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Talented, young students from the Curtis Institute of Music joined us on Friday as we wrapped up our final Memory Café of 2018.

The session also marked our three-year anniversary of these special cafés. This week, we’ve been reflecting on how the idea came to life, where it is now, and how we can improve the monthly, 90-minute event.

In an article published on the PMC website, frequent café-goers David and Sue Dyke, and PMC Associate Director of Social Work Alison Lynn, MSW, LCSW, shed insight on what the events offer and how they’ve gotten bigger and better.

“It was very bare bones,” Lynn, who has been leading the sessions since summer 2016, said of the first Memory Café. “It’s evolved now into this thing where we have that time for socialization, then we have a performer. But it was not like that at the beginning.”

Much of Alzheimer’s disease research around the globe involves investigating drugs to figure out if they may help slow the progression of the disease.

And while we too have those trials going on at the PMC (such as the A4 study), it’s not just about drugs here. We’re also investigating a lot of creative ways, many of which focus on cognitive fitness, to tackle Alzheimer’s disease.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

We’re sending this “Sunday” Reads early, because we’ll be out of the office until Monday, November 26. But before we head out, we want to share two newsworthy items.

First, we’d like to highlight PMC Executive Director Felicia Greenfield, MSW, LCSW, who was featured in an Inquirer article which discusses creating holiday celebrations so individuals with dementia and their caregivers can also have a fun time. Greenfield offered a number of tips on how to do so:

• Talk to individuals with dementia in small groups.
• Avoid giving loved ones alcohol beverages. Instead, practice the “loving deception” and opt for non-alcoholic wine or beer, if the person likes to drink.
• Practice gratitude. “We try not to focus on the losses,” she told The Inquirer.

While following the news last week, you may have noticed a number of Alzheimer’s disease-related headlines that seemed too good to be true.

• “Scientists May Have Found Out Why Coffee Could Reduce The Risk Of Alzheimer’s And Parkinson’s Diseases”
• “Coffee Reduces Chances of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s”
• “Neuroscientists Just Explained How Coffee Makes Your Brain Healthier. The Reason Why Really Surprised Them”

And in fact, they are too good to be true, though they are based on a real study published in mid-October in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience (the study didn’t gain media attention until a Nov. 5 press release). Before we dive into the study, let’s clear up one thing: drinking coffee is not a proven way to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

by Janissa Delzo

PMC Co-Director Jason Karlawish, MD was one of many public health professionals and researchers who attended the 2018 American Public Health Association’s (APHA) Annual Meeting and Expo.

Jason Karlawish, MD

On November 13, Dr. Karlawish and six others led a roundtable called “Healthy Brain Research Network: Leveraging Expertise for Public Health Wins.” The following evening he spoke at a symposium, presenting “The CDC Healthy Brain Research Network: Collective Impact in Action.”

His presentations were centered around his involvement as the Principal Investigator for the Healthy Brain Research Network (HBRN) Collaborating Center. In addition to the University of Pennsylvania, there are seven other universities across the U.S. that participate in the HBRN.

The APHA’s Annual Meeting and Expo attracts attendees from around the globe. This year’s theme was “Creating the Healthiest Nation: Health Equity Now.” It was held November 10 to 14 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California.

Editor’s Note: Last Sunday, we wrote about our disapproval of President Donald Trump’s use of “demented,” a word he’s used on multiple occasions to describe terrorists and mass murderers. One reader challenged us and asked: If President Barack Obama said it, would the reaction have been the same? We looked into it and find out that he has indeed done the same before.

“Right or left, Democrat or Republican, dementia describes persons with an illness, not mass murderers or terrorists,” said PMC Co-Director Dr. Jason Karlawish.

In October, the Sunday Reads team reflected on how public figures choose to disclose their diagnoses in a variety of ways. That newsletter was read by New York Times writer Paula Span, who in turn used the topic for this week’s The New Old Age column, “Dementia is getting some very public faces.”