Minding Our Elders®

Loneliness May Increase Dementia Risk, Heart Attacks and Stroke

A recent study published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry has found that people who feel lonely are significantly more at risk for developing dementia. The study, headed by Tjalling Jan Holwerda of the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, found that participants who reported feeling lonely, no matter how many friends and family surrounded them, were more likely to experience dementia than those who didn’t feel lonely. The team focused on approximately 2,200 older adults living in Amsterdam, ages 65 to 86. None of the participants exhibited signs of dementia and none of them lived in facilities such as nursing homes.

Read more about loneliness and dementia:

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BRAIN Initiative Embraces More Than Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is not only devastating those who develop the disease. It affects the family and others who love the person who must live with the disease, and it affects our nation as a whole because of the high cost of care. 

According to research led by an economist at the RAND Corporation, expenses for dementia, including nursing home care, were $109 billion in 2010. To put that into perspective, heart disease costs totaled $102 billion and cancer totaled $77 billion. The amount of money spent on heart disease and cancer is enormous, however through preventive intervention, early diagnosis and better drugs, the number of people developing these diseases are holding steady or even decreasing. Not so with Alzheimer’s disease.

Read more about brain mapping and its potential:

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Study Shows Stress Hormones Increase Alzheimer’s Risk

If we’re alive, we are coping with a significant amount of stress. Yet stress hormones have been shown to have a negative effect on our health.

Now, the recent article, "Stress may increase risk for Alzheimer’s disease: Stress hormones lead to Alzheimer-like protein modifications,” brings to light epidemiological studies by scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in which the scientists hypothesized that adverse life events, which generally cause stress, may be one trigger for Alzheimer’s disease.

Read more about how stress increases risk for Alzheimer's:

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Studies Suggest Aging Eyes Could Play Role In a Many Diseases

A recent story in the New York Times reports on new information suggesting that many problems we face as we age, including memory loss, insomnia, depression – even cancer – could be caused by changes in our eyes.  Many of us become aware of vision changes in our early to mid-40s, when we find, as my mother used to say, that “the print in the newspaper keeps getting smaller.” What’s happening, of course, is presbyopia. As the eye ages, the lens of the eye gradually loses its ability to focus on close objects, thus the prevalence of reading glasses in our mid-years.

Read more about having eyes tested as we age to spot possible disease:

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Green Tea, Grape Skin Extracts May Interrupt Alzheimer's Path

Green tea and red wine have both been shown in numerous studies to contain antioxidants thought to increase overall health and possibly prevent some diseases. Now, a recent study, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, has shown that purified extracts from green tea and red wine (specifically, the resveratrol in the red grape skins) have been shown in early animal studies to interrupt the pathway that may lead to Alzheimer’s disease.

Read more about green tea and wine as a possible way to prevent Alzheimer's:

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Memantine May Help Prevent Damage from Mini-Strokes

Unlike Alzheimer’s disease which is still poorly understood, it’s well accepted that vascular dementia is caused by strokes, often a series of small, “silent” strokes. While early stage Alzheimer’s is characterized mostly by memory loss, vascular dementia more generally affects executive function, multi-tasking, problem-solving and reasoning. It’s important to understand that more than one type of dementia can be present, which can further complicate a diagnosis.

When people are having a major stroke, they are likely to be aware that something is happening that could cause significant damage unless immediate medical intervention is sought. However, the undiagnosed mini-strokes that can result in mild cognitive impairment leading to vascular dementia often occur without any immediate evidence that something is wrong.

Read more about Memantine and vascular dementia:

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Loneliness May Increase Dementia, Heart Attack and Stroke Risk

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Loneliness May Increase Dementia, Heart Attack and Stroke Risk

A recent study published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry has found that people who feel lonely are significantly more at risk for developing dementia.

The study, headed by Tjalling Jan Holwerda of the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, found that participants who reported feeling lonely, no matter how many friends and family surrounded them, were more likely to experience dementia than those who lived on their own, but didn’t feel lonely. The team focused on approximately 2,200 older adults living in Amsterdam, ages 65 to 86. None of the participants exhibited signs of dementia and none of them lived in facilities such as nursing homes. The researchers visited the elders two times over the course of three years. About half of them lived alone, with 20 percent reporting feelings of loneliness.

Read more about lonliness and dementia, heart attack and stroke risk:

Purchase Minding Our Elders: Caregivers Share Their Personal Stories – paperback or ebook

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Counter Dad's Speech Loss with Extra Time and Caring

Dear Carol: My dad had a severe stroke last month. He’s home now and in a wheelchair. What I find the most difficult to deal with is his speech. He’s getting therapy but he gets so frustrated that I hate to put him through the effort of speaking. Also, he has what the therapist calls aphasia, so he can’t always remember what objects are called. That, of course, frustrates him horribly because when he does manage to get a word out, it’s often the wrong word for what he wants. What can I do to help?  Laura

Dear Laura: Losing our ability to communicate our needs to others causes immense emotional pain, both to people directly affected and the people who love them. I can relate to your situation because my uncle had aphasia after a series of strokes. To this day, his frustration over getting the smallest point across remains strong in my memories of him.

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