An Alzheimer's Disease Research Center
David Dyke has a hard time remembering details and dates.
“But he knows when this is,” Sue Dyke says of her husband, a patient at the Penn Memory Center. “It’s written down in his calendar, he knows it’s time to come to the Memory Café.”
Music is a shared language, the sounds often allowing for complex sharing of emotions and experiences.
The piece begins with sounds of anticipation, moves to excitement and stress, and ends in feelings of relief. With the help of musicians from the Curtis Institute of Music, Penn Memory Center (PMC) community members translated their emotions of moving into music.
Faster cognitive decline in individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with a gene once thought to only be connected to frontotemporal dementia (FTD), new research from the University of Pennsylvania finds.
Versions of the gene, TMEM106B, have long been associated with a higher risk and disease severity in a subtype of FTD called FTLD-TDP. But emerging evidence demonstrates TMEM106B may play a role in other neurodegenerative diseases, like PD and Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
The use of dietary supplements will not improve brain health or prevent cognitive decline, dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new report from the Global Council on Brain Health (GCBH).
Dietary supplements are products that contain a “dietary ingredient,” like vitamins and minerals. Supplements can come in many forms too, such as pills, powders, liquids, and food bars.
“It’s tempting to think you can pop a pill and prevent dementia—but the science says that doesn’t work,” said Sarah Lenz Lock, AARP senior vice president for policy and GCBH executive director. “The good news is, we know what will help to keep your brain healthy: exercise, a healthy diet, plenty of sleep, challenging your thinking skills, and connecting with others.
“Rather than buying a dietary supplement, spend your money on new walking shoes or a salmon dinner.”
The Penn Memory Center continued its new Empowering Caregivers speaker series this year with Jerry Rothkoff, Esq., who presented “Elder Care Issues and the Law.”
Empowering Caregivers gives caregivers access to area experts who present on a variety of intensive topics, from in-home activities to end-of-life care.
All sessions are full. We appreciate your enthusiasm
Penn Memory Center Co-Director Jason Karlawish, MD, recently lead a discussion about ways to keep an aging brain healthy at a packed house at the Ralston Wellness Center.
From debunking the Alzheimer’s-preventing ability of Sodoku and cognitive supplements to recommending a heart-healthy, Mediterranean diet, Dr. Karlawish spent the majority of the hour answering questions from the crowd.
As a foundation to the discussion, Dr. Karlawish explained commonly-heard terms, such as mild cognitive impairment and “memory center,” and clarified the distinction between dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Healthy aging requires adults to challenge your brain and stay both physically active and socially engaged, according to the Global Council on Brain Health, of which Dr. Karlawish is a member.
On May 7, the National Alzheimer’s and Dementia Resource Center hosted the webinar titled “The messages We Send: Stigma Toward Persons Living with Dementia and How to End It.”
Rev. Cynthia Huling-Hummel, D. Min., and Penn Memory Center Scholar Shana Stites, PsyD, MA, MS, led the seminar about the types of stigma that can affect persons with dementia.
During the seminar, Dr. Stites describes the powerful role of language in creating stigma of dementia and how people can counteract this stigma through use of strengths-based and person-centered language when talking with and about persons with dementia. Dr. Huling-Hummel, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2011, shares her own experience related to these issues as well.
From watching this seminar, viewers can expect to acquire person-centered language strategies to help end stigma surrounding dementia.
By Leah Fein
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released a set of guidelines to reduce the risk of dementia globally, essentially advising to take care of your heart to take care of your brain.
Dementia is a loss of cognitive functioning — thinking, memory, reasoning, and behavioral abilities — to the extent that it interferes with a person’s daily life and activities. Dementia has many causes and no cure, which is why the WHO emphasized the need for adopting healthy behaviors.
“The scientific evidence gathered for these guidelines confirm what we have suspected for some time, that what is good for our heart, is also good for our brain,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
Your spouse can identify serious memory problems more accurately than you can.
That’s the takeaway from the Philadelphia Inquirer’s recent interview with Dawn Mechanic-Hamilton, Penn Memory Center (PMC) Director of Cognitive Fitness Programs and Neuropsychological Services, about her research, which found no relationship between progressive cognitive decline and people’s perceived memory concerns.
However, Dr. Mechanic-Hamilton, along with PMC Co-Director Dr. David Wolk and medical student Leah Zuroff, did find that proxies, like a spouse, were much better at correctly identifying cognitive changes that progressed to mild cognitive impairment or dementia.
Caregiving is often a stressful experience, which is why caregivers, like their patients, need care too.
One way to get such care is through group classes specifically dedicated to providing resources and skills to individuals caring for a loved one with dementia.
Those types of courses were recently highlighted in an NPR story, “From Gloom to Gratitude: 8 Skills To Cultivate Joy.” It features the findings of a new study, published in Health Psychology, which analyzed the effects of a 6-week course for caregivers. The findings revealed that the course may help with participants’ depression and anxiety.
A few people in the PMC community brought the article to the attention of PMC Associate Director of Social Work Alison Lynn, MSW, LCSW. One asked: “Can you help me find a similar course?”