Healthy News Daily: Alzheimers

Vitamin E Might Help Slow Alzheimer's Early On - NPR (blog)

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><div previewtitle='Vitamin E has been associated with increased risk of death in some studies, but it may also delay cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease.' class='bucketwrap image medium' id='res258398399'> <div class='imagewrap'><img alt="Vitamin E has been associated with increased risk of death in some studies, but it may also delay cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease." class="img lazyOnLoad" data-original="http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2013/12/30/vitamine1230-101659164972d6cdda82059bb038e87b8b5676f7.jpg" src="http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2013/12/30/vitamine1230-101659164972d6cdda82059bb038e87b8b5676f7-s6-c30.jpg" title="Vitamin E has been associated with increased risk of death in some studies, but it may also delay cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease."/> </div> <div class='captionwrap caption'> hide captionVitamin E has been associated with increased risk of death in some studies, but it may also delay cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease. </div> iStockphoto </div> Alzheimer's is a disease without a cure, and the available treatments only slow its progression for a bit. Now there's evidence vitamin E may help hold it at bay, at least for people in the early stages of the disease. The finding, though inconclusive, is a bit of a surprise. Vitamin E has gotten a bad rap in recent years. A <a id='readabilityLink-1' name='readabilityLink-1' style='color: inherit; text-decoration: none;' href='http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4541332'>2005 study</a><a style='color: inherit;' class='readability-DoNotFootnote' href='#readabilityFootnoteLink-1'>[1] </a> found that taking high doses of vitamin E increased the risk of death, and other studies have shown no benefit in preventing cancer or heart disease. And vitamin E hasn't been shown to improve thinking in people with no memory problems, or to slow progression to Alzheimer's in people mild cognitive impairment. But this study found that people with mild to moderate <a id='readabilityLink-2' name='readabilityLink-2' style='color: inherit; text-decoration: none;' href='http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/alzheimersdisease.html'>Alzheimer's disease</a><a style='color: inherit;' class='readability-DoNotFootnote' href='#readabilityFootnoteLink-2'>[2] </a> who took big doses of vitamin E had slower functional declines. That slowing effect translates into a delay in progression of about 6 months over an average of two years. The people who took vitamin E were better able to do things like dress themselves, and reduced the amount of caregiver help they needed by about 2 hours a day. The study, which was published Tuesday in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association, found that the people taking vitamin E also did better than people taking a placebo or Namenda, called <a id='readabilityLink-3' name='readabilityLink-3' style='color: inherit; text-decoration: none;' href='http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a604006.html'>memantine</a><a style='color: inherit;' class='readability-DoNotFootnote' href='#readabilityFootnoteLink-3'>[3] </a> generically, a drug used to treat symptoms of advanced Alzheimer's. "We are more optimistic," says <a id='readabilityLink-4' name='readabilityLink-4' style='color: inherit; text-decoration: none;' href='http://www.umn.edu/lookup?UID=dyske001'>Dr. Maurice Dysken</a><a style='color: inherit;' class='readability-DoNotFootnote' href='#readabilityFootnoteLink-4'>[4] </a>, a researcher with the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, who led the study. Dysken and his colleagues used to prescribe 2,000 international units of vitamin E to Alzheimer's patients, based on a 1997 study that showed that it helped delay progression of symptoms. But the 2005 meta-analysis that showed higher death rates in people who took more than 400 IU a day dampened their enthusiasm, Dysken tells Shots. "We were very aware of that when we started this trial." The group of people in this study taking vitamin E had a slightly lower death rate than the placebo group, but the number of participants, 613 patients at 14 Veterans Affairs medical facilities around the country, was too small to prove that's really true. It would take thousands of patients to figure that out. And other puzzles remain. Some of the people in the study were taking memantine along with vitamin E, and they didn't see the benefits in the people taking vitamin E alone. Dysken says he and his colleagues don't know why. They also don't know why <a id='readabilityLink-5' name='readabilityLink-5' style='color: inherit; text-decoration: none;' href='http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002406.htm'>vitamin E</a><a style='color: inherit;' class='readability-DoNotFootnote' href='#readabilityFootnoteLink-5'>[5] </a>, which is an antioxidant, might help in the early stages of Alzheimer's, but not later on. Some people think that vitamin E enhances the effect of other Alzheimer's drugs like Aricept, but this study doesn't prove that. But Dysken can see a real benefit for slowing the march of the disease early on. "I think it would be particularly meaningful for patients in the mild to moderate group," Dysken says. "Patients who are at the end of the illness, no one thinks slowing the rate of decline means anything if a patient is six months from going into hospice. But earlier in the disease it can be a meaningful difference." Lots more work needs to be done to see if this apparent benefit is real, according to both Dysken and an editorial accompanying the study. And Dysken cautions that Alzheimer's patients should be given vitamin E only under a doctor's supervision. <div id='readability-footnotes'> <h3>References</h3> <ol id='readability-footnotes-list'> <li><a title='Jump to Link in Article' href='#readabilityLink-1'>^</a> <a id='readabilityFootnoteLink-1' name='readabilityFootnoteLink-1' href='http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4541332'>2005 study</a> (www.npr.org) </li> <li><a title='Jump to Link in Article' href='#readabilityLink-2'>^</a> <a id='readabilityFootnoteLink-2' name='readabilityFootnoteLink-2' href='http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/alzheimersdisease.html'>Alzheimer's disease</a> (www.nlm.nih.gov) </li> <li><a title='Jump to Link in Article' href='#readabilityLink-3'>^</a> <a id='readabilityFootnoteLink-3' name='readabilityFootnoteLink-3' href='http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a604006.html'>memantine</a> (www.nlm.nih.gov) </li> <li><a title='Jump to Link in Article' href='#readabilityLink-4'>^</a> <a id='readabilityFootnoteLink-4' name='readabilityFootnoteLink-4' href='http://www.umn.edu/lookup?UID=dyske001'>Dr. Maurice Dysken</a> (www.umn.edu) </li> <li><a title='Jump to Link in Article' href='#readabilityLink-5'>^</a> <a id='readabilityFootnoteLink-5' name='readabilityFootnoteLink-5' href='http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002406.htm'>vitamin E</a> (www.nlm.nih.gov) </li> </ol> </div> </div>

Vitamin E Might Help Slow Alzheimer's Early On - NPR (blog)

hide caption Vitamin E has been associated with increased risk of death in some studies, but it may also delay cognitive decline in Alzheim...

Vitamin E Slows Decline in Patients With Mild Alzheimer's - Bloomberg

Vitamin E may aid those with mild to moderate Alzheimer's - USA TODAY

Alzheimer's residence planned for Spring Hill - Tampabay.com

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>SPRING HILL — A West Palm Beach development group plans to build a 96-unit residence at the Pasco/Hernando border for people with Alzheimer's disease and dementia. The $25 million facility, to be called Rose Castle of Pasco, would be constructed at the southeast corner of Parade Road and County Line Road near the entrance to the Arlington Woods housing development. The project is currently in design stages and requires several approvals, including a state nursing home license, before it can open, projected for sometime in mid to late 2015. Construction is set to start this summer. Mainsail Healthcare Group II LLC, a partnership based in West Palm Beach, is proposing the facility. George Mueller Jr., an attorney for the Muller Group, a partner in Mainsail, recently appeared before Pasco commissioners about the proposed facility. Mueller said Mainsail is seeking about $28.6 million in revenue bonds from the Gulf Breeze-based Capital Trust Agency to finance the project, one of three Mainsail is planning in Florida. Federal tax code requires county officials to give approval when a revenue bond is issued for a health care facility in their county, although Pasco would play no direct role in the project. Mainsail's other partners are MJM Associates LLC and Palm Harbor-based O'Keefe-Painter Architects, Mueller said. A subsidiary, Mainsail Healthcare Development, would construct the facility. Gloria Smith, president of the Gulf Coast chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, welcomed the news. The association estimates about 450,000 people suffer from Alzheimer's in Florida. That number is expected to grow to 510,000 over the next seven years. "There's always room for good dementia care facilities," Smith said. The three-story facility would include private residences, semi-private quarters shared by two individuals and third-floor offices dedicated to Alzheimer's research, along with meeting rooms and administrative offices. "This is not going to be a babysitting facility," Mueller said. "It will introduce programs to the residents to stimulate cognition, and there will be an exercise and physical therapy component, as well as research." Additionally, Mainsail is planning two other facilities in Florida: in Wildwood, just south of the Villages, and in Boca Raton. Rich Shopes can be reached at rshopes@tampabay.com or (727) 869-6236. </div>

Alzheimer's residence planned for Spring Hill - Tampabay.com

SPRING HILL — A West Palm Beach development group plans to build a 96-unit residence at the Pasco/Hernando border for people with Alzheimer&...

