How To Use the Alzheimers Reading Room Knowledge Base

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The Alzheimer's Reading Room Knowledge Base contains more than 4,000 articles. In the Alzheimer's Reading Room (ARR), we offer "real life" solutions to problems that Alzheimer's caregivers and their families encounter each day.

The goal of the Alzheimer's Reading Roomis to Educate, Empower, and sometimes Entertain Alzheimer's caregivers, their families, and the entire Alzheimer's community.

At its core the Alzheimer's Reading Room is about helping members of the Alzheimer'sand Dementia Community understand, cope, and communicate with persons living with Alzheimer's and Dementia.

The Alzheimer's Reading Room is currently the number one source of information for Alzheimer's, dementia, memory loss, and related health and life news on the Internet.

Jump to the Alzheimer's Reading Room to Learn More

Symptoms Mild Dementia, Early Stage Alzheimer's disease

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Symptoms Mild Dementia/Early Stage Alzheimer's disease

• Diminished short-term memory
• Misplacing belongings in odd places; losing valuable belongings, like wallet or purse
• Difficulty finding the right word: "Tip of the tongue" syndrome
• Person seems "not himself" and shows uncharacteristic behaviors
• Lapses in judgment
• Difficulty with mental arithmetic and handling money
• Disorientation in unfamiliar places or situations
• May become apathetic or withdrawn, avoiding social situations
• More difficulty with routine tasks at work or at home, or may take longer to complete tasks
• Irritation or anger in response to increasing memory lapses

Specific Examples

• Asks the same question repeatedly within the same conversation
• Puts car keys away in refrigerator
• Unable to recall word for "car" and then says in frustration, "The thing you drive to work in."
• A normally shy person becomes uncharacteristically outgoing or talkative at a family gathering
• Agrees to buy services or products he/she doesn't need from telephone sales person
• Finds it difficult to balance checkbook or figure out correct amount of money to pay for an item while shopping
• Forgets to eat, skips meals, or eats the same food every meal

Source: John Hopkins, Memory, Health Alert


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Nutritional Supplement Chiro Inositol May Help Prevent Dementia

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“Chiro (Chiro-inositols) is a nutraceutical that we believe sensitizes your brain to the effects of insulin ... This would presumably enhance insulin action and protect the brain from Alzheimer’s.” ~ David Brautigan
Alzheimer's Reading Room 

We have quite a bit of information available on insulin, the connection between diabetes and Alzheimer's, and ongoing clinical trials into the use of insulin as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease. You can find all of this information by searching the Alzheimer's Reading Room Knowledge Base.

The study described below was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of chiro-inositol (Chiro) and whether or not it would enhance insulin action as a result protect the brain against Alzheimer's disease.

Chiro-inositol can be found in some foods but it is not usually abundant in most diets. However, Chiro is available as a nutritional supplement.

Is anyone on our list taking Chiro? Would you consider trying this nutritional supplement?

Continued on the Next Page

How to Get an Alzheimer's Patient to Eat

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Don't approach the problems that come along with dementia with dread. Instead think positive, and find a solution. You might be able to benefit from some of these eating tips.



As Alzheimer's or dementia progress getting a patient to eat a nutritious meal, or to eat enough, can become a problem.

This can cause the Alzheimer's caregiver to become frustrated, confused, and even angry. It can also bring on feelings of sadness and hopelessness.

There are a long list of potential problems that cause dementia patients to eat less. There are also many ways that can be tried to deal with or eliminate the problem.

The most important factor in this wide spread problem is in fact the color of the plate.

What color is your plate?

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

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...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.

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.

 To ask Dr Ruth a question go here - 

Ask Dr Ruth a Question About Alzheimer's Caregving

Dementia, Alzheimer's, Memory Loss, Health

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