Music can be a powerful influence. Just think about how hard it is to get a catchy tune out of your mind. But researchers say music can also be used to unlock memories, especially for Alzheimer’s patients. Alzheimer’s experts are using the power of music to bring back memories that some thought were lost forever.
Music can transport you to a different time and place. Many Alzheimer’s and dementia patients at Silverado Senior Living in Azusa can’t remember their loved ones or what they did this morning, but in a music class they experienced a breakthrough.
People with Alzheimer’s can remember and experience strong emotions related to a past event even if they can’t remember the facts surrounding the occasion. Here’s a true story that illustrates that fact.
I had a beautiful, relaxed drive to visit Ed, my beloved Romanian soul mate of 30 years, at the nursing home one lazy Sunday afternoon. I wandered into his room and found he was in the bathroom, so I sat in the rocker and waited. My eyes were drawn, as was often the case, to his stuffed animal collection, which had grown quite large. He loved stuffed animals.
Collaborating scientists from Emory University School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and Washington University have identified variations in the levels of 4 blood proteins that may enable early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.
In the study just published in Neurology, the researchers looked at variations of 190 proteins in the blood in 600 individuals that were either healthy, had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, or showed signs of mild cognitive impairment. In this part of the study, they found 17 proteins that often displayed variant levels between the healthy patients and those diagnosed Alzheimer’s or cognitive impairment.
Alzheimer’s is a devastating disease: Victims lose their memories, personalities, sense of time, and grip on reality as friends and families watch their loved ones slowly lose their identities, and eventually their lives.
The disease afflicts an estimated 5.4 million people in the U.S., where the memory-robbing illness is the 6th-leading killer of Americans, according to Alzheimer’s Association. The association estimates that more than $200 billion will be spent between drugmakers and patients for research, medication and caregivers this year.
Both Fiona Phillips’ parents struggled with Alzheimer’s before succumbing to the disease. In the last part of our series, the TV presenter talks about her loss and calls for more action. Arifa Akbar reports
Fiona Phillips was one of the first women to speak out about dementia, long before the days of high-profile campaigns. She broke the silence that had cloaked the “elderly illness” after her mother Amy began suffering from Alzheimer’s. She died in 2006 – only a few weeks before her husband, Neville, was diagnosed with the same disease.
The majority of us in this video have dementia including Alzheimer’s and Lewy Body Dementia.We all attend Reflections in Cornwall for day care and activities including Cognitive Stimulation Therapy. We have made this short film to show that we are just normal people and we all thoroughly enjoyed the making of this film. If this film makes you smile please would you donate a little of your money to the Lewy Body Society which is the chosen charity of Dementia Awareness Day, Sept 15th 2012.
People with Alzheimer’s can remember and experience strong emotions related to a past event even if they can’t remember the facts surrounding the occasion. Here’s a true story that illustrates that fact.
Collaborating scientists from 
Both Fiona Phillips’ parents struggled with Alzheimer’s before succumbing to the disease. In the last part of our series, the TV presenter talks about her loss and calls for more action. Arifa Akbar reports 