Cholesterol linked to Alzheimer's protein, unclear why - Reuters

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><div id='articleImage' class='relatedPhoto landscape'><img alt="A medical technician draws a blood sample to screen for glucose and cholesterol at a free health screening as part of the National Urban League's Economic Empowerment Tour in Dallas, Texas June 13, 2009. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi" border="0" src="http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20131231&t=2&i=825711939&w=580&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBRE9BU197S00"/> <div id='captionContent' class='rolloverCaption'> <div class='rolloverBg'> <div class='captionText'> A medical technician draws a blood sample to screen for glucose and cholesterol at a free health screening as part of the National Urban League's Economic Empowerment Tour in Dallas, Texas June 13, 2009. Credit: Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi </div> </div> </div> </div> (Reuters Health) - Patterns of "good" and "bad" cholesterol usually associated with heart risks also predicted the levels of Alzheimer's-related beta amyloid protein seen in the brains of study participants. "One of the important themes emerging from dementia research over the past 15 years is that there are intriguing connections between vascular disease and Alzheimer's disease," Bruce Reed, who led the research, told Reuters Health by email. Reed is a professor and associate director of the University of California Davis Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. "It has become increasingly clear that what have been traditionally thought of as vascular risk factors - things like hypertension, diabetes and elevated cholesterol - are also risk factors for Alzheimer's disease," Reed said. In previous work, Reed and his colleagues found a connection between overall vascular risk and levels of brain amyloid. "Amyloid deposition is important because it is widely believed by scientists to be a key event that initiates a chain of events that eventually, years later, results in the dementia of Alzheimer's disease," Reed said. "There was also previous work in cell cultures and with animals that suggested that cholesterol plays an important role in promoting the deposition of amyloid in the brain," Reed said. For the new study, published in JAMA Neurology, the researchers examined the cholesterol levels of 74 elderly people who had normal to mildly impaired cognitive function. Researchers also measured brain deposits of beta amyloid protein with positron emission tomography (PET scanning). They found that on average, participants who had higher levels of the "bad" LDL cholesterol and lower levels of "good" HDL cholesterol also had higher levels of amyloid in the brain. Elevated LDL-cholesterol is associated with cardiovascular disease while high levels of HDL-cholesterol are thought to protect against heart disease. "We think this is a very important finding, but as with all novel findings it needs to be replicated," Reed said. "Assuming that the basic pattern is found in other groups of patients, it is urgent that we try to understand the mechanism(s) behind this finding." "Cholesterol in blood and cholesterol in brain are separate 'pools,' walled off from one another by the blood brain barrier. We measured cholesterol in blood. So that is one question that needs to be answered - how do cholesterol levels in blood and in brain influence each other," Reed said. "And in the brain, it is not entirely understood how changing cholesterol levels might reduce amyloid deposition. We are very interested in the idea that higher HDL ('good') cholesterol levels may help the brain more efficiently clear the toxic amyloid at an early stage," Reed said. "If those questions were understood we could begin to think about how to change cholesterol levels so as to prevent the buildup of amyloid," Reed added. In other studies, some researchers have found evidence that LDL cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as statins, might offer some protection against Alzheimer's disease, but the results have been inconsistent. Reed's team didn't see any associations between current use of cholesterol medication by the participants and their amyloid levels. In their report, Reed and his coauthors caution that the study does not prove cholesterol is directly affecting amyloid deposition. For instance, they write, unhealthy cholesterol could be linked to vascular damage, such as small strokes, and those micro-injuries could be the reason for the protein deposits. He encourages people to follow the advice of their doctor and try to achieve the cholesterol guidelines set by the American Heart Association. "A remarkable number of people who are alive now will live into their 80s or beyond - the period of highest risk for Alzheimer's. This study is one more piece of evidence that what we do now can shape our health positively in those years," Reed said. SOURCE: <a id='readabilityLink-1' name='readabilityLink-1' style='color: inherit; text-decoration: none;' href='http://bit.ly/1iqKLuP'>bit.ly/1iqKLuP</a><a style='color: inherit;' class='readability-DoNotFootnote' href='#readabilityFootnoteLink-1'>[1] </a> JAMA Neurology, online December 30, 2013. <div id='readability-footnotes'> <h3>References</h3> <ol id='readability-footnotes-list'> <li><a title='Jump to Link in Article' href='#readabilityLink-1'>^</a> <a id='readabilityFootnoteLink-1' name='readabilityFootnoteLink-1' href='http://bit.ly/1iqKLuP'>bit.ly/1iqKLuP</a> (bit.ly) </li> </ol> </div> </div>

Cholesterol linked to Alzheimer's protein, unclear why - Reuters

A medical technician draws a blood sample to screen for glucose and cholesterol at a free health screening as part of the National Urban Lea...

Early detection of Alzheimer's disease helps patients - Dailyrecord.com

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Early detection of Alzheimer's disease helps patients - Dailyrecord.com

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Cholesterol levels linked to early signs of Alzheimer's in brain - NBCNews.com (blog)

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><div class='entry-top'><a id='readabilityLink-1' name='readabilityLink-1' style='color: inherit; text-decoration: none;' href='http://www.nbcnews.com/health'>Health</a><a style='color: inherit;' class='readability-DoNotFootnote' href='#readabilityFootnoteLink-1'>[1] </a> <div class='byline-container'><img class="avatar" src="http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/streams/2012/December/121211/1C5146414-jonel.blocks_desktop_avatar.jpg"/> JoNel Aleccia NBC News </div> </div> 21 minutes ago <div readability='12' class='art small right'><img alt="Amyloid precursor protein molecule" src="http://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/streams/2013/December/131230/2D10976628-131230-Alzheimer-protein-215p_.blocks_desktop_small.jpg"/> LAGUNA DESIGN / Getty Images/Science Photo Libra This amyloid precursor protein or APP is the early component of beta amyloid, which helps form the amyloid plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Researchers say a new study of live patients finds that cholesterol levels are linked to evidence of amyloid deposits in the brain. </div> High levels of “good” HDL cholesterol and low levels of the “bad” LDL kind are not just helpful for your heart, they’re better for your brain as well, a new study finds. In fact, the wrong levels of the two types of cholesterol are associated with more of the protein deposits in the brain associated with the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. That’s according to the first study to look at the relationship between specific cholesterol levels and brain amyloid deposits in living humans, not just autopsy patients. It’s published Monday in the journal JAMA Neurology. “Unhealthy patterns of cholesterol could be directly causing higher levels of amyloid known to contribute to Alzheimer’s, in the same way that such patterns promote heart disease,” said Dr. Bruce Reed, a professor of neurology at the University of California, Davis, Alzheimer’s Disease Center. Reed and his team studied brain scans of 74 patients in stroke clinics and senior centers using Pittsburgh Compound B, or PIB, a tracer dye that highlights amyloid in the brain. The patients were, for the most part, normal and free of any symptoms of dementia, Reed said. But when the scientists measured the cholesterol in their blood, and teased out the two types, they found that patients with high levels of low-density lipoprotein or LDL cholesterol and low levels of high-density lipoprotein or HDL cholesterol showed higher PIB levels. That means that the good and bad effects of the two kinds of cholesterol may occur long before people develop Alzheimer’s symptoms, perhaps offering a new chance for early intervention. The American Heart Association has long said that keeping levels of HDL “good” cholesterol up — above 60 milligrams per deciliter of blood — and levels of LDL “bad” cholesterol — below 100 mg/dL — can prevent heart disease. But this new study underscores the benefit for the brain, Reed said. “There’s been some recent research questioning whether the low HDL levels are bad for the heart,” he said. “But when you look at the biology of this, HDL seems really important to the brain. It’s another reason to stick with this goal of getting HDL up and LDL down.” That means that as many Americans ponder New Year’s resolutions, there’s yet another reason to focus on cholesterol. Dr. Charles DeCarli, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Center and a study co-author, called the work “a wake-up call.” “If you have an LDL above 100 or an HDL that is less than 40, even if you’re taking a statin drug, you want to make sure that you are getting those numbers into alignment,” he said. “You have to get the HDL up and the LDL down.” <div id='readability-footnotes'> <h3>References</h3> <ol id='readability-footnotes-list'> <li><a title='Jump to Link in Article' href='#readabilityLink-1'>^</a> <a id='readabilityFootnoteLink-1' name='readabilityFootnoteLink-1' href='http://www.nbcnews.com/health'>Health</a> (www.nbcnews.com) </li> </ol> </div> </div>

Cholesterol levels linked to early signs of Alzheimer's in brain - NBCNews.com (blog)

Health [1] JoNel Aleccia NBC News 21 minutes ago LAGUNA DESIGN / Getty Images/Science Photo Libra This amyloid precursor protein or AP...

