Hope For Alzheimer's Disease Patients

Photo by Cheryl Winn

After seeing the effects that music can bring to patients with dementia, I've been on a mission to bring a little "preferred music" to those patients that I can reach and hopefully a little help to their caregivers as well. There is so much more that can be done and each of us has the opportunity to reach people in our little corner of the world.

After seeing the effects that music can bring to patients with dementia, I've been on a mission to bring a little "preferred music" to those patients that I can reach and hopefully a little help to their caregivers as well. There is so much more that can be done and each of us has the opportunity to reach people in our little corner of the world. Even a short visit to talk, sing, play music, or bring your own music player to share with a patient, might make their day! Thanks to a grant funded by The Johnson County Community Foundation, 43 patients at The Indiana Masonic Home were able to receive players with their preferred music. A Daily Journal article highlights my UIndy Master of Science in Gerontology capstone project, one that is dear to my heart. Because patients with dementia cannot always communicate their wishes, we relied on caregiver and family input for preferred music selections. To get the process started, my husband helped by making song suggestions and I created a list of 92 songs that we thought might appeal to some of the patients. With this first project, we have been able to determine some favorites from that list. Some of their favorite artists were found to be Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, Tammy Wynette, and Patsy Cline. Some of the song favorites were "You are My Sunshine" by Johnny Cash, "King of the Road" by Roger Miller, and "Amazing Grace" by Judy Collins (See current Music List).

For future projects, it would be great to remove some of the first songs that were not chosen and replace them with others in order to help identify more favorites. If you'd like to help by making some suggestions, perhaps a few songs that your parents liked to hear or were tied to a special occasion in their lives or yours, the information may be used to adapt the song list for future projects. You can provide input on the Music Preference Survey. A second project was conducted at The Hearth at Stones Crossing. For more information, check out a presentation about the projects via the link below. 

With millions affected by Alzheimer's disease and dementia, finding treatments and prevention options is critical. Recently, promising opportunities for cures have been in the news.

Research at The University of Queensland found that the neurotoxic amyloid plaques that cause cognitive decline and memory loss can be removed by ultrasound waves, possibly even restoring back to the original level prior to plaque development. The research now involves mice and is moving to larger animals. Research on humans is at least two years away, but shows promise. The details can be found in this 2015 article, Alzheimer's breakthrough uses ultrasound technology.

Another study has found that young blood can have a positive effect on muscles and possibly the brain. By removing the plasma from blood and using it in mice with dementia, they have seen positive results. 
I love Ted talks. Here's one about the effects of using young plasma: How young blood might help reverse aging. Yes, really

A research study found that the salicylic acid found in aspirin may stop central enzymes in glucose production from participating in cell death. This research may help provide treatments for many diseases, including Alzheimer's disease.  WISH TV reported on it today: Study: Aspirin has potential to treat Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's

Hopefully a cure will soon be confirmed.  Until then, I am so grateful for the many caregivers that give of themselves each day, going above and beyond to make patients comfortable.