In my opinion I believe a combination of nutrition, and exercise can help. I would first look at records of electrolytes and blood work thats where I would start. I think many elderly need a nutritionist. As we age many things slow down or don't absorb as when we were younger. Exercise will help with depression and mental stimulation. Being around people, having a purpose really is helpful. I have tried coconut oil, b-complex more specifically b12, fish oil, turmeric and vitamin D. Dementia is unique to each person so make sure your remedies don't conflict with medications, very important to check with physician.
I agree with Simonofcyrene's comment, it is very important to check with your doctor to make sure there is not a conflict with medications. With the guidance of a highly regarded Naturopathic doctor, mom is taking excellent brands of supplements: Ashwagandha, Vit B (Homocysteine spray), Vit D3, K2, COQ10, PQQ, Turmeric, Probiotics, Green Vibrance powder for smoothies, and exercise to manage her dementia. At age 85, Mom is still able to live alone, but with the help of a daily visiting caregiver to assists with her medications, and food preparation.
VERY important to check with your Dr about possible interactions with meds. My SIL (a Dr.) says he sees FAR too many patients who take "supplements" or "natural" oils that conflict tremendously with the prescribed meds. Due not in small part that although "natural", these things do have side effects. Also they are not okayed by the FDA and so they are not studied in conjunction with typical western meds. Just be very careful, and very suspicious of ANYTHING that claims it will do something miraculous......
I agree with Simonofcyrene. The first thing to check is B12 levels. B12 deficiency can cause dementia and also physical ailments mimicking Parkinsons and other debilitating illnesses. After that the electrolites are VERY important. I gave Mother Ginko, Resveratrol and Picnogenol (don't know how to spell this) and she lived to 104. She had a stroke due to AFib caused by her doctor ignoring the symptoms of hyperthyroid, so intermittent memory loss and brain fog along with other demented behaviors plagued us the last year of her life. This is another thing that is important for EVERYONE - have the thyroid checked. Hypothyroid causes symptoms of dementia if it becomes severe.
Again, there is NOTHING you can do or take that will stop the progression of dementia. Do not waste your money! The good news is that there is a drug in clinical trials right now that really shows promise, but it will be years before it comes to market. Read the article on Alzheimer's with the lead story on the front cover about two months ago. Dr. Longo at Stanford Univ. has a different solution.
Have you every watched a documentary about the brain and Alzheimer's disease? Seen the tangles and the plaques and heard what they are made of an how they develop? Or a documentary about Lewy Bodies in the brain, how they were discovered and what science knows about them so far?
Have you attended lectures or seminars or read some books about the actual physical condition of the brain, and what is seen during autopsies?
Do you know about the different kinds of protein molecules involved in the different kinds of dementia? Tau, beta-amyloid, alpha-synuclein hexamer, progranulin ... and on and on. And that recent research is identifying some links in the DNA chain that might be implicated in certain types of dementia?
And that dementia typically starts developing in the brain some 20 years before symptoms appear?
The causes and triggers for dementia are extremely complex. Although that has been the target of huge, huge amounts of research worldwide, for decades, science is still not certain of the exact causes and sequences in the development of dementia.
Given that complexity, what are the chances that taking extract of dandelion (or whatever) is going to solve this baffling problem?
Sure, if your loved one has a vitamin B deficiency, give her supplements as suggested by her doctor. If, like nearly everyone in the Northern hemisphere, he has a vitamin D deficiency, address that.
But true dementia? Sorry folks, we just don't know enough to say what might help.
Agree with jeannegibbs. Dementia isn't a diagnoses, it describes the condition that results from many, many possible root causes. Until you really understand the root cause (which takes a trained neurologist to accurately diagnose), self-medicating is a crap-shoot. Some conditions are exacerbated by certain drugs. Be cautious.
Folks - I forgot to mention that article came from TIME magazine. Really, really encouraging, but that is true science and not someone trying to sell you false hope.
Joe, there is nothing that will stop the progression of dementia, and everything else that Jeanne said. Do not waste your money. Eat healthy, exercise, socialize get enough sleep. The combination of these work better than anything currently available. I, for one, do not believe a drug will be found that cures or even slows dementia because there are too many variables that contribute to developing it.
