My dad is stricken with alzheimers yet refuses to wear the GPS tracking device required by the assisted living facility where he now lives. He cannot stay there unless he wears the necklace. He’s being ornery about it. Any suggestions?

My father who’s 70 is forgetful, he can’t count like he use to but he still carries a conversation, drives with no incident, still hunt and fish, makes jokes etc.

He went to the hospital for a routine knee operation and the doctors told our mother he has dementia! (he’s been sleep walking while at the hospital).

Anyway. We want a second opinion, not the diagnosis of a small town doctor treating cuts and bruises all day long.

Thanks,

Are there any daily activities I can partake with my grandmother to keep her from falling into the clutches of Alzheimers…she is 81, and I worry.

She doesn’t like to read much.

Is there anything that doesn’t involve reading and writing — that will help her retain her memory. Other sorts of excericises?

Alzheimer’s disease versus dementia has been a normally discussed topic. Both these problems are faced by the older people. it is very common in aged people that over a period of time their memory reduces and they start forgetting things. Alzheimer’s disease has different bodily and mental state. Whereas, in dementia patients have a major mental disorder which wraps a large range of cognitive problems.

Another discussion when it comes to Alzheimer’s disease versus dementia is that in dementia a huge population of the aged people is affected. It is said that in America alone around 4 million people are affected by dementia. The major symptom of this problem is that the memory of the person starts to fade off. Such patients normally face a of difficulties. Even doing their day to day jobs tends to become difficult for them. when we compare Alzheimer’s disease versus dementia it can be noted that Alzheimer’s disease starts only after an age of sixty among people.

An argument when it comes to Alzheimer’s disease versus dementia is that dementia occurs due to devastation of the brain cells. This can happen due to various reasons. It can be a stroke, damage to the brain, or even brain tumor. This can come to people because of heredity reasons also. Such people might change gradually. Their mood will differ at a later stage. As compared to Alzheimer’s disease versus dementia, Alzheimer’s disease is seen in people after a certain age that is sixty. This can also be heredity.

People suffering from dementia would not be aware of certain things. That is they would not know that they have forgotten something. When they plan for something they would tend to forget it, even language at times becomes a problem for them. There have been instances where people suffering from dementia have problems in dressing up to even calling up some body.

In Alzheimer’s disease patients the fist thing that is noticed would be loss of memory. In such a case people even tend to forget their family members and friends who have been with them for such a long time. reading and writing becomes a problem for such people. the problem with such a disease is that it does not have a proper cure. The disease can be slowed down gradually.

Be it any problem of Alzheimer’s disease of dementia it needs doctors advice and care. He would be in a better position to explain the stage of the disease and whether it is curable.

By: Manuel Wiggins

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This is a touchy subject since I have it. I’d like to know this because some websites say that this is not true while other say that it is true. I don’t want Alzheimers later on in my life. Seriously, this scares me.

For a long time the mechanisms through which some people contracted Alzheimer’s disease AD) was a mystery. They knew that there was some kind of genetic link because it tended to run in families, but beyond that, no one knew.

Now, Alzheimer’s disease research has made it possible to paint a much clearer picture. We now know that there are both genetic and environmental factors involved. We also know that the precursors to the disease begin appearing decades before Alzheimer’s symptoms become evident, much like HIV appears years before AIDS develops.

We don’t yet have as clear a marker for the beginnings of AD as HIV is to AIDS, but Alzheimer’s disease research is working on it. Researchers are currently pursuing and validating several promising precursor markers. They also continue to identify and clarify various environmental factors that play a part.

There are both positive indicators that identify elements associated with those who do not get Alzheimer’s and negative indicators associated with those that do. For Alzheimer’s disease prevention then, it would seem that all we have to do is use and adopt the positive and avoid the negative factors.

An example of a negative indicator could be major tooth loss. People who have lost more than 1/3 of their teeth are at a significantly higher risk for Alzheimer’s and other dementias than those who have retained most of their teeth. So we brush and floss, visit a dentist regularly, take care of our teeth and keep them.

There are many positive factors, too many to go into here, but a good, strong example would be by maintaining the level of Vitamin B-12 in your bloodstream at 600 to 2,000 pg/ml. [In the U.S. the averages are generally much lower. Japan's "normal" range is 500-1,300 which may explain why Japan has such a low rate of AD.]

By way of background, mammals, including humans, are born with serum levels of vitamin B12 at about 2,000 pg/ml (picograms–i.e., trillionths of a gram, per milliliter). The level declines throughout human life for various reasons, some known, others guessed at, many unknown.

Dr. John V. Dommisse, who practices medicine in Tucson, Arizona, wrote an article in 1991 in Medical Hypotheses in which he maintained that most cases of Alzheimer’s dementia are actually missed B12 deficiency cases. He later reported that Alzheimer’s disease appeared to result from too-low serum vitamin B12.

Replenishing the vitamin succeeded in improving patients in spite of other risk factors. Repleting B12, according to Dommisse, can reverse 75% of B12 deficiency dementias when the condition is discovered early enough.

More recent research has put a finer point on it. For example, in Preventive Medicine Update (May 1995), Jeffrey Bland, PhD reported, “…a wide range of very important clinical outcomes from improving folate/B12/B6 status, cutting across neurological and arterial functional status.”

Which ties in to the correlation between high levels of homocysteine and AD. Reducing your level of homocysteine also makes you less likely to get AD. Folates and other B-vitamins will reduce your homocysteine levels rapidly and economically. B-12 is cheap, available in a number of forms.(See below for more on this.)

So, to summarize that area of Alzheimer’s disease research, the bottom line is, a simple but effective step for Alzhemer’s prevention is to get your levels of B-12 and homocysteine checked. Then take B-12, folates and other B-vitamins to raise your serum B-12 and lower your homocystein, to positive, anti-AD ranges.

For more about Alzheimer’s disease research and about Alzheimer’s prevention, follow the links below…

By: Jorge G. Chavez

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My Mother is 66 years. Recently she has become stupid and forgetful, could it be onset of dementia or Alzheimers or is it the normal process of growing old?

For example, if you run out of your house for no reason (maybe confusion) is that dementia or Alzheimers?
Which is worse?

Learn about dementias, including Alzheimer’s disease and the brain problems involved.

that is, is there like a biological explanation as to why it occurs, and what part of of the brain does it specifically effect?
Im writing a psych paper about how different mental illnesses have biological roots but i cant seem to find very much info about Alzheimers.
thanks!