such as The patient may wander and forget the way back home. The patient may consider himself/ herself as younger and expect a different home, and may not recognize the children and grandchildren, or mistake the daughter for the wife. The patient may keep insisting he/ she wants to go home. The patient may be anxious about not knowing where the toilet is.
	Patients often cannot communicate what they want. They may have problems remembering the right word, or may not know the meaning of words others use. They may not be able to frame sentences. Patients may also have problems knowing what they are feeling; they may not realize they are hungry or thirsty or hot or cold, or even that they are unwell or in pain.	They may not be able to tell caregivers what they want. They may not be able to indicate that they are unwell or are in pain. So their needs remain unfulfilled. This may also frustrate, distress, or anger them, even if they don’t know how to express it. If they are ill, their illness will affect their ability to do things, but caregivers may not understand  why the patient is acting differently today. Also, the caregiver may not realize that the patient needs rest/ treatment.
	In many types of dementia, recent memories are lost, and patients often revert to older memories, or (unconsciously) try to fill gaps in their memories using their imagination.	Patients cannot recognize people or places, and may not even recognize their home and family.
	Often, patients are unable to create new memories. They may also have problems understanding complex instructions or concepts.	This affects their ability to learn new things, use new devices, and adjust to new places. They may also get stressed when they meet new persons or see new things, and start avoiding such situations.
	In many types of dementia, the part of the brain that tells people how to interact socially is not damaged initially. This social interaction ability deteriorates at a slower pace in most patients.	Patients may cover up for memory loss and other problems by giving evasive answers, thus masking the problem in the presence of guests.
	In some types of dementia, people become disinhibited or are unable to behave in socially correct ways because the part of the brain that regulates behavior is damaged. The patient’s personality changes. Emotions may also get flattened and the patient may show apathy. Such problems are typical in behavior-variant fronto-temporal dementia.	Often, this leads to embarrassing situations where people may assume the patient has “bad character” or is inconsiderate and insensitive. For example, the patient may made rude remarks (even sexual comments), yell or abuse. Or the patient may laugh when others are crying. Or the patient may lose interest in everything and not show any reaction to emotions of persons nearby.
	In some forms of dementia, notably Lewy Body Dementia, patients may suffer from hallucinations. Delusions and paranoia are also present in some forms of dementia	Patients who hallucinate may sometimes realize they are hallucinating, but at other times, they may be confused or frightened because they believe what they are seeing or hearing. Hallucinations may make familiar tasks difficult when they cannot distinguish between reality and hallucination (for example, if they see a road split into four, they cannot drive). People near them may not realize that the patient is hallucinating and hence confused/ frightened. Delusions and paranoia also affect how the patient interacts with others. They may accuse people of stealing their possessions or even of trying to kill them. It is difficult to make the patient understand what is real and what is delusion, or to calm down a paranoid patient.
	Repetitive behavior and compulsive behavior are common in many forms of dementia. (this is also called ‘perseveration’). Such behavior may occur for many reasons, such as forgetting having said or done the thing earlier, boredom, anxiety, agitation, etc.	Common examples are the patient may say the same thing repeatedly, ask the same question, make the same gesture, do the same action, etcetera. Often, such repetitive behavior is harmless, but at times it may be problematic (like the patient insisting on eating breakfast multiple times) or even harmful (taking medication mutliple times) or exhausting (such as packing/ unpacking a suitcase or pacing). It can also be annoying or distressing for caregivers if they don’t understand it is happening because of dementia and don’t know how to cope with it.
	In many instances, dementia patients show changed behavior in the evenings/ night, called “sundowning”. While causes for such behavior are not fully understood, they are expected to be related to day time activities, exhaustion, body clock, food cycles, intake of liquid foods near dinner time, and so on.	Patients start acting agitated as evening approaches. They may be restless and start pacing. They may seem more agitated and anxious. Sleeplessness is another problem. They may walk up and down all night, mumbling or even shouting at times. All this can be very tiring for the patients and their caregivers.

HOW DEMENTIA AFFECTS THE EMOTIONAL STATE OF THE PATIENTS 

Dementia impacts the emotions of patients in multiple ways.

Some parts of the brain are responsible for processing and regulating emotions. If dementia has damaged these parts of the brain, the patient’s ability to regulate emotions is reduced. Also, parts of the brain are responsible for interpreting facial expressions to understand the emotions of others; damage to these parts will mean the patient may not know what others are feeling. Due to such problems, dementia patients may therefore seem apathetic or emotionally “flat.”

We behave in socially appropriate ways because our brain controls our behavior and emotions. Without such control, people may yell or abuse, or laugh loudly or cry at inappropriate times, or behave in disinhibited ways, like taking off clothes in public or passing vulgar comments. Such behavior is a characteristic of some types of dementia, where the frontal lobe has been damaged.

The patient’s emotions may also be affected because the patients sense their reduced cognitive abilities, such as in areas like in thinking, recognizing, speaking, doing things and so on, but they do not understand what is wrong with them (they do not understand or remember their own diagnosis). They feel a loss of identity, and are disoriented, bewildered and confused about what is happening. Because of this, they may experience emotions ranging from withdrawal and depression to anger and agitation. They may get restless or anxious.

Lost memories mean that the patient may not remember where he or she kept something, and this may create suspicion and paranoia. Not remembering that they have eaten recently may make them demand food repeatedly or complain that they are being starved. Complaining to others that they are being mistreated is common in many patients, and occurs because patients cannot remember that they have been looked after and fed. Disorientation to time and place may make them behave in uninhibited and socially unacceptable ways.

