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There is adult day care for socializing and there are elders who end up staying home for whatever reason as perhaps they are introverts. I am curious if anyone has been able to succesfully integrate and provide a purposeful life and exsistance to the elders in your family WITHOUT it being too disruptive on your own family and how did you achieve this while managing and applying holistic protocols to prevent disease and manage their dementia symptoms so they don't flare up? I realise there is an initial learning curve with adjusting the foods supplements and lifestyle to manage everyones behavior and meet their needs and get everything comfortable. Thanks. It would be helpful to get some input. Note; How much of a challenge was it to find the right type of PART TIME caregiver willing to collaborate with your holistic protocols, and manage the cognition challenges of your parent with you. Such as in sharing the tasks if budget is of concern ?

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I am not sure if this is what you are looking for, so I apologize in advance if it is not.
Keeping them active has been key. My Dad suffered from Dementia. I found things to keep him active. As well as reading and singing together. Socializing has been key as well. Turmeric is a good mind booster. Mom has memory issues but no diagnosis, I do the same for her as Dad. Keeping her busy active and socializing. This has been what has worked for me. Of course it is a challenge, but doable, once you have a routine. Also very important, a routine. But not so much of a detailed routine that they become lost not knowing what to do next. But a variation daily so they do not get accustomed to an exact schedule, but somewhat. That disturbs them less. When sickness occurs or an onset of, I always use natural medicines to hinder or heal. And most importantly prayer. It is all about balance and once you get it figured out, it is lovely to see it working. Feeding them physically, spiritually, and emotionally is success.
Modern medicine seems to have such adverse side effects on what is supposed to help.
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truthbetold May 2019
I like the part about not becoming accostomed to an exact schedule.. That disturbs them less. Is this because sometimes if you are unable to fit some scheduled activity on a particular day, their dissapointment is more managable or all together avoided if they have enough variety and they wont feel any loss. THe more perfect the day is executed as far as schedule, the more inflexible in mood your parent could become if there is a change? Also, are you expanding your own life in a joyful way while it is integrated with theirs or is there a seperation of "their activities and "your activities". HOw much of their day is inside your home vs being outdoors in public places weather permitting?
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Could you provide a bit more information about your holistic protocols? It could mean anything from vegan food to refusing all drugs. Or both, or other things as well.
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truthbetold Oct 2019
It’s about genetic lab tests and vitamin and nutrient absorption panels, and finding out if cignitive decline is caused by either nutrition, environmental or vascular as in blood flow. Dr Bredesen discusses this in some interviews on YouTube . Basic supplements are magnesium and B vitamins for mood and keeping digestion optimal. No food or drink 3 hours before bed because the lining of the esophagus can get inflamed by digestive gases .
Small easily managed and prevented health issues can turn out to become serious acute hospital and medical emergencies causing death .
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Yes please explain the methods you are talking about. “Sharing the tasks if budget is of concern”- what does that mean?
Sounds like you are seeking a volunteer.
This sounds interesting. Would love to hear the protocols you use- can you share?
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truthbetold Jun 2019
Sharing tasks means the complete responsibility of my parent does not fall entirely on the helper. Meaning, if something comes up, thehelper and myself can adjust to that. If I don’t have a living wage income for a helper at the moment, then the budget is not there for someone to make a reliable full time salary. So that’s why I’m thinking some caregivers might be ok with a smaller wage if their responsibility is lower and less backbreaking or demanding with me as another set of hands.
The protocol I use involves keeping ahead of current independent and larger research being done world wide that keeps cognitively impaired and declining elders from full blown unmanageable dementia symptoms by finding out the deficiencies or environmental triggers first and fixing those.
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First, let me say dementia is disruptive holistic or non-holistic. But I chose to go natural and holistic. The medicine they prescribe do no better than natural methods. There is no treatment for dementia, just lies to keep people hopeful and to keep the medical industry rich. The first time I went to a neurologist he gave my mom seroquel and she had a horrible reaction. The ambulance paramedics told me never to give this to her, and that they have seen so many cases of people damaged by seroquel. There is no quick route to treating dementia, that is what I think society wants. A quick fix. Dementia is now labeled the most horrific disease ever and it's getting worse. More cases are being diagnosed every minute. Trillions of dollars has went into cures and nothing is working. The only thing that works is being able to stay the course and going through to the end, and that takes a huge toll. What this means for the health of family caregivers needs to be researched. The more us caregivers step in, the more we also become sick too. A lot of people are not ready to give up their lives for dementia. Some will, but a lot won't, this leaves society in a huge predicament. So the story goes.

Since the brain and memory is complicated, I personally believe the best protocol is individual. Some can take the medicine and do fine with it, but other's can't so you have to find other solutions.

Anyway I give/prepare my mom organic/gluten-free food, lots of spices, lemon/water, salmon, salads, organic eggs, green powder, Bragg apple cider, grape powder extract, elderberry extract, everything holistic that I can manage. Cooking everything home-made and from scratch takes up a lot of my time. It's difficult. So don't get burned out, try to have other people help you. I'm the sole caregiver so I don't have that option. I've been doing this for 5 years, going into my 6th year of dementia care. So far my mom is moderate, I would say late stage 5 entering stage 6. She is starting to have accidents, but otherwise she talks to herself, walks around, drink and feed herself. At least she is up and moving, I don't know how long that will last though. So yeah, I use a natural protocol for her. I try to keep her clean, cotton clothing, cotton linens and very simple cleaning supplies. My goal is to keep her as healthy as I can and keep her immune system strong (grape, elderberry, vitamin C etc.). That's not always possible with dementia, but you have to keep infection low and immunity high. If you can get their micro-biome working good, they can fight off infection better long-term. It starts with food and you need to be doing this strong for the first year when they first get dementia, and then try to maintain it. I started my mom on Apple Cider immediately, everyday the first year, now she takes it every 2 days or so for maintenance. She eats turmeric eggs every morning, for the choline and the egg is a complete nutrient system. So times when she don't feel like eating at night. The eggs have enough nutrients to keep her okay until she feels better. Just try to keep at it and prevent infection from going on too long.

I also use music and light therapy. The house is quiet and easy to walk in, plenty of room, no rugs, knick-knacks etc. anything she can trip over is removed. But even with these holistic methods my mom still went through wandering, sun-downs, aggressiveness, hitting me, name calling etc. so it all varies as to what will happen. But she went through all that stuff in about one-two years. About the last part of the second year she mellowed out quite a bit. She does get combative about changing her underwear and clothes in general though. But she isn't nearly as bad as that first year or two. So maybe holistic works better if you keep at it and stay consistent.
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Thank you for your detailed and understandable answer. I have my doubts about some aspects of natural medicine, but what you are doing sounds good. You may be right about medications. Medical history says that until the mid 20th century the only medicines that actually worked were quinine to ameliorate malaria and opioids for pain. Thousands of people for thousands of years took actions that made them worse.
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Thank you ....
And what I’m curious about is how much do you need to keep after your parents to maintain their health such as what I’m trying to do or Nicene is doing? You seem to have a very good handle on integrating your parents into an active purposeful lifestyle . Would you consider it a fair balance where you aren’t compromising too much of your own life to structure and maintain theirs?
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