Some find Alzheimer's caregivers far away - The Register-Guard

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Residents of this facility for people with Alzheimer’s disease toss around a yellow ball and laugh under a cascade with their caregivers, in a swimming pool ringed by palm trees and wind chimes. Susanna Kuratli, once a painter of delicate oils, swims a lap and smiles. Watching is her husband, Ulrich, who has a heart-rending decision: to leave his wife of 41 years in this facility 5,600 miles from home, or to take her back to Switzerland. Their homeland treats the elderly as well as any nation on Earth, but Ulrich Kuratli says the care here in northern Thailand is not only less expensive but more personal. In Switzerland, “You have a cold, old lady who gives you pills and tells you to go to bed,” he says. Kuratli and his family have given themselves six months to decide while the retired software developer lives alongside his 65-year-old wife in Baan Kamlangchay — “Home for Care from the Heart.” Patients live in individual houses within a Thai community, are taken to local markets, temples and restaurants, and receive personal around-the-clock care. The monthly $3,800 cost is a third of what basic institutional care would come to in Switzerland. Kuratli is not yet sure how he’ll care for Susanna, who used to produce a popular annual calendar of her paintings. But he’s leaning toward keeping her in Thailand. “Sometimes I am jealous. My wife won’t take my hand but when her Thai carer takes it, she is calm. She seems to be happy,” he says. “When she sees me she starts to cry. Maybe she remembers how we were and understands, but can no longer find the words.” Relatives in Western nations are increasingly confronting Kuratli’s dilemma as the number of Alzheimer’s patients and costs rise, and the supply of qualified nurses and facilities struggles to keep up. Faraway countries are offering cheaper, and to some minds better, care for those suffering from the irreversible loss of memory. The nascent trend is unnerving to some experts who say uprooting people with Alzheimer’s will add to their sense of displacement and anxiety, though others say quality of care is more important than location. There’s also some general uneasiness over the idea of sending ailing elderly people abroad: The German press has branded it “gerontological colonialism.” Germany already is sending several thousand sufferers, as well as the aged and otherwise ill, to Eastern Europe, Spain, Greece and Ukraine. Patients are even moving from Switzerland, which was ranked No. 1 in health care for the elderly this year in an index compiled by the elderly advocacy group HelpAge International and the U.N. Population Fund. The Philippines is offering Americans care for $1,500 to $3,500 a month, well below U.S. rates. About 100 Americans are seeking care in the Philippines, says J.J. Reyes, who is planning a retirement community near Manila. Facilities in Thailand also are preparing to attract more Alzheimer’s sufferers. In Chiang Mai, a pleasant city ringed by mountains, Baan Kamlangchay will be followed by a $10 million, holiday-like home scheduled to open before mid-2014. Also on the way is a small Alzheimer’s unit within a retirement community set on the grounds of a former four-star resort. The U.K.-based Alzheimer’s Disease International says there are more than 44 million Alzheimer’s patients globally, and the figure is projected to triple to 135 million by 2050. A number of European countries have generous national health insurance, but these generally do not cover treatment abroad. Kuratli says the Swiss government would cover two-thirds of the bill for his wife’s care if she stays in Switzerland, but since high-end private clinics there can cost $15,000 or more per month, he could still end up paying more there than he would in Thailand. Baan Kamlangchay was established by Martin Woodtli, a Swiss who spent four years in Thailand with the aid group Doctors Without Borders before returning home to care for his Alzheimer’s-diagnosed mother. He brought his mother to Chiang Mai, where she became the home’s first “guest.” Woodtli never uses the word “patient.” Over the next 10 years, the 52-year-old psychologist and social worker purchased or rented eight two-story houses where 13 Swiss and German patients now reside. On most afternoons, the group gathers at a private walled park to swim, snack and relax on deck chairs. Regular outside activities are organized because Woodtli believes these stimuli may help delay degeneration. He says his guests “cannot explain it, but I think they feel part of a family, a community, and that is very important.” Sabine Jansen, head of Germany’s Alzheimer Society, says that while some with Alzheimer’s may adjust to an alien place, most find it difficult because they live in a world of earlier memories. “They are better oriented in their own living places and communities,” she says. “Friends, family members, neighbors can visit them. Also because of language and cultural reasons, it is best for most to stay in their home country.” Angela Lunde of the U.S.-based Mayo Clinic says that, generally, the afflicted do better in a familiar environment, but over time, even those with advanced stages of the disease can adjust well. “I think a positive transition has less to do with the move itself and more with the way in which the staff and new environment accommodates the person living with dementia,” she says. Woodtli says people who have traveled widely and are accustomed to change can probably adapt. “One of our guests sometimes wakes up in the morning and says, ‘Where am I?’ But she would do the same if she was in a care center in Switzerland,” he says. “One guest thinks she is in a schoolhouse at Lake Lucerne.” At the swimming pool, Madeleine Buchmeier snaps photos and laughs as she watches a caregiver take her smiling husband’s hands to twirl around together in a dance out of childhood. “It’s a miracle,” she says. Geri used to bang his head against the walls of a care facility in Switzerland, she says, “as if he wanted to do something, get somewhere.” He would sink when entering water. In the three weeks since they arrived, he has calmed down and can swim again, all while his medicine is being sharply reduced. Like Kuratli, Buchmeier is deciding whether her 64-year-old husband, a former Ford Motor Co. employee, should stay or go back to Switzerland. Nearby, Manfred Schlaupitz, a former Daimler-Benz engineer in his 70s, lies back in a deck chair, cradling a stuffed toy lamb. His caregiver, Kanokkan Tasa, sits on the grass beside him, gently massaging his legs and tickling his chin. She has been with him for six years. “If you think of it as a job it’s very difficult,” she says, “but if it comes from the heart, it is easy.” Like a number of Alzheimer’s victims, Schlaupitz responds well to music. Sometimes they sing one of his favorite songs: “Yesterday.” </div>

Some find Alzheimer's caregivers far away - The Register-Guard

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Residents of this facility for people with Alzheimer’s disease toss around a yellow ball and laugh under a cascade wi...

