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Archive for Alzheimer’s disease

Tips for Alzheimer’s Care

Alzheimer’s care takes plenty of patience and flexibility. Sometimes it can be difficult and frustrating when we don’t completely understand how to offer our care towards those with this condition. If you are caring for someone living with Alzheimer’s disease, then you must be aware of the progression of this disease and how to help them along the way.

The two most important components in caring for your loved ones with Alzheimer’s is helping reduce their frustrations and fostering a safe home environment for them at all times. Prepare yourself by understanding what Alzheimer’s disease is and how to care for your loved ones experiencing it.

Reduce Frustrations

People with Alzheimer’s disease typically become more aggressive and agitated when it comes to simple tasks. This is because simple tasks become more challenging to them which allows them to feel frustrated in doing them.

    To avoid your loved one from feeling feelings of frustration, you may help them by:

  • Scheduling wisely and establishing a routine such as bathing, eating and sleeping times.
  • Stay patient with your loved ones. Your loved ones will take a much longer time than they used to do things, be patient with them and allow them to take their time.
  • Ask questions to get their brain thinking. Sometimes, it is helpful to allow your loved ones to think a little on their own by letting them decide what kind of food they’d want to eat, what color to wear for the day.
  • Be clear, straight and to the point with what to do. Your loved ones will not be able to understand complex things, it’s best to keep their daily tasks as simple as possible to avoid any frustrations.

Foster a Safe Environment

Taking on the care of your loved ones means making sure your home is a safe place for them at all times. People with Alzheimer’s disease are prone to injuries. Prevent potential injuries from occurring by:

  • Make sure they do not have access to a flight of stairs. It is a safer option to have your loved ones stay on one level of the home at all times, or having supervision when walking up and down the stairs.
  • Make sure anything that can be potentially harmful such as utensils, medicine, other toxic substances are stored in a place that cannot be reached.
  • Don’t leave your loved ones without supervision near kitchen areas in case of fires.
  • Challenges of Caring For Someone with Alzheimer’s

    There are many challenges that come with caring for a person with Alzheimer’s disease over time. You will notice plenty of changes in their cognitive, physical and functional abilities. These changes can cause them to behave in frustrating and upsetting ways. As you experience these changes in their behavior, keep in mind the importance of your emotional health as it can be a lot to handle especially as the responsibilities increase and become more challenging.

    You may experience:

    • Overwhelming emotions of stress, anxiety, and sleep deprivation
    • Financial and work complications
    • Body exhaustion and fatigue
    • Mental and physical health issues

    Remember to care for yourself

    As you care for your loved ones, don’t forget to care for yourself. Caring for our loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease can often cause overwhelming emotions, exhaustion, and other complications. When the disease progresses over time, it can demand more of your time. The more you learn how it will progress over the years, the better you will understand and prepare for those challenges.

    Taking care of someone with Alzheimer’s is difficult but manageable. Know the tips to care for them and yourself, and you’ll be an incredible caretaker and loved one. And don’t forget, Silver State Neurology can help.

    How to Get Involved for Alzheimer’s Awareness Month

    September is Alzheimer’s Awareness month, help us create awareness for Alzheimer’s whether they be small or large gestures. 47 million people worldwide are living with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. While there is plenty of research being done, there is no cure yet. This number can increase to 76 million by the year 2030. It is important to raise awareness and funds to find ways to cure this growing epidemic.

    What is Alzheimer’s Disease?

    Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disease that causes a slow decline in memory, thinking, and reasoning skills. Unfortunately, too many people are unaware of the warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease. This can lead to a delay in treatment. If Alzheimer’s disease is treated earlier, a neurologist can help the affected have a better quality of life. At Silver State Neurology, we are a Las Vegas neurology clinic devoted to helping our patients achieve a better quality of life. We provide Alzheimer’s disease treatment in Las Vegas for our senior patients. It is among our top 5 diagnoses at Silver State Neurology.

    How You Can Make A Difference

    1. Wear Purple

    The color for Alzheimer’s Awareness is purple. Stand with us in creating awareness for the disease. Wearing the color doesn’t take much effort. It’s a simple yet bold gesture that makes a huge difference in your communities. You may even consider tying a ribbon on a backpack, purse or creatively think of other ways to incorporate the color to drive attention to the disease.

    2. Share Your Story

    Alzheimer’s and Dementia is a disease that is affecting 47 million people in the United States. Many of us have untold stories of how Alzheimer’s have affected our lives. Please share them, you are not alone!

    3. Inform Yourself

    Building awareness starts with understanding something ourselves. We see plenty of awareness days all year long, but how many of us spend even 5 minutes to learn a little bit more about something? We hardly spend the time to research something if we don’t know what it is. If you have no knowledge of Alzheimer’s or know anyone being affected by it, it’s important to educate yourself anyway. It can affect anyone at any point in time. Our own individual awareness of diseases can help us save lives of people around us and catching on to symptoms much quicker.

