Diabetes and Dementia

If you work for very long in the field of elder care you eventually hear the following concern: my dad / my mom is wasting away and all he/she wants to eat is sugar. The answer: Get your loved one tested for diabetes!

There is a very strong correlation between the inability to utilize blood sugar and dementia. Cravings for sugar often occur because the body (and brain) relies on having adequate amounts of glucose. Most of us gain weight by eating sugar. If a person is eating too much sugar and is losing weight that is a serious symptom. If it has gotten to the point of them losing their appetite or feeling nauseous after eating, it's even more imperative to get the blood sugar levels checked. It can mean that the body has become insulin resistant or is not capable of producing enough of the insulin it needs to make use of the sugar the person so obviously craves.

People with diabetes over the age of 60 are twice as likely to have dementia. People with dementia who have uncontrolled diabetes are much more likely to show a worsening of all dementia symptoms when blood sugar levels are out of balance.

Click here to read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2039401/Over-60s-Type-2-diabetes-twice-likely-end-dementia.html

NEW BOOK: Waking Up In the Great Recession Mormon Desert

Going through a Great Recession crisis in addition to family caregiving has got to be so intense... I don't want to think about it! But the one thing that makes it better is banding together in family and community. I'm announcing my latest book today. It's not about family caregiving or Alzheimer's Disease or dementia at all! But it IS about the great importance of going beyond differences to band together to heal our deepest, most critical concerns.

The book is called WAKING UP IN THE GREAT RECESSION MORMON DESERT and people who reviewed an advance copy of it have given it some wonderful reviews. For example, David Spangler who was the previous director of Findhorn and has sometimes been called the father of the New Age movement had this to say:

This book is a winner. It has everything a good book should have: suspense, excitement, pathos, joy, laughter—-lots of laughter—and great characters you care about and can genuinely root for! And it's non-fiction! But what it has most is love and wisdom. Profound, heart-opening love and wisdom. It is hands down one of the best books on spirituality and its role in meeting the challenges of our time that I have read. And did I say that it's funny, too? Be good to yourself and read this book. Be good to your friends and buy them a copy. ~ David Spangler, author of FACING THE FUTURE and SUBTLE WORLDS: AN EXPLORER'S FIELD NOTES.

My partner Paul and I are the "great characters", by the way. The book is a memoir and it follows our path from our original home in the beautiful New Age, ultra-progressive town of Santa Cruz, CA to a predominantly ultra-conservative Republican Mormon community in the eastern Arizona high desert. The timing is immediately after the election of Barack Obama and the passage of Proposition 8 (the law repealing gay marriage in California). The result is at turns poignant and funny and eventually leads to a spiritual wake-up call that shows the importance of connecting the political and the personal in our task of developing spiritually on the planet.

Read more about it, read excerpts and reviews,  and get your copy here.

It's available as an inexpensive instant pdf download or as an autographed physical book, both directly from us. It is also available on the Kindle and soon other places as well.

TED Talks on Aging

Do you know about TED? TED talks are wonderful 15 minute introductions to all kinds of intellectual subjects. They're almost always fun, interesting and informative. This blog has an article with links to several TED talks on aging, including a couple about Alzheimer's Disease and related neurological illnesses. Take a look!

Reverse a Stroke by Taking Action Fast

A Facebook friend, Gary W. Bourbonais, wrote this as a service in honor of this month being Stroke Awareness Month. He says "it's worth it if it saves just one life."

Hi Folks....

Back on 12/27/07, I had a clot type stroke in the cortico-spinal area of my brain....I was left with a paralyzed right side, a vague awareness of what was going on, and a face out of a B-rated Horror
Movie.... Because of the extent of the paralysis, I was told I faced the prospect of assisted living...

That scared me more than anything....

Today, I am existing independently, though I need a brace and cane to get around.....My right hand (the prior dominant one) has maybe 20% function, with no fine motor control to speak of...Everything is
harder to do, essentially one handed, and I do get tired easily....

I'm not griping....I'm glad to be alive, and an independent Survivor....My cognition was essentially unaffected....My face is normal, as is my speech....I'm one of the luckier survivors.....

The thing is....had I recognized what was happening to me, I might have none of these affects.... For a clot type stroke, there's a 3-4 hour window when it can be reversed.....I got to the hospital too late to reverse it, but soon enough so I lived...

How common is stroke? It's the third most common cause of death in the US.....Eighty percent of all strokes are the clot type....There are over *6 million* stroke survivors in the US alone....

How to ID a stroke.......S....T....R.......

*REMEMBER* the 1st Three Letters.... S...T...R...

S.....Ask the individual to SMILE.

T.....Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE
    (Coherently). Example....It is sunny outside today....

R.....Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

If the person (or you), have a problem with any of these tasks, it's time to call 911...

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

They've recently extended the window to 4 hours in some cases...

NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out their tongue.. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.

Hopefully this bit of knowledge will help some folks in the future.......

Surviving a stroke takes a lot out of a person, both physically and mentally.....

How successful one is depends a lot on the support they have, and believe me, I can personally attest to the need for that support...And thank the folks that provided it to me, from the bottom of my heart...

I found a great online resource for Stroke Support.....It's a free site, started, run by, and for, Stroke Survivors and Caregivers....If you are a Stroke Survivor, or Caregiver, or know someone who is, give
them this link..... http://www.strokeboard.net/

I suspect they'll thank you....It puts you on the Forum discussion page, and you will meet folks who are walking the talk......As a guest, you can read the posts, to get a feel for what the site is about....

http://www.strokeboard.net/

***

F.A.S.T.

Another Anagram is F.A.S.T (Face, Arms, Speech, Time) If they have trouble smiling or something is not "right" with their *Face* (F), if they are unable to hold their *Arms*(A) out in front of themselves at equal height, if their *Speech*(S) is affected or if the words come out Slurred(S), then you need *Time*(T) to be on your side by responding quickly. Don't hesitate. It's better to be wrong than sorry.

***

Care to All....

Get "The Spiritual Journey of Family Caregiving" as an E-Book download

Times are changing and they're changing fast! A few short years ago e-books were a ridiculous notion. Then they became popular and people were encouraged to keep the price of an e-book close to the price of print books so as not to hurt print book sales. Well, not so fast. What's the point of offering an e-book if not to promote the ideas they have to offer at a doable price for people who won't spend the cover price of a brand new book, especially the price of one done on a print-on-demand basis?

So I'm making my book available as an e-book download for just $4.99. What? Will she make any money at that price? I hope so! Especially if you tell your friends. Here's the link to my shop at Healing Communication Press. I hope to have it available for the Kindle as soon as I can, too and other venues as well. Watch this blog for updates.