Some with Alzheimer's find care in far-off nations - Toledo Blade

Some with Alzheimer's find care in far-off nations - Washington Post

Shocking Alzheimer's study - Fox News

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>This transcript is automatically generated DOCTORS, GREAT TO HAVE YOU HERE. THANK YOU SO MUCH. >> THANK YOU. >> FIRST, YOU BEGIN WITH SOME OF THE BIGGEST MEDICAL STOIES OF THE YEAR. THE FIRST ONE IS REALLY A SHOCKING STUDY THIS YEAR, PREDICTING THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE LIVING WITH ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE IS EXPECTED TO TRIPLE. TRIPLE, BY 2015. DR. SIEGEL, WHY SO MANY MORE? AND WHAT CAN WE ALL DO ABOUT IT? >> A LOT OF REASONS AND THIS IS A WELL-KNOWN SURVEY. THEY LOOKED ADD 10,000 PATIENTS AT RUSH INSTITUTE AND FOLLOWED THEM FOR A DECADE. THE REASON FOR THAT, NUMBER ONE ON THE LIST IS WE'RE GETTING OLDER. MANY MORE BABY BOOMERS LIKE YOU AND ME, ERIC, AND WE'RE GETTING OLDER. >> GENERATION X. >> YEAH, OKAY. SURE, SURE, ERIC, BUT THE MAIN THING IS THAT, YOU KNOW, MOST OF THESE ALZHEIMER'S PATIENTS ARE GOING TO BEOVER THE AGE OF 85. THAT'S WHY THE BABY BOOMERS ARE GOING TO FILL THIS VOID. THEN THE ISSUE OF OBESITY, PEOPLE NOT EXERCISING ENOUGH, NOT EATING RIGHT, BEING ON A LOT OF MEDICATIONS. ALL OF THOSE CAN INCREASE YOUR RISK OF ALZHEIMER'S. ASSOCIATED WITH THIS, WE'RE INCREASING YOUR ABILITY TO DISCOVER. TWO STUDIES OUT IN DECEMBER HAVE LOOKED AT THIS. A GROUNDBREAKING STUDY LOOKING AT PROTEINS WHICH WE HAVE DISCUSSED ON THE SHOW, AND IT'S VERY IMPORTANT IN FINDING ALZHEIMER'S BUT THEY FOR THE FIRST TIME LOOKED AT IT ON A MOLECULAR LEVEL AND FOUND EVEN INTRODUCING NORMAL PROTINES CAN CAUSE THE CELLS BE ABNORMAL. THE OTHER PROTINE IS BETA AMALOID. VERY IMPORTANT THAT PEOPLE WHO HAD BRAIN INJURIES, PEOPLE WHO HAD CONCUSSIONS, PEOPLE WHO HAD MEMORY LOSS WERE FIVE TIMES AS LIKELY TO FORM THOSE ABNORMAL BETA AMALOID PROTEINS, AND IMAGING STUDIES ARE IMPROVING OUR ABILITY TO FIND IT EARLY. IF WE FIND IT EARLY AND FIND IT BEFORE IT'S ALREADY HIT YOU AND BEFORE IT COSTS BILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO OUR HEALTH CARE SYSTEM AND BEFORE CARETAKERS ARE OVERWHELMED, WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO FIND TREATMENTS TO USE. >> YOU SAY TO YOUR DOCTOR, I WANT A TOW PROTEIN TEST? YOU KNOW YOUR LOVED ONES, IT'S THE MOST CRUCIAL, HORRENDOUS SITUATION TO GO THROUGH WHEN YOU SEE YOUR LOVED ONES. >> IT NOT ONLY AFFECTS THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM, BUT EMOTIONALLY, THE FAMILIES ARE INVOLVED. WE'RE GOING TO SEE MORE AND MORE PEOPLE THAT WILL COME WITH ALZHEIMER'S. THE GOVERNMENT SAYS THE NUMBERS WILL DOUBLE. NOW WE'RE FINDING OUT IN THIS STUDY THAT IT'S GOING TO TRIPLE. NOW, THIS IS EXPECTED BECAUSE AS PHYSICIANS OVER THE YEARS, WE TOOK CARE OF, YOU KNOW, QUANTITY. WE TOOK CARE OF PROLONGING LIFE, HOW TO DEFEAT CANCER. WE DID A GREAT JOB WITH HEART ATTACK. THAT'S ONE OF THE REASONS PEOPLE ARE LIVING LONGER, BUT WE DON'T KNOW AND WE WERE NOT REALLY PREPARED FOR THE CAUSALITY OF LIFE. THIS IS WHY ALZHEIMER'S WHICH BY THE WAY, IT'S NOT STANDING ALONE. YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE BONE DISEASE, OSTEOPOROSIS, ISSUES THAT COME ALONG WITH THIS. IN THE G-8 MEETING IN LONDON, THE PRIME MINISTER PUSHED FOR A WHOLE INITIATIVE WITH ALL WEALTHY COUNTRIES TO REALLY PUT AND INVEST MONEY IN RESEARCH. WE TALKED ABOUT THE IMAGING. THE GENETIC ASPECTS OF PHARMACEUTICALS TO TREAT ALZHEIMER'S BY 2025. EVEN THOUGH IT'S A SHORT PERIOD TO CURE THIS DISEASE, PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW THAT ANYTHING THAT CAUSES ALZHEIMER'S. IT'S SIMILAR TO HEART ATTACK. OBESITY, SMOKING, DIABETES. WE TALK ABOUT CONCUSSIONS. THE FACT THAT IF YOU'RE NOT ACTIVE, IF YOU DON'T EXERCISE, ALL OF THOSE ARE RISK FACTORS. YOU WANT TO ENGAGE YOUR BRAIN IN SOLVING PUZZLES, LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE. AS LONG AS YOU'RE ACTIVE, YOU CAN DELAY IT. I THINK THERE'S HOPE. >> HEREDITARY COMPONENT? >> A PART OF IT, BUT ALSO THOSE FAMILIES, WE WANT TO MAKE SURE WE DIAGNOSE THEM EARLY. WE'RE GOING FROM 5 MILLION NUMBERS IN AMERICA TO ABOUT 14 MILLION. AND ABOUT 7 MILLION OF THEM ARE BABY BOOMERS WHO ARE GOING TO LIVE OVER 85. SO THIS IS GOOD NEWS, BUT WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A LOT OF SICKER POPULATION IN OUR HANDS THAT WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH. >> WHAT DO I TELL MY DOCTOR? WHAT DO I LOOK FOR? >> THE FIRST THING YOUR DOCTOR IS GOING TO SAY IS FIVE YEARS FROM NOW, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE IMAGING STUDIES AND TELL YOU IF YOU'RE AT RISK AND WHAT YOUR PERCENTAGE IS. >> FIVE YEARS FROM NOW. >> IF YOU NEED TO EXERCISE MORE AND YOUR DIET, AND MAYBE THERE WILL BE DRUGS OUT THERE THAT WILL TARGET THE PROTEINS OR BETA AMYLOID PROTEINS BEFORE THEY FORM. THERE ARE CERTAIN PEOPLE WHO WILL GET AND OTHERS WON'T. GROUPS OF PEOPLE WILL GET TREATMENT, OTHERS WON'T NEED IT. >> YOU CAN GO TO A DOCTOR, THESE ARE PART OF RESEARCH. THIS IS AT THE VERY MOLECULAR LEVEL, BUT IN THE FUTURE, WE'LL BE ABLE TO DIAGNOSE IT EARLY ON. >> WHAT YOU'RE SAYING IS MORE OF US WILL HAVE IT WHILE WE'RE TAKING CARE OF PARENTS WHO HAVE IT IF THERE'S A GENETIC LINK. >> MEANWHILE, THERE WAS ANOTHER POTENTIAL NEW WEAPON IN THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE AS WE COVER SOME OF YOUR BIGGEST MEDICAL </div>

Shocking Alzheimer's study - Fox News

This transcript is automatically generated DOCTORS, GREAT TO HAVE YOU HERE. THANK YOU SO MUCH. >> THANK YOU. >> FIRST, YOU BEGI...