    4. Raise Your Awareness In Your Friends, Family, Work Place & Community

    Once you learn more about it, spend time making it a topic of conversation with your friends, family, work place and community. Sometimes people don’t know much about awareness days going on during the month, it’s nice to bring it up casually. Many people enjoy learning new things and keeping up with what is happening across the United States and the world. You can make a difference simply by walking into work and saying, “Did you know September is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month?” Educating others about awareness days can help save those around them.

    5. Participate or Host an Event

    More often than not, there are events going on around your community that you might not know about. You’d be surprised at the amount of participation we see yearly for creating awareness of all sorts. Some events include fundraisers, annual walks, donations, and more. Tons of organizations exist to take the fight against Alzheimer’s further. Your participation and help makes the biggest difference. If you don’t see an event related to the cause near you, you can create one yourself! Many local businesses around your area are likely to be more than willing to help and offer their support in some way.

    6. Participate on online Awareness Campaigns

    Social Media is a huge outlet for creating awareness. Each organization and business is on social media. Marketing campaigns depend on getting their messages across through the use of social media nowadays. Search for related hashtags if you are looking for more information on what people are saying about Alzheimer’s Awareness Month. You’ll also be surprised to see that many people share their stories on social media and use particular hashtags. You or someone you know who is affected by it can be encouraged to share their stories if you take a look at the other stories online. It brings the community closer together even if you are states apart.

    Learn more from your Doctor

    Every person may experience one or more of these signs in a different degree. One symptom alone does not necessarily indicate that a person has Alzheimer’s disease. However, if you start noticing more than one symptom of Alzheimer’s disease, don’t ignore them. Please see a doctor. Contact us to make an appointment at Silver State Neurology. Our Las Vegas neurologist, Dr. Christopher Milford, is well-equipped to help you manage your Alzheimer’s disease symptoms. Please see the list of insurances we accept and learn what to expect when seeing a neurologist. Visit our Facebook page to learn more about the conditions that we treat. The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America unites more than 2,600 member organizations nationwide in the goal of providing optimal care and services to individuals living with dementia and to their families and caregivers.

    Daytime Naps for The Brain

    Work and everyday stresses can take their toll on your body and mind. Excessive strain can lead to burnout, mental health problems, physical health problems like blood pressure, etc. Unfortunately, the modern lifestyle is very stressful with poor work-life balance. That’s one of the reasons why even big companies like Google encourage their employees to take daytime naps.

    You don’t have to spend too much time napping because just 90 minutes is enough to reboot the brain and rejuvenate you. Many adults hesitate to indulge in naps because they believe it is for children. Some think daytime naps might have a negative impact on nighttime sleep, but that’s not the case.

    You just need to make sure your nap length is relatively short. If you take a 3-4 hour siesta, the sleep cycle will be disrupted and that will affect the nighttime sleep cycle. Here are some reasons why daytime naps are important for your brain:

    1. The Eight-Hour Sleep Cycle is a Recent Trend

    Different cultures have different notions when it comes to sleep cycles. Countries with hot or temperate climates like India, Spain, Italy, Greece, etc., have a “napping” culture where people will take 2 to 3 hours to finish lunch and take a nap. They also have the habit of getting up early and sleeping at a relatively modest time.

    This two-sleep schedule has worked well to keep their minds active and alert during rest of the day. Chinese employees are known to place their head on the desk for a short 1-hour nap before or after lunch. All of these factors boost productivity and prove that the 8-hour cycle doesn’t have to be the norm. Studies have shown that giving the brain a break can help a person feel much more focused and energetic.

    2. Sleep Deprivation Hampers The Brain’s Ability to Focus

    Sleep deprived people will perform at the same level of efficiency as someone who has had a restful sleep. This means if you give both individuals the same task, their performance will be equal. But maintaining that level of competence is difficult if you’re sleep deprived as your brain will have trouble refocusing.

    Almost everyone loses their focus, especially if they have to perform repetitive tasks. A person who has slept well will lose attention for a short span of time before the brain reacts and increases focus. This is where a sleep-deprived brain falters because once you lose focus, there’s little to no reaction.

    The brain simply fails to get back to the task, which is why a power nap can help. Even a 20-minute break with absolutely no disturbances can help rewire it and put you back on the right track. However, if you don’t have the ability to focus despite getting ample sleep, it is time to consult a Las Vegas Neurologist because the problem might lie elsewhere.

    3. Prevents Burnouts

    Our minds are constantly subjected to information and stimulation. This can cause a considerable amount of stress to the brain. Constantly calculating data, making logical leaps, providing creative input, and making decisions can overload the mind. This leads to a drop in productivity and performance.

