A special gift to keep or give – Alzheimer’s Association

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Today I want to share an incredible story about Christina, who has devoted her life to helping others. Her beloved father suffered from Alzheimer’s for six years before passing away, and he inspired her commitment to easing the burden for families who face this dreadful disease.

As Father’s Day nears, I hope Christina will inspire you to honor a special dad in your life by making a gift in his honor.

Your gift demonstrates your commitment to the fight against Alzheimer’s whether the dad you celebrate has Alzheimer’s or cares for someone living with the disease. This kind of story is too common and your donation shows that you want to help advance research and provide education, support and guidance to families caring for an individual with Alzheimer’s.

Christina’s father, Giovanni, was an accomplished Italian chef. In appreciation for your support, you can download the recipe to his signature pasta dish – one of her favorites.

Like Christina, one of the greatest gifts you can give this Father’s Day is one that helps others. Please make a donation in honor of a dad today. Thank you.

Honoring a father’s battle with Alzheimer’s Disease

Christina’s life changed forever during a visit home from college, when she discovered that her father, an Italian chef, could no longer remember how to make his signature pasta dish. A short time later, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Over time, Giovanni forgot every recipe he’d ever made. “Eventually, the disease robbed my father of even knowing that I was his daughter,” she says sadly.

Throughout his illness, her father was always painfully aware of the changes that were happening to him. “He knew something wasn’t right, and that he would never get better. I always tried to be strong for him, and support him in any way I could. But it was devastating to watch.”

A daughter’s favorite memory of her dad

Christina reflects on the changes Alzheimer’s wrought on her father, and on their relationship. “It’s so easy to see the disease first, and then the person,” she says. “As Alzheimer’s progresses, more and more of the person seems to slip away. But there are so many ways to share meaningful moments together and to remember that there is still a person inside.”

As an example, Christina recalls her wedding, one of her favorite memories of their years together. “It was toward the end of his illness and he was having more bad days than good,” she explains. “I was concerned that he wouldn’t be able to attend, but one of his close friends brought him.

“He was having trouble walking at that point, but not only did he walk around – he lit up. It was like he was back to being an entertainer and a host, and he loved every minute of it. We danced to Frank Sinatra’s “The Way You Look Tonight,” and he looked so happy as he sang along.”

Committed to helping others facing Alzheimer’s

Christina’s journey through her father’s illness affected her profoundly, including her career decisions. She now works for the Alzheimer’s Association, providing education, guidance and support to other families “who are trying to navigate this awful and often mysterious, challenging disease,” she explains.

“I work with the different programs offered by the Association, and it blows me away that we can offer so many resources to help with this disease,” she explains. “I see firsthand what a difference these programs make in people’s lives. I hope that in my effort to help others, I honor my father, who was one of the most gentle, kind and caring people I have ever known.”

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Our online resources can help keep someone with Alzheimer’s safe

http://www.alz.org/care/alzheimers-dementia-safety.asp?WT.mc_id=enews2013_06_12

Safety is important for everyone, but taking specific precautions becomes vital as dementia progresses. By putting measures in place, you can prevent injuries and help the person with Alzheimer’s feel comfortable. Our Safety Center offers resources to assist.
Visit our Safety Center >>

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Researchers aim to end Alzheimer’s
one step at a time

http://blog.alz.org/ending-alzheimers-one-step-at-a-time/

Research into the causes and potential treatments for Alzheimer’s disease has been as complicated as the disease itself. But an Alzheimer’s researcher writes that if you’re methodical and march one step at a time, you know you’re making progress.
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Research into the causes and potential treatments for Alzheimer’s disease has been as complicated as the disease itself.  Patti Davis borrowed the phrase “The Long Goodbye” in describing the decline of her presidential father, and for good reason:  This horrible affliction robs families of their dearest members with agonizing progression and frustration.  And for researchers, it has for over a century hidden behind a shroud of mystery that is due partly to the complex nature of the brain itself.  I know this because it is my life’s work.

President Obama recently announced a funding initiative that will direct $100 million toward mapping the functional connectivity of the brain.  A small fraction of this money will be applied directly to Alzheimer’s itself, but the general insights that arise from this effort may also help indirectly by illuminating the tapestry of neural threads that Alzheimer’s disease unravels.

Despite the large number of possibilities that scientists have to consider when postulating the means by which Alzheimer’s disease starts and progresses, our approach must be pared down and methodical.  A series of experiments must alter only a single parameter at a time, or the results will be a meaningless confusion of possibilities that still remain.  Though some might find this tedious, to most of us it is satisfying due to the power of its simplicity.  If you march one step at a time, you know you’re making progress and not spinning in circles like a whirling dervish.

