Researchers report major breakthrough in understanding Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's Front Row

Scientists at Trinity College Dublin have shed light on a fundamental mechanism underlying the development of Alzheimer's disease, which could lead to new forms of therapy for those living with the condition.

How to talk to an alzheimer's patient

Turn negatives into positives. For example say “Let’s go here” instead of “Don’t go there”. Be inclusive and don’t talking down to them as if they were a child.

Respect the fact that they are an adult, and treat them as such.

For more tips read this article.

Ten Tips for Communicating with an Alzheimer's Patient

Bob DeMarco 

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To learn more about Alzheimers and Dementia care visit the Alzheimer's Reading Room Intelligent Knowledge Base

Alzheimer’s Disease Study Gives Researchers New Hope

Alzheimer's Front Row

The findings, published in Brain, offer new and valuable information in the long and ongoing debate about the relative contribution of amyloid and tau to the development and progression of cognitive dysfunction in Alzheimer’s, says the study’s lead author, Melissa Murray, Ph.D., a neuroscientist at Mayo Clinic.

Study of 3,600 Brains Reveals Tau as Driver of Alzheimer’s Disease

7 Tips on How to Cut Alzheimer's Risk

Alzheimer's disease affects memory, thinking, concentration, and judgment, and ultimately impedes a person’s ability to perform normal daily activities.

Alzheimer's Front Row

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Get the Answers to Your Questions About Alzheimer's and Dementia

• What is the Difference Between Alzheimer’s and Dementia
• Test Your Memory for Alzheimer's (5 Best Tests)
• Problems with Balance, Walking, Falling an Early Sign of Dementia
• How Do Alzheimer's Patients Die?
• Alzheimer's Disease Risk Factors

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Understanding Memory Loss

Understanding Memory Loss: What To Do When You Have Trouble Remembering

Alzheimer's Front Row

Al's story

Al didn’t know what was happening. He was having a hard time remembering things. He wasn’t eating or sleeping well and didn’t want to see friends. He was confused and irritable. 

His wife was worried. She took him to the doctor. It turned out that Al was having a bad reaction to one of his medicines. Once his doctor changed the medicine, Al felt more like himself. 

Many things can cause serious memory problems, such as blood clots, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease. Read below to learn more about causes and treatments of serious memory problems.

5 Things Everyone Should Know About Alzheimer's

Understanding Alzheimer's is not easy. These articles demystify the disease and answer many of the most frequently asked questions.

What is the Difference Between Alzheimer's and Dementia?

In this easy to read and understand article you will learn about the difference between Alzheimer's and dementia. When someone is told they have dementia, it means that they have significant memory problems as well as other cognitive difficulties, and that these problems are severe enough to get in the way of daily living.

Test Your Memory for Alzheimer's (5 Best Memory Tests)

This article provides information and links to the five best free tests for Alzheimer's and dementia. These five memory tests are self assessment tests for Alzheimer's, dementia, and mild cognitive impairment.

Answers To Questions About Alzheimer's and Dementia

We have 4,970 articles that address the problems often faced by people caring for someone living with Alzheimer's. How to communicate, How to get them to take medication, How to get them to take a shower - you name it, we have it. Lots of advice and tips on how to understand, cope and communicate with a person living with dementia.

Alzheimer's Association: Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia

The national site for the Alzheimer's Association. The website contains information on Alzheimer's disease and dementia symptoms, diagnosis, stages, treatment, care and support resources.

Alzheimer's Disease Fact Sheet | National Institute on Aging

Looking for facts about Alzheimer's disease, the most common cause of dementia in older adults. This website is full of information about Alzheimer's, dementia, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and caregiving.

It's Lonely in the Front Row

Until you sit in the front row you won't be able to comprehend what it is like living in the "front row".

Alzheimer's Disease -- The Front Row

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Related Content 

• What is the Difference Between Alzheimer’s and Dementia
• Test Your Memory for Alzheimer's (5 Best Memory Tests)
• What is Alzheimer's Disease?
• Is Alzheimer's World an Irrational Place?
• Communicating in Alzheimer's World
• 10 Symptoms of Early Stage Alzheimer's Disease
• The Seven Stages of Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's Front Row

Stages of Dementia

Alzheimer's disease and related dementia usually develop in stages and slowly over time.

It is usually helpful for Alzheimer's and dementia caregivers to understand the seven broad stages in order to develop a framework of care over time.

It is important to note that not everyone living with Alzheimer's or a related dementia will experience the same symptoms or progress at the same rate over time. As a result, the Seven Stages of Alzheimer's should be look at as guidelines to expectations.

For a good discussion of the seven stages of dementia read this article in the Alzheimer's Reading Room.

The Seven Stages of Alzheimer's

This discussion in the Mayo Clinic website is also useful.

Alzheimer's stages: How the disease progresses

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To learn more about Alzheimers and Dementia care visit the Alzheimer's Reading Room Intelligent Knowledge Base

Did You Know? One in Seven Workers is an Alzheimer's Caregiver

One in seven American workers is a caregiver for a loved one with Alzheimer’s or a related dementia.

Caring for loved ones with Alzheimer’s also creates an emotional toll that can further reduce workplace productivity: About 90 percent of caregivers said caring for someone with Alzheimer’s was emotionally stressful, and 70 percent said it was a financial strain on their families.