Some With Alzheimer's Find Care in Far-off Nations - ABC News

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><div class='media_empty'> </div> <div class='partnerlogo' id='wirelogo'><img alt="Associated Press" border="0" src="http://a.abcnews.com/assets/images/logo/AP_logo_update_20130709.gif"/> </div> Residents of this facility for people with Alzheimer's disease toss around a yellow ball and laugh under a cascade of water with their caregivers, in a swimming pool ringed by palm trees and wind chimes. Susanna Kuratli, once a painter of delicate oils, swims a lap and smiles. Watching is her husband, Ulrich, who has a heart-rending decision: to leave his wife of 41 years in this facility 9,000 kilometers (5,600 miles) from home, or to bring her back to Switzerland. Their homeland treats the elderly as well as any nation on Earth, but Ulrich Kuratli says the care here in northern Thailand is not only less expensive but more personal. In Switzerland, "You have a cold, old lady who gives you pills and tells you to go to bed," he says. Kuratli and his three grown children have given themselves six months to decide while the retired software developer lives alongside his 65-year-old wife in Baan Kamlangchay — "Home for Care from the Heart." Patients live in individual houses within a Thai community, are taken to local markets, temples and restaurants, each with three caretakers working in rotation to provide personal around-the-clock care. The monthly $3,800 cost is a third of what basic institutional care would come to in Switzerland. Kuratli is not yet sure how he'll care for Susanna, who used to produce a popular annual calendar of her paintings. But he's leaning toward keeping her in Thailand, possibly for the rest of her life. "Sometimes I am jealous. My wife won't take my hand but when her Thai carer takes it, she is calm. She seems to be happy," he says. "When she sees me she starts to cry. Maybe she remembers how we were and understands, but can no longer find the words." Spouses and relatives in Western nations are increasingly confronting Kuratli's dilemma as the number of Alzheimer's patients and costs rise, and the supply of qualified nurses and facilities struggles to keep up. Faraway countries are offering cheaper, and to some minds better, care for those suffering from the irreversible loss of memory. The nascent trend is unnerving to some experts who say uprooting people with Alzheimer's will add to their sense of displacement and anxiety, though others say quality of care is more important than location. There's also some general uneasiness over the idea of sending ailing elderly people abroad: The German press has branded it "gerontological colonialism." Germany is already sending several thousand sufferers, as well as the aged and otherwise ill, to Eastern Europe, Spain, Greece and Ukraine. Patients are even moving from Switzerland, which was ranked No. 1 in health care for the elderly this year in an index compiled by the elderly advocacy group HelpAge International and the U.N. Population Fund. The Philippines is offering Americans care for $1,500 to $3,500 a month — as compared to $6,900 the American Elder Care Research Organization says is the average monthly bill for a private room in a skilled nursing U.S. facility. About 100 Americans are currently seeking care in the Philippines but more facilities are being built and a marketing campaign will be launched in 2014, says J.J. Reyes, who is planning a retirement community near Manila. Facilities in Thailand also are preparing to attract more Alzheimer's sufferers. In Chiang Mai, a pleasant city ringed by mountains, Baan Kamlangchay will be followed by a $10 million, holiday-like home scheduled to open before mid-2014. Also on the way is a small Alzheimer's unit within a retirement community set on the grounds of a former four-star resort. With Thailand seeking to strengthen its already leading position as a medical tourism and retirement destination, similar projects are likely. The number of people over 60 worldwide is set to more than triple between 2000 and 2050 to 2 billion, according to the World Health Organization. And more are opting for retirement in lower-cost countries. "Medical tourism" has become a booming industry, with roughly 8 million people of all ages seeking treatment abroad annually, according to the group Patients Without Borders. The U.K.-based Alzheimer's Disease International says there are more than 44 million Alzheimer's patients globally, and the figure is projected to triple to 135 million by 2050. The Alzheimer's Association estimates that in the U.S. alone, the disease will cost $203 billion this year and soar to $1.2 trillion by 2050. The pioneering Baan Kamlangchay was established by Martin Woodtli, a Swiss who spent four years in Thailand with the aid group Doctors Without Borders before returning home to care for his Alzheimer's diagnosed mother. Wanting to return to Thailand and knowing that Thais traditionally regard the elderly with great respect, he brought his mother to Chiang Mai, where she became the home's first "guest." Woodtli never uses the word "patient." Over the next 10 years, the 52-year-old psychologist and social worker purchased or rented eight two-story houses where 13 Swiss and German patients now reside. Two people normally share the modest but well-kept, fully furnished houses, each sleeping in a separate bedroom along with their caretaker. Breakfast and lunch are eaten together at another residence where Woodtli, his wife and son live. On most afternoons, the group gathers at a private, walled park to swim, snack and relax on deck chairs. Regular outside activities are organized because he believes these stimuli may help delay degeneration. "Movement is important. Tensions are also relieved if they have freedom to move. Our carers allow our guests a lot of space as long as it does not pose a danger to them," he says. "In Switzerland we don't have opportunity for such care." He says his guests "cannot explain it, but I think they feel part of a family, a community, and that is very important." Yet Woodtli says he has received criticism about "the Swiss starting to export their social problems." The German press has recently described shifting the aged and ailing abroad as "grandmother export." Sabine Jansen, head of Germany's Alzheimer Society, says that while some with Alzheimer's may adjust to an alien place, most find it difficult because they live in a world of earlier memories. "People with dementia should stay in their familiar environment as long as possible. They are better oriented in their own living places and communities," she says. "Friends, family members, neighbors can visit them. Also because of language and cultural reasons, it is best for most to stay in their home country." Angela Lunde of the U.S.-based Mayo Clinic says that generally the afflicted do better in a familiar environment, but over time, even those with advanced stages of the disease can adjust well. "I think a positive transition has less to do with the move itself and more with the way in which the staff and new environment accommodates the person living with dementia," she says. Woodtli agrees that moving to country like Thailand is not the answer for everyone with Alzheimer's, but those who have traveled widely and are accustomed to change can probably adapt. "One of our guests sometimes wakes up in the morning and says, 'Where am I?' But she would do the same if she was in a care center in Switzerland," he says. "And they take their past with them. One guest thinks she is in a schoolhouse at Lake Lucerne." Those who end up staying at a facility being built in the outlying Chiang Mai district of Doi Saket will have amenities that would be tough for its European counterparts to match, including a clubhouse with a massage room and beauty parlor, a restaurant, Swiss bakery and pavilions with soaring ceilings and skylights. "The idea is that this is a resort, not a hospital," says Marc H. Dumur, a veteran hotelier who will manage the Swiss-owned, 3.5-hectare (8.7-acre) facility built amid orchards and groves of teak. Going up are 72 patient rooms in six spacious pavilions, plus villas for visiting family members. Around-the-clock care will be provided by a staff of 150, including a Swiss head nurse and at least one licensed Thai nurse for each pavilion. These patient-to-carer ratios reflect the costs in a developing country like Thailand and the West. A licensed Thai nurse earns less than $700 a month, compared to about $7,000 for one in Switzerland, where care centers will have one nurse responsible for 10 patients. Care at the Doi Saket home will cost $6,000 a month, roughly what a mid-level employee in Switzerland would receive as a pension, Dumur says. A number of European countries have generous national health insurance, but these generally do not cover treatment abroad. Kuratli says the Swiss government would cover two-thirds of the bill for his wife's care if she stays in Switzerland, but since high-end private clinics there can cost $15,000 or more per month, he could still end up paying more there than he would in Thailand. British businessman Peter Brown has turned a bankrupt resort into the Care Resort Chiang Mai. Residents will live in five-room units, watched over by nurses 24 hours a day, and walk out into extensive, landscaped grounds, with a thousand trees and a lake, set in a tranquil area at the foot of mountains. "In Europe they tend to follow a lock-up system. They know what should be done but they just don't have the staff to do it — to take patients to visit gardens, to give them some freedom," Brown says. "And the carers tend to come from the lower end of the nursing system. They often don't have the desire to work with Alzheimer's patients or an affinity with them." Woodtli agrees that it is crucial "for the patients to be together with their carers, to know and trust." He says Thai caregivers like those at Baan Kamlangchay are generally more emotionally and physically engaged with their charges. At the swimming pool, Madeleine Buchmeier snaps photos and laughs as she watches a caregiver take her smiling husband's hands to twirl around together in a dance out of childhood. "It's a miracle," she says. Geri used to bang his head against the walls of a care facility in Switzerland, she says, "as if he wanted to do something, get somewhere." He would sink when entering water. In the three weeks since they arrived, he has calmed down and can swim again, all while his medicine is being sharply reduced. Like Kuratli, Buchmeier is deciding whether her 64-year-old husband should stay or go back to Switzerland. Once a Ford Motor Co. employee who spoke four languages, he now mutters largely disjointed sentences but appears to recognize his wife. Nearby, Manfred Schlaupitz, a former Daimler-Benz engineer in his 70s, lies back in a deck chair, cradling a stuffed toy lamb. His caregiver, Kanokkan Tasa, sits on the grass beside him, gently massaging his legs and tickling his chin. She has been with him for six years, eight hours a day and earlier cared for Woodtli's mother. "If you think of it as a job it's very difficult," she says, "but if it comes from the heart, it is easy." She came to the home with no formal nursing training. "I felt pity for them and asked myself, 'If I was stricken with Alzheimer's, how would I want to be cared for?'" she said. The 32-year-old woman communicates in Thai, German, English and her native tribal language but most importantly, she says, through eye and physical contact and displays of emotion. Like a number of Alzheimer's victims, Schlaupitz responds well to music. Sometimes they sing one of his favorite songs: "Yesterday." <div class='clearboth'> </div> </div>

Some With Alzheimer's Find Care in Far-off Nations - ABC News

Residents of this facility for people with Alzheimer's disease toss around a yellow ball and laugh under a cascade of water with thei...

Some with Alzheimer's find care in far-off nations - Appeal-Democrat

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><div class='container' id='paging_container'> <div class='content'> Residents of this facility for people with Alzheimer's disease toss around a yellow ball and laugh under a cascade of water with their caregivers, in a swimming pool ringed by palm trees and wind chimes. Susanna Kuratli, once a painter of delicate oils, swims a lap and smiles. Watching is her husband, Ulrich, who has a heart-rending decision: to leave his wife of 41 years in this facility 9,000 kilometers (5,600 miles) from home, or to bring her back to Switzerland. <div class='tncms-restricted-notice hide'> <div class='ui-widget ui-widget-content ui-corner-all' id='subscription-notice'><a id='subscription-notice' href='http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/world_news/some-with-alzheimer-s-find-care-in-far-off-nations/article_5b395b5f-1147-5e66-8f68-bf824e33e15c.html#' name='subscription-notice'> </a> <h3 class='ui-widget-header ui-corner-all notice-header' id='notice-header'>Subscription Required</h3> An online service is needed to view this article in its entirety. 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Create one now.</a><a style='color: inherit;' class='readability-DoNotFootnote' href='#readabilityFootnoteLink-1'>[1] </a> </div> </div> <div class='metered ui-widget-content ui-corner-all hide' id='registration-notice'> <h3 class='ui-widget-header ui-corner-all notice-header' id='notice-header'>You must login to view the full content on this page.</h3> </div> <div class='encrypted-content c18'>kAm%96:C 9@>6=2?5 EC62ED E96 6=56C=J 2D H6== 2D 2?J ?2E:@? @? t2CE9[ 3FE &=C:49 zFC2E=: D2JD E96 42C6 96C6 :? ?@CE96C? %92:=2?5 :D ?@E @?=J =6DD 6IA6?D:G6 3FE >@C6 A6CD@?2=] x? $H:EK6C=2?5[ Q*@F 92G6 2 4@=5[ @=5 =25J H9@ 8:G6D J@F A:==D 2?5 E6==D J@F E@ 8@ E@ 365[Q 96 D2JD]k^Am</div> <div class='encrypted-content c18'>kAmzFC2E=: 2?5 9:D E9C66 8C@H? 49:=5C6? 92G6 8:G6? E96>D6=G6D D:I >@?E9D E@ 564:56 H9:=6 E96 C6E:C65 D@7EH2C6 56G6=@A6C =:G6D 2=@?8D:56 9:D ed\J62C\@=5 H:76 :? q22? z2>=2?8492J 0 Qw@>6 7@C r2C6 7C@> E96 w62CE]Q !2E:6?ED =:G6 :? :?5:G:5F2= 9@FD6D H:E9:? 2 %92: 4@>>F?:EJ[ 2C6 E2<6? 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Some with Alzheimer's find care in far-off nations - Appeal-Democrat

Residents of this facility for people with Alzheimer's disease toss around a yellow ball and laugh under a cascade of water with their c...

