Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Playbook for Alzheimer's Caregivers

Follow the link to get your free copy.
clipped from www.alz.org

Tackle the challenges of caregiving with this free football style "playbook" by Frank Broyles, former Athletic Director of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks. The Playbook is an engaging, how-to guide written for those who care for someone with Alzheimer's. Coach Broyles cared for his late wife Barbara, who had Alzheimer's disease.

“My wife Betty is in the early stages of Alzheimer's. The minute I received the ‘Playbook,’ I sat down and read it word for word. What a huge blessing for me to find a straight forward, 'been there’ account of what lies ahead.
Thank you!"
John Cater
Richmond, Texas
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Friday, April 11, 2008

Etanercept (Enbrel) in Action, see Alzheimer's patient's memory come alive (Video)

To watch the video on how this works with Alzheimer's patients click here The Institute for Neurological Research
To read my previous detailed post on this topic click this link 'Instant' Alzheimer's Drug Claim, Enbrel (Etanercept)
Read more about Alzheimer's at The Alzheimer's Reading Room
One of the videos shows how the treatment affected 82-year old Marvin Miller. Miller can be seen muttering incoherently in response to questions from a nurse. He can't name objects like a pencil or a bracelet.
Miller is then given his first etanercept injection, and according to the video, five minutes later he recognizes and embraces his wife when she comes up to him. Mrs Miller said he had not done this for years, because until that moment he did not know who she was. She appears visibly shocked by her husband's improvement.
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Thursday, April 10, 2008

Lovastatin Shown To Slow Progression Of Alzheimer's Disease

This is a classic example of the Alzheimer's CareGiver conundrum. I switched my mother from Lovastin to Zocor after reading a similar article pointing out the benefits of statins.

I'll put the article up on Zocor soon.
High cholesterol levels are considered to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease including stroke. Therefore, many cholesterol lowering drugs have been developed by pharmaceutical companies in recent years. One class of these drugs, statins, has been found to reduce the incidence of stroke and progression of Alzheimer's disease when prophylactically administered.

In a recent paper published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, Amalia Dolga and co-workers from the University of Groningen show that the statin lovastatin, in addition to lowering cholesterol, can also prevent nerve cells from dying in conditions that occur in Alzheimer's disease

Amalia Dolga found that statins stimulate nerve cells to produce a specific receptor molecule for a protein which plays a central role in the body's immune response:
Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Diabetes in Middle Age Raises Alzheimer's Risk

This a lengthy article. Follow the link for more information.
Men who develop diabetes in middle age may be at greater risk of Alzheimer's disease, a Swedish study finds.


"Our results have important public health implications given the increasing numbers of people developing diabetes and the need for more powerful interventions," study author Dr. Elina Ronnemaa, of Uppsala University, said in a statement.


The study found that the men with low insulin levels at age 50 were nearly one-and-a-half times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than men who didn't have insulin problems. The risk of Alzheimer's increased, regardless of blood pressure, cholesterol, body-mass index and education.

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