The Economic Ripple Effect Of Alzheimer's Disease

To learn more about Alzheimers and Dementia care visit the Alzheimer's Reading Room Knowledge Base

Alzheimer's - Solving Incontinence Problems

When the problem with urinary incontinence gets bad -- worse then usual -- do you immediately think you need to have the person tested for a UTI?

Alzheimer Obsession with Time

A search of the following keywords - Alzheimer obsession with time - lead the reader to the following article.

You are off to a good start by lowering her anxiety by the fake phone call.

Next, try to expand your creativity and redirect her thoughts away from the obsession.

You want to develop a series of very short explanations -- one or two sentences at most and appropriate to the what is going on at the time of her obsession. For example, if the time she’s remembering is school age children and it’s during the day, then of course they are in school and will be home soon.

If it is later in the day, perhaps they are at a friends houses playing; or, aunt Mary took them shopping for your Christmas present, birthday presents, school clothes, etc.

Whatever makes sense to her (a normal activity at that time).

Curry Alzheimer's

A reader searching the following keywords in Bing

curry alzheimer's

Alzheimers and Peeing in Places

A reader came to the Alzheimer's Reading Room after searching Bing using these keywords

Alzheimers and Peeing in Places

David Cameron to call for investment in dementia research to be doubled

+David Cameron is calling for Britain to take a worldwide lead in dementia research with a doubling of investment by government and the private sector.

Urinary Tract Infections Can Hasten Memory Loss in Alzheimer's Patients

Researchers have found a link between common infections, such as a cold, stomach bug or urine infection and an increase in inflammation like reactions in the brain which lead to an increased rate of cognitive decline. Study results show that people who got an infection had twice the rate of memory loss as people without infections.

By Bob DeMarco 
Alzheimer's Reading Room 

Bob DeMarco

My name is Bob DeMarco, I am an Alzheimer's caregiver. My mother Dorothy lived with Alzheimer's disease.

This week my mother had her second urinary tract infection of the year. Urinary Tract infections are a problem faced by many Alzheimer's caregivers.

Urinary tract infections are particularly worrisome to me and they should be to most Alzheimer's caregivers.

There is research evidence indicating that infections can hasten memory loss in persons suffering from Alzheimer's. 

Jump to the Alzheimer's Reading Room to continue reading - Urinary Tract Infections Can Hasten Memory Loss in Alzheimer's Patients 

The Alzheimer's Hamster Within YOU

One of the most difficult tasks an Alzheimer's caregiver faces is the development of a new set of communications skills. Sooner or later the caregiver needs to come to an understanding that the way they have communicated in the past, before Alzheimer's, won't work in a world filled with Alzheimer's disease.

By Bob DeMarco 
Alzheimer's Reading Room

Change is difficult under any circumstance. It is even harder when you need to change something that you have been doing all day long throughout your life.

Every Alzheimer's caregiver I ever met has talked about their need to vent. Venting is a good thing. You get the monkey off your back. However, at some point you need to make a decision to put that monkey in the closet and get off the hamster wheel.

If you have gone years complaining about the same behavior over and over you must ask yourself, how do I change this dynamic?


Jump to the Alzheimer's Reading Room to continue reading

Alzheimer's Disease Tip Communication and Socialization

My mother is the same person I always knew. She is not a different person. Her brain is sick. She is still ticking and she is capable of enjoying most of the things she was doing before Alzheimer's disease....


By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer's Front Row

For us, communication and socialization go hand in hand. I am not using the clinical definition of socialization here. Instead, I am describing a continuing process that leads to the establishment of norms of behavior and communication in the Alzheimer's disease environment.

I think most Alzheimer's caregivers understand that the Alzheimer's patient can benefit from being in social settings and engaging in communication. Sadly, the exact opposite sometimes occurs as the patient and caregiver fall into the black hole of Alzheimer's disease.



Read Alzheimer's Disease Tip Communication and Socialization

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Learning How to Communicate with Someone Suffering From Alzheimer's Disease

As I thought about this I came to a simple conclusion. Instead of trying to change Alzheimer's World, instead of trying to fight Alzheimer's World, not only would I accept Alzheimer's World as a reality, I would go into Alzheimer's World and learn how to communicate effectively...

By +Bob DeMarco 
+Alzheimer's Reading Room

Earlier today, Carole Larkin published an interesting article -- How the Loss of Memory Works in Alzheimer’s Disease, and How Understanding This Could Help You.

Alzheimer's World Trying to Reconnect with Someone Suffering from Alzheimer's Disease

I accept that this new world is very different from the real world as I know it. I also accept that the behaviors that my mother often expresses -- the behaviors that drive me crazy in real world -- are perfectly acceptable and are the norm in Alzheimer's World.

Earlier I wrote -- Alzheimer's Disease, Alzheimer's World and The New Reality.

This article should be considered as a companion to that article. They go hand in hand.

Both articles are designed to help you communicate with someone suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

After years of trying to figure out how to communicate effectively with my mother Dorothy who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, I concluded that I needed a good mental construct so that I could better understand and comprehend what I was trying to accomplish.

Bob DeMarco Discusses Alzheimer's Disease on Sidewalks TV (Video)

In a special segment, Bob DeMarco, a veteran Wall Street executive whose mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and neurologist Dr. Mark Brody discuss Alzheimer's Disease with "Sidewalks Entertainment" host Cindy Rhodes....

Bob DeMarco is the Founder of the Alzheimer's Reading Room.