Some with Alzheimer's find care in far-off nations - WRAL.com

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press <div readability='336'> CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Residents of this facility for people with Alzheimer's disease toss around a yellow ball and laugh under a cascade of water with their caregivers, in a swimming pool ringed by palm trees and wind chimes. Susanna Kuratli, once a painter of delicate oils, swims a lap and smiles. Watching is her husband, Ulrich, who has a heart-rending decision: to leave his wife of 41 years in this facility 9,000 kilometers (5,600 miles) from home, or to bring her back to Switzerland. Their homeland treats the elderly as well as any nation on Earth, but Ulrich Kuratli says the care here in northern Thailand is not only less expensive but more personal. In Switzerland, "You have a cold, old lady who gives you pills and tells you to go to bed," he says. Kuratli and his three grown children have given themselves six months to decide while the retired software developer lives alongside his 65-year-old wife in Baan Kamlangchay — "Home for Care from the Heart." Patients live in individual houses within a Thai community, are taken to local markets, temples and restaurants, each with three caretakers working in rotation to provide personal around-the-clock care. The monthly $3,800 cost is a third of what basic institutional care would come to in Switzerland. Kuratli is not yet sure how he'll care for Susanna, who used to produce a popular annual calendar of her paintings. But he's leaning toward keeping her in Thailand, possibly for the rest of her life. "Sometimes I am jealous. My wife won't take my hand but when her Thai carer takes it, she is calm. She seems to be happy," he says. "When she sees me she starts to cry. Maybe she remembers how we were and understands, but can no longer find the words." Spouses and relatives in Western nations are increasingly confronting Kuratli's dilemma as the number of Alzheimer's patients and costs rise, and the supply of qualified nurses and facilities struggles to keep up. Faraway countries are offering cheaper, and to some minds better, care for those suffering from the irreversible loss of memory. The nascent trend is unnerving to some experts who say uprooting people with Alzheimer's will add to their sense of displacement and anxiety, though others say quality of care is more important than location. There's also some general uneasiness over the idea of sending ailing elderly people abroad: The German press has branded it "gerontological colonialism." Germany is already sending several thousand sufferers, as well as the aged and otherwise ill, to Eastern Europe, Spain, Greece and Ukraine. Patients are even moving from Switzerland, which was ranked No. 1 in health care for the elderly this year in an index compiled by the elderly advocacy group HelpAge International and the U.N. Population Fund. The Philippines is offering Americans care for $1,500 to $3,500 a month — as compared to $6,900 the American Elder Care Research Organization says is the average monthly bill for a private room in a skilled nursing U.S. facility. About 100 Americans are currently seeking care in the Philippines but more facilities are being built and a marketing campaign will be launched in 2014, says J.J. Reyes, who is planning a retirement community near Manila. Facilities in Thailand also are preparing to attract more Alzheimer's sufferers. In Chiang Mai, a pleasant city ringed by mountains, Baan Kamlangchay will be followed by a $10 million, holiday-like home scheduled to open before mid-2014. Also on the way is a small Alzheimer's unit within a retirement community set on the grounds of a former four-star resort. With Thailand seeking to strengthen its already leading position as a medical tourism and retirement destination, similar projects are likely. The number of people over 60 worldwide is set to more than triple between 2000 and 2050 to 2 billion, according to the World Health Organization. And more are opting for retirement in lower-cost countries. "Medical tourism" has become a booming industry, with roughly 8 million people of all ages seeking treatment abroad annually, according to the group Patients Without Borders. The U.K.-based Alzheimer's Disease International says there are more than 44 million Alzheimer's patients globally, and the figure is projected to triple to 135 million by 2050. The Alzheimer's Association estimates that in the U.S. alone, the disease will cost $203 billion this year and soar to $1.2 trillion by 2050. The pioneering Baan Kamlangchay was established by Martin Woodtli, a Swiss who spent four years in Thailand with the aid group Doctors Without Borders before returning home to care for his Alzheimer's diagnosed mother. Wanting to return to Thailand and knowing that Thais traditionally regard the elderly with great respect, he brought his mother to Chiang Mai, where she became the home's first "guest." Woodtli never uses the word "patient." Over the next 10 years, the 52-year-old psychologist and social worker purchased or rented eight two-story houses where 13 Swiss and German patients now reside. Two people normally share the modest but well-kept, fully furnished houses, each sleeping in a separate bedroom along with their caretaker. Breakfast and lunch are eaten together at another residence where Woodtli, his wife and son live. On most afternoons, the group gathers at a private, walled park to swim, snack and relax on deck chairs. Regular outside activities are organized because he believes these stimuli may help delay degeneration. "Movement is important. Tensions are also relieved if they have freedom to move. Our carers allow our guests a lot of space as long as it does not pose a danger to them," he says. "In Switzerland we don't have opportunity for such care." He says his guests "cannot explain it, but I think they feel part of a family, a community, and that is very important." Yet Woodtli says he has received criticism about "the Swiss starting to export their social problems." The German press has recently described shifting the aged and ailing abroad as "grandmother export." Sabine Jansen, head of Germany's Alzheimer Society, says that while some with Alzheimer's may adjust to an alien place, most find it difficult because they live in a world of earlier memories. "People with dementia should stay in their familiar environment as long as possible. They are better oriented in their own living places and communities," she says. "Friends, family members, neighbors can visit them. Also because of language and cultural reasons, it is best for most to stay in their home country." Angela Lunde of the U.S.-based Mayo Clinic says that generally the afflicted do better in a familiar environment, but over time, even those with advanced stages of the disease can adjust well. "I think a positive transition has less to do with the move itself and more with the way in which the staff and new environment accommodates the person living with dementia," she says. Woodtli agrees that moving to country like Thailand is not the answer for everyone with Alzheimer's, but those who have traveled widely and are accustomed to change can probably adapt. "One of our guests sometimes wakes up in the morning and says, 'Where am I?' But she would do the same if she was in a care center in Switzerland," he says. "And they take their past with them. One guest thinks she is in a schoolhouse at Lake Lucerne." Those who end up staying at a facility being built in the outlying Chiang Mai district of Doi Saket will have amenities that would be tough for its European counterparts to match, including a clubhouse with a massage room and beauty parlor, a restaurant, Swiss bakery and pavilions with soaring ceilings and skylights. "The idea is that this is a resort, not a hospital," says Marc H. Dumur, a veteran hotelier who will manage the Swiss-owned, 3.5-hectare (8.7-acre) facility built amid orchards and groves of teak. Going up are 72 patient rooms in six spacious pavilions, plus villas for visiting family members. Around-the-clock care will be provided by a staff of 150, including a Swiss head nurse and at least one licensed Thai nurse for each pavilion. These patient-to-carer ratios reflect the costs in a developing country like Thailand and the West. A licensed Thai nurse earns less than $700 a month, compared to about $7,000 for one in Switzerland, where care centers will have one nurse responsible for 10 patients. Care at the Doi Saket home will cost $6,000 a month, roughly what a mid-level employee in Switzerland would receive as a pension, Dumur says. A number of European countries have generous national health insurance, but these generally do not cover treatment abroad. Kuratli says the Swiss government would cover two-thirds of the bill for his wife's care if she stays in Switzerland, but since high-end private clinics there can cost $15,000 or more per month, he could still end up paying more there than he would in Thailand. British businessman Peter Brown has turned a bankrupt resort into the Care Resort Chiang Mai. Residents will live in five-room units, watched over by nurses 24 hours a day, and walk out into extensive, landscaped grounds, with a thousand trees and a lake, set in a tranquil area at the foot of mountains. "In Europe they tend to follow a lock-up system. They know what should be done but they just don't have the staff to do it — to take patients to visit gardens, to give them some freedom," Brown says. "And the carers tend to come from the lower end of the nursing system. They often don't have the desire to work with Alzheimer's patients or an affinity with them." Woodtli agrees that it is crucial "for the patients to be together with their carers, to know and trust." He says Thai caregivers like those at Baan Kamlangchay are generally more emotionally and physically engaged with their charges. At the swimming pool, Madeleine Buchmeier snaps photos and laughs as she watches a caregiver take her smiling husband's hands to twirl around together in a dance out of childhood. "It's a miracle," she says. Geri used to bang his head against the walls of a care facility in Switzerland, she says, "as if he wanted to do something, get somewhere." He would sink when entering water. In the three weeks since they arrived, he has calmed down and can swim again, all while his medicine is being sharply reduced. Like Kuratli, Buchmeier is deciding whether her 64-year-old husband should stay or go back to Switzerland. Once a Ford Motor Co. employee who spoke four languages, he now mutters largely disjointed sentences but appears to recognize his wife. Nearby, Manfred Schlaupitz, a former Daimler-Benz engineer in his 70s, lies back in a deck chair, cradling a stuffed toy lamb. His caregiver, Kanokkan Tasa, sits on the grass beside him, gently massaging his legs and tickling his chin. She has been with him for six years, eight hours a day and earlier cared for Woodtli's mother. "If you think of it as a job it's very difficult," she says, "but if it comes from the heart, it is easy." She came to the home with no formal nursing training. "I felt pity for them and asked myself, 'If I was stricken with Alzheimer's, how would I want to be cared for?'" she said. The 32-year-old woman communicates in Thai, German, English and her native tribal language but most importantly, she says, through eye and physical contact and displays of emotion. Like a number of Alzheimer's victims, Schlaupitz responds well to music. Sometimes they sing one of his favorite songs: "Yesterday." </div> Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </div>

Some with Alzheimer's find care in far-off nations - WRAL.com

By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Residents of this facility for people with Alzheimer's disease toss around a ...

Concussions Linked to Alzheimer's Risk in Study - WebMD

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><h2>Concussions Linked to Alzheimer's Risk in Study</h2> Brain scans found seniors with both poor memory and prior head injury have more plaque buildup WebMD News from HealthDay <div class='art_thumb'><img alt="New guidelines address which patients might" src="http://img.webmd.com/dtmcms/live/webmd/consumer_assets/site_images/article_thumbnails/news/healthday/2013/01/alzheimers.jpg"/> </div> By Kathleen Doheny HealthDay Reporter THURSDAY, Dec. 26, 2013 (HealthDay News) -- Older adults with memory problems and a history of <a id='readabilityLink-1' name='readabilityLink-1' style='color: inherit; text-decoration: none;' onclick='return sl(this,'','embd-lnk');' href='http://www.webmd.com/brain/concussion-traumatic-brain-injury-symptoms-causes-treatments'>concussion</a><a style='color: inherit;' class='readability-DoNotFootnote' href='#readabilityFootnoteLink-1'>[1] </a> have more buildup of <a id='readabilityLink-2' name='readabilityLink-2' style='color: inherit; text-decoration: none;' onclick='return sl(this,'','embd-lnk');' href='http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/default.htm'>Alzheimer's</a><a style='color: inherit;' class='readability-DoNotFootnote' href='#readabilityFootnoteLink-2'>[2] </a> disease-associated plaques in the <a id='readabilityLink-3' name='readabilityLink-3' style='color: inherit; text-decoration: none;' onclick='return sl(this,'','embd-lnk');' href='http://www.webmd.com/brain/picture-of-the-brain'>brain</a><a style='color: inherit;' class='readability-DoNotFootnote' href='#readabilityFootnoteLink-3'>[3] </a> than those who also had concussions but don't have memory problems, according to a new study. ''What we think it suggests is, <a id='readabilityLink-4' name='readabilityLink-4' style='color: inherit; text-decoration: none;' onclick='return sl(this,'','embd-lnk');' href='http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/guide/head-injuries-causes-and-treatments'>head trauma</a><a style='color: inherit;' class='readability-DoNotFootnote' href='#readabilityFootnoteLink-4'>[4] </a> is associated with Alzheimer's-type <a id='readabilityLink-5' name='readabilityLink-5' style='color: inherit; text-decoration: none;' onclick='return sl(this,'','embd-lnk');' href='http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/guide/alzheimers-dementia'>dementia</a><a style='color: inherit;' class='readability-DoNotFootnote' href='#readabilityFootnoteLink-5'>[5] </a> -- it's a risk factor," said study researcher Michelle Mielke, an associate professor of epidemiology and neurology at Mayo Clinic Rochester. "But it doesn't mean someone with head trauma is [automatically] going to develop Alzheimer's." Her study is published online Dec. 26 and in the Jan. 7 print issue of the journal Neurology. Previous studies looking at whether head trauma is a risk factor for Alzheimer's have come up with conflicting results, she noted. And Mielke stressed that she has found only a link or association, not a cause-and-effect relationship. In the study, Mielke and her team evaluated 448 residents of Olmsted County, Minn., who had no signs of memory problems. They also evaluated another 141 residents with memory and thinking problems known as mild cognitive impairment. More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Plaques are deposits of a protein fragment known as beta-amyloid that can build up in between the brain's nerve cells. While most people develop some with age, those who develop Alzheimer's generally get many more, according to the Alzheimer's Association. They also tend to get them in a predictable pattern, starting in brain areas crucial for memory. In the Mayo study, all participants were aged 70 or older. The participants reported if they ever had a brain injury that involved loss of consciousness or memory. Of the 448 without any memory problems, 17 percent had reported a brain injury. Of the 141 with memory problems, 18 percent did. This suggests that the link between head trauma and the plaques is complex, Mielke said, as the proportion of people reporting concussion was the same in both groups. Brain scans were done on all the participants. Those who had both concussion history and cognitive [mental] impairment had levels of amyloid plaques that were 18 percent higher than those with cognitive impairment but no head trauma history, the investigators found. Among those with mild cognitive impairment, those with concussion histories had a nearly five times higher risk of elevated plaque levels than those without a history of concussion. The researchers don't know why some with concussion history develop memory problems and others do not. The research was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, among several other supporters. The study adds valuable information for experts in the field, said Dr. Robert Glatter, director of sports medicine and traumatic brain injury in the department of emergency medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital, in New York City. Glatter, who is also a former sideline physician for the National Football League's New York Jets, reviewed the new study findings. <div id='readability-footnotes'> <h3>References</h3> <ol id='readability-footnotes-list'> <li><a title='Jump to Link in Article' href='#readabilityLink-1'>^</a> <a id='readabilityFootnoteLink-1' name='readabilityFootnoteLink-1' onclick='return sl(this,'','embd-lnk');' href='http://www.webmd.com/brain/concussion-traumatic-brain-injury-symptoms-causes-treatments'>concussion</a> (www.webmd.com) </li> <li><a title='Jump to Link in Article' href='#readabilityLink-2'>^</a> <a id='readabilityFootnoteLink-2' name='readabilityFootnoteLink-2' onclick='return sl(this,'','embd-lnk');' href='http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/default.htm'>Alzheimer's</a> (www.webmd.com) </li> <li><a title='Jump to Link in Article' href='#readabilityLink-3'>^</a> <a id='readabilityFootnoteLink-3' name='readabilityFootnoteLink-3' onclick='return sl(this,'','embd-lnk');' href='http://www.webmd.com/brain/picture-of-the-brain'>brain</a> (www.webmd.com) </li> <li><a title='Jump to Link in Article' href='#readabilityLink-4'>^</a> <a id='readabilityFootnoteLink-4' name='readabilityFootnoteLink-4' onclick='return sl(this,'','embd-lnk');' href='http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/guide/head-injuries-causes-and-treatments'>head trauma</a> (www.webmd.com) </li> <li><a title='Jump to Link in Article' href='#readabilityLink-5'>^</a> <a id='readabilityFootnoteLink-5' name='readabilityFootnoteLink-5' onclick='return sl(this,'','embd-lnk');' href='http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/guide/alzheimers-dementia'>dementia</a> (www.webmd.com) </li> </ol> </div> </div>

Concussions Linked to Alzheimer's Risk in Study - WebMD

Concussions Linked to Alzheimer's Risk in Study Brain scans found seniors with both poor memory and prior head injury have more plaque b...

Some With Alzheimer's Find Care In Far-Off Nations - NPR

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>CHIANG MAI, Thailand (AP) — Residents of this facility for people with Alzheimer's disease toss around a yellow ball and laugh under a cascade of water with their caregivers, in a swimming pool ringed by palm trees and wind chimes. Susanna Kuratli, once a painter of delicate oils, swims a lap and smiles. Watching is her husband, Ulrich, who has a heart-rending decision: to leave his wife of 41 years in this facility 9,000 kilometers (5,600 miles) from home, or to bring her back to Switzerland. Their homeland treats the elderly as well as any nation on Earth, but Ulrich Kuratli says the care here in northern Thailand is not only less expensive but more personal. In Switzerland, "You have a cold, old lady who gives you pills and tells you to go to bed," he says. Kuratli and his three grown children have given themselves six months to decide while the retired software developer lives alongside his 65-year-old wife in Baan Kamlangchay — "Home for Care from the Heart." Patients live in individual houses within a Thai community, are taken to local markets, temples and restaurants, each with three caretakers working in rotation to provide personal around-the-clock care. The monthly $3,800 cost is a third of what basic institutional care would come to in Switzerland. Kuratli is not yet sure how he'll care for Susanna, who used to produce a popular annual calendar of her paintings. But he's leaning toward keeping her in Thailand, possibly for the rest of her life. "Sometimes I am jealous. My wife won't take my hand but when her Thai carer takes it, she is calm. She seems to be happy," he says. "When she sees me she starts to cry. Maybe she remembers how we were and understands, but can no longer find the words." Spouses and relatives in Western nations are increasingly confronting Kuratli's dilemma as the number of Alzheimer's patients and costs rise, and the supply of qualified nurses and facilities struggles to keep up. Faraway countries are offering cheaper, and to some minds better, care for those suffering from the irreversible loss of memory. The nascent trend is unnerving to some experts who say uprooting people with Alzheimer's will add to their sense of displacement and anxiety, though others say quality of care is more important than location. There's also some general uneasiness over the idea of sending ailing elderly people abroad: The German press has branded it "gerontological colonialism." Germany is already sending several thousand sufferers, as well as the aged and otherwise ill, to Eastern Europe, Spain, Greece and Ukraine. Patients are even moving from Switzerland, which was ranked No. 1 in health care for the elderly this year in an index compiled by the elderly advocacy group HelpAge International and the U.N. Population Fund. The Philippines is offering Americans care for $1,500 to $3,500 a month — as compared to $6,900 the American Elder Care Research Organization says is the average monthly bill for a private room in a skilled nursing U.S. facility. About 100 Americans are currently seeking care in the Philippines but more facilities are being built and a marketing campaign will be launched in 2014, says J.J. Reyes, who is planning a retirement community near Manila. Facilities in Thailand also are preparing to attract more Alzheimer's sufferers. In Chiang Mai, a pleasant city ringed by mountains, Baan Kamlangchay will be followed by a $10 million, holiday-like home scheduled to open before mid-2014. Also on the way is a small Alzheimer's unit within a retirement community set on the grounds of a former four-star resort. With Thailand seeking to strengthen its already leading position as a medical tourism and retirement destination, similar projects are likely. The number of people over 60 worldwide is set to more than triple between 2000 and 2050 to 2 billion, according to the World Health Organization. And more are opting for retirement in lower-cost countries. "Medical tourism" has become a booming industry, with roughly 8 million people of all ages seeking treatment abroad annually, according to the group Patients Without Borders. The U.K.-based Alzheimer's Disease International says there are more than 44 million Alzheimer's patients globally, and the figure is projected to triple to 135 million by 2050. The Alzheimer's Association estimates that in the U.S. alone, the disease will cost $203 billion this year and soar to $1.2 trillion by 2050. The pioneering Baan Kamlangchay was established by Martin Woodtli, a Swiss who spent four years in Thailand with the aid group Doctors Without Borders before returning home to care for his Alzheimer's diagnosed mother. Wanting to return to Thailand and knowing that Thais traditionally regard the elderly with great respect, he brought his mother to Chiang Mai, where she became the home's first "guest." Woodtli never uses the word "patient." Over the next 10 years, the 52-year-old psychologist and social worker purchased or rented eight two-story houses where 13 Swiss and German patients now reside. Two people normally share the modest but well-kept, fully furnished houses, each sleeping in a separate bedroom along with their caretaker. Breakfast and lunch are eaten together at another residence where Woodtli, his wife and son live. On most afternoons, the group gathers at a private, walled park to swim, snack and relax on deck chairs. Regular outside activities are organized because he believes these stimuli may help delay degeneration. "Movement is important. Tensions are also relieved if they have freedom to move. Our carers allow our guests a lot of space as long as it does not pose a danger to them," he says. "In Switzerland we don't have opportunity for such care." He says his guests "cannot explain it, but I think they feel part of a family, a community, and that is very important." Yet Woodtli says he has received criticism about "the Swiss starting to export their social problems." The German press has recently described shifting the aged and ailing abroad as "grandmother export." Sabine Jansen, head of Germany's Alzheimer Society, says that while some with Alzheimer's may adjust to an alien place, most find it difficult because they live in a world of earlier memories. "People with dementia should stay in their familiar environment as long as possible. They are better oriented in their own living places and communities," she says. "Friends, family members, neighbors can visit them. Also because of language and cultural reasons, it is best for most to stay in their home country." Angela Lunde of the U.S.-based Mayo Clinic says that generally the afflicted do better in a familiar environment, but over time, even those with advanced stages of the disease can adjust well. "I think a positive transition has less to do with the move itself and more with the way in which the staff and new environment accommodates the person living with dementia," she says. Woodtli agrees that moving to country like Thailand is not the answer for everyone with Alzheimer's, but those who have traveled widely and are accustomed to change can probably adapt. "One of our guests sometimes wakes up in the morning and says, 'Where am I?' But she would do the same if she was in a care center in Switzerland," he says. "And they take their past with them. One guest thinks she is in a schoolhouse at Lake Lucerne." Those who end up staying at a facility being built in the outlying Chiang Mai district of Doi Saket will have amenities that would be tough for its European counterparts to match, including a clubhouse with a massage room and beauty parlor, a restaurant, Swiss bakery and pavilions with soaring ceilings and skylights. "The idea is that this is a resort, not a hospital," says Marc H. Dumur, a veteran hotelier who will manage the Swiss-owned, 3.5-hectare (8.7-acre) facility built amid orchards and groves of teak. Going up are 72 patient rooms in six spacious pavilions, plus villas for visiting family members. Around-the-clock care will be provided by a staff of 150, including a Swiss head nurse and at least one licensed Thai nurse for each pavilion. These patient-to-carer ratios reflect the costs in a developing country like Thailand and the West. A licensed Thai nurse earns less than $700 a month, compared to about $7,000 for one in Switzerland, where care centers will have one nurse responsible for 10 patients. Care at the Doi Saket home will cost $6,000 a month, roughly what a mid-level employee in Switzerland would receive as a pension, Dumur says. A number of European countries have generous national health insurance, but these generally do not cover treatment abroad. Kuratli says the Swiss government would cover two-thirds of the bill for his wife's care if she stays in Switzerland, but since high-end private clinics there can cost $15,000 or more per month, he could still end up paying more there than he would in Thailand. British businessman Peter Brown has turned a bankrupt resort into the Care Resort Chiang Mai. Residents will live in five-room units, watched over by nurses 24 hours a day, and walk out into extensive, landscaped grounds, with a thousand trees and a lake, set in a tranquil area at the foot of mountains. "In Europe they tend to follow a lock-up system. They know what should be done but they just don't have the staff to do it — to take patients to visit gardens, to give them some freedom," Brown says. "And the carers tend to come from the lower end of the nursing system. They often don't have the desire to work with Alzheimer's patients or an affinity with them." Woodtli agrees that it is crucial "for the patients to be together with their carers, to know and trust." He says Thai caregivers like those at Baan Kamlangchay are generally more emotionally and physically engaged with their charges. At the swimming pool, Madeleine Buchmeier snaps photos and laughs as she watches a caregiver take her smiling husband's hands to twirl around together in a dance out of childhood. "It's a miracle," she says. Geri used to bang his head against the walls of a care facility in Switzerland, she says, "as if he wanted to do something, get somewhere." He would sink when entering water. In the three weeks since they arrived, he has calmed down and can swim again, all while his medicine is being sharply reduced. Like Kuratli, Buchmeier is deciding whether her 64-year-old husband should stay or go back to Switzerland. Once a Ford Motor Co. employee who spoke four languages, he now mutters largely disjointed sentences but appears to recognize his wife. Nearby, Manfred Schlaupitz, a former Daimler-Benz engineer in his 70s, lies back in a deck chair, cradling a stuffed toy lamb. His caregiver, Kanokkan Tasa, sits on the grass beside him, gently massaging his legs and tickling his chin. She has been with him for six years, eight hours a day and earlier cared for Woodtli's mother. "If you think of it as a job it's very difficult," she says, "but if it comes from the heart, it is easy." She came to the home with no formal nursing training. "I felt pity for them and asked myself, 'If I was stricken with Alzheimer's, how would I want to be cared for?'" she said. The 32-year-old woman communicates in Thai, German, English and her native tribal language but most importantly, she says, through eye and physical contact and displays of emotion. Like a number of Alzheimer's victims, Schlaupitz responds well to music. Sometimes they sing one of his favorite songs: "Yesterday." </div>

Some With Alzheimer's Find Care In Far-Off Nations - NPR

CHIANG MAI, Thailand (AP) — Residents of this facility for people with Alzheimer's disease toss around a yellow ball and laugh under a c...