Question:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Becky, I know you mean well, but you are missing something. The problem is not just the presence of the delusion, it is the behavior they want to engage in under the influence of the delusion. Example: June has the delusion that she has more than one dog. Beau our dog can be laying in front of her. Now she wonders where the other dog is. Its dark outside. I tell her there is no other dog, she insists there is and wants to go roaming around outside in the pitch black. I tell her that there is no dog outside and that Beau is here on the rug and show her. She still wants to go outside and look. I tell her it’s too dark outside and she might fall. She then says she won’t fall and she’s capable of taking care of herself and so on and so on. Actually she’s unsteady on her feet even in daylight. Now we have a full blown conflict which if I fail to control, and allow her to go outside, I might be faced with a wife with a broken hip and a bigger problem. You might say use distraction. It works if the delusion is just an expressed thought, but if the delusion leads to an action that is hazardous, diversion stands a poor chance, because she want’s to go looking for the other dog. Finally I have to so NO! you are not going outside and that is that. I’m sure that Evelyn has had similar situations and has had to say NO!, and then face the row. That is the wearing part! Simple scenarios can be solved by simple means, But it’s not the simple scenarios that are the problem, it’s the complicated ones. I’m sure others can recount similar situations. Then there is the repeated behavior that doesn’t respond to any method. Example: We have armchair arm covers on the stuffed furniture. They are periodically washed. I cannot keep them on. I have tried pinning them in place in several areas, but as soon as my back is turned, June will remove one or more and fold them neatly putting them some place and I can’t find them. I couldn’t find the toilet roll spindle for about ten days. Finally I went through one of her dozens of handbags looking for something else, and came across it by accident. Nothing stays in one place for any time and anything can end up anyplace. I need to watch her almost every minute of the day to ensure she isn’t creating a problem of some kind or other. Feeding the dog or the cat the wrong things at the wrong times in the wrong place. If I’m in my study and I hear a slight noise I have to go running out to find what it is. June cannot do anything that involves remembering how a simple thing is done. There was a clean cup upside down on a side table adjacent to the chair she was sitting in and she was trying to drink out of it bottom side up. These things are simple to handle, but when her will kicks in, then it becomes a row. At least one per day, and I am now beginning to think that I cannot face this for the rest of my life. At times she might respond better to a stranger, than to myself. Frederick Dear Frederick and Becky, Frederick has explained EXACTLY what the problem is in great detail. Ida does the same things and is about at the same stage as June, I would say, from our conversations here on the newsgroup. Ida kept Peter up all night last night with her latest delusion. It was his turn to sleep with the door open for Ida duty, and mine to lock up and try to sleep all night. Well he got a tough one this time. A few weeks ago I (personally – just me) took a long weekend to see my daughter and grandchildren in Texas. It was wonderful and restorative for me. Peter stayed home to take care of his mom. This laid the groundwork for a new delusion. Ida imagines that WE (both my husband and I) went to California and left her in charge of the house and the dogs, and that she has to care for everything in our absence. We have never left her alone for all the time she has been with us. Not even for 15 minutes. We are always here, one or the other or both. Every single morning and every single evening she exclaims "Oh I am so glad you are BAAAACK!!!!) and it is nice to say that OK, yes, I am back… yes I had a good time, yes the weather was nice…. but the persistence of the delusion has her experiencing severe anxiety at daycare and at the neighbor’s house when she is being granny-sat, demanding to go home and crying and all sorts of other stuff. She imagines the dogs are not let out, that she forgot to lock the door, and even that there are now cows that have to be milked (!!!!). She cries, she is working herself into a frenzy with this delusion. She is up all night looking in our bedrooms waking us up. This has also made all the Pelli delusions worse. Last evening she was looking for Pelli probably 10 times!!!! When you tell her that Pelli is dead, she insists that was "another" Pelli and that she had 3 or 4 little dogs and "they just keep on dying……" It is all well and good to go along with a delusion if it is harmless, but if it can