What Causes Alzheimer's?

You may remember years ago when aluminum was blamed for the cause of Alzheimer's. Scientist have since ruled that out. It would have been nice and easy to clean up this Alzheimer's mess if that had been the case. So what causes Alzheimer's? Scientists do not really know.

In Spite of years of research and the information we have about Alzheimer's We still do not know the cause. Could it be Diabetes? Strokes, heart disease, watching too much TV?

Here is what we do know.

There are several things that do increase your risk factor of getting the disease.

Age is the number one risk factor for getting Alzheimer's. Problem solved. We will not get older.

Genetics. Having a family member that has Alzheimer's. Problem solved. Disown your family.

The third risk factor is your lifestyle.

Scientists have found increasing evidence that high blood pressure, high colesterol, low levels of certain vitamins, lack of excercise might be the key to what causes Alzheimer's. Changing our diets, excercising, and spending time playing games or doing puzzles that increase our brain activities is the only risk factor that you or I have any control over. Problem sovled? Possibly!

Choosing a Nursing Home or Long-Term Care Facility

Hear-See-Taste-Smell-Touch


Whether you have chosen a skilled nursing facility, assisted living facility or an adult family home for your loved one, make sure you go back to the basics. Your five senses are the key to choosing a good home. More than likely the facility has a professional salesperson that will be showing you around. No doubt, you will be told about the bells and whistles or benefits of choosing their particular facility. It is easy to get side tracked by the sales pitch and miss the things that are important. Use your senses, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling and seeing to help you decide if the place your loved one will move into meets your standards.

Hear

After having a bad experience with placing her father in an assisted living facility that promised more than it could deliver, here is what Deborah Uetz, author of Into The Mist: When Someone You Love Has Alzheimer's Disease, once told me,

"I would suggest visiting the facility without a guide. What do you hear? Do you hear a place that is tuning into its residents? Is there a place where you can hear individual selections of TV programs or any soft music? Do you hear the staff talking with the residents? What kind of conversations are they having?”

One day, while visiting a facility, I overheard a caregiver telling a resident in a condescending tone, "take your pills, you need to eat more, take another bite, Marge." I wouldn't want to be talked to that way! Do you hear the staff talking like they are the only ones around? Perhaps you could hear birds chirping or someone humming a tune or whistling. Those are the kinds of sounds you want to hear.”

See

They say that seeing is believing. Use your eyes. Are residents smiling? Can you see them participating? Does the staff rush by without looking at the patients? What do you see on the walls? Do you see pictures, crafts, and memorabilia? What is stuffed into the closets? What is stuffed into the corners? Are all the shower facilities clean? What do the wheelchairs look like? Are they kept clean?

Taste

Taste is also a very important part of choosing a facility. Don't stop at eating one meal at the facility. Eat two or three. Are the meals good? Do they all taste the same? Is there a good variety? Are the residents offered choices? Try eating a meal there with your loved one, too. Does dad like what is being offered? Your loved ones nutritional needs are a high priority, but if your mom does not like the food to begin with, the facility is already in trouble.

Smell

What do you smell? For the most part a nursing home is going to smell like a nursing home, much like hospitals smell the much the same or dentist offices smell much the same. However it is completely unacceptable for a nursing home to smell like urine. If a nursing home smells like urine, it is a good sign that they are understaffed and aren't keeping their residents changed often enough or taking the time to clean them well.

Touch

Touch brings comfort to residents; it helps them feel connected and not forgotten. Do nurses or aids walk down the halls without acknowledging residents, or do they stop and talk and put a friendly hand on residents’ shoulders? Do they shake hands or give a warm hug? You can't be there all the time, so wouldn't it be comforting to know that someone else was assuring your loved one with touch.

Your 6th Sense

After you have used all of your five senses to assess a long term care facility, you should use your 6th sense. How do you feel about this place? If your gut instinct sets off a warning bell, trust it. Further investigate what is bothering you. If you aren’t satisfied with the answers you receive, choose another facility.

~ Dutchy

NFL and Alzheimer's

NEW YORK — Gene Upshaw was taken aback when he first saw the list of retired NFL players applying for financial help under a new program to help those with dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

"I played with or against quite a few of these guys," the executive director of the NFL players' union said Wednesday. "I knew one or two were having problems, but I never knew the extent."

Upshaw, a Hall of Fame guard for the Oakland Raiders from 1968-82, is one of four people being honored Thursday night by the Alzheimer's Association of New York for helping start the "88" plan. It provides up to $88,000 from the NFL and the union to help with the care of players afflicted with dementia or related brain problems.

Since the plan took effect Feb. 1, 35 retired players have been approved for aid, with 19 more applications pending. That's up from 21 players two months ago, when the league and union were still trying to go beyond what Upshaw called "word of mouth" in identifying players.

Now the identification is being done through the Bert Bell retirement fund, which handles pensions for more than 9,000 retired players, with the money coming from a trust fund administered by the league and union. So far, according to the NFL, 103 potential candidates for aid have been identified. There are 54 applications, and no one has been turned down. The applications of 19 players who have not yet been certified are to be reviewed.
But it's still hard to know many ex-players need help.

"A lot of people are embarrassed to talk about it or to acknowledge they have a problem," says Dan Rooney, the Pittsburgh Steelers owner and a member of the NFL committee that oversees the plan. "They can have lucid moments when they think things are going all right."

The plan is part of the labor contract agreed upon in March 2006 by the league and union and is administered by Upshaw and Harold Henderson, an NFL senior vice president. The "88" is the number of Hall of Fame tight end John Mackey, one of the first former players who qualified. His wife, Sylvia, was instrumental in persuading Upshaw and former commissioner Paul Tagliabue to include aid for dementia in the new contract.

NFL and union officials say the correlation between NFL players and Alzheimer's is anecdotal rather than scientific, and experts in the field agree.

But the heightened interest in the subject follows the death of Andre Waters, who committed suicide last November at 44. Reports concluded he had brain damage that resulted from multiple concussions during 12 years as an NFL safety. In addition, The Boston Globe and The New York Times reported in February that 34-year-old Ted Johnson, who spent 10 years as a linebacker with the New England Patriots, shows early signs of Alzheimer's.

Activists view the NFL/NFLPA program as a landmark.

"This is the first union and industry program of its kind and it's the first that recognizes the burden the disease puts on families," said Lou-Ellen Barkan, president and chief executive of the New York Alzheimer's Association. On Thursday, that group will honor Upshaw and Henderson as well as Sylvia Mackey and Dr. Eleanor Perfetto, wife of Ralph Wenzel, the only other former player who has been publicly identified as part of the program.

Under the program, players can receive up to $50,000 a year for home care and up to $88,000 if they are institutionalized. Barkan said that's part of an ignored part of the burden of Alzheimer's — those with dementia or Alzheimer's need full-time care, and spouses or children must quit jobs to give full-time care.

"Something like this allows them to hire help," Barkan said. "It allows them to keep jobs without the burden of also being a full-time caregiver.

Those involved with the program say they can't demonstrate clearly that dementia among football players correlates with football.

"I'll leave it for the doctors to decide that," Upshaw says. "A lot of the guys we're talking about are pretty much up in age, so it's hard to know why they have the problem."

Barkan agrees but notes: "Just from what doctors tell us, there is a strong correlation from multiple concussions and the onset of problems.'


Feel free to leave a discussion type comment ~ Dutchy