Eating A Healthy Diet
Some studies confirm that diet plays a vital role in slowing down the progression of dementia.
Some foods like leafy green vegetables, fatty fish, herbs, some oils , nuts, fruits, cruciferous vegetables, and other superfoods come highly recommended not only for treating the disease but reducing its risk as well.
Communicate Patiently Slowly And Clearly
Use physical touch to help communicate. For instance, if a person with dementia is having a hallucination, a gentle pat from you might draw them back to reality and out of their frightening hallucination.4 Sometimes holding hands, touching, hugging, and praise will get the person to respond when all else fails.
Communication or more specifically failed communication can be the crux of problems for many caregivers. Weve whittled it down to some of the key aspects that you could focus on to make it easy for you and the person with dementia:5
Pillar #: Healthy Diet
In Alzheimers disease, inflammation and insulin resistance injure neurons and inhibit communication between brain cells. Alzheimers is sometimes described as diabetes of the brain, and a growing body of research suggests a strong link between metabolic disorders and the signal processing systems. By adjusting your eating habits, however, you can help reduce inflammation and protect your brain.
Manage your weight. Extra pounds are a risk factor for Alzheimers disease and other types of dementia. A major study found that people who were overweight in midlife were twice as likely to develop Alzheimers down the line, and those who were obese had three times the risk.;Losing weight can go a long way to protecting your brain.
Cut down on sugar.Sugary foods and refined carbs such as white flour, white rice, and pasta can lead to dramatic spikes in blood sugar which inflame your brain. Watch out for hidden sugar in all kinds of packaged foods from cereals and bread to pasta sauce and low or no-fat products.
Enjoy a Mediterranean diet. Several epidemiological studies show that eating a Mediterranean diet dramatically reduces the risk of decline from cognitive impairment and Alzheimers disease. That means plenty of vegetables, beans, whole grains, fish and olive oiland limited processed food.
Also Check: Senile Dementia Of The Alzheimer Type
Natural Remedies For Dementia And Alzheimers Treatment Option #: Cinnamonextract
Researchers have now been able to confirm that dementia diseases such as Alzheimers are actually a form of diabetes. In fact,Alzheimers is now being labelled as type III diabetes. What this means is thebrain has basically become insulin resistant. But whats really exciting isthat cinnamon extract, which works extremely well for type I and type IIdiabetes, also works very well for dementia especially Alzheimers disease
In a study published in the Journal of Alzheimers Disease, researchers found two compounds incinnamon extract help stop the disintegration and dysfunction of the tau protein.By keeping this protein strong, scientists believe neurofibrillary tangles can be prevented and even reversed. Insulin and insulinreceptors located in the brain are also essential for memory and cognitivefunctions, and these have been found to be significantly lower in Alzheimers patients.But cinnamon regulates brain insulin activity, which in turn, helps to restorenormal brain functioning. 2
The Right Type Of Cinnamon
Make sure you only ever use cinnamon extract or cinnamonbark extract that come from Ceylon . Do not butcheap cinnamon such as cassia or any products that contain this type ofcinnamon. It wont work anywhere near as well!! You can find some reputablebrands here if youre interested
Take a heaped teaspoon of cinnamon powder 3 times dailywith or without meals and use it in your cooking as much as possible. You canalso make up a delicious cinnamon and ginger tea for an extra supply if youwish . With the capsules, a total of 3grams daily will be required for best results. ;
You May Like: How Fast Does Dementia Kill
Where To Buy Spirulina
At whyspirulina.com we emphasise the importance that when you consume the Spirulina super-food, you should do so from a reliable and safesupply. Please be cautious & don´t buy contaminated or old stock or you will not see any benefits.; This is important for anybody seeking to see the benefits of spirulina, but in terms of a possible preventative for alzheimers/dementia, it is arguably even more important.
Thosewe recommend on our siteare from smaller specialist suppliers rather than huge Corporate companies who do not really understand these specialist products, where they may sit in hot warehouses or on shelves for long periods of time, impacting their efficacy.
Natural Remedies For Dementia And Alzheimers Treatment Option #: Mineral Supplements
Minerals are commonly referred to as the sparks of life.They are what keep our body battery going and keep it charged. Minerals arealso needed by the brains electrical circuit to function properly. You maynot know this but your brain is one incredible and very intricate circuitboard. Every time you think a thought , little sparks and electrical currents are busyracing and crisscrossing each other in a dazzling and spectacular light show. Infact, while youre brains at work it’s actually producing enough electricity topower a light bulb!
So how it basically works is when you think a thought, that particular thought is then transferred or relayed to the area of the brainthat needs it by sparks or electricity. And minerals are one of the crucialcomponents that make this all happen and make the process run smoothly. Butwhen your brain lacks the minerals it needs for this process to work correctly,these sparks begin to jump in the wrong places. Or even worse, they dontjump at all! This is the;beginnings and eventual progression;of diseases suchas Alzheimers.;
You May Like: Difference Between Senility And Dementia
More Evidence That Spirulina Helps
More evidence on how spirulina helps to mitigate alzheimers and in particular vitamins B1, B6 and B12 that can be found in good quality spirulina can be found at healthyantiagingalternatives.com. You can order quality spirulina via this .; There is also an excellent Chilean Spirulina that is difficult to obtain out of Chile but we can make arrangements to ship some to you.;
Researchers Around The World Are Working To Develop Effective Treatments For Dementia And Eventually To Find A Cure
Much of this work is focussed on Alzheimers disease, the most common form of dementia.
