Mental Health Tied To Diet

A woman is helping an old man


Although it would be stating the obvious that fruit is better for you than potato chips, a new study from Aston University in Birmingham, England, found that eating healthy snacks rather than other options like potato chips can help stave off psychological and memory problems.  The findings, which were published in the British Journal of Nutrition, found that those who ate fruit more often showed reduced symptoms of depression and greater positive psychological well-being.  More frequent eating of potato chips and other savory snacks resulted in increased anxiety, depression, stress and reduced psychological well being.  Eating a portion of fruit of any size was good for mental health.

1 In 10 Seniors Have Dementia, New Study Shows

A nurse is helping an elderly woman read.


A new study, which was published in the journal JAMA Neurology, found that one in 10 Americans over the age of 65 have dementia, while 22% experienced mild cognitive impairment.   It studied nearly 3,500 people via interviews and neuropsychological tests on a randomly selected sample of seniors between June of 2016 and October of 2017.  15% of those who identified as black tested positive for dementia, while 22% had mild cognitive decline.  10% of those who identified as Hispanic had dementia, while 28% had mild cognitive impairment.  This compares to 9% of white people who had dementia and 21% had mild cognitive impairment.

https://www.ksbw.com/article/1-in-10-americans-over-65-have-dementia/41754735?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%20-%20Coronavirus&utm_source=6356f5ccad3dcd1328edeafa546475f8&brzu=cbd2b1a310c325a9dac49d86de69a91a6d69f6980ca8166044e7444b94298971&lctg=5e692834540c2869ac96668b

Link Between COVID-19 And Alzheimers And Dementia Found

A close up of many viruses on a red background


A new study, which was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, found that there were seven new diagnoses of Alzheimer’s disease for every 1,000 seniors who had a documented case of COVID-19 in the past year, compared to five new diagnoses for every 1,000 who did not. However, Heather Snyder, VP of medical and scientific relations at Alzheimer’s Association, played down the study.

“The pandemic presented serious delays for individuals seeking out medical diagnoses like Alzheimer’s, meaning these results could be driven by those who already had Alzheimer’s when they were infected but had not yet sought out a formal diagnosis,†Snyder said.

Dr. Elezer Masliah, director of the Division of Neuroscience at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging, said there is evidence that COVID-19 could trigger cognitive impairment.  One step in finding out would be to follow people at risk for Alzheimer’s after a COVID-19 infection over the long term, tracking biomarkers found in the blood and doing brain scans.

Imagine how many millions of people over the age of 60 or 65, like myself, have had COVID.  Say 5% of them or 10% of them or even 1% of them are at risk,†he said.  “Wow.  We’re looking at a lot of people in the next few years that might add to the already very large epidemic that we have,†he added.

https://www.prevention.com/health/memory/a41284960/study-daily-multivitamin-use-linked-to-improved-brain-function/

Pacific Grove, CA Home Care Aide (HCA) Senior Alzheimer’s & Dementia Caregiver Jobs Available : Set Your Own Hours: $2/Hour Extra On The Weekends CNA or HHA Designation A Plus


Pacific Grove, CA Home Care Aide (HCA) Senior Alzheimer’s & Dementia Caregiver Jobs Available : Set Your Own Hours: $2/Hour Extra On The Weekends CNA or HHA Designation A Plus (Also Aromas, Big Sur,  Carmel-by-the-sea, Carmel Highlands, Carmel Valley, Castroville, Corral-de-tierra, Del Rey Oaks, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Prunedale, Salinas, Seaside & Soledad

We have developed a reputation for having the best caregivers (Home Care Aides or Senior Companions) in Monterey County over the past decade and have recently expanded into Santa Cruz County.   We are currently looking for qualified caregivers.

Family inHome Caregiving of Monterey and Santa Cruz is seeking compassionate, mature and dependable caregivers who want to improve the lives of our elderly Clients by providing in-home, non-medical care.  Our services include:

Caring companionship

Meal preparation

Incidental transportation

Running errands

Light housekeeping

Medication reminders

Monitoring of safety while bathing

Information and referral services

Other services that improve the safety, security and quality of life of seniors.

