#dementia/Alzheimer's

[caintooth]

seeing people my age talk about how scared they are of memory loss, which they only associate with old age, is so surreal to see as a 24 year old who has actively experienced memory loss for a long time now

there are causes for memory loss besides dementia and alzheimer’s, i hope y’all know that. dissociative disorders, trauma, brain injuries, thyroid problems, even just stress and lack of sleep can fuck up your ability to store, process, and access memory. and that’s just a few of the many causes i can think of off the top of my head right now.

please stop treating disabled people like some scary “other” that you might become only in the distant, decades-away future. we are your age, too. you may become one of us sooner than you know. stop acting like memory loss marks the end of a life, when so many of us have so much living left to do!

[ayeforscotland]

A hard-hitting video about Dementia by Alzheimer's Research UK narrated by Olivia Coleman. Dementia has claimed two grandparents of mine, and is likely to take my last grandparent soon. With enough research, I hope one day we can beat it.

[portraitoftheoddity]

I see the oranges post about my parents is making the rounds again, so I figured I'd post an update about my parents and food.

So my folks are both in their sixties now (oranges story happened in the 1980s), and my dad is semi-retired and works part time from home. He has also become a huge foodie over the course of my parents' marriage, and is really into cooking. He now cooks every meal in that house, three times a day (if he's home and not traveling for work or out doing crazy outdoors shit or volunteering), and genuinely deeply enjoys it and loves cooking for my mom.

My mother is having a lot of anxieties about aging right now -- mainly because her father (my gramps) developed severe dementia prior to his death, and where my mom was his caretaker through much of his decline, she's terrified of going through the same thing. Any time she has a very normal lapse in memory, she panics that she's losing her mind.

So my dad started doing research. He listened to a podcast with an endocrinologist who talked about diet and brain health and work he'd done into how certain nutritional regimens can slow the progression of dementia, and he ended up reading a book on the topic and doing a lot of his own research into the science of nutrition with regards to neuroscience (he's pretty good at vetting real scientific sources and not just buying into boomer-facebook-pseudoscience).

And then he put them BOTH on a new, brain-healthy diet specifically optimized to cut out foods that have demonstrated a negative impact on cognitive function in studies, and including those that have been associated with benefits to brain health.

Now remember, my dad is a huge foodie. And he has 100% now committed to cutting out a number of his favorite foods because there was never a question in his mind that he wouldn't be doing this right beside my mom, as he cooks all their meals and they share those meals together. All to help my mom's brain and soothe her fears about her own mind and the future by working on any factor within their control.

I visited them last weekend and Dad's cooking is, as always, delicious. But even though they've cut out a lot of sugar, there's an innate sweetness in knowing just how much every meal he cooks is an act of love.

[reasonsforhope]

"Caring for a pet helps stave off cognitive decline for people over 50 who live on their own, according to a new study of almost 8,000 participants.

Researchers found that pet ownership was associated with slower rates of decline in verbal memory and verbal fluency among the older adults who were living alone.

The study included 7,945 mostly-white British participants from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing with an average age of 66.

Followed over an eight year period, more than a third of the group (35.1 percent) owned pets; about 30% of the group lived alone.

Previous studies suggested that solitary living is a risk factor for developing dementia and cognitive decline, but among those folks, raising dogs or cats was related to reduced loneliness.

Some research has found that pet ownership is associated with better verbal memory and executive function, but others failed to find any evidence.

The new research published in JAMA Network aimed to further explore the association between aging by oneself—a trend which has been on the rise over the past few decades—and pet ownership. And the results were clear.

“Pet ownership offset the associations between living alone and declining rates in verbal memory and verbal fluency,” said study corresponding author Professor Ciyong Lu, of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China.

It was “a significant modifier” in all 3 associations—composite verbal cognition, verbal memory, and verbal fluency.

“Pet ownership was associated with slower rates of decline among older adults living alone.”

But owning a cat or dog did not make any difference for older people who lived with other people.

“These findings suggest that pet ownership may be associated with slower cognitive decline among older adults living alone.”

Prof. Lu is now calling for clinical trials that could help inform public health measures to address dementia among the elderly."

-via Good News Network, November 30, 2023

[not-poignant]

I know I'm still burnt out because my executive function is so bad at the moment I make like a million mistakes every time I put up a new chapter, which is demoralising and makes me feel extremely pathetic.

Anyone who says ADHD is a superpower needs to just spend some time in a bin.

[godisarepublican]

[mindblowingscience]

The genetic risk of developing Alzheimer's disease is more strongly influenced by the mother's side than the father's side, a recent study has discovered. Alzheimer's disease steals memories, independence and the capacity to connect with loved ones. In 2020, over 55 million people worldwide were living with dementia. Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 60-70% of all dementias. It's expected the number of people affected by dementia will nearly double every 20 years. Finding ways to better diagnose, treat and even prevent dementia is more important than ever.

Continue Reading.

