The Key Ingredient in The Mediterranean Diet

You may have heard of the Mediterranean Diet, which is a way to live longer and stay healthier. It includes eating vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, potatoes, whole grains, breads, herbs, spices, fish, seafood, moderate amounts of poultry, eggs, cheese and yogurt (almost no meat) and extra virgin olive oil. The people in Italy who eat this diet have a very low incidence of heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes and cognitive decline, plus they live longer. Many are over 100 years old. Their arteries are as supple as those of people 10 years younger than them

It’s now turning out that there’s one ingredient that’s key for the cognitive part and that’s extra virgin olive oil. The researchers have found that this type of olive oil can actually flush out tau proteins that interfere with the communication channels between cells. They are thinking that using extra virgin olive oil might even reverse Alzheimer’s and other dementias and are recommending you take 2 tablespoons per day. 

It also turns out not all extra virgin olive oil is the same. The researchers recommend making sure the bottle says extra virgin, it’s in a dark bottle and it hasn’t hit its expiration date. Finally, they suggest you want to purchase olive oil from California as they have introduced standardized testing to make sure you’re getting real extra virgin olive oil. So…bottom’s up!
(Reported AARP BULLETIN/ Real Possibilities April 2020)

A Class of Common Drugs May Cause Dementia

Dementia is a word that sends shivers down older folk’s spines. It’s something we all want to avoid as we get older. Well, there’s a long list of Over The Counter Drugs that many people take that can have a devastating effect on memory. These drugs include popular products that are taken for allergies, colds, flu, motion sickness and insomnia and some of the brand name products include Benadryl, Sominex. Allermax, and PM (nighttime) version of Excedrin, Advil Tylenol and Aleve.

So, what do all these drugs have in common that they can cause memory loss in older people? All these drugs affect a neurotransmitter in the brain called Acetylcholine which is produced in nerve cells throughout the body and brain. Acetylcholine does such things as regulating heartbeat, blood pressure and blood flow. In the brain, it’s involved with memory, learning and alertness.

All the drugs I listed above are know as anticholinergics and they are meant to control cardiac arrhythmias, open airways and sinuses among many other applications by reducing acetylcholine production in the body.

The problem with these drugs is the side effects. In a study by British researchers, they compared these medications in 58,769 patients with dementia with a control group of 225,574 people who had normal cognitive function. They found that if a person has had more than 1,095 doses of these drugs within a 10-year period that their likelihood of getting dementia increased by 50 percent. A person could reach this level if they were taking the minimum effective dose of one of these anticholinergic drugs daily for three years!

So…if you are taking the drugs in the list above, you might want to reduce what you’re taking and explore alternative therapies from acupuncture, meditation, essential oils, nutritional therapies, massage and other healing modalities to help you, at a minimum, to control your level of pain while reducing the possibility of your getting dementia.
(Reported Health and Healing, Vol 29, No. 10)

Communities Helping People With Dementia

Dementia is difficult to deal with for the person that has it, as well as, for the caregivers and the people who come in contact with them. The person with dementia can react negatively just being in a room that’s noisy or if there are bright flashing lights coming from a police car in their driveway.
There’s now a non-profit to help whole communities become more welcoming to people with dementia. It’s called Dementia Friendly America (dfamerica.org) and the first community in my state certified a “dementia friendly community” was in Fairfax, Virginia. There are now 4 other locations in the state that have earned the designation.

What the organization does is it helps a group draw up a plan to make its area supportive of people with dementia and their caregivers. Trained volunteers will hold education sessions for businesses and other community members. As an example, when a restaurant in the area has put 75% of its staff through the training, the restaurant receives a window sticker to let customers know it’s dementia friendly.

Since the number of people suffering from dementia will only grow has the baby boomers get it, this is a great way to help these people feel safe and protected when they are out in the community.
(Reported AARP BULLETIN, Real Possibilities September 2019)

Helping Dementia Patients

A while ago, I wrote about some fascinating research in The Teplitz Report that was conducted by the Langer Mindfulness Institute where they took a group of 80-year-olds and tested them for vision and hearing, grip strength, memory and dexterity before being taken to a monastery that was decorated to replicate life in 1959. The decor also included photos of the participants when they were that age.

Everyone wore 1950s fashions and entertainment was all 1950s - TV shows, movies, books and music. They were also instructed to discuss sports and events that did happen during that era, but to talk about them in the present tense. They were told to think of themselves as actually being younger.

After five days, the participants did look younger and their scores on everything, including eyesight had improved. To me, the eyesight improvement in five days was a powerful outcome.

Well, there’s a company that’s putting this research into a real-world environment that is quite exciting. The company as created a dementia daycare facility called Glenner Town Square that is a replica of small-town USA when Eisenhower was President (for Millennials that’s 1953 to 1961). This was a time when these patients were between 10 and 30 years old. They have music from the that era playing over the PA system. They are showing popular movies from the times in 15-minute clips. They have Rosie’s dinner with a 1959 Ford Thunderbird parked outside. There are pictures of famous people like Elvis, Audrey Hepburn and James Dean on the walls.

There are also 14 store fronts on the property – a library, the bar, the barbershop and even the opera house. The patients are guided in groups of 5 from one store to the next for 45 minutes. The aides play cards with them, help them paint, tell stories and even have them write inspiring messages for sick children at a nearby hospital.

What the research is showing is that reminiscence therapy can help those with Alzheimer’s and other forms of cognitive disease feel better plus it often calms their agitation. It may also bolster their cognitive ability and reduce depression. In addition, the benefits seem to extend long beyond the hours a patient spends inside the center.

The company is looking to open 100 facilities across the country, which is exciting!

So..the notion of taking a trip down memory lane now has more power to help elders in ways we’ve never thought possible. I also think it’s exciting to have the Langer Mindfulness Institute’s research put to such practical use. Now, what if someone set up a facility that was not just daycare, but the full facility was designed for the earlier time period which might improve the positive changes in the resident’s abilities even further.

(Reported AARP Bulletin December 2019)

Going To The Hospital Can Be Dangerous For Dementia Sufferers

A new study found that people with dementia are more likely to be hospitalized than other older adults. While the reason they go into the hospital was not related to their dementia, just going into the hospital increased the likelihood that within the next year they would wind up in a nursing home or they would die.

The study examined the medical records of 771 Alzheimer’s patients who were living at home and fairly high-functioning. About half wound up in the hospital. Normally each year about 4% of the patients who weren't hospitalized entered a nursing home and 2% died. With the Alzheimer’s patients, 29% wound up going from the hospital to the nursing home and 43% of those with delirium wound up in the nursing home.

Finally, of those who survived the initial hospitalization, 9% died in the next year and 15% of those suffering delirium died.

The researchers are not clear on why this was happening. So…the easy answer is to stay out of the hospital as it can be bad for your health.

(Associated Press, June 20, 2012)