    There was a study conducted in Massachusetts involving students who weren’t sleep deprived. They were asked to stare at the screen filled with horizontal bars. Every once in a while, three diagonal bars would flash on the screen and students were asked to identify if they were stacked vertical or horizontal.

    They underwent this frustrating task 1,250 times in a day. Results showed that students who took an hour’s nap performed better than those who didn’t. Similar tests indicated that the brain becomes overstimulated after three trials, which led to burnout. The only way to remove such stress and overstimulation is through a nap or full sleep.

    4. The Effect of a Nap Lasts for a Long Time</h2

    The effects of a good, restful nap can last for a long time and will see you through the rest of the day. For example, an hour’s nap will help a person stay alert until dinner time. 2 or 3-hour naps will cause drowsiness for at least an hour before the brain refocuses.

    Once the brain has refocused, you will be alert for at least 5 to 6 hours easily. It’s a good idea to limit the nap to under 90 minutes for best results because you don’t want to slip into a deep sleep in the middle of the day. Deep sleep shouldn’t be interrupted as it can cause drowsiness and increase fatigue.

    Naps have a positive impact on memory and can help you retain information better. A study proved this by providing test subjects with cards to memorize. After they had memorized the cards, they got a 40-minute break. One part of the group napped during this break while the other stayed awake. Unsurprisingly, the group that napped performed much better than the group that didn’t.

    It indicates that napping helps your mind solidify and store memories efficiently. This happens because information is first stored in the hippocampus immediately after memorization. This memory can become lost because it can be easily overwritten by other data. Napping pushes this memory to the neocortex, which provides permanent storage. This ensures the information isn’t easily overwritten, and that preserves your memory for a long time.

    Weak and fragile memory can sometimes be a sign of degenerative diseases. If you experience unexplained memory loss or have difficulty retaining information, contact a good neurologist to determine the root cause.

    The left part of the brain, which is dominant in most individuals, is fairly silent and inactive during a nap. The right side of the brain is very active during this time and researchers speculate this is because it’s performing a cleanup. During this active period, the right side pushes memories deeper and sorts through pending tasks that are in the way. When you wake up, all lingering information is sorted and the brain is ready for more challenges.

    As you can see, a nap can have a significant impact on the brain, mental health, and you’re your physical health. It’s why Silver State Neurology recommends that people of all ages take short naps during the course of their day.

    Tips for De-Stressing After a Long Week

    The unfortunate fact is, we rarely stop to think what fast-paced lifestyles, sedentary jobs, unhealthy or erratic dietary habits, and lack of exercise does to our health and overall well-being. Our bodies have an inbuilt system for speed and stress; however, they also have a powerful hard-wired system for quiet and relaxation. Using the right system at the right time can help us move through life efficiently and faster, yet without burning out our physical bodies.

    No matter which way you look at it, the modern world is designed to increase stress levels. Wherever you look, you see people suffering from lifestyle-related diseases such as anxiety, depression, chronic migraine headaches, indigestion, obesity as well as more complex health problems such as diabetes, heart conditions and more. While every person has their own ways of coping with stress, research indicates that most of these aren’t effective.

    There’s a lot of stress-related research undertaken by neurology experts, which indicates that the most commonly used stress-busting strategies are also reported to be highly ineffective by the very same people that use them.

    For instance, only a meager 15% of individuals that eat certain foods to reduce stress, report that they are actually effective. Many people gorge on chocolate when they feel depressed or anxious; most of these people will also tell you that eventually, the only reliable change they experience in their mood by consuming their food of choice is an increased level of guilt.

    Effective Tips For De-Stressing

    We at Silver State Neurology firmly believe that keeping stress at bay requires a combination of techniques. Here are a few tips for de-stressing after a long work week:

    1. Clench Your Facial Muscles Tightly And Then Relax Them

    The connection between your body and brain is always a two-way street, which includes a distinctive feedback loop. This means if you are unable to get your brain to direct your body to calm down, you can use your body to calm your brain down. When your brain gets stressed, your muscles will tighten up.

    Tense muscles relay a signal back to your brain telling it that you’re stressed. This makes it crucial to breaking the loop. You can do this by clenching your facial muscles and then relaxing them. This helps your body send a signal to your brain telling it that you aren’t stressed anymore and that your brain should de-stress too. Some of the most important muscles you should relax are the facial muscles because these have the most effect on emotion. However, relaxing your abdomen, butt and hands are equally important too.

    2. Slow, Deep Breathing Techniques

    This is one of the simplest and most effective tips for de-stressing that you can do at any time and anyplace. You don’t need a specific setting or time to do some slow, deep breathing exercises. The vagus nerve in the human body is one of its primary emotional highways. It constantly sends signals up to your brain and to your heart and plays a vital role in regulating the body’s fight-or-flight system. Direct stimulation of the vagus nerve is a great way to fix these issues.

