Dementia NEWS
August 27th 2009 23:59
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A council is fitting dementia patients with sat nav technology to help ensure they remain safe and don't get lost.
By Nick Britten
Published: 3:08PM BST 26 Aug 2009
Sufferers in Warwickshire can now be constantly monitored to help prevent them from coming to harm.
They are being given a mini Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) box to attach to their clothes so that carers and family members know where they are all the time.
Their movements can then be traced by maps on a secure website.
The device also works in the home to track the user's movements. Small, wireless sensors in the key rooms of a dementia sufferer's house are triggered as a person moves around their home. Family members and professionals can then log on to site and view activity.
Relatives can see when a person got up and went to bed, visited the kitchen to prepare meals or drinks or left the house and how long for.
The pioneering scheme is being trialled by Warwickshire County Council.
link to the Telegraphco.UK article
Pitt study links obesity, greater risk of dementia
Overweight elderly people might be at greater risk for dementia, Alzheimer's disease and other cognition-impairing conditions than their slimmer counterparts, University of Pittsburgh researchers said Tuesday.
People 70 or older who are overweight had 4 percent less tissue in the frontal lobes of their brains, and those who are obese had 8 percent less tissue in the same part of the brain, which is crucial for performing cognitive tasks, such as memory and planning.
Data for the study was taken from brain scans conducted for the Pittsburgh-based Cardiovascular Health Study. The analysis was done in conjunction with the University of California Los Angeles.
The study is published in this month's online version of the scientific journal Human Brain Mapping.
Link to Pittsburgh Tribune Review article
The risk for dementia lies not in old age as previously believed, but in mid-life.
A new study completed by Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research and the University of Kuopio, Finland revealed new leads suggesting a strong link between middle age cholesterol levels and the risk of vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s in later life.Alzheimer’s, a degenerative disease that afflicts nearly 3% of the Asian American population aged 65 and older, can have a devastating impact on both the patient and their family members. With heart disease ranked 2nd and Alzheimer’s 10th in the top 10 leading causes of death in the Asian American and Pacific Islander population, research findings provide considerable insight into a puzzling condition and hope for better prevention.
The study, a first-ever of its kind in scope, produced results that span across 40 years of observation collected from both genders and across multiple ethnicities. It is the largest long-term study with the most diverse population and it is also the first to examine closely the link between borderline high cholesterol levels and vascular dementia.
The discovery hinges on a common thread: dementia is not gender or ethnic-specific, but appears consistently related to cardiovascular health.
Results from the study showed that high cholesterol levels in midlife (240 mg/dL or higher) increased the risk for vascular dementia in later life by 66%. More alarming, it also found that even borderline elevated levels of cholesterol, that is, levels between 200-239 mg/dL increased that risk by 52%. Cholesterol links to dementia are nothing new, but the breakthrough research directs attention toward borderline elevated levels, demonstrating that the risk is not much lower for those at the borderline.
The heart and brain correlation is a serious concern for many Asian Americans, who are highlighted as the one of the most at-risk groups for heart disease by the Center for Disease Control. Not taking appropriate preventative measures for cardiovascular health through mid-life puts Asian Americans at greater health risks in later decades.
link to Asian Week the voice of Asian America
So don't be complacent because you're not yet old folks
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