I suppose it is the analogy of this scientific plodding that strengthened my connection to Jack Fussell, who is running across America in a personal quest to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s disease. In his cross-continent trek, the 62-year-old runner seems to have boiled down his contribution to this effort in one comprehensible and consistent action: step west. There will be some 7 million steps in his journey, but he’s taking them one at a time and always toward the setting sun.  (Well, nearly always:  He ran circles around my hometown of Conway, Arkansas, after arriving there one hot afternoon, simply because he had the time and there were folks whom he’d never meet by sitting still.)

“When I don’t know what to do, I run.  So I run a lot,” he told me that the day I met him.  It struck me as the sort of wise humor for which Will Rogers became famous.  It’s as simple as a mantra or a religious chant.  It’s also self-deprecating, and Jack is nothing if not that.  But no one who hears of his story can belittle what he’s doing.  Because what he is doing is something!  That is the true wisdom of his endeavor.  Jack searched his soul for the contribution he should make, and he refused to be stymied by the number of choices available or the complexity of the problem he’s fighting.  He found strength in the decisive wisdom of doing something; one thing that he does very well.

Yes, it seems simple:  put one foot in front of the other.  But the path this process has carried Jack down has included vistas—sights and insights—that he never anticipated.  Another thing he told me the first day I met him was that he had discovered on this journey the satisfaction of connecting second and third parties who probably never would have encountered one another if they weren’t interacting with him.  Jack senses that many of these connections will be lasting and productive ones.

Another insight that has been reinforced, if not discovered outright, on this trip is one that Jack and I talked about at some length the last night he spent at my house.  Actions aren’t just louder than words, they’reessential for words!  And for thoughts and feelings and ideas and convictions.  Psychologists, gurus, personal trainers, social activists, and ministers advise us:  Act out the future you want to have.  Religious rituals reinforce faith.  Social engagement—even if forced, at first—can raise a tormented soul out of the mire of depression.  Re-enacting the days of courtship can reignite the spark of romance in a stale marriage.  It is never enough to sit around and think of what one might do… what one should do.  In the end, you cannot know that.  The benefits of taking action can be surprising, but the stagnation of inaction is quite predictable.  In the research lab, all the theorizing in the world is meaningless without performing the experiments to test the theories.  And all the good intentions of all those folks out there who sit idly by and wish Alzheimer’s could be defeated (by somebody else) will unfortunately pave a hellish road that every caregiver must endure along the route of “the long goodbye.”

But there is at least one man out there—literally out there, on the road somewhere—who refused to sit idly by.  He is a man who puts on a pair of running shoes and harnesses up his three-wheeled mule (a jogging stroller he has named “Wilson”) even on the mornings when the last thing in the world he wants to do is run.  He is persistent.  He is methodical.  And he will be effective.  Because he chose to practice the science of what he could.  To do what he could. To do something.

About the Blog Author: Steven Barger, Ph.D., is a professor in the Departments of Geriatrics, Neurobiology & Developmental Sciences, and Internal Medicine, at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. His current research focuses on the interactions between proteins implicated in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. In his dedication to end Alzheimer’s, he rode in the Alzheimer’s Association Breakthrough Ride and has served as a reviewer for Alzheimer’s Association grant program.

Learn More

• Join the Fight to END ALZ
• Follow Jack’s Journey
• Raise Awareness & Funds for Alzheimer’s Care & Research
• Why Participation in Clinical Trials Is Needed?
• What Is Alzheimer’s Disease

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Some Alzheimer’s drugs may have benefits for the heart

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/04/alzheimers-drugs-may-have-heart-benefits/

A new study suggests that certain drugs used to treat Alzheimer’s disease may help prevent heart attacks and premature death. Swedish researchers studied more than 7,000 people with Alzheimer’s taking cholinesterase inhibitors (Aricept, Exelon, Reminyl and others) and found that taking the drugs was associated with both a reduced death rate and a reduced heart attack rate; each was lowered roughly 35 percent. The study authors emphasized that a clinical trial is the only way to prove the relationship between the drugs and benefits to the heart.
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Dear Friend,

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At the Alzheimer’s Association, we pride ourselves on being at the forefront of the fight against Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias – and knowing more about each one of you is a crucial part of that effort.

As an active participant in the movement to end Alzheimer’s, we need your help. Please take this 5 minute survey by June 15 to help us learn more about your connection to the disease and how we can improve our services.

Your answers will be kept confidential. Please, take just a few moments now to share your thoughts.

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