result in broken hips, wandering out of doors at night, or reinforcing a delusion that can cause these things, it is smarter to take the hard road and simply shout NO! and make them understand that it is final and you really mean it. They do forget it in a few minutes anyway, then sometimes it returns and sometimes it doesn’t. It has been discussed on this board that emotions seem to make a stronger impression than reasoning, since the emotional memory seems to have greater staying power. When my husband tells her NO and to go back to bed, she does go back to bed. She argues more with me. There are some times when placating them or deflecting them and even loving deception does not work at all and you have to be firm for the safety of the person and your family. I absolutely draw the line at any kind of violence, under any circumstances, but to the point of some gentle restraint, I feel that there are instances when it can be necessary. What do others say about this? I am ready to put a lock on her bedroom door at night (and lock her inside with a pottie chair for overnight toileting) so that I know she isn’t setting the house on fire or wandering in the forest. We have a very tricky front door lock setup that she hasn’t figured out yet, but who knows……. The alternative is of course, a nursing home and that will be the next move, but I am sure she is happier here, for what it is worth, with her son and me and the animals she loves. Regards, Evelyn
Evelyn and Becky, The one technique that I have found effective when asked a question that results from a delusion is to say "I am not going to answer that question. I know the answer, but you won’t accept it, so I won’t answer it" June then usually will say all right , forget it. I think I have an easier time than you Evelyn. June sleeps all night with regularity and I usually serve her breakfast in bed and give her her morning pills then, She has a pretty good life and gets plenty of attention to her every need. But trying to fit that in with everything else is wearing. I checked her weight since I increased her caloric intake and she has put on about 4 lbs. I wonder if they get as much attention in a nursing home? Does the staff make sure they clean their teeth well at least once per day. Brush their hair etc. Do they get them to wash their face regularly. Take their medications and not forget to take it after they have it in hand? June all of her own teeth and the rest is a 4 unit bridge. She has excellent teeth for an 80 year old. Neglect could soon wreak havoc. Do they check on how long they have been wearing their clothes etc.? These things are what concern me. June has started to experience some minor urinary leakage and I am keeping an eye on it but she tends to want to conceal these things out of shear embarrassment, and I occasionally find her rinsing out a pair of panties after going to the bathroom. I have told her that I need to know if she is having problems, but I’m not sure that she necessarily will be forthcoming, so I find that I have to be somewhat intrusive just to know what is happening. Is a nursing home as attentive? Frederick
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I can’t remember exactly the order of things, because so much has happened since then, but the Dr. put her on 250mg of Val-proic Acid.
Also known as Depakote or Depakene.
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Becky, I know you mean well, but you are missing something. The problem is not just the presence of the delusion, it is the behavior they want to engage in under the influence of the delusion. Example: June has the delusion that she has more than one dog. Beau our dog can be laying in front of her. Now she wonders where the other dog is. Its dark outside. I tell her there is no other dog, she insists there is and wants to go roaming around outside in the pitch black. I tell her that there is no dog outside and that Beau is here on the rug and show her. She still wants to go outside and look. I tell her it’s too dark outside and she might fall. She then says she won’t fall and she’s capable of taking care of herself and so on and so on. Actually she’s unsteady on her feet even in daylight. Now we have a full blown conflict which if I fail to control, and allow her to go outside, I might be faced with a wife with a broken hip and a bigger problem. You might say use distraction. It works if the delusion is just an expressed thought, but if the delusion leads to an action that is hazardous, diversion stands a poor chance, because she want’s to go looking for the other dog. Finally I have to so NO! you are not going outside and that is that. I’m sure that Evelyn has had similar situations and has had to say NO!, and then face the row. That is the wearing part! Simple scenarios can be solved by simple means, But it’s not the simple scenarios that are the problem, it’s the complicated ones. I’m sure others can recount similar