Minutes January 8, 2013 held at The United Methodist Church, Saratoga Springs, NY
Present:
Catlin St. George (Eddy VNA), Karen Clark (Home Health Care Partners),
Denis Livsey (Southern Adirondack Independent Living), JoAnn Zales (National
Grid), Rebecca Zohn (Concepts of Independent Choices, Inc.), Richard Amico (St.
Edward’s the Confessor Church, Clifton Park), Kim Swire (CHOICES at St.
Peter’s), Katie George (Eddy Lifeline), Jess Froehlich (Eddy DayBreaks), Jane
Hurst (RSVP Volunteer), Andre Turman (Merrill Lynch), Holly Pajak (Redesign in
Mind), Barb McHugh (Town of Clifton Park), Cindy Harrington (Shelters of
Saratoga), Donna Rudzinski (Shenendehowa Villages), Teri Harrington (Doubleday
Woods), Linda Rose (Experience Works), Cara Hanley (Schuyler Ridge), Mary
Rickard (Saratoga County Office for the Aging), Dawn Lincoln (SAIL), Reed Lehan
(Saratoga County DSS), Beth Smith-Boivin (Alzheimer’s Association of NENY)
Introductions: Cindy Harrington welcomed the group and announced that the
next meeting will be at St. Edward’s the Confessor Church, 569 Clifton Park
Center Road, Clifton Park, February 12th from 2 – 3:30 pm. Linda Reveal will speak on Palliative Care.
Virtual Dementia
Tours were performed by the Alzheimer’s Association of NENY. Thank you to Maureen Hopkins and Maria Geizer from Home Instead Senior Care for volunteering their time to help Karen Britt with the tour.
Participants
introduced themselves.
Announcements:
The Saratoga
Soroptimist is sponsoring a Cabin Fever Luncheon on Saturday, January 26th 11:00 am at the Saratoga National
Golf Club, 458 Union Ave., Saratoga Springs, NY. Katherine Rosman, author and feature reporter
for the Wall Street Journal will be the speaker at the event.
Linda Rose
was recently hired to manage the Experience Works program. She reminded the group that there are
openings in the program and that she is opened to referrals.
Donna
Rudzinski who formerly worked for the Experience Works program is now at
Shenendehowa Villages.
Presentation: Topic: Alzheimer’s Disease Research Update
Speaker: Beth Smith-Boivin, Executive Director and CEO
of the Alzheimer’s Association of NENY
Beth
Smith-Boivin has been working with the Alzheimer’s community for the last 29
years. She started as a volunteer and
advanced to Board President of the Alzheimer’s Association. She has also worked in an assisted living
environment and at the Alzheimer’s Center at Albany Medical Center. She currently is Executive Director and CEO
of the Alzheimer’s Association of NENY and sits on the Governor’s Alzheimer’s
Disease Council.
Losing your
memory is not a normal part of the aging process. A person in their 7th decade finds
that they are slower in processing memory and have problems with naming. Normal aging does not affect functional
status such as forgetting to pay bills or not remembering birthdays. Those who suffer from mild cognitive
impairment have a 70% of developing Alzheimer’s Disease.
Dementia is
a decline in memory and at least one other cognitive ability. Some forms of dementia can be reversed. It is important to find out the kind of
dementia a person has and then to seek treatment. You should ask your care provider how to
proceed with further treatment and request a referral to a specialist.
There is no
medical test for Alzheimer’s Disease. The
determination is made by ruling out other forms of Dementia. There are 70 – 100 causes for many types of Dementia. Screening involves a brain scan, which will
narrow down some causes. Blood tests may
show body deficiencies. Lastly, a
neurological analysis is performed.
Alzheimer’s can only be confirmed through an autopsy. The cost of
identifying Alzheimer’s Disease is approximately $15,000.
The stages
of Alzheimer’s Disease start with Mild. In
the mild stage, a person has an inability to reliably make new memory
(short-term). They suffer from a loss of initiative, which could also be seen
as depression. Verbal cueing may be
needed and there are changes in person’s behavior and judgment. The person may be aware that they have the
disease, which causes emotional challenges. The Moderate Stage is easier to diagnose. There is a change in the person’s ability to
manage ADL’s. They develop problems with
communication. Behavioral challenges emerge in 70% of Alzheimer’s patients. The person memory continues to decline and
becomes confused easily. In the Severe
Stage, the person becomes totally dependent on their caregivers for all their
needs. The progression of Alzheimer’s
Disease on average is 12 years. It could
last between 5 – 20 years. The younger a
person is diagnosed, the expectancy time is less.
Alzheimer’s
is cause by an accumulation of protein in the brain. Too much beta-amyloid in the brain causes plague to develop. Nerve cells are unable to talk to each
other. Slowly over time, they are unable
to store new memory. It is usually 2
years into the disease before the condition is noticed. Affected nerves in the frontal lobe of the
brain cause problems with behavior, in the temporal lobe, language is affected. In the Moderate Stage of Alzheimer’s Disease,
beta-amyloid starts killing nerve cells, which causes communication to shut
down. An Alzheimer’s patient brains
weigh less because the nerves have been eaten away by plague. Tau causes tangles inside the nerve
cells. Genetic plays in role. Persons exhibiting 1st, 14th,
21st chromosomes or Down’s syndrome are at higher risk for the
disease.
Treatment
options include medication. Some drugs
used to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease are Aricept, Exelon,
Razadyne and Memantine. Medications may
also be used for symptoms/problems such as anti-depressant therapy and
anti-psychotics. Environmental
modifications and compensatory techniques are useful.
Earlier
detection of Alzheimer’s Disease is needed.
The process to diagnose the Disease needs to be facilitated and a better
vehicle needs to be found for screening.
Identification of biomarkers aid in early detection, they are used to
diagnosis and measure progression of the disease. PET scans with a compound of PIB are used in
the process. Cerebrospinal fluid
measures the beta-amyloid ratio in the brain.
Risk factors
for the Alzheimer’s Disease are age.
Persons 85 or older have a 47.9% change of developing Alzheimer’s
Disease. Persons between 75 – 84 years
of age are at a 25% risk. Persons 60 –
74 have a 10% risk. Genes are a risk
factor. Persons with a primary relative
who has been diagnosed with the disease have a 25% higher risk of developing
the disease.
Vitamins and
supplements are not been found to be effective.
However, Vitamin B6 and B12 hold the most promise. A 2008 study revealed that Vitamins C and E
taken alone or in combination, did not improve cognition.
Future
treatments are likely to be a combination approach. Drug trials for Dimebon and Rember are in the
pipeline. Monoclonal antibodies are
being used to strengthen nerve cells.
This method has been taken from cancer research. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may
help but more study is needed. Deep
brain stimulation is also being studied.
Aricept in a
23 mg. dosage was recently approved for moderate to severe Alzheimer’s
patients. However, the side effect of
this drug is stomach upset. Exelon now
comes in a patch for slower infusion.
TRAILMATCH
was recently launched to help link persons with Alzheimer’s find clinical
trials in their area.
Background
information on an Alzheimer’s patient is collected from an informant. A relative or someone close to the person is
asked to provide information for the patient to help with diagnosis and
treatment.
Aricept does
not work with an Alzheimer’s patient that has damage in the frontal lobe. It over stimulates the brain.
Respectively
Submitted,
Jane Hurst
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