If you believe you would make an exceptional Home Care Aide, we would love to hear from you!  We prefer those with experience helping the elderly, disabled and others with mobility problems.  Having cared for those with dementia and/or Alzheimer’s is a plus.  To work for us, you must have excellent references, a clear criminal record, a good driving record, and an insured reliable vehicle.  To apply, please visit our website www.familyinhomecaregiving.com, click on careers where you can fill out an application online or go to https://tsc221.ersp.biz/index.cfm?event=Apply.index

We have immediate openings all over Monterey County.

Study Says : Take Your Multiviamin To Help Stave Off Alzheimer’s & Dementia

A woman sitting on the ground with another person.


A new study, which was published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia : The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, found that taking a daily multivitamin for 3 years improved global cognition, including orientation/attention, memory, verbal fluency, language and visuospatial ability.   It also helps with episodic memory (the ability to recall and mentally re-experience specific episodes from one’s past) and executive function (a set of mental skills that include working memory, flexible thinking and self control).  The study was conducted by researchers from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in collaboration with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.  The study was originally conducted to prove that dark chocolate helped with memory—study participants were given either a cocoa extract supplement, a multivitamin, or a placebo every day for three years.  The researchers were surprised by the finding that multivitamins were more impactful than dark chocolate.  Laura Baker, P.h.D., author of the study and professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine at Wake Forest University told CNN, “We really believed that the cocoa extract was going to have some benefits for cognition based on prior reports of cardiovascular benefit. So we’re waiting for that big reveal in our data analysis—and it was not cocoa extract that benefited cognition but rather the multivitamin.â€

 

Link Between COVID-19 And Alzheimer’s And Dementia Found

A close up of a cell with viruses inside


A new study, which was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, found that there were seven new diagnoses of Alzheimer’s disease for every 1,000 seniors who had a documented case of COVID-19 in the past year, compared to five new diagnoses for every 1,000 who did not. However, Heather Snyder, VP of medical and scientific relations at Alzheimer’s Association, played down the study.

“The pandemic presented serious delays for individuals seeking out medical diagnoses like Alzheimer’s, meaning these results could be driven by those who already had Alzheimer’s when they were infected but had not yet sought out a formal diagnosis,†Snyder said.

Dr. Elezer Masliah, director of the Division of Neuroscience at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging, said there is evidence that COVID-19 could trigger cognitive impairment.  One step in finding out would be to follow people at risk for Alzheimer’s after a COVID-19 infection over the long term, tracking biomarkers found in the blood and doing brain scans.

Imagine how many millions of people over the age of 60 or 65, like myself, have had COVID.  Say 5% of them or 10% of them or even 1% of them are at risk,†he said.  “Wow.  We’re looking at a lot of people in the next few years that might add to the already very large epidemic that we have,†he added.

 

Del Rey Oaks, CA Home Care Aide (HCA) Senior Alzheimer’s & Dementia Caregiver Jobs Available : Set Your Own Hours: $2/Hour Extra On The Weekends CNA or HHA Designation A Plus

A woman is helping an old man


Del Rey Oaks, CA Home Care Aide (HCA) Senior Alzheimer’s & Dementia Caregiver Jobs Available : Set Your Own Hours: $2/Hour Extra On The Weekends CNA or HHA Designation A Plus (Also Aromas, Big Sur,  Carmel-by-the-sea, Carmel Highlands, Carmel Valley, Castroville, Corral-de-tierra, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Prunedale, Salinas, Seaside & Soledad

We have developed a reputation for having the best caregivers (Home Care Aides or Senior Companions) in Monterey County over the past decade and have recently expanded into Santa Cruz County.   We are currently looking for qualified caregivers.

Family inHome Caregiving of Monterey and Santa Cruz is seeking compassionate, mature and dependable caregivers who want to improve the lives of our elderly Clients by providing in-home, non-medical care.  Our services include:

Caring companionship

Meal preparation

Incidental transportation

Running errands

Light housekeeping

Medication reminders

Monitoring of safety while bathing

Information and referral services

Other services that improve the safety, security and quality of life of seniors.

If you believe you would make an exceptional Home Care Aide, we would love to hear from you!  We prefer those with experience helping the elderly, disabled and others with mobility problems.  Having cared for those with dementia and/or Alzheimer’s is a plus.  To work for us, you must have excellent references, a clear criminal record, a good driving record, and an insured reliable vehicle.  To apply, please visit our website www.familyinhomecaregiving.com, click on careers where you can fill out an application online or go to https://tsc221.ersp.biz/index.cfm?event=Apply.index

We have immediate openings all over Monterey County.

