Treating alzheimers?!

Treating alzheimers?

my granny (84) has been slowly getting worse with this for about 5 years - is there anything that can be done to slow down the loss of short term memory....i.e. she asks me the same question every 20 seconds but can remember the Blitz and what she did in the war!! Sometimes it gets very irritating!

I have worked for the Alzheimer's Society for many years and my own mother started with Alzheimer's when she was in her early 60's.

Have a look on the Alzheimer's website: www.alzheimers.org.uk. There is a lot of information on there to help you, particularly the fact sheets. Click into 'factsheets' and have a look down the list - print out in pdf format. These sheets will give you lots of tips on how to help your gran and ways of making things easier for you as a carer. Alzheimer's can be a very irritating disease, with repetative questions, but you learn, as I did, to subtly change the subject. My mum used to love talking about the past and we'd get all the old photos out and let her chat about the 'good old days'. She was happiest then.

I'm assuming your gran has been assessed and diagnosed? If so, she will have a community psyciatric nurse (CPN) assigned to her whom the family can discuss concerns with and your gran's consultant geriatrician will be able to prescribe drugs to support memory loss and behavioural problems. Many of the carers that we support have praised the drug ARICEPT in helping to slow down the progression of the illness for the person they are caring for. Taking GINKGO BILOBA has helped those in the early to mid stages of Alzheimer's by assisting the memory. A good diet of fresh fruit and vegetables really does help to slow memory loss, which can't be emphasised enough - the difference can be most surprising once a nutritious diet has been introduced to include plenty of vitamins. Many elderly people just make do, particularly if they live alone, often just having a bowl of cereal, a sandwich or something like beans on toast every day. It isn't enough and my mum used to try to hide the fact that she hadn't been eating well.

Purchasing a smoothie maker is an excellent investment because your gran would get all the nutrients she needed in a glass, and in the summer these drinks are so refreshing too. Either mix fruits separately from veg or combine the two. You can also make ice lollies - fun and nutritious at the same time!

Do have a look at the above website though. Alzheimer's is not an easy illness to cope with but there is a lot of help available to you and your gran.