[jorrated]

idk man i wont hold comics from the 90's to modern standards of representation of mental health, but how Mighty's dad was written always rubbed me the wrong way

[shewolfofvilnius]

oh god oh god. i was NOT prepared for the surprise of "Shadowheart's Mom has early stage Alzheimer's/Dementia" She literally gets you confused for Shadowheart/Jen if playing a fem durge/tav (apparently she confuses you for her HUSBAND if you're playing dude) and she's at that stage where she KNOWS she's slipping and will get worse and not better and holy shit this is so heartbreaking and hits way, way too close to home (lost my grandma to it, and my aunt that was basically my mother died from a brain tumor that...caused issues) JFC this is brutal, hits close to home, was a total surprise on my 2nd run, and I can't remember seeing it depicted in games (esp. fantasy games) very often.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Quebec residents diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease will soon be able to apply for medical assistance in dying (MAID) starting Oct. 30, allowing them to make the choice before losing their decision-making capacity. However, some doctors say the healthcare system is unprepared and can’t handle the increase in requests. “I don’t think most of the doctors or nurse practitioners or health care professionals will be ready,” said palliative medicine Dr Mathieu Moreau in a recent interview. Quebec is moving forward with the change more than a year after changing provincial law knowing that the federal government has yet to alter the criminal code.

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[mapsontheweb]

Dementia events and first Alzheimer’s disease events per 100,000 Medicare beneficiaries across the contiguous United States

[dementiadad]

😢

[grooviestsadpapaya]

Not to vent or anything serious but having a dad with Alzheimer’s is seriously devastating and I need to talk about it in a space where no one will say womp womp, because honestly yeah I do the same thing but I’m just so tired.

He’s so… confused. All the time. And it sucks to see. But at the same time he’s so filled with joy and wonder. It’s sad that he acts like a child most times but there are moments where it’s uplifting. It’s little things like him pointing out how many deer there are when we go on a drive, or reading what he sees out loud. He talks lovingly about his wife without realizing he’s talking to her. When I practice my violin he always says “I should get my guitar out and we should start a band”. And it’s fuckinnn hard dude. But I need to remember that these will be my last years with him. He’s also going to suffer a lot in the coming years and that’s a horrific thought for me.

And it is so much harder than just “he’s losing his memory”, like, my dad doesn’t eat much anymore. Like. At all. and we can’t do anything about it. He wears gloves in the house because he’s tarting to develop some pretty bad sensory problems relating to texture and temperature. He fights showers for the same reason.

Sorry for venting and I’ll probably delete this later, I just don’t like talking about it with people irl because they get uncomfortable with my grief, which like, yeah I get that that’s valid. But if I hear another womp womp from some broccoli top white boy with “dark humor” (disturbing lack of empathy) I might just crawl into an oven with some cookie dough

[listonlouis]

a friendly old man from new york who just loves helping people anyway he can, such as friends, family, or anyone else that needs help, and although he can be a little forgetful sometimes, it's nothing serious.

a retired actress who's beginning to realise that something is off when she finds it difficult to recall names of family members, and former acquaintances, now she's afraid that she might forget about her entire career.

a woman who used to love going outdoors, but now she doesn't want to leave the house, when she tries to cook, she'll often burn the food, she's also finding it difficult to find the right words, and will ask the same questions over and over again.

a sad old man who once fought in vietnam, now he has trouble with routine tasks, often feeling lost and confused, as he's beginning to forget recent events, luckily he still has his wife who still love him, and is willing to take care of him, even with his occasional mood swings and lack of responsiveness.

she enjoyed dancing when she was young but those days are behind her, she now spend her days at a hospital with her head in the clouds, and although she's forgotten alot in her life, she still recognises the voice of her husband, and is often visited by him, and he wants to be by her side until the very end.

this man is without description.

[blue-velvet-valentina]

Angst writing idea:

Remember when Astarion says how he will forget Tav and how he will weep wondering what happened to his "mad Love"?

Imagine a modern AU where Tav was married to Astarion since WWII, and they lived happily... until Tav developed Alztiemer's or Dementia not remembering anyone except Astarion since he never aged. He hires a vampire slayer to take his life when his mortal love dies so he does not go mad with loneliness. He can not bear eternal life without Tav.

[automatictrashwolf]

It really upsets me the way people have been reacting to Meredith trying to cure Alzheimer's. She isn't just doing it for fame, or even to help the world, she is fighting for her life. She is fighting to save herself from the horrible fate she lost her mother to. She is fighting to protect Bailey and Ellis and Maggie. She is trying to save her family.

Amelia pushed back saying it would erase Derrick's work, but I think he'd care more about his wife and children not being ravenged by a terrible disease than his legacy.

Nick said she was choosing work over him, but she is fighting for their future. Meredith even said it, that she will love him for as long as she can rember him. If she succeeds that might be a lot longer than if she doesn't.

And Catherine, has she thought about what it would be like to watch Richard lose Maggie and/or Meredith to the same disease that took the last two women he loved? How could she look him in the eye knowing there was a chance to save the women he sees as his daughters but she squashed it?

Meredith is so scared, and I know she is because I am too. If I had any chance to find any sort of treatment for the dementia that curses my family history I would fight tooth and nail for it.