@KatieCouric: Can We Keep Alzheimer's at Bay?

(istockphoto)

(CBS) Is there any way to keep Alzheimer's at bay?

That's the subject of Jean Carper's new book, "100 Simple Things You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer's." That's also the subject of this week's @katiecouric.

As many as 5.3 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease according to the Alzheimer's Association. To date, there is no cure and current treatments have limited effect.

But the story isn't all bleak.

This week's episode of @katiecouric is a discussion about this fatal disease and ways to attempt to prevent memory loss. Carper, a long time health journalist with 24 books under her belt, provides practical tips for improving the strength of your mind, while Couric acknowledges the growing number of caregivers (an estimated 11 million people) who use the Internet for a sense of community, information and support.

According to a survey conduced in September 2010 by the Pew Internet Project and the California Healthcare Foundation, 17 percent of Internet users have looked online for information about memory loss, dementia, or Alzheimer's. (That survey is set for release next month.)

You can follow Katie on Twitter @katiecouric or meet up with her on Facebook.

You can read more about Carper and her new book here.

FULL CLIP: Preventing Alzheimer's

Katie Couric sits down with author Jean Carper to talk about her new book, "100 Simple Things You Can Do To Prevent Alzheimer's."

27 Photos

Alzheimer's: 25 Signs Never to Ignore

[rosepipper]

Great post. Stating healthy is harder than you might think. My dad nearly passed away this summer because of stress and poor health. It was rough. http://healthyfamiliesenrollment.org/DoIQualify.aspx

[kenhamlett]

Here is my view and you don't have to buy a book to understand it.
There is a lot to say about Alzheimer's Disease but I will try to keep it simple. The most important thing to know is that the researchers know nothing about the disease itself. They simply point out effects of the disease. This is leading them and the patients down false trails wasting time and research dollars trying to deal with the effects instead of the underlying causes.
Then there is the practical nature of preventing or treating the disease. The multivitamins should only be used as a stopgap because they are far inferior to natural vitamins. Use the chemical substitutes if you must but be sure your diet is varied enough to get the natural vitamins...all of them.
The next practical step is to find out what empirical steps are used which definitely help even if we don't know the underlying causes. Turmeric, ginkgo, ginseng, and yes, the humble apple (not the juice) are several natural examples which are great at giving the body assistance in preventing mental decline. We don't need laboratories hocking their own imitations and deriding the natural sources because we know by thousands of years of experience the natural sources can work.
Learning is good but don't stop with memorizing data. Learn to manipulate the information to understand it and extract new theories. Memory may be the most obvious factor but one should learn to process data. OK really young people should learn to do this too. That is a key failure in society, misunderstanding information memorized but not really "grokked". You might start by reading a Heinlein novel <grin>
While not yet proven with certainty, Alzheimer's seems to be related to autoimmune failure which in turn is related to diabetes and other endocrine failures. Doctors dance around talking about plaques and tangles but simple antihistamines are very promising. As a side topic, shrinks try to suppress the fact that antihistamines relieve many mental aberrations. They are scared to death that the public will realize that what they treat and never cure can often be helped by simply relieving overstimulated immune responses. There may be truth behind the old term "brain fever".
Finally it was mentioned that caffeine helps. Apparently it and nicotine are the very best substances to date to help with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and several other degenerative conditions. The doctors are lying like they did with vitamin D when they tell you to decrease their usage.
That is a capsule perspective of the disease. There is much more you can learn and while you may not have stepped beyond what the experts tell you, there is a whole world of information waiting for you to explore.

[lawyertom1]

While it is marvelous that you are giving time and space to this issue it is important to realize (along with the piece on 25 signs) that the cause of Alzheimer's Disease and the many forms of dementia are poorly understood, and in some cases not understood at all. For example, the 25 signs could apply to a wide variety of disorders and diseases, not just Alzheimer's. However, it is important to get the person so suffering checked out because, for example, they could be suffering from vascular dementia, or mini-strokes, etc. Also, although there is good advice on how to prevent AD and dementia, there is no sure thing by any means. It cannot hurt to take affirmative steps, but in some cases there is nothing to be done. Keep the information flowing because so many folks overlook the signs and take no steps at all. We are not talking certainty here, just improving the odds.

[MaxWal]

It is of utmost importance to keep the mind as active as possible. People who engage in many cognitive activities greatly postpone the point at which Alzheimer's disease affects their daily functioning. Moreover, some cognitive activities can be greatly calming for Alzheimer's patients. Arts and other such creative activities use the portion of the brain last affected by Alzheimer's disease. I am a student who was a caregiver for my great grandmother who had Alzheimer's. Visiting her in dementia facilities during the last three months of her illness, I witness the calming affect that working on jigsaw puzzles had on this patient population. After her death, I founded PuzzlesToRemember (www.PuzzlesToRemember.org), a 501c3 nonprofit organization that collects puzzles, both new and gently used, and distributes them to facilities that care for Alzheimer's patients. Over the past two years, I have collected over 5000 puzzles and distributed them to over 345 facilities, located in every state plus parts of Canada and Mexico, including over 60 facilities that care for our veterans with Alzheimer's disease. I have also been working together with Springbok Puzzles. Later this month, Springbok (http://www.springbok-puzzles.com/) will be releasing 7 puzzles made specially to meet the needs of Alzheimer's patients. These puzzles will have a choice of 12 or 36 large, easy to grasp pieces, with bright colors and interesting images. We hope to help many people with these puzzles.

[DGraab]

Nice to see that you're including caregivers in this important discussion. For half of the 1100 family caregivers that Caring.com surveyed in August 2010, caring for their loved one with Alzheimer's was the biggest source of stress in their lives; more than double the stress rating they gave the downturn in the economy, their jobs, and other family relationships. [More results from the survey, including the financial impact of caregiving, are available here: http://www.caring.com/about/news-room/caring-com-launches-first-customizable-alzheimers-resource-for-family-caregivers.html ].

While Caring.com isn't solely focused on Alzheimer's, over 40,000 of active members on the site are caring for a loved one living with this disease. To further support them, Caring.com last week launched Steps & Stages, a free customizable resource that helps caregivers identify the stage of Alzheimer's their loved one is in, understand what symptoms to expect (and how to cope with them), and connect with other caregivers in online communities. http://www.caring.com/steps-stages/alzheimers

The size and scope of this challenge in the U.S. is staggering (http://www.caring.com/infographics/alzheimers-disease-by-the-numbers ), and while putting more attention to prevention and treatment, our nation must also find better ways to support the 5 million Americans suffering from Alzheimer's now, as well as the 11 million people providing unpaid care to them. As Paula Spencer (senior editor of the Alzheimer's/dementia channel on Caring.com) points out in her World Alzheimer's Day post: "A cure would be nice. But a more realistic, immediate, and achievable goal is to make coping resources available to all people with Alzheimer's and every caregiver, in every community." http://www.caring.com/blogs/caring-currents/world-alzheimers-day