How Improvisation Techniques Can Help You Talk with a Person with Dementia

Just listened to an NPR program about parallels between improvisation techniques and communicating with someone with dementia. The improviser's mantra is "Enter Their World," and that's what you need to do, too, when your loved one with Alzheimer's says something that doesn't make sense. Just enter his or her world and roll with it. Good advice.

The program I heard, This American Life, is worth a listen. You can listen to it here. One interviewee, Karen Stobbe, has a website, In the Moment, that elaborates a bit on embracing whatever reality the person with Alzheimer's presents you with.

Latest research supports ways to prevent cognitive decline

Steve Minsky of Nutritional Concepts in Northbrook, Illinois, writes this good news about ways we can be proactive in preventing devastating dementia:

Steve: They said it! They said it! They finally said it! It only took decades and billions of wrongly allocated funds for them to say it! Here's a quote in last week's USA Today:    "While medications have consistently failed to prevent Alzheimer's or significantly slow its progression, commonsense health activities can make a profound difference, a growing body of research shows."    Take a moment to let that sink in.    A study presented at this month's Alzheimer's Association International Conference showed that the combination of eating well, exercising, keeping mentally and socially engaged can reduce someone's risk of memory decline.    Another USA Today quote: "The routine things, the things that are simple, have turned out to be protective," said Yonas Geda, a professor of neurology and psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic, who was not involved in the study. "It keeps going back to the old advice from grandma."    Unfortunately, Professor Geda, the routine, simple things are not that easy. If they were that easy, we would not be in the throes of an Alzheimer's epidemic. However, if we keep reading and hearing statements like Professor Geda's, we will start to believe it and want to do everything possible to stay mentally sharp!      In the study, the group that paid extra attention to healthy eating, exercising, engagement and management of heart-health risk factors performed significantly better on tests of memory and other cognitive abilities than the control group. Researchers will follow both groups an additional seven years to see if the improvement continues.    Another study presented at the conference showed that exercise in midlife was protective against dementia decades later. Those in their 50s and 60s who simply took a walk after dinner three times a week were less likely to suffer memory problems in their 80s.    Yet another study published in last week's Lancet Neurology stated that pushing back symptoms by five to ten years with positive lifestyle choices is attainable and essentially would allow people to live the rest of their lives without real symptoms. Finally, a first-of-its-kind study from Alzheimer's & Dementia indicated that subjects taking fish oil supplements had significantly with less brain shrinkage, thus conserving cognition.    What do you know? Preventive efforts are finally receiving more attention and financial backing for memory decline. Why? Because it is the only thing that has been shown to work! Accompanied by our greater ability to measure the progression of the disease in the brain through the use of biological markers, it easier to slow progression of the disease. Treating patients once the symptoms begin is simply a non-starter.    We recognize that genetic factors play a role in cognitive decline, but this plays right into the hands of lifestyle intervention. Research has consistently shown that positive lifestyle interventions can help silence negatively expressing genes if not too much damage has already been done. Eureka!

Key Dietary Strategies to Protect Yourself from Alzheimer's

Although it is useless to try to figure out why our father got Alzheimer's, it seems productive to learn about ways we can avoid becoming part of this growing epidemic. Drawing on professional medical journals and the best-selling book Grain Brain, by Dr. Perlmutter, Dr. Mercola outlines practical, scientifically based steps everyone can take today. Check out his article here, and take a look at Alzheimer's-related links on the right side of the page for the latest on aluminum and vitamin E connections to Alzheimer's.

Playing Detective When Your Loved One Seems Unusually Confused

I've seen temporarily increased confusion caused by urinary tract infections (UTIs) in both my parents. I've read articles about this connection. Still, when I mention this to friends worried about an elderly parent's sudden dementia, they are surprised. So I want to direct you to an excellent article, "Playing Detective," by Today's Caregiver staff writer, Jennifer Bradley. I am fascinated by her explanation of why something happening in the bladder affects the brain. And I am so glad she addresses prevention of UTIs. Check it out here.

Kate Mulgrew's Call for Alzheimer's Action

Today's Caregiver editor Gary Barg's interview with actress Kate Mulgrew calls us to action on three counts:

1. Families of people with Alzheimer's need to understand and minister to this person's isolation, as well as the primary caregiver's sense of isolation.
2. Little acts of caregivers and other family members, like putting a doily under Mom's fruit cup, mean a lot. Do those little extras that communicate love.
3. Alzheimer's research badly needs funding!

Mulgrew expresses these thoughts so beautifully and descriptively. And she gives tips for involving more family members in the process. Read or listen to her interview here. 

Music Sings to the Heart ~ And Mind

When my father heard music in every stage of Alzheimer's, he gyrated his wrists to the music, sometimes "danced" with his shoulders, and always smiled. It was a pleasure to see music giving him such obvious pleasure. Most of Dad's favorites were on cassette tapes he himself had compiled, so throughout his nearly three years in the nursing home, our family searched dusty corners of our basements to find tape players that still worked. We had to replace several in Dad's room, but we wanted him to be able to enjoy his music. At one point, I made CDs of his tapes, but then the CD players we took to the nursing home broke, too. Fortunately, his nursing home had working players we could borrow if need be. And they also had one or two music programs a day we could wheel Dad to.

Here are two Caregiver.com articles about music's benefits for people with Alzheimer's.
Reaching People with Alzheimer's Through Music, by Barbara Jacobs, M.S.
The Healing Power of Music, by Steve Toll and Linda Bareham

A Fall Might Change Everything

Dark red scabs and scrapes on his knees were evidence that my dad fell off his bike with some frequency. He never broke a bone. But one day his bicycle disappeared from the garage. The decision had been made: It was too risky for him to continue riding. My mother, on the other hand, has been hospitalized for bone repairs after falling. She bravely continues walking, but always with someone present or an alert button dangling from a silk cord around her neck. After falling a few times, you lose confidence and live with varying degrees of fear of falling again. Even I, 30 years younger than my parents, hesitate to play tennis again now that my knees have buckled a few times on the stairs. My doctor says if I keep up with my physical therapy knee exercises, tennis should be no problem. Still ... I envision my body crumpling on the court, a fall that would result in new painful problems, perhaps even serious limitations. Fear of falling is real.

Check out a good article, "Fear of Falling: Preventing Falls and Fear," by Sharon Roth Maguire in Today's Caregiver at Caregiver.com. She addresses four major fall risks to reduce. If you take preventive measures, hopefully, as your fall risk lessens, your fear will lessen, too.