situations. Then there is the repeated behavior that doesn’t respond to any method. Example: We have armchair arm covers on the stuffed furniture. They are periodically washed. I cannot keep them on. I have tried pinning them in place in several areas, but as soon as my back is turned, June will remove one or more and fold them neatly putting them some place and I can’t find them. I couldn’t find the toilet roll spindle for about ten days. Finally I went through one of her dozens of handbags looking for something else, and came across it by accident. Nothing stays in one place for any time and anything can end up anyplace. I need to watch her almost every minute of the day to ensure she isn’t creating a problem of some kind or other. Feeding the dog or the cat the wrong things at the wrong times in the wrong place. If I’m in my study and I hear a slight noise I have to go running out to find what it is. June cannot do anything that involves remembering how a simple thing is done. There was a clean cup upside down on a side table adjacent to the chair she was sitting in and she was trying to drink out of it bottom side up. These things are simple to handle, but when her will kicks in, then it becomes a row. At least one per day, and I am now beginning to think that I cannot face this for the rest of my life. At times she might respond better to a stranger, than to myself. Frederick
Dear Frederick and Becky, Frederick has explained EXACTLY what the problem is in great detail. Ida does the same things and is about at the same stage as June, I would say, from our conversations here on the newsgroup. Ida kept Peter up all night last night with her latest delusion. It was his turn to sleep with the door open for Ida duty, and mine to lock up and try to sleep all night. Well he got a tough one this time. A few weeks ago I (personally – just me) took a long weekend to see my daughter and grandchildren in Texas. It was wonderful and restorative for me. Peter stayed home to take care of his mom. This laid the groundwork for a new delusion. Ida imagines that WE (both my husband and I) went to California and left her in charge of the house and the dogs, and that she has to care for everything in our absence. We have never left her alone for all the time she has been with us. Not even for 15 minutes. We are always here, one or the other or both. Every single morning and every single evening she exclaims "Oh I am so glad you are BAAAACK!!!!) and it is nice to say that OK, yes, I am back… yes I had a good time, yes the weather was nice…. but the persistence of the delusion has her experiencing severe anxiety at daycare and at the neighbor’s house when she is being granny-sat, demanding to go home and crying and all sorts of other stuff. She imagines the dogs are not let out, that she forgot to lock the door, and even that there are now cows that have to be milked (!!!!). She cries, she is working herself into a frenzy with this delusion. She is up all night looking in our bedrooms waking us up. This has also made all the Pelli delusions worse. Last evening she was looking for Pelli probably 10 times!!!! When you tell her that Pelli is dead, she insists that was "another" Pelli and that she had 3 or 4 little dogs and "they just keep on dying……" It is all well and good to go along with a delusion if it is harmless, but if it can result in broken hips, wandering out of doors at night, or reinforcing a delusion that can cause these things, it is smarter to take the hard road and simply shout NO! and make them understand that it is final and you really mean it. They do forget it in a few minutes anyway, then sometimes it returns and sometimes it doesn’t. It has been discussed on this board that emotions seem to make a stronger impression than reasoning, since the emotional memory seems to have greater staying power. When my husband tells her NO and to go back to bed, she does go back to bed. She argues more with me. There are some times when placating them or deflecting them and even loving deception does not work at all and you have to be firm for the safety of the person and your family. I absolutely draw the line at any kind of violence, under any circumstances, but to the point of some gentle restraint, I feel that there are instances when it can be necessary. What do others say about this? I am ready to put a lock on her bedroom door at night (and lock her inside with a pottie chair for overnight toileting) so that I know she isn’t setting the house on fire or wandering in the forest. We have a very tricky front door lock setup that she hasn’t figured out yet, but who knows……. The alternative is of course, a nursing home and that will be the next move, but I am sure she is happier here, for what it is worth, with her son and me and the animals she loves. Regards, Evelyn
Response:
The problem is not just te presence of the delusion, it is the behavior they want to engage in under the influence of the delusion.