    The manner in which you breathe can impact the way your vagus nerve functions. As a matter of fact, it’s one of the quickest ways to alter your emotional state. Deep breathing connects to the brain via signals that are carried by this vagus nerve. This signaling is vital in activating the parasympathetic nervous system (circuits for relaxation and resting).

    When you consciously breathe slowly and deeply, it increases your vagus nerve’s activity levels and catalyzes your brain towards parasympathetic activity, which helps calm you down. Breathe very slowly through your nose up to a count of six or eight. Then pause for just a couple of seconds at the peak of your inhalation and exhale very slowly via your nose for that same count.

    3. Splash Your Face And Neck With Cold Water

    Splashing cold water on your face jolts your vagus nerve and slows your heart rate down. Your brain will feel the drop in your heart rate and tells it not to continue being stressed. If you’re feeling anxious, stressed or overwhelmed, simply cup your hands under cold water and, splash it quickly on your face.

    Other Useful Tips For De-Stressing

    In addition to all these pointers, some of the other things you can do include:

    •Eat and drink sensibly, at regular intervals
    •Assert yourself and learn to say “no” when you are overworked
    •Exercise regularly
    •Maintain a healthy and nutritious diet
    •Get a sufficient amount of sleep and establish a regular sleep routine
    •Set realistic health goals and stick to them
    •Listen to calming music
    •Watch kitten/puppy antics videos
    •Dance/play an instrument or indulge in some other fun activity
    •Socialize and meet up with friends
    •Spend leisure time with family
    •Learn to relax, think positive and laugh a lot
    •Stay away from your phone and other electronic devices for some part of the day

    Neurological Stress Reduction Therapy

    Looking after your body & mind are some of the most important things to do to boost your long-term memory, reduce stress and improve brain function. While all of the above-mentioned tips for de-stressing are ones you can follow on a regular basis to reduce your stress levels, there may be times when you feel you need some additional help.

    Consider consulting our experienced Las Vegas Neurologist; Dr. Milford will assess your condition and provide treatments for diseases/disorders that can come from excessive stresses or strains in the brain. They will adopt a holistic neurological stress reduction therapy approach to help increase core level energy, promote natural & healthy detoxification, boost your immune system, and bring the body and mind back to balance.

    De-stress therapies aren’t a one-time activity. It’s about taking small steps and making seemingly minor changes to the way you think, work, act and react, to help you live a stress-free and healthy life.

    Challenging your Brain

    There is no right age to start thinking of how to keep your brain healthy. People who challenge their brains are likely to live a longer and more fulfilling life! There are different types of exercises that can boost our brain energy, but mental health exercises are often overlooked. Take some time each day to give your mind a mental workout!

    Things that benefit our brain are right in front of us, sometimes we don’t see it right away. Add these simple tips into your everyday life more frequently!

    Learn new things

    Nothing wrong with a little new information every now and then. Whether you learn a new language, an instrument or studying a different career industry, learning should be a consistent part of your life! Learning new things challenges your brain’s skills in memory retainment, reading, problem-solving and so much more. Be curious about the world around, add to your vocabulary, utilize the internet when you come across something you’ve never seen.

    You may consider learning a new hobby! If you want to start with something simple, a new hobby is a great way to start. Starting a new hobby allows you to get your creativity flowing and makes you think! Sometimes the things we are good at have yet to be discovered!

    Be Productive in the Mornings

    Routines are healthy for the brain. Waking up early and jump-starting your day with a to-do list not only boosts productivity but it prevents your brain from feeling sluggish all day. Changing up your routine is the challenge. Yes, it is important to have a routine weekly, but it’s even healthier to change it up every now and then by adding new tasks or doing things differently. A fixed routine can eventually make your brain feel too accustomed to something.

    Rotate between being Old-Fashioned & Current

    Technology is something many people rely on and not rely on enough. There are those few who are heavily dependent on using their smartphones and laptops and then there are those who rather not dive into learning how to use technology to their advantage.

    If you aren’t familiar with the technology, it might be a great thing to teach yourself. It’s important to stay current and there’ s nothing wrong with learning something new especially if you can use it to your advantage.

    If you rely on technology a little too much, try doing things the hard way sometimes:

  • Use your brain for basic math you need to add or even memorizing phone numbers of people important to you!
  • Use your sense of direction and mental skills to figure out where to go without using a GPS from your phone.
  • Stay Well-Read

    Regardless of your interests, it’s important to read. Read anything! Books, magazines, articles, food labels. Reading stimulates your brain and keeps your mind pumping. It’s one of the simplest ways to challenge your brain.

    Keep up with current events, even if it’s a little a day. Whether you are staying updated with the environment, politics, world news or even local news, stimulate your brain by learning about things that are happening right now. You may even consider learning about the technological changes that are happening in society today! You will be surprised by what you learn each day, there is always something new.