My friend, who is 100 years, 1 month and 19 days old takes a LOT of herbal supplements. Her memory is not good, but her body is as represented by her age. She is of Scandinavian descent.
What's good for your heart is good for your brain. A healthy plant-rich diet, exercise, sleep, low stress, stimulation and friends. Simple, right? Why is it so hard to do? Well, it just is, for a lot of us!
IMHO main stream medicine does not want you to help yourself with God given plants, herbs or essential oils that cannot be patented. This is because they were trained by Big Pharma and taught they can cure anything with prescription drugs. Think about this? Who supports today's medical schools? After all how will they continue their obscene high profit margins? Healthychoices you are the right path so kudos to you! I have my Mom on these also with fantastic results. Another very important overlooked element would be magnesium, and I'm not talking about milk of magnesia. There are many forms that are beneficial and one must due their research to find what works best for them. As for my Mom we use magnesium chloride in foot baths and a magnesium oil spray applied to the skin along with oral magnesium glycinate. Weaning her off of big pharma meds and treating her with tried and true natural methods the way God intended has been, not to be cliche but miraculous! She happier and healthier than she has been in a long time. As for me my Mom and family we go with what the good Lord intended pure and natural foods. Lastly, diet is very important especially with all the GMO laden foods we have available. So in addition to natural supplements clean eating is a must! "Let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food". Hippocrates
I've forgotten, unfortunately, where I got these: TC-2153 Eat/drink all 3 in 15 min. noon or early PM T tifluoromethyl (carboxylic acids) 1.2 oz. B Benzyl alcohol 2.4 oz. A Aminehydrochloride 3.1 tsp C Catalyst 1 oz. I haven't tried these with my only slightly cognitively-impaired wife. She can still cook and drive and do laundry (as long as I remind her to put the wet clothes in the dryer). She takes Namenda and Aricept, which appear to help. As an experiment, I took her off Namenda for a week, but her short-term memory got worse, so I started her on it again (with our doctor's approval!). Her short-term memory is terrible. She will ask me the same question 3 times in an hour, or tell me the same thing just as often. I've learned to bite my tongue and not to reply with anger as though she were just trying to annoy me. I keep saying my silent mantra: IT'S NOT HER FAULT.
It all depends on what is causing the dementia. Many things do. My 95+ mother did well on choline. It helped with mood, energy and elimination. This would only help if your Patient was low on Acetylcholine (a neurotransmitter). If there is improvement with choline you might make additional moves that suports Acetylcholine loss like huperzine A (moss). Once that tops out, start on something else like "blood flow to the brain", or "brain cellular repair". I am researching because I want to get my mother off NAMENDA. It is helpful but makes her legs weak.
All neurologists are not what you might hope for. About 6 months prior to Mother's death, she was hallucinating. She had been declared sand and well on her last visit six month's prior to that. He quickly took one look at her and announced that she had Alzheimer's. He did not even examine her. It's a stretch to believe that someone "comes down with" Alzheimer's at age 100 + much less that she was O.K. six months earlier (some memory loss from stroke) and suddenly Alzheimer's. I'll never trust a doctor's diagnosis until it is proven to me. It was just his stinking opinion.
Ferris1 summed it up. We don't even have a pharmaceutical agent to help. After B12 or vit D,etc. there is nothing but snake oil remedies. Probably the best treatment is how we lived our lives for the first 50 years.
theres no way to completely stop the progression, but there are things that can help with mood, etc. I diffuse 100% therapeutic grade essential oils, such as orange, Cedarwood, Rosemary, Stress Away, just to mention a few, that are doing wonders for several women at the home where my Mother lives. Purification is another good oil that cleans the air of bacteria, and has a wonderful calming lemony smell. I promise they truly work.
janamark, you are so right on. There are many herbal and aromatherapy remedies that make life so much better and often also result in a clearer mind. It's a shame that all alternative treatments are labeled snake oil because there's a lot of things that can help.
I agree with Sherry1anne, some neurologist can be disappointing. I think its important to point out no one here is offering a cure as some here are implying but we do know breakthroughs come by exploring. Nutritional, herbal, exercise, etc have all shown to improve our loved ones life and Ill take that over throwing my hands in the air saying sorry, its dementia we just don't know enough about it. Never go quietly into the night.