Corral-de-tierra, CA Home Care Aide (HCA) Senior Alzheimer’s & Dementia Caregiver Jobs Available : Set Your Own Hours: $2/Hour Extra On The Weekends CNA or HHA Designation A Plus

A man helping an older woman walk with a cane.


Corral-de-tierra, CA Home Care Aide (HCA) Senior Alzheimer’s & Dementia Caregiver Jobs Available : Set Your Own Hours: $2/Hour Extra On The Weekends CNA or HHA Designation A Plus (Also Aromas, Big Sur,  Carmel-by-the-sea, Carmel Highlands, Carmel Valley, Castroville, Del Rey Oaks, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Prunedale, Salinas, Seaside & Soledad

We have developed a reputation for having the best caregivers (Home Care Aides or Senior Companions) in Monterey County over the past decade and have recently expanded into Santa Cruz County.   We are currently looking for qualified caregivers.

Family inHome Caregiving of Monterey and Santa Cruz is seeking compassionate, mature and dependable caregivers who want to improve the lives of our elderly Clients by providing in-home, non-medical care.  Our services include:

Caring companionship

Meal preparation

Incidental transportation

Running errands

Light housekeeping

Medication reminders

Monitoring of safety while bathing

Information and referral services

Other services that improve the safety, security and quality of life of seniors.

If you believe you would make an exceptional Home Care Aide, we would love to hear from you!  We prefer those with experience helping the elderly, disabled and others with mobility problems.  Having cared for those with dementia and/or Alzheimer’s is a plus.  To work for us, you must have excellent references, a clear criminal record, a good driving record, and an insured reliable vehicle.  To apply, please visit our website www.familyinhomecaregiving.com, click on careers where you can fill out an application online or go to https://tsc221.ersp.biz/index.cfm?event=Apply.index

We have immediate openings all over Monterey County.

Monterey, CA Hopes Dashed For Those With Alzheimer’s : Few Drugs In The Pipeline

A woman sitting on the couch with an older man.


There was a sad story about a woman named Geri Taylor in the most recent issue of Bloomberg Businessweek.  She ran a large long-term care facility into her mid-60’s at which point she started to get forgetful.  One time, she was in the middle of running a staff meeting and lost her train of thought.  When she couldn’t get it back, one of her deputies had to take over.  Another time, she got off at the wrong Manhattan subway stop and had no idea why she was there or where she was going.  She kept putting off seeing a neurologist for years until one day she walked into the bathroom and couldn’t recognizer her own face in the mirror.  She was finally diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, likely due to Alzheimer’s disease, in 2012.  New hope arrived in 2015 when she enrolled in a clinical trial.  She had an unusual buildup of a protein in the brain called amyloid plaque, which most researchers believe is related to Alzheimer’s disease.  The drug turned out to be Aduhelm, made by Biogen Inc.  However, her hopes were quickly dashed when, despite being given FDA approval, Medicare refused to pay for the drug and it was essentially taken off the market.  Now, some researchers are wondering if the whole Amyloid plaque theory should be abandoned and scientists should focus on some other promising areas.  But there is a huge disagreement on this topic.  Rudolph Tanzi, a neurology professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, said, “If you say amyloid doesn’t matter in this disease, you are just hiding your head in the sand.â€Â  He is more optimistic about using anti-amyloid drugs earlier as a preventative measure.  Over the next year, results from trials of three more amyloid-lowering drugs—from Eli Lilly, Roche and Eisai, are expected to be published.  If any of the trials succeed, Medicare will be under extreme pressure to pay for the drugs.  However, if they all fail, backers of the amyloid hypothesis may have to throw in the towel.  Regular readers of my blog know that both my father and my grandmother had this terrible disease when they passed away.  There are a great group of people at the Monterey Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association in Ryan’s Ranch.  They also have a 24-hour hotline if you just want to talk at 1-800-272-3900.

Average Life Expectancy Falls Again

An older woman holding her hand out to someone


The average life expectancy in the U.S. dropped for the second year in a row, as COVID-19 deaths and drug overdoses pulled the average life expectancy down by almost a year to 76.1, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The drop was smaller than the 1.8 year decline that we saw in 2020, but it’s still disturbing.  Deaths attributed to flu, pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease declined in 2021.  The combined figures for the last two years are the biggest drop in life expectancy since the 1920’s.