True–and this is why I think families must come to the point that they realize that they cannot handle their loved one with Alzheimer’s. Trying to handle the behavior 24 hours a day wears on the health of the caregiver. Also, have you noticed that trying to reason with June isn’t getting you anywhere? And that your family will have to deal with an ill you if your health fails? I’m sure that Evelyn has had similar situations and has had to say NO!, and then face the row. That is the wearing part! Simple scenarios can be solved by simple means, But it’s not the simple scenarios that are the problem, it’s the complicated ones. I’m sure others can recount similar situations.
That is why you need help. Read every book written by a caregiver. Call the Alzheimer’s Association. Join a local support group. Ask family for respite (I know, most won’t; I’ve been there and I’m it). And finally, explore all your options, including a nursing home. This is hard when you see your assets going, so it’s important to talk to a lawyer, too. Then there is the repeated behavior that doesn’t respond to any method. Example: We have armchair arm covers on the stuffed furniture. They are periodically washed. I cannot keep them on. I have tried pinning them in place in several areas, but as soon as my back is turned, June will remove one or more and fold them neatly putting them some place and I can’t find them.
This is a prime example of thinking about what is important. Why do you really need those armchair covers? Yes, you want to keep the armchairs clean. However, in the long run, when this is all over for you, why not let the sofa go to pot and buy a new one for yourself later? Who cares that people will notice your armchairs aren’t clean. I couldn’t find the toilet roll spindle for about ten days. Finally I went through one of her dozens of handbags looking for something else, and came across it by accident. Nothing stays in one place for any time and anything can end up anyplace.
How about letting her hoard her own toilet roll? What does that hurt? You are now intellectually more astute than she is and can find your own toilet paper, so hide a roll away for you to have when you need it and let her have her own. She has an incurable neurological disease and does not realize what she is doing is inappropriate. Trying to control her behavior–as you are finding out–won’t work. If I’m in my study and I hear a slight noise I have to go running out to find what it is. June cannot do anything that involves remembering how a simple thing is done. There was a clean cup upside down on a side table adjacent to the chair she was sitting in and she was trying to drink out of it bottom side up.
Why not let her do this? As long as there is nothing in the glass, she is not hurting anything. Her behavior may be embarrassing, but she has an incurable neurological disease and does not realize what she is doing is inappropriate. These things are simple to handle, but when her will kicks in, then it becomes a row. At least one per day, and I am now beginning to think that I cannot face this for the rest of my life. At times she might respond better to a stranger, than to myself.
This is why you need to think about (1) finding an attorney and (2) finding a good nursing facility. An Alzheimer’s support group is also helpful for most people. You can see that I don’t have the answer to all of June’s behaviors. There are no pat answers. But arguing with a person with Alzheimer’s is utterly useless. And every family comes to the point where nursing home placement must be considered. Sorry to have gone on so long… Our thoughts, prayers, "good vibes" to you. Becky Sisk, your WZard at "Promoting Good Health for Seniors," http://wz.com/health/PromotingGoodHealthforSeni.html
Response:
Becky, I know you mean well, but you are missing something. The problem is not just the presence of the delusion, it is the behavior they want to engage in under the influence of the delusion. Example: June has the delusion that she has more than one dog. Beau our dog can be laying in front of her. Now she wonders where the other dog is. Its dark outside. I tell her there is no other dog, she insists there is and wants to go roaming around outside in the pitch black. I tell her that there is no dog outside and that Beau is here on the rug and show her. She still wants to go outside and look. I tell her it’s too dark outside and she might fall. She then says she won’t fall and she’s capable of taking care of herself and so on and so on. Actually she’s unsteady on her feet even in daylight. Now we have a full blown conflict which if I fail to control, and allow her to go outside, I might be faced with a wife with a broken hip and a bigger problem. You might say use distraction. It works if the delusion is just an expressed thought, but if the delusion leads to an action that is hazardous, diversion stands a poor chance, because she want’s to go looking for the other dog. Finally I have to so NO! you are not going outside and that is that. I’m sure that