My wife's very attentive neurologist responded to a similar question like this: "Before you take anything "natural" or "homeopathic", check with us so that we can be sure it will not do damage or have a negative reaction to anything she is currently taking. But if you want to try something that is collecting anecdotal affirmation, we can be open to anything that does not harm." With that perspective we have pursued aggressive and carefully monitored medical treatment while some friends have pursued alternative routes. Nothing in the comparisons over the past seven years would lead us to change course. The wonderful testimonies that are usually spread through the internet have never been duplicated in the "real people" that we know.
Sherry1anne, my husband saw a sleep psychiatrist for many years, and as part of the treatment/monitoring of his disorder he had a thorough neurological exam every 18 months. In May of 2003 the letter from that exam said his results were "normal for a man his age." In June of that year my husband had a complete meltdown. His PCP said "dementia" and threw up her hands. I called the sleep doctor because of severe sleep issues and after a few questions he said, "Coy has Lewy Body Dementia." Ten years later this diagnosis was confirmed via autopsy. Coy was treated by a fabulous researcher/neurologist at Mayo Clinic, who was certain the disease was LBD in spite of some lack of following a typical LBD pattern. He was right.
Within my LBD caregivers support group, most people's loved ones showed symptoms gradually. The husband of one other person had a sudden meltdown as my husband did.
Dementia CAN suddenly show up at any age. It does not develop suddenly ... it has been slowly taking over the brain for at least a couple of decades. Generally it starts to show up gradually, but sudden onset is not rare, and it certainly doesn't mean the neurologist is incompetent. A doctor who spends his work days seeing patients with dementia and his "off days" attending seminars, reading the research, and going to conferences with other doctors who specialize in dementia care CAN often take a look at a patient whose history he or she knows and recognize dementia. Or can ask a few pertinent questions and make the diagnosis over the phone.
That your Mother had dementia developing in her brain for many years but was not plagued by its typical symptoms is marvelous! She must have had a strong constitution, basic good health, lucky genes,and general good luck. If she had died in her nineties, a very long life for her generation, the symptoms would never have shown. If she hadn't been under a neurologist's care, the dementia would never have been diagnosed.
Your mother might have had symptoms for years. Instead it was only in the last few months of her life that they showed up. That is truly something to be grateful for.
Snowcat60, I'm sympathetic to your view that profit-driven pharmaceutical research is looking for profit first, and relief of human suffering as a byproduct.
BUT
The supplement industry, the folks who sell supplements and write books and sell videos, are profit-driven, too. And they do not have to prove to the FDA that their products work -- only that they are not harmful. They don't have to go through years of peer-reviewed trials. They are allowed to advertise on the internet and elsewhere based on testimonials only, with no scientific backing.
I agree that the profit-motive is a disturbing way to approach healthcare, but I think that is true for the little (and not so little) supplement industry as it is for Big Pharma.
Simonofcirene, that's right! We can't just throw our hands up and do nothing! If diffusing oils helps my mom in any way at all, I will continue to use them, not to mention how they freshen the air. She loves them, and so does everyone else who enters her room!
@hospicechaplain The bible tells us that herbs and essential oils were given to us by God to eat. Jesus cured a blind man with spittle and mud, now Im sure that was consider illogical or "anecdotal "even today. In Jesus's day, "real people" were being healed and it was difficult to accept. I say, if God made herbs and minerals for us to use, then do so but with caution.
Exercise will help with depression and mental stimulation. Being around people, having a purpose really is helpful.
I have tried coconut oil, b-complex more specifically b12, fish oil, turmeric and vitamin D. Dementia is unique to each person so make sure your remedies don't conflict with medications, very important to check with physician.
Have you attended lectures or seminars or read some books about the actual physical condition of the brain, and what is seen during autopsies?
Do you know about the different kinds of protein molecules involved in the different kinds of dementia? Tau, beta-amyloid, alpha-synuclein hexamer, progranulin ... and on and on. And that recent research is identifying some links in the DNA chain that might be implicated in certain types of dementia?
And that dementia typically starts developing in the brain some 20 years before symptoms appear?
The causes and triggers for dementia are extremely complex. Although that has been the target of huge, huge amounts of research worldwide, for decades, science is still not certain of the exact causes and sequences in the development of dementia.
