Tag: Dementia
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Interview with Alzheimer’s researcher, blogger, and advocate Maya Gosztyla
Maya Gosztyla is the creator of AlzScience. Her passion for Alzheimer’s disease began at a young age when her grandmother was diagnosed with vascular dementia following a stroke. She currently works in a lab at the National Institutes of Health, where she’s researching a rare neurodegenerative disorder called Niemann-Pick Disease. In addition to her love of…
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Healthy Brain, Healthy Heart
FirstCare Nursing Homes is an Irish-owned nursing home group committed to providing residential care services for older adults and frail patients for over 14 years. In this interview, Jane Bryne, the project coordinator for dementia care, discusses improving brain and heart health. How are the brain and heart connected? The brain and heart are two…
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Addiction in Older Adults: Prevalence, Effects and Solutions
Is an addict a teenager using heroin? Or a young adult drinking excessive amounts of alcohol? Recent studies challenge these assumptions. 20 to 30 percent of adults between 75 and 85 years of age have had problems with alcohol consumption, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The Substance Abuse and Mental…
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The Dementia Diaries: A Great Resource for Dementia Awareness Week
In honor of Dementia Awareness Week held May 15-21, Emma Barrett, Programme Manager for Social Innovation Lab Kent (SILK), and Matthew Snyman, Author of The Dementia Diaries, have written a great piece about The Dementia Diaries. The book a collection of stories about young people and their experience with dementia. Dementia. It does not care…
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Music and Memory: How Radio Stations Impact the Health of Older Australians
Older Australians represent a significant proportion of individuals with diverse ethnicities, cultures and religious backgrounds. This increasing population requires different interventions and programs to break down language and cultural barriers, hence music plays an important role. From love songs to memorable music from TV shows, music represents certain moments in time that are rooted in…
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Keeping Brains Healthy Across the Lifespan: Is It Really As Easy As Counting to 5?
Research over the last 20 years on the impact of lifestyle on brain health indicates that how people live each day can strongly influence the delay and potential prevention of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. To appreciate the full weight of these findings, the World Alzheimer’s Report 2014 estimates that if dementia is delayed for just…
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Family Caregivers: The Unsung Heroes of Society
In 2004, my father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s-related dementia and a few months later, my mother with Alzheimer’s disease. That was the year I became a caregiver. While my parents did not reside with me, I was still intimately involved in their daily care for the next 4 and 5 years. Traveling down that rabbit…
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Montessori: Changing the Face of Dementia Care
Montessori in Aged Care is a fairly new concept that is picking up momentum in Australia. It revolves around the idea of maintaining independence rather than creating excess disability. Excess disability simply means to increase the dependence of the individual when they can independently complete the activity or task. For example, if an elderly woman…