Alzheimer’s/dementia

best rated beverage refrigeratorsWhy should you practice living with an illness as dreadful as Alzheimer’s? Because, according to NIH statistics, one-in-ten people over 65 will develop this most common form of dementia, and by 85-years-of-age, one-third of us will be struck.

There are more things that can cause depression as we age. I can’t run as fast or as far as I did ten years ago, my weight only fluctuates upward, I take more time to process information, and I feel under...

Who would think there is anything humorous about Dementia? Most people who experience it or their caregivers wouldn't. But humor and improvisation may be a key element to reducing anxiety and creating joy for...

In part one of this weekly series, I discussed some myths and facts about Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. I stressed the most alarming memory problems have less to do with names and events, and more...

Alzheimer's: it's becoming a less distant illness and something directly touching us. If a friend or relative doesn't have it or had it, it's just a matter of time before someone you know will. Unfortunately,...

11/10/14  In the Netherlands a village for people living with dementia was structured based on their needs and limitations. The result was a safe place for people to live until they died. The idea of...

06/27/14   Last night I went to an intimate dinner-concert to hear my favorite shakuhachi player. When I sat next to a couple I bubbled over with praise for his virtuosity on the shakuhachi. They looked...

“If we just could increase awareness,” some of my friends with Alzheimer’s say, “funding would rise and the illness could be eventually controlled or eliminated.” I wish it was that...

Of course you remember she says. It was your sixtieth, and we came from across the country to express our love. I don’t remember, I say. But you do remember she says. We ordered your favorite Indian...

A friend recently said to me, “When our friends learned I had Alzheimer’s, many looked at me as if I had some kind of contagious disease. Then, they just stopped calling or coming around. Don’t they know it isn’t the bloody plague?”

As a bedside hospice volunteer in San Francisco, I always have the choice of whether or not to accept an assignment. Some, I immediately know are right for me, such as sitting with a man my age who was estranged from his family and desperately wanted to reconnect with them. With others, especially those with advanced Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia, I occasionally question whether the assignment makes sense—but not anymore.

I was concerned when I came home and couldn’t find my mother. The back of the house has a steep incline off the deck that leads to a forested area. When I saw that the gate leading down the stairs was open, concern turned to panic.