Given that complexity, what are the chances that taking extract of dandelion (or whatever) is going to solve this baffling problem?
Sure, if your loved one has a vitamin B deficiency, give her supplements as suggested by her doctor. If, like nearly everyone in the Northern hemisphere, he has a vitamin D deficiency, address that.
But true dementia? Sorry folks, we just don't know enough to say what might help.
After all how will they continue their obscene high profit margins?
Healthychoices you are the right path so kudos to you! I have my Mom on these also with fantastic results.
Another very important overlooked element would be magnesium, and I'm not talking about milk of magnesia. There are many forms that are beneficial and one must due their research to find what works best for them.
As for my Mom we use magnesium chloride in foot baths and a magnesium oil
spray applied to the skin along with oral magnesium glycinate.
Weaning her off of big pharma meds and treating her with tried and true natural methods the way God intended has been, not to be cliche but miraculous!
She happier and healthier than she has been in a long time.
As for me my Mom and family we go with what the good Lord intended pure and natural foods.
Lastly, diet is very important especially with all the GMO laden foods we have available. So in addition to natural supplements clean eating is a must!
"Let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food". Hippocrates
TC-2153 Eat/drink all 3 in 15 min. noon or early PM
T tifluoromethyl (carboxylic acids) 1.2 oz.
B Benzyl alcohol 2.4 oz.
A Aminehydrochloride 3.1 tsp
C Catalyst 1 oz.
I haven't tried these with my only slightly cognitively-impaired wife. She can still cook and drive and do laundry (as long as I remind her to put the wet clothes in the dryer). She takes Namenda and Aricept, which appear to help. As an experiment, I took her off Namenda for a week, but her short-term memory got worse, so I started her on it again (with our doctor's approval!). Her short-term memory is terrible. She will ask me the same question 3 times in an hour, or tell me the same thing just as often. I've learned to bite my tongue and not to reply with anger as though she were just trying to annoy me. I keep saying my silent mantra: IT'S NOT HER FAULT.
I diffuse 100% therapeutic grade essential oils, such as orange, Cedarwood, Rosemary, Stress Away, just to mention a few, that are doing wonders for several women at the home where my Mother lives. Purification is another good oil that cleans the air of bacteria, and has a wonderful calming lemony smell. I promise they truly work.
I think its important to point out no one here is offering a cure as some here are implying but we do know breakthroughs come by exploring. Nutritional, herbal, exercise, etc have all shown to improve our loved ones life and Ill take that over throwing my hands in the air saying sorry, its dementia we just don't know enough about it. Never go quietly into the night.
Within my LBD caregivers support group, most people's loved ones showed symptoms gradually. The husband of one other person had a sudden meltdown as my husband did.
Dementia CAN suddenly show up at any age. It does not develop suddenly ... it has been slowly taking over the brain for at least a couple of decades. Generally it starts to show up gradually, but sudden onset is not rare, and it certainly doesn't mean the neurologist is incompetent. A doctor who spends his work days seeing patients with dementia and his "off days" attending seminars, reading the research, and going to conferences with other doctors who specialize in dementia care CAN often take a look at a patient whose history he or she knows and recognize dementia. Or can ask a few pertinent questions and make the diagnosis over the phone.
That your Mother had dementia developing in her brain for many years but was not plagued by its typical symptoms is marvelous! She must have had a strong constitution, basic good health, lucky genes,and general good luck. If she had died in her nineties, a very long life for her generation, the symptoms would never have shown. If she hadn't been under a neurologist's care, the dementia would never have been diagnosed.
Your mother might have had symptoms for years. Instead it was only in the last few months of her life that they showed up. That is truly something to be grateful for.
BUT
The supplement industry, the folks who sell supplements and write books and sell videos, are profit-driven, too. And they do not have to prove to the FDA that their products work -- only that they are not harmful. They don't have to go through years of peer-reviewed trials. They are allowed to advertise on the internet and elsewhere based on testimonials only, with no scientific backing.
I agree that the profit-motive is a disturbing way to approach healthcare, but I think that is true for the little (and not so little) supplement industry as it is for Big Pharma.
Also, since God presumably gave us intelligence, are the pharmaceuticals we create with that intelligence also a gift from God?