Evelyn has had similar situations and has had to say NO!, and then face the row. That is the wearing part! Simple scenarios can be solved by simple means, But it’s not the simple scenarios that are the problem, it’s the complicated ones. I’m sure others can recount similar situations. Then there is the repeated behavior that doesn’t respond to any method. Example: We have armchair arm covers on the stuffed furniture. They are periodically washed. I cannot keep them on. I have tried pinning them in place in several areas, but as soon as my back is turned, June will remove one or more and fold them neatly putting them some place and I can’t find them. I couldn’t find the toilet roll spindle for about ten days. Finally I went through one of her dozens of handbags looking for something else, and came across it by accident. Nothing stays in one place for any time and anything can end up anyplace. I need to watch her almost every minute of the day to ensure she isn’t creating a problem of some kind or other. Feeding the dog or the cat the wrong things at the wrong times in the wrong place. If I’m in my study and I hear a slight noise I have to go running out to find what it is. June cannot do anything that involves remembering how a simple thing is done. There was a clean cup upside down on a side table adjacent to the chair she was sitting in and she was trying to drink out of it bottom side up. These things are simple to handle, but when her will kicks in, then it becomes a row. At least one per day, and I am now beginning to think that I cannot face this for the rest of my life. At times she might respond better to a stranger, than to myself. Frederick .
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – One thing you can do for Ida is to listen to her, ask her about when she milked the cows (what was it like? did she like the job? etc.). Then you can ask her about Pelli: what did he look like? does she miss him? Focus on feelings. When a person has dementia, that person has a neurological disease. Arguing with them does no good because they have a neurological disease. Ida’s delusions are not harming her; they are perplexing you. Medication just zonks them (or sometimes makes them more agitated) and often have side effects that look like Parkinson’s disease and drastically complicate the picture. Sometimes distraction works, such as looking at a picture book full of dogs. Hope this helps. Lest you think I don’t understand, my mother has multi-infarct dementia. Before she became bedfast and aphasic, she also had delusions and was hard for us to handle. This is where a specialized Alzheimer’s unit in a good nursing home helps because their treatment allows them to be demented while protecting them. Best wishes… Becky Sisk RN Your WZard at "Promoting Good Health for Seniors," http://wz.com/health/PromotingGoodHealthforSeni.html Hi Friends, As I mentioned, Ida has been taking quite a decline. She understands very little of what is said to her, retains none of it. She asked me tonight if I was "going out to milk the cows" I have never had cows in my life and the only place this could have come from was from when she was a young school girl and cared for the cows. I asked her where our cows (in her mind) were? She told me that (my little garden) shed was where the cows were kept. I told her we had no cows and that the shed was too little. She just looked at me as though I told her that a spaceship had landed. The delusion was so real in her mind. She asked me a million times where Pelli (her dog that has been dead for a year now) was. When I told her he was dead a long time, she insisted she had "many" Pellis and where was the latest one? Her grip on reality is definitely getting worse. I plan to call the doctor tomorrow when he returns to ask him if there is anything that can be done about these delusions. We are trying to do our best to keep her on a good schedule, since it seems that any variation no matter how small in her daily routine sends her into more delusions. This seems to have come about after the first of the year and has continued to get worse ever since. Anyone else have any experiences with delusions and what medications were prescribed – and if they have proven effective? I am getting to the end of my rope with this stuff! Regards, Evelyn
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Dear Evelyn, My mom took a sudden decline, too. We didn’t know what to do. She was angry all the time at her husband/ 24/7 caregiver, especially. She had all kinds of delusions about him, stealing her house, her jewelry, and it didn’t stop there. She got angry with the rest of the family from the delusions she had I can’t remember exactly the order of things, because so much has happened since then, but the Dr. put her on 250mg of Val-proic Acid. Just one a day to ease her onto the med and then up twice per day/ one in morning and one at night. I can’t explain how effectively this medication worked for her. Before val-proic acid, I thought it was the end of the world for us all, for sