Rewiring My Brain and Stepping into Alzheimer's World | Alzheimer's Reading Room

To contact us Click HERE

Once you start to understand how things work in Alzheimer's World you get calm and comfortable. Once you get calm and comfortable you give off a better "vibe" to someone that has Alzheimer's.
By Bob DeMarco 

I would find a new way to communicate with my mother who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. 

I wrote that on my da Vinci pad in 2004. This was at the same time I was coming to another conclusion, something had to change and that something was me. 

I did not perceived the changes in communication as being difficult. After all, I had been studying communication and decision making all the way back to college days, and ever since. I figured some practice and I would get the hang of it. 

What I did not immediately perceive was how difficult it would be to change all the things I had learned over the course of my life. 

For example, I had to learn how NOT to feel bad when my mother said something mean spirited to me.

Continue Reading -

Rewiring My Brain and Stepping into Alzheimer's World

via alzheimersreadingroom.com

Does Alzheimer's Caregiver Love Slow Alzheimer's Disease?

To contact us Click HERE



Did you ever wonder if Alzheimer's caregiver love makes a difference? I did. I do.

Can the Alzheimer's caregiver make a difference in the progression of Alzheimer's disease? Can the caregiver make a difference in the way a person suffering from Alzheimer's behaves?

Can the way an Alzheimer's caregiver treats someone suffering from Alzheimer's disease effect the way they feel?

Can the way a person acts toward you make a difference in the way you feel? Can the words of someone you know make you feel happy, sad, or angry?


Is it possible that Alzheimer's caregiver love can be as effective, or more effective, than the drugs that are currently available for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease?

Dr. Ruth Answers: Alzheimer's Patients and Sex in Nursing Homes

To contact us Click HERE

Dr. Ruth answers this very difficult question from a reader in the Alzheimer's Reading Room.
Alzheimer's Reading Room 

Dr Ruth Westheimer

Our reader Pathfinder asks Dr. Ruth.

Q. My wife and I have a long, very loving relationship of almost 60 years. She is in stage 5 to 6 of AD and resides in a memory care facility. 

She has begun pleading with me to have sex with her. Privacy is difficult in an institution, and I am afraid to take her home, for fear that she will resist returning to her facility. 

Your guidance would be appreciated.

Dr. Ruth's answer.

A. Privacy is difficult but perhaps not impossible. 

It may be embarrassing but you should ask someone at the facility whether they have a room that you could use, perhaps with a lock on the door (though that may not exist as locked doors pose dangers to patients) but at least with a Do Not Disturb sign that you could hang on the doorknob and the staff would be instructed to heed. 

There's a good chance that the administration has already thought about this issue and if they haven't you would be doing a service for all the patients to force them to come up with a plan. 

There's this notion that those over a certain age lose all interest in sex but it's not true. 

Having sexually frustrated patients probably adds to their stress level. But of course sex provides a lot more than just physical pleasure. It's a way of reconnecting, of saying “I love you”, of cementing your relationship. 

Even if a couple didn't actually have sex, just being given the opportunity to lie down together and hug and kiss would be very important to both the patient and the spouse. 

So for those reasons you would be doing every couple in your circumstances at that facility a big favor by lobbying for a couple's retreat room where patients and their spouse could get an hour of privacy.

 To ask Dr Ruth a question go here - 

Ask Dr Ruth a Question About Alzheimer's Caregving

Dementia, Alzheimer's, Memory Loss, Health

To contact us Click HERE
Related Content

• What is Alzheimer's Disease? What are the Eight Types of Dementia?
• What is the Difference Between Alzheimer’s and Dementia
• Test Your Memory for Alzheimer's (5 Best Tests)
• Problems with Balance, Walking, Falling Can Be an Early Sign of Dementia
• Majority of Adults Fear Alzheimer's Disease, Want Greater Effort to Defeat It
• Is Coconut Oil a Treatment for Alzheimer's Disease?
• Urinary Tract Infections Can Hasten Memory Loss in Alzheimer's Patients

Baby's 1st Post-Surgery UTI And Needs Hospitalization

To contact us Click HERE
...but she's on home leave, which means the doctor has given us consent to bring her home. However, I have to bring Baby to the hospital 3x a day for antibiotics jabs. This is Baby's first UTI since her Ureteral Reimplantation surgery more than 6 months ago. Both the surgeon and I are perplexed as to why Baby would get a UTI since the post-surgery MCUG scan in August 2009 showed that she has no more Kidney Reflux. I am suspecting that the UTI is caused by her swimming in the pool at Hard Rock Hotel Penang 2 weeks ago. Our paed told us that public pools during public holidays / school holidays are the dirtiest as they are flooded with people and the hotel maintenance staffers may not have ample time to clean the pool.

Long story cut short, Baby was braver this time. She screamed and bawled for a short while when the paed inserted the IV line on her left hand. It was quite a fast one and took under 15 minutes for everything to be completed - finding the vein, IV line inserted and hand bandaged. In the past, her doctors needed at least half an hour to over an hour to fix the line. Baby even allowed the doctor to carry her after the procedure, which was very, very uncommon of her to allow a doctor / nurse to carry her, what more the doctor who had just poked her, swaddled her so tightly with a cloth and caused her so much pain. I guess preparing her mentally before the procedure helped.

Before she went into the procedures room, while we were waiting in our room for the doctor to arrive, I told her this "Baby, the doctor will give you an injection on your hand. There will be very little pain, please don't cry ok? Mummy will wait for you outside the room. Mummy can't go in. You don't cry ok? Mummy loves you" Baby nodded her head and smiled!

Baby has to be in the hospital again for her 2nd antibiotics jab for today. She needs another jab at 10:30pm tonight.

Does Alzheimer's Caregiver Love Slow Alzheimer's Disease?

To contact us Click HERE



Did you ever wonder if Alzheimer's caregiver love makes a difference? I did. I do.

Can the Alzheimer's caregiver make a difference in the progression of Alzheimer's disease? Can the caregiver make a difference in the way a person suffering from Alzheimer's behaves?

Can the way an Alzheimer's caregiver treats someone suffering from Alzheimer's disease effect the way they feel?

Can the way a person acts toward you make a difference in the way you feel? Can the words of someone you know make you feel happy, sad, or angry?


Is it possible that Alzheimer's caregiver love can be as effective, or more effective, than the drugs that are currently available for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease?

Dr. Ruth Answers: Alzheimer's Patients and Sex in Nursing Homes

To contact us Click HERE

Dr. Ruth answers this very difficult question from a reader in the Alzheimer's Reading Room.
Alzheimer's Reading Room 

Dr Ruth Westheimer

Our reader Pathfinder asks Dr. Ruth.

Q. My wife and I have a long, very loving relationship of almost 60 years. She is in stage 5 to 6 of AD and resides in a memory care facility. 

She has begun pleading with me to have sex with her. Privacy is difficult in an institution, and I am afraid to take her home, for fear that she will resist returning to her facility. 

Your guidance would be appreciated.

Dr. Ruth's answer.

A. Privacy is difficult but perhaps not impossible. 

It may be embarrassing but you should ask someone at the facility whether they have a room that you could use, perhaps with a lock on the door (though that may not exist as locked doors pose dangers to patients) but at least with a Do Not Disturb sign that you could hang on the doorknob and the staff would be instructed to heed. 

There's a good chance that the administration has already thought about this issue and if they haven't you would be doing a service for all the patients to force them to come up with a plan. 

There's this notion that those over a certain age lose all interest in sex but it's not true. 

Having sexually frustrated patients probably adds to their stress level. But of course sex provides a lot more than just physical pleasure. It's a way of reconnecting, of saying “I love you”, of cementing your relationship. 

Even if a couple didn't actually have sex, just being given the opportunity to lie down together and hug and kiss would be very important to both the patient and the spouse. 

So for those reasons you would be doing every couple in your circumstances at that facility a big favor by lobbying for a couple's retreat room where patients and their spouse could get an hour of privacy.

 To ask Dr Ruth a question go here - 

Ask Dr Ruth a Question About Alzheimer's Caregving

Dementia, Alzheimer's, Memory Loss, Health

To contact us Click HERE
Related Content

• What is Alzheimer's Disease? What are the Eight Types of Dementia?
• What is the Difference Between Alzheimer’s and Dementia
• Test Your Memory for Alzheimer's (5 Best Tests)
• Problems with Balance, Walking, Falling Can Be an Early Sign of Dementia
• Majority of Adults Fear Alzheimer's Disease, Want Greater Effort to Defeat It
• Is Coconut Oil a Treatment for Alzheimer's Disease?
• Urinary Tract Infections Can Hasten Memory Loss in Alzheimer's Patients

Alzheimers Dementia

To contact us Click HERE
Alzheimer's and Dementia affect memory, thinking, language, judgment, behavior, and a person’s ability to perform normal daily activities.
Related content.

• What’s the Difference Between Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia
• Test Your Memory for Alzheimer's (5 Best Self Assessment Tests)
• What is Alzheimer's Disease?
• What is Dementia?
• Dementia and the Eight Types of Dementia
• What is Alzheimer's Disease? What are the Eight Types of Dementia?
• Alzheimer's Disease Statistics
• Communicating in Alzheimer's World

Baby's 1st Post-Surgery UTI And Needs Hospitalization

To contact us Click HERE
...but she's on home leave, which means the doctor has given us consent to bring her home. However, I have to bring Baby to the hospital 3x a day for antibiotics jabs. This is Baby's first UTI since her Ureteral Reimplantation surgery more than 6 months ago. Both the surgeon and I are perplexed as to why Baby would get a UTI since the post-surgery MCUG scan in August 2009 showed that she has no more Kidney Reflux. I am suspecting that the UTI is caused by her swimming in the pool at Hard Rock Hotel Penang 2 weeks ago. Our paed told us that public pools during public holidays / school holidays are the dirtiest as they are flooded with people and the hotel maintenance staffers may not have ample time to clean the pool.

Long story cut short, Baby was braver this time. She screamed and bawled for a short while when the paed inserted the IV line on her left hand. It was quite a fast one and took under 15 minutes for everything to be completed - finding the vein, IV line inserted and hand bandaged. In the past, her doctors needed at least half an hour to over an hour to fix the line. Baby even allowed the doctor to carry her after the procedure, which was very, very uncommon of her to allow a doctor / nurse to carry her, what more the doctor who had just poked her, swaddled her so tightly with a cloth and caused her so much pain. I guess preparing her mentally before the procedure helped.

Before she went into the procedures room, while we were waiting in our room for the doctor to arrive, I told her this "Baby, the doctor will give you an injection on your hand. There will be very little pain, please don't cry ok? Mummy will wait for you outside the room. Mummy can't go in. You don't cry ok? Mummy loves you" Baby nodded her head and smiled!

Baby has to be in the hospital again for her 2nd antibiotics jab for today. She needs another jab at 10:30pm tonight.

Rewiring My Brain and Stepping into Alzheimer's World | Alzheimer's Reading Room

To contact us Click HERE

Once you start to understand how things work in Alzheimer's World you get calm and comfortable. Once you get calm and comfortable you give off a better "vibe" to someone that has Alzheimer's.
By Bob DeMarco 

I would find a new way to communicate with my mother who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. 

I wrote that on my da Vinci pad in 2004. This was at the same time I was coming to another conclusion, something had to change and that something was me. 

I did not perceived the changes in communication as being difficult. After all, I had been studying communication and decision making all the way back to college days, and ever since. I figured some practice and I would get the hang of it. 

What I did not immediately perceive was how difficult it would be to change all the things I had learned over the course of my life. 

For example, I had to learn how NOT to feel bad when my mother said something mean spirited to me.

Continue Reading -

Rewiring My Brain and Stepping into Alzheimer's World

via alzheimersreadingroom.com

Does Alzheimer's Caregiver Love Slow Alzheimer's Disease?

To contact us Click HERE



Did you ever wonder if Alzheimer's caregiver love makes a difference? I did. I do.

Can the Alzheimer's caregiver make a difference in the progression of Alzheimer's disease? Can the caregiver make a difference in the way a person suffering from Alzheimer's behaves?

Can the way an Alzheimer's caregiver treats someone suffering from Alzheimer's disease effect the way they feel?

Can the way a person acts toward you make a difference in the way you feel? Can the words of someone you know make you feel happy, sad, or angry?


Is it possible that Alzheimer's caregiver love can be as effective, or more effective, than the drugs that are currently available for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease?

Dr. Ruth Answers: Alzheimer's Patients and Sex in Nursing Homes

To contact us Click HERE

Dr. Ruth answers this very difficult question from a reader in the Alzheimer's Reading Room.
Alzheimer's Reading Room 

Dr Ruth Westheimer

Our reader Pathfinder asks Dr. Ruth.

Q. My wife and I have a long, very loving relationship of almost 60 years. She is in stage 5 to 6 of AD and resides in a memory care facility. 

She has begun pleading with me to have sex with her. Privacy is difficult in an institution, and I am afraid to take her home, for fear that she will resist returning to her facility. 

Your guidance would be appreciated.

Dr. Ruth's answer.

A. Privacy is difficult but perhaps not impossible. 

It may be embarrassing but you should ask someone at the facility whether they have a room that you could use, perhaps with a lock on the door (though that may not exist as locked doors pose dangers to patients) but at least with a Do Not Disturb sign that you could hang on the doorknob and the staff would be instructed to heed. 

There's a good chance that the administration has already thought about this issue and if they haven't you would be doing a service for all the patients to force them to come up with a plan. 

There's this notion that those over a certain age lose all interest in sex but it's not true. 

Having sexually frustrated patients probably adds to their stress level. But of course sex provides a lot more than just physical pleasure. It's a way of reconnecting, of saying “I love you”, of cementing your relationship. 

Even if a couple didn't actually have sex, just being given the opportunity to lie down together and hug and kiss would be very important to both the patient and the spouse. 

So for those reasons you would be doing every couple in your circumstances at that facility a big favor by lobbying for a couple's retreat room where patients and their spouse could get an hour of privacy.

 To ask Dr Ruth a question go here - 

Ask Dr Ruth a Question About Alzheimer's Caregving

Dementia, Alzheimer's, Memory Loss, Health

To contact us Click HERE
Related Content

• What is Alzheimer's Disease? What are the Eight Types of Dementia?
• What is the Difference Between Alzheimer’s and Dementia
• Test Your Memory for Alzheimer's (5 Best Tests)
• Problems with Balance, Walking, Falling Can Be an Early Sign of Dementia
• Majority of Adults Fear Alzheimer's Disease, Want Greater Effort to Defeat It
• Is Coconut Oil a Treatment for Alzheimer's Disease?
• Urinary Tract Infections Can Hasten Memory Loss in Alzheimer's Patients

Baby's 1st Post-Surgery UTI And Needs Hospitalization

To contact us Click HERE
...but she's on home leave, which means the doctor has given us consent to bring her home. However, I have to bring Baby to the hospital 3x a day for antibiotics jabs. This is Baby's first UTI since her Ureteral Reimplantation surgery more than 6 months ago. Both the surgeon and I are perplexed as to why Baby would get a UTI since the post-surgery MCUG scan in August 2009 showed that she has no more Kidney Reflux. I am suspecting that the UTI is caused by her swimming in the pool at Hard Rock Hotel Penang 2 weeks ago. Our paed told us that public pools during public holidays / school holidays are the dirtiest as they are flooded with people and the hotel maintenance staffers may not have ample time to clean the pool.

Long story cut short, Baby was braver this time. She screamed and bawled for a short while when the paed inserted the IV line on her left hand. It was quite a fast one and took under 15 minutes for everything to be completed - finding the vein, IV line inserted and hand bandaged. In the past, her doctors needed at least half an hour to over an hour to fix the line. Baby even allowed the doctor to carry her after the procedure, which was very, very uncommon of her to allow a doctor / nurse to carry her, what more the doctor who had just poked her, swaddled her so tightly with a cloth and caused her so much pain. I guess preparing her mentally before the procedure helped.

Before she went into the procedures room, while we were waiting in our room for the doctor to arrive, I told her this "Baby, the doctor will give you an injection on your hand. There will be very little pain, please don't cry ok? Mummy will wait for you outside the room. Mummy can't go in. You don't cry ok? Mummy loves you" Baby nodded her head and smiled!

Baby has to be in the hospital again for her 2nd antibiotics jab for today. She needs another jab at 10:30pm tonight.

Inside Paul Allen's Quest To Reverse Engineer The Brain - Forbes

To contact us Click HERE

Behind a black curtain in a small room a titanium sapphire laser is prepared to fire at a tiny and very surprising target: a half-centimeter glass window surgically implanted into the skull of a live mouse. If all goes right the laser will fire for a quadrillionth of a second while the mouse runs on a white, treadmill-like ball and watches a computer screen. Thanks to special dyes, certain brain cells will glow green if the mouse is using them, their image captured by cameras capable of detecting a single photon.

The point to all this Star Trek style technology could not be more profound. That tiny tangle of tissue in the mouse’s skull turns nerve impulses from the rodent’s eyes into an interaction. Decoding that process would give scientists the first true window into how a mammalian brain experiences the world.

via forbes.com

Rewiring My Brain and Stepping into Alzheimer's World | Alzheimer's Reading Room

To contact us Click HERE

Once you start to understand how things work in Alzheimer's World you get calm and comfortable. Once you get calm and comfortable you give off a better "vibe" to someone that has Alzheimer's.
By Bob DeMarco 

I would find a new way to communicate with my mother who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. 

I wrote that on my da Vinci pad in 2004. This was at the same time I was coming to another conclusion, something had to change and that something was me. 

I did not perceived the changes in communication as being difficult. After all, I had been studying communication and decision making all the way back to college days, and ever since. I figured some practice and I would get the hang of it. 

What I did not immediately perceive was how difficult it would be to change all the things I had learned over the course of my life. 

For example, I had to learn how NOT to feel bad when my mother said something mean spirited to me.

Continue Reading -

Rewiring My Brain and Stepping into Alzheimer's World

via alzheimersreadingroom.com

Does Alzheimer's Caregiver Love Slow Alzheimer's Disease?

To contact us Click HERE



Did you ever wonder if Alzheimer's caregiver love makes a difference? I did. I do.

Can the Alzheimer's caregiver make a difference in the progression of Alzheimer's disease? Can the caregiver make a difference in the way a person suffering from Alzheimer's behaves?

Can the way an Alzheimer's caregiver treats someone suffering from Alzheimer's disease effect the way they feel?

Can the way a person acts toward you make a difference in the way you feel? Can the words of someone you know make you feel happy, sad, or angry?


Is it possible that Alzheimer's caregiver love can be as effective, or more effective, than the drugs that are currently available for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease?

Dr. Ruth Answers: Alzheimer's Patients and Sex in Nursing Homes

To contact us Click HERE

Dr. Ruth answers this very difficult question from a reader in the Alzheimer's Reading Room.
Alzheimer's Reading Room 

Dr Ruth Westheimer

Our reader Pathfinder asks Dr. Ruth.

Q. My wife and I have a long, very loving relationship of almost 60 years. She is in stage 5 to 6 of AD and resides in a memory care facility. 

She has begun pleading with me to have sex with her. Privacy is difficult in an institution, and I am afraid to take her home, for fear that she will resist returning to her facility. 

Your guidance would be appreciated.

Dr. Ruth's answer.

A. Privacy is difficult but perhaps not impossible. 

It may be embarrassing but you should ask someone at the facility whether they have a room that you could use, perhaps with a lock on the door (though that may not exist as locked doors pose dangers to patients) but at least with a Do Not Disturb sign that you could hang on the doorknob and the staff would be instructed to heed. 

There's a good chance that the administration has already thought about this issue and if they haven't you would be doing a service for all the patients to force them to come up with a plan. 

There's this notion that those over a certain age lose all interest in sex but it's not true. 

Having sexually frustrated patients probably adds to their stress level. But of course sex provides a lot more than just physical pleasure. It's a way of reconnecting, of saying “I love you”, of cementing your relationship. 

Even if a couple didn't actually have sex, just being given the opportunity to lie down together and hug and kiss would be very important to both the patient and the spouse. 

So for those reasons you would be doing every couple in your circumstances at that facility a big favor by lobbying for a couple's retreat room where patients and their spouse could get an hour of privacy.

 To ask Dr Ruth a question go here - 

Ask Dr Ruth a Question About Alzheimer's Caregving

Baby's 1st Post-Surgery UTI And Needs Hospitalization

To contact us Click HERE
...but she's on home leave, which means the doctor has given us consent to bring her home. However, I have to bring Baby to the hospital 3x a day for antibiotics jabs. This is Baby's first UTI since her Ureteral Reimplantation surgery more than 6 months ago. Both the surgeon and I are perplexed as to why Baby would get a UTI since the post-surgery MCUG scan in August 2009 showed that she has no more Kidney Reflux. I am suspecting that the UTI is caused by her swimming in the pool at Hard Rock Hotel Penang 2 weeks ago. Our paed told us that public pools during public holidays / school holidays are the dirtiest as they are flooded with people and the hotel maintenance staffers may not have ample time to clean the pool.

Long story cut short, Baby was braver this time. She screamed and bawled for a short while when the paed inserted the IV line on her left hand. It was quite a fast one and took under 15 minutes for everything to be completed - finding the vein, IV line inserted and hand bandaged. In the past, her doctors needed at least half an hour to over an hour to fix the line. Baby even allowed the doctor to carry her after the procedure, which was very, very uncommon of her to allow a doctor / nurse to carry her, what more the doctor who had just poked her, swaddled her so tightly with a cloth and caused her so much pain. I guess preparing her mentally before the procedure helped.

Before she went into the procedures room, while we were waiting in our room for the doctor to arrive, I told her this "Baby, the doctor will give you an injection on your hand. There will be very little pain, please don't cry ok? Mummy will wait for you outside the room. Mummy can't go in. You don't cry ok? Mummy loves you" Baby nodded her head and smiled!

Baby has to be in the hospital again for her 2nd antibiotics jab for today. She needs another jab at 10:30pm tonight.

Donepezil and Memantine for Moderate to Severe Alzheimer's Disease

To contact us Click HERE

For the first time, we have robust and compelling evidence that treatment with these drugs can continue to help patients at the later, more severe stages of the disease. We observed that patients who continued taking donepezil were better able to remember, understand, communicate and perform daily tasks for at least a year longer than those who stopped taking the drugs. -- Professor Robert Howard
Alzheimer's Reading Room

Robert Howard

Over the course of the trial, which recruited individuals over a two year period with a one year follow up, patients who continued to take donepezil showed considerably less decline in cognition (memory, orientation, language function, etc) and function (retained ability to carry out simple daily tasks and self-care) than those taking a placebo drug.

The benefits seen with continued treatment were clinically important and were greater than those previously seen in patients with less severe AD.

Patients who started taking memantine (Namenda) also showed better cognitive and functional abilities, although the effect was slightly smaller, compared with those taking a placebo.

Continued on the Next Page

Inside Paul Allen's Quest To Reverse Engineer The Brain - Forbes

To contact us Click HERE

Behind a black curtain in a small room a titanium sapphire laser is prepared to fire at a tiny and very surprising target: a half-centimeter glass window surgically implanted into the skull of a live mouse. If all goes right the laser will fire for a quadrillionth of a second while the mouse runs on a white, treadmill-like ball and watches a computer screen. Thanks to special dyes, certain brain cells will glow green if the mouse is using them, their image captured by cameras capable of detecting a single photon.

The point to all this Star Trek style technology could not be more profound. That tiny tangle of tissue in the mouse’s skull turns nerve impulses from the rodent’s eyes into an interaction. Decoding that process would give scientists the first true window into how a mammalian brain experiences the world.

via forbes.com

Rewiring My Brain and Stepping into Alzheimer's World | Alzheimer's Reading Room

To contact us Click HERE

Once you start to understand how things work in Alzheimer's World you get calm and comfortable. Once you get calm and comfortable you give off a better "vibe" to someone that has Alzheimer's.
By Bob DeMarco 

I would find a new way to communicate with my mother who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. 

I wrote that on my da Vinci pad in 2004. This was at the same time I was coming to another conclusion, something had to change and that something was me. 

I did not perceived the changes in communication as being difficult. After all, I had been studying communication and decision making all the way back to college days, and ever since. I figured some practice and I would get the hang of it. 

What I did not immediately perceive was how difficult it would be to change all the things I had learned over the course of my life. 

For example, I had to learn how NOT to feel bad when my mother said something mean spirited to me.

Continue Reading -

Rewiring My Brain and Stepping into Alzheimer's World

via alzheimersreadingroom.com

Does Alzheimer's Caregiver Love Slow Alzheimer's Disease?

To contact us Click HERE



Did you ever wonder if Alzheimer's caregiver love makes a difference? I did. I do.

Can the Alzheimer's caregiver make a difference in the progression of Alzheimer's disease? Can the caregiver make a difference in the way a person suffering from Alzheimer's behaves?

Can the way an Alzheimer's caregiver treats someone suffering from Alzheimer's disease effect the way they feel?

Can the way a person acts toward you make a difference in the way you feel? Can the words of someone you know make you feel happy, sad, or angry?


Is it possible that Alzheimer's caregiver love can be as effective, or more effective, than the drugs that are currently available for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease?

Dr. Ruth Answers: Alzheimer's Patients and Sex in Nursing Homes

To contact us Click HERE

Dr. Ruth answers this very difficult question from a reader in the Alzheimer's Reading Room.
Alzheimer's Reading Room 

Dr Ruth Westheimer

Our reader Pathfinder asks Dr. Ruth.

Q. My wife and I have a long, very loving relationship of almost 60 years. She is in stage 5 to 6 of AD and resides in a memory care facility. 

She has begun pleading with me to have sex with her. Privacy is difficult in an institution, and I am afraid to take her home, for fear that she will resist returning to her facility. 

Your guidance would be appreciated.

Dr. Ruth's answer.

A. Privacy is difficult but perhaps not impossible. 

It may be embarrassing but you should ask someone at the facility whether they have a room that you could use, perhaps with a lock on the door (though that may not exist as locked doors pose dangers to patients) but at least with a Do Not Disturb sign that you could hang on the doorknob and the staff would be instructed to heed. 

There's a good chance that the administration has already thought about this issue and if they haven't you would be doing a service for all the patients to force them to come up with a plan. 

There's this notion that those over a certain age lose all interest in sex but it's not true. 

Having sexually frustrated patients probably adds to their stress level. But of course sex provides a lot more than just physical pleasure. It's a way of reconnecting, of saying “I love you”, of cementing your relationship. 

Even if a couple didn't actually have sex, just being given the opportunity to lie down together and hug and kiss would be very important to both the patient and the spouse. 

So for those reasons you would be doing every couple in your circumstances at that facility a big favor by lobbying for a couple's retreat room where patients and their spouse could get an hour of privacy.

 To ask Dr Ruth a question go here - 

Ask Dr Ruth a Question About Alzheimer's Caregving

Donepezil and Memantine for Moderate to Severe Alzheimer's Disease

To contact us Click HERE

For the first time, we have robust and compelling evidence that treatment with these drugs can continue to help patients at the later, more severe stages of the disease. We observed that patients who continued taking donepezil were better able to remember, understand, communicate and perform daily tasks for at least a year longer than those who stopped taking the drugs. -- Professor Robert Howard
Alzheimer's Reading Room

Robert Howard

Over the course of the trial, which recruited individuals over a two year period with a one year follow up, patients who continued to take donepezil showed considerably less decline in cognition (memory, orientation, language function, etc) and function (retained ability to carry out simple daily tasks and self-care) than those taking a placebo drug.

The benefits seen with continued treatment were clinically important and were greater than those previously seen in patients with less severe AD.

Patients who started taking memantine (Namenda) also showed better cognitive and functional abilities, although the effect was slightly smaller, compared with those taking a placebo.

Continued on the Next Page

Inside Paul Allen's Quest To Reverse Engineer The Brain - Forbes

To contact us Click HERE

Behind a black curtain in a small room a titanium sapphire laser is prepared to fire at a tiny and very surprising target: a half-centimeter glass window surgically implanted into the skull of a live mouse. If all goes right the laser will fire for a quadrillionth of a second while the mouse runs on a white, treadmill-like ball and watches a computer screen. Thanks to special dyes, certain brain cells will glow green if the mouse is using them, their image captured by cameras capable of detecting a single photon.

The point to all this Star Trek style technology could not be more profound. That tiny tangle of tissue in the mouse’s skull turns nerve impulses from the rodent’s eyes into an interaction. Decoding that process would give scientists the first true window into how a mammalian brain experiences the world.

via forbes.com

Rewiring My Brain and Stepping into Alzheimer's World | Alzheimer's Reading Room

To contact us Click HERE

Once you start to understand how things work in Alzheimer's World you get calm and comfortable. Once you get calm and comfortable you give off a better "vibe" to someone that has Alzheimer's.
By Bob DeMarco 

I would find a new way to communicate with my mother who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. 

I wrote that on my da Vinci pad in 2004. This was at the same time I was coming to another conclusion, something had to change and that something was me. 

I did not perceived the changes in communication as being difficult. After all, I had been studying communication and decision making all the way back to college days, and ever since. I figured some practice and I would get the hang of it. 

What I did not immediately perceive was how difficult it would be to change all the things I had learned over the course of my life. 

For example, I had to learn how NOT to feel bad when my mother said something mean spirited to me.

Continue Reading -

Rewiring My Brain and Stepping into Alzheimer's World

via alzheimersreadingroom.com

Does Alzheimer's Caregiver Love Slow Alzheimer's Disease?

To contact us Click HERE



Did you ever wonder if Alzheimer's caregiver love makes a difference? I did. I do.

Can the Alzheimer's caregiver make a difference in the progression of Alzheimer's disease? Can the caregiver make a difference in the way a person suffering from Alzheimer's behaves?

Can the way an Alzheimer's caregiver treats someone suffering from Alzheimer's disease effect the way they feel?

Can the way a person acts toward you make a difference in the way you feel? Can the words of someone you know make you feel happy, sad, or angry?


Is it possible that Alzheimer's caregiver love can be as effective, or more effective, than the drugs that are currently available for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease?

Dr. Ruth Answers: Alzheimer's Patients and Sex in Nursing Homes

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Dr. Ruth answers this very difficult question from a reader in the Alzheimer's Reading Room.
Alzheimer's Reading Room 

Dr Ruth Westheimer

Our reader Pathfinder asks Dr. Ruth.

Q. My wife and I have a long, very loving relationship of almost 60 years. She is in stage 5 to 6 of AD and resides in a memory care facility. 

She has begun pleading with me to have sex with her. Privacy is difficult in an institution, and I am afraid to take her home, for fear that she will resist returning to her facility. 

Your guidance would be appreciated.

Dr. Ruth's answer.

A. Privacy is difficult but perhaps not impossible. 

It may be embarrassing but you should ask someone at the facility whether they have a room that you could use, perhaps with a lock on the door (though that may not exist as locked doors pose dangers to patients) but at least with a Do Not Disturb sign that you could hang on the doorknob and the staff would be instructed to heed. 

There's a good chance that the administration has already thought about this issue and if they haven't you would be doing a service for all the patients to force them to come up with a plan. 

There's this notion that those over a certain age lose all interest in sex but it's not true. 

Having sexually frustrated patients probably adds to their stress level. But of course sex provides a lot more than just physical pleasure. It's a way of reconnecting, of saying “I love you”, of cementing your relationship. 

Even if a couple didn't actually have sex, just being given the opportunity to lie down together and hug and kiss would be very important to both the patient and the spouse. 

So for those reasons you would be doing every couple in your circumstances at that facility a big favor by lobbying for a couple's retreat room where patients and their spouse could get an hour of privacy.

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Ask Dr Ruth a Question About Alzheimer's Caregving

Rewiring My Brain and Stepping into Alzheimer's World | Alzheimer's Reading Room

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Once you start to understand how things work in Alzheimer's World you get calm and comfortable. Once you get calm and comfortable you give off a better "vibe" to someone that has Alzheimer's.
By Bob DeMarco 

I would find a new way to communicate with my mother who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. 

I wrote that on my da Vinci pad in 2004. This was at the same time I was coming to another conclusion, something had to change and that something was me. 

I did not perceived the changes in communication as being difficult. After all, I had been studying communication and decision making all the way back to college days, and ever since. I figured some practice and I would get the hang of it. 

What I did not immediately perceive was how difficult it would be to change all the things I had learned over the course of my life. 

For example, I had to learn how NOT to feel bad when my mother said something mean spirited to me.

Continue Reading -

Rewiring My Brain and Stepping into Alzheimer's World

via alzheimersreadingroom.com