Part IV, The Metamorphoses of the Baby Boom into the Senior Stampede

Why Not Train the Brain?

In treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) so little is being done with therapy to invoke the power of the brain to assist in its recovery from damage. The brain does have an inherent plasticity making it capable of growing new tissue and finding new pathways to overcome loss by reason of damage. AD’s principle impact is damage to the brain producing the symptomatology classified as AD.

Have you ever heard of Stroke Therapy applied to AD? You have heard of the BEST PRACTICES, namely the admonition to Eat Right, Exercise Daily, Get Involved in Stimulating Intellectual, Social and Creative Activity.

There is opposition to the proposition. Take a look at:

http://im-mike.blogspot.com/2011/03/creative-programs-god-send-for.html

In that post I review a little of the entrenchment against the propositon of anything helping. I then go on to discuss instances in which the activities are not supposed to help are in fact helping.

The Best Practices are the foundation on which stroke therapy invokes the body to act. There is of course more that can be done, more that needs to be done and more that will improve the function of the brain by reason of the brain’s inherent plasticity.

First, what is brain plasticity?

The article Brain Plasticity: How learning changes your brain. This article gives a good explanation of how the brain works to regenerate itself. This is but one of many on the topic. It can be seen on my Archive by clicking Archive

Another article was posted in my Archive on 3/25/12 entitled Elderly subjects may face risk of developing Alzheimer's based on brain plasticity This post supported a post on the blog entitled Creative Programs, a God-Send for Surviving the Ravages of AD Longer. This is also worth the read on the point I am trying to make.

 

There are programs of assistance that could be learned at the stroke therapy units of any clinic or hospital. Why can’t we adapt these to all dementias? Currently, I believe, you see them only in massive stroke therapy.

I have asked folks in the know, why not this with AD or vascular insufficiency from mini strokes? I am told that is because they cannot know which part of the brain is damaged. So the next question is why not look at a neuro-psychometric result? This will identify the part or parts of the brain damaged. In my case this test which I have taken shows functional damage that matches the unique symptoms I bear. This proved true all three times I took it.

There are other ways too!

Any program that provides learning, creativity, camaraderie, and exercise, anything personally stimulating, will do it.

Minneapolis has made a good start. Look at their web-site Memory Meetup and Mentor. I cannot give enough credit to Sara Tucker the person who put this all together, nor Michelle Barclay her boss and Mary Birchart, Michelle’s boss. The social, writing, art, volunteer and many other activities produced by Sara are remarkable and they were fast in generation by Sara.

Carol Larkin reports the start of a Memory Café in Dallas. See Dallas' First Neighborhood Memory Cafe Opens This Week which was posted on Alzheimer’s Reading Room. This post completely explains itself.

 

Memory Cafes have flourished in Europe. They have been slow to start in the U.S. From the net where I asked “What is a memory café?” I received this answer:

The United Kingdom has an approach to treating Alzheimer’s and Dementia that is worth looking at. It’s called the Memory Café. A place for people with memory issues to gather during the day and participate in the kind of activities that help shore up memory resources. http://www.memorycafes.org.uk/

Another answer was this:

Memory Cafés offer an informal setting for those affected by memory problems and their carers to access support and information. Operating on a ‘drop-in’ basis, they give participants the chance to exchange experiences and information and receive practical information and emotional support. The cafes are run by trained volunteers with the support of health professionals, and usually meet monthly for a couple of hours although some meet fortnightly. http://www.devon.gov.uk/fs90_memory_cafe_250610.pdf

The concept of Memory Café is great. It has flourished everywhere but the U.S. Why? I am tired of trying to define the ghostly phantoms that permeate so many of the organized undertakings purportedly to help us.

In Chapter 6. of my book HOPE A Working Primer of Care For ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE I wrote the following:

I have been part of two programs supervised by Lyngblomsten in two different congregations in Minneapolis. I go to day care the first four Thursdays of every month at the two. It runs from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm each of these Thursdays in which a staff of trained congregation volunteers in cooperation with us participants who are AD Afflicted plan organize and provide programming that is a joy in which to participate. It provides us with time well spent and positively so, cutting the gloom, the loneliness and the plight of burden and boredom this disease causes.

I have posted 6. Ch. of Hope(supra): Upon Diagnosis of AD: What can be, What’s not, What should be Done? in my archive for quick access by clicking the title.

In June of 2009 my wife Diane and I had the opportunity to appear on a panel in Washington DC convened jointly by the National Alzheimer’s Association (Alz.Org) and the Federal Administration on Aging (AoA) which was following the same directive. That directive was to investigate and determine policies and programs needed in the care of Early Stage Alzheimer's Disease (AD).

We were there along with two other members of the Early Stage Advisory Group of the National Alz.Org, who with their spouses and/or caregivers discussed the needs of those affected by the Early Stage of AD. 

We were well received by the rest of the group attending this all of whom were professionals or government officials who are charged with making policies and programs for AD in the country. Lisa Gwyther, a professional from NC who conducted our panel as moderator stated she learned more from us in one sitting than she did in 30 years of professional practice. (Perhaps hyperbole it sure sounded nice to hear it!) It was gratifying.

I presented written material to this group which consisted of the memorandum which follows entitled: Programs Worth Advocating For ESAD. This is the summary of a more detailed essay that I have posted in my archive entitled: A GREATER NEED OF CARE IN EARLY STAGE ALZHEIMER’S


PROGRAMS WORTH ADVOCATING FOR ESAD

Specifically what we can work on are the following:

a. First Stop Programs: A Place With People such as Early Stagers that patients just diagnosed can come to and learn about AD and how they and families can deal with it. This could be supplemented to Alz.Assoc with a resource list of services. The existence of this should be circulated throughout the Health Care Community.

b. Support Groups: A Place With People where Early Stagers agree to attend with regularity and be open to the public designed for Early Stage offering support, camaraderie and regularity.

c. Volunteer Coordination: We need to put together a central source to find volunteer opportunities for Early Stage AD where they can be directed to do volunteer work in the range of their respective ability.

d. Structured Wage Earning Workgroups: Something comparable to Sheltered Workshops for Early Onset AD’s to provide both work and wage when they have lost their jobs, still need gainful employment. Not everyone has disability insurance and not all disability insurance is enough. Social security can take two years to get if at all.

e. Creative Programs: To Stimulate the Minds and Prolong Early Stagers in Early Stage. These need to be structured in such a way that they are social, creative, intellectually stimulating and such to capture a person still functional and in need of more than the distraction afforded by most day care programs. 

These are some of my ideas. We need the organizations to promote and help organize this.

My last “For Instance” is the Brain Fitness Club. I have posted an article on my Archive I first read in Perspectives a publication of Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, University of California, San Diego La Jolla, California 92093 Phone: 858-622-5800. It is entitled: The Brain Fitness Club. The article appeared in the February – April, 2009 publication of perspectives.

Read the article. It will tell you all you need to know about a bang up idea put into positive practice.