There is currently no cure for Alzheimers disease. Available medications can reduce symptoms and improve quality of life in some people, but they do not stop the progress of the disease.
The potential treatments discussed below are in the early stages of research and are not currently available. However, they are all part of the research effort to find more effective treatments for Alzheimers disease and ultimately a cure.
Recommended Reading: Does Medicare Cover Nursing Home Care For Dementia
How Well Do Dementia Treatments Work
It is thought that about half the people treated with a cholinesterase inhibitor will see an improvement in symptoms which affect thinking and memory. Whether they help with other symptoms such as aggression and agitation has still not been confirmed. The improvement in symptoms is usually only seen for about 6-12 months.
For memantine, some studies have shown that it can slow down the progression of symptoms in some cases.
S To Reverse Dementia And Memory Loss As You Age
Recently, I spoke on a panel for PBS TV at the American Association of Retired Persons convention in Boston. The topic was dementia.
There was a woman with mild cognitive impairment on the panel. Her condition is sort of like pre-Alzheimer’s disease. Everyone on the panel — including the Harvard neurologist — agreed that memory loss is NOT a normal part of aging. The sad part was that the panel didn’t have much to offer people in the way of prevention. Their only solution was just a very bad and pretty ineffective selection of drugs with lots of side effects.
But there is another way to think about brain aging. The brain responds to all the same insults as the rest of the body — stress, poor diet, toxins, lack of exercise or sleep, nutritional deficiencies, and more. All we have to do is give the brain a tune-up and we can see miracles. In today’s blog I will give you nine tips that will allow you to do that. But first, let’s look a little more closely at the magnitude of this problem.
Dementia on the Rise
Dementia is a big problem and growing every day. Ten percent of 65-year olds, 25 percent of 75-year olds, and 50 percent of 85-year olds will get Alzheimer’s disease — at a cost of $60 billion a year to society. Worse, the number of people with Alzheimer’s is predicted to triple in the next few decades. It is now the seventh leading cause of death.
I’d like to illustrate this through the story of one of my patients who had a diagnosis of dementia.
Also Check: Senility Vs Dementia Vs Alzheimer’s
The Dementia That Can Be Cured
There are more than 200 subtypes of dementia. And researchers have found that in one, confusion and memory loss can be treated. But the trick is to spot it
When John Abraham began to lose his mind in late 2019, his family immediately feared the worst. Abraham had enjoyed robust health throughout retirement, but now at 80 he suddenly found himself struggling to finish sentences.
I would be talking to people, and all of a sudden the final word wouldnt come to mind, he remembers. I assumed this was simply a feature of ageing, and I was finding ways of getting around it.
But within weeks, further erratic behaviours started to develop. Abrahams family recall him often falling asleep mid-conversation, he would sometimes shout out bizarre comments in public, and during the night he would wake up every 15 minutes, sometimes hallucinating.
Patients can go from being in a nursing home, unable to communicate, to returning to work
To his son Steve, the diagnosis seemed inevitable, one which all families dread. I was convinced my dad had dementia, he says. What I couldnt believe was the speed at which it was all happening. It was like dementia on steroids.
A lot of patients over 60 are misdiagnosed, says Flanagan. Thats a concern because if you miss these cases, youre committing them to a presumed neurodegenerative course when they could respond to immunotherapy, and their symptoms resolve.
Alzheimers Vaccine And Immunotherapy
Researchers have been attempting to develop a vaccine for Alzheimers disease for almost a decade. The strategy behind the immunotherapy approach is to use the bodys own immune system to destroy beta-amyloid plaques.;
The first Alzheimers vaccine was tested in clinical trials in 2001. However, the trial was prematurely halted because six percent of participants developed serious brain inflammation. However, the vaccination did appear to benefit thinking and memory in some unaffected participants who were monitored after the end of the trial. Researchers have now developed a safer vaccine by using antibodies against a smaller fragment of the beta-amyloid protein, which they hope will avoid the complications of the previous trial.