Sometimes, the patient slips into what is called “catastrophic behaviour.” This happens when the patient’s agitation and frustration crosses a threshold and the patient is out of control. It is very difficult to placate or control a patient once he / she slips into such behaviour, especially because the brain’s ability to regulate emotions may also have been affected by dementia.

A good way to truly understand how dementia affects people is to pause to think what it could be like to suffer from dementia.

Some patients have written about their experiences and feelings, and described their problems, confusion, frustration, and reduction in abilities. Their relief at learning that their problems were because of a medical problem. In their personal stories, they have talked of their determination on some days, and despair on others, and their attempts to live as normally as they could, though the usual “normal” did not apply to them. Note that these are all accounts written by persons diagnosed relatively early, and who have not progressed to the advanced stages of dementia.

Now, let us imagine that we undergo such experiences without the benefit of a diagnosis. Let us imagine not knowing where we are or what day and time it is, unable to recognize people or find the correct word, not sure what we were trying to do. Imagine wondering what is going wrong, but too scared and perhaps ashamed to admit the problems or ask for help.

While no one can fully comprehend what it must be like to have one’s own mind so confused and undependable at times, and also face so many difficulties in making the body do what the person wants, some persons have used devices to give caregivers a glimpse of what living with dementia may involve. A youtube video that describes such an sensitization experiment can be viewed at this link: Experience 12 Minutes In Alzheimer’s Dementia.

Dementia awareness in most countries is very poor. This means persons who face problems similar to those described in the above personal stories do not get diagnosed, and they and their families expect “normal” behaviour all the time. By the time the situation is bad enough for everyone to consider consulting a doctor, chances are that the patient can no longer understand explanations about dementia or remember them. The concept of “Alzheimer’s Disease” or other form of Dementia is new to the patient, who may not grasp it or remember it, and may continue to feel scared or ashamed. This surely worsens the stress and further makes things difficult for the patient.

Our understanding of what patients undergo may help us appreciate why they get agitated or depressed, and we may find the strength and empathy to help them.

WHAT CAREGIVERS CAN REMEMBER ABOUT DEMENTIA BEHAVIOUR:

• The patient’s brain has suffered a damage. Just because we cannot see the damage does not make it less real. We accept that a heart patient cannot lift heavy weights; a dementia patient cannot think and remember.
• Most of us assume that people act out of clear reasons and motives. That is, if someone said something nasty, we assume he meant it. We cannot assume that dementia patients are acting out of intention, because they cannot think clearly, and do not have a logical reason for their behavior.
• Dementia patients are not acting difficult because they want to trouble us (even if it seems so to us). They are acting difficult because their brains are not cooperating with them. If our brains were damaged, we would find things more difficult, too.
• If a dementia patient is acting strange on a particular day, it could be because of a problem the patient cannot tell us.
• If a patient gets upset and emotional, it is because the patient is frustrated and cannot handle a situation. We can use their emotion as an indication that they need help, rather than get upset about it.
• If a patient is behaving in a socially inappropriate way, or showing apathy, that may be because some part of his/ her brain is damaged. After all, emotions are generated and regulated in the brain so a damage in the brain can affect emotions.
• Our brains are working properly; if we cannot understand what the patient is doing, how can we expect the patient (whose brain has problems) to understand us?
• We need to learn tools to communicate with patients and to help them with various tasks.  We need to learn how to handle challenging behavior. The patients cannot learn new things; it is for us to learn how to cope with the situation.

 (Source:  Dementia Care Notes)

TO DRINK OR NOT TO DRINK: ALCOHOL AND MEMORY

Alcohol's effects on memory depend on the amount consumed. Heavy alcohol consumption, especially binge drinking, takes a toll on memory function. In a study published in epidemiology, midlife binge drinking more than tripled the risk of developing dementia in later life. (Binge drinking was defined as consuming more than five bottles of beer or one bottle of wine on one occasion at least monthly.) The risk of dementia was more than 10 times higher among drinkers who had passed out at least twice during one year.

In contrast, mild to moderate drinking appears to have a protective effect on memory. The source of this protection is not fully understood, but modest alcohol consumption is believed to improve blood flow in the brain and may help prevent small "silent" strokes.

In research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, investigators reported that people who drank one to six alcoholic beverages a week had a 54 percent lower risk of dementia than people who never drank. Consuming 14 or more drinks per week, in contrast, was associated with an increased risk of dementia.

Some research shows that being a nonsmoker factors into the protective effect of alcohol. A study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease found that those who consumed a moderate amount of alcohol had a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's - especially if they were nonsmokers.

Although no optimal level of alcohol consumption has been established, experts recommend that men consume no more than two drinks per day and women, no more than one drink per day. (One drink equals 12 oz. of regular beer, about 5 oz. of wine or 1.5 oz. of 80-proof distilled liquor.) Women who have an elevated risk of breast cancer should talk with their doctors about drinking alcohol, because as little as one drink a day can boost breast cancer risk. Research is still emerging on how the type of alcohol -  beer, wine or liquor - affects dementia risk.

Despite the apparent cognitive benefits of moderate alcohol consumption, nondrinkers should not start drinking to prevent dementia. The risks of excessive alcohol consumption are many, including alcoholism and automobile accidents.

(Source:  John Hopkins Health Alert, Memory, posted 4 November 2013)