Another approach to developing a vaccine involves using immunoglobulin, a filtered human blood product containing antibodies. Immunoglobulin was shown to be successful in a very small trial of 8 people with mild Alzheimers disease, with most showing improvement on tests of cognitive function after treatment. Although this trial is very small, it suggests the potential for larger trials of immunoglobulin therapy, which may have safety advantages over other vaccination techniques. Although this initial research is promising, much more research needs to be done before we know whether this approach will work.;
Recommended Reading: Senile Dementia Of The Alzheimer Type
Natural Remedies For Dementia And Alzheimers Treatment Option #: B Groupvitamins Vitamin D And Vitamin E
A study published in Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences revealed the B group vitamins, inparticular, vitamin B6, B12 and folic acid, can help slow the progression ofAlzheimers disease. What was stated in the article is quite exciting fordementia sufferers as well as those wanting to prevent the disease
“Thefact that B-family vitamins may play a significant role in dementia, or morespecifically in warding it off has been consistently illustrated. What is newsfrom the current study, however, is that high-dose B-vitamin treatment inpeople at risk for the disease ‘slowed shrinkage of whole brain volume,’ andespecially reduced shrinkage in areas known to be affected in Alzheimer’sdisease.”;
Vitamin B3 and vitamin B6 are needed by the bodyto form neurotransmitters, making them crucial for the health and correctfunctioning of the nervous system and brain. B12 is essential for theproduction of substance known as myelin, the white sheath that surrounds nervefibers. The B group vitamins, especially folic acid, also help to reducehomocysteine levels in the body, another major precursor of dementia anddementia related diseases.
Spirulina Helps To Protect Against Alzheimers*
And in a University Health News article from 2017, they speak of the benefits of spirulina in terms of its benefits for brain function and memory. They describe how Spirulina helps to protect against Alzheimers by reducing levels of amyloid-beta proteins throughout the brain.; If you, like me in the past, have had a high fat diet or are obese, you might want to think about ordering some spirulina to startdetoxingto help benefit from its benefits and possibly reduce your risk of dementia.*
You May Like: What Is The Difference Between Dementia And Senility
Can I Buy Medicines For Dementia
No – you cannot buy medicines for dementia. They are only available on prescription.
How to use the Yellow Card Scheme
If you think you have had a side-effect to one of your medicines you can report this on the Yellow Card Scheme. You can do this online at www.mhra.gov.uk/yellowcard.
The Yellow Card Scheme is used to make pharmacists, doctors and nurses aware of any new side-effects that medicines or any other healthcare products may have caused. If you wish to report a side-effect, you will need to provide basic information about:
- The side-effect.
Ensure The Right Nutrition
It is easy for someone with dementia to forget to eat balanced and nutritious meals, making them susceptible to deficiencies and malnutrition, so youll need to also keep track of their diet. Due to an inability to express what they want at times, a person with dementia may not be able to say they are hungry or ask for what they need. Keep food and snacks and drinks readily available and visible to them so they can help themselves to what they need, without having to constantly struggle with asking. A person with dementia may lose their sense of smell so stronger flavors and more seasoning may help them keep up their appetites.13
Don’t Miss: Does Alzheimer Disease Run In The Family
What Are The Top Ten Ways To Naturally Prevent Dementia:
It is important to address many of the underlying causes of dementia. Dementia is a multifactorial condition.
The Paleo diet is rich in essential protein, fats and the right type of carbohydrates to support brain health. It is highly anti-inflammatory and nutrient-dense. It provides the antioxidants and nutrients needed for optimal neurotransmitter function.
Research has shown that the currently popular high carbohydrate diet is evolutionarily discordant and contributes to Alzheimers disease development by altering lipid metabolism and damaging cells .
The suns UVB rays hit the skin and convert cholesterol in the skin to vitamin D. The sun is your best source of vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiencies have been liked to an increased risk of developing dementia .
Additionally, abnormal cholesterol levels have also been associated with the development of dementia and Alzheimers disease . The sun is a powerful tool for keeping brain cells happy and healthy by regulating cholesterol levels and increasing vitamin D concentrations.
Cognitive- stimulating activities such as reading a book, learning a new hobby or even doing a puzzle have been shown to prevent dementia.
Exercising your mind is beneficially similar to exercising your body. It helps to increase the strength and communication between neuron connections.
What Is The Treatment For Dementia
Treatment options for Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia are limited. While there are medications available to try to improve the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, the effect of these medications is limited. Physical exercise has been shown to be of some benefit in helping to maintain cognition. Staying engaged and participating in social events may also be of some help. To date, no treatment which can reverse the process of Alzheimer’s disease has been identified.
Recommended Reading: Sandyside Senior Living
Powerful Natural Remedies For Dementia And Alzheimer’s
Dementia and Alzheimer’s are truly horrible and cruel diseases. But new research is showing that you can not only 100% prevent them from occurring, you can actually reverse their effects!
Here’s 10 of the best natural treatments, herbal supplements and home remedies for dementia and Alzheimer’s according to the experts…;
Article by Troy Sawyer
Dementia is such a shocking disease. Because the mentaland behavioural changes happen so gradually in a sufferer, youre left to watchyour loved one slowly deteriorate before your eyes and you grieve every timethey take a turn for the worst.
This is one illness thats particularly closeto home for me, having watched my mother-in-law suffer from this disease for overten years. The first signs were small and subtle, but slowly became morefrequent. Things such as leaving appliances on, repeating herself inconversation, and paranoia all gradually got worse until eventually she had tobe placed in a high care home that caterers for dementia and Alzheimerspatients. My father-in-law looked after her for as long as he could but the eventual strain took its toll on him. I also watched mywife grieve every time she saw her mom slip down further. The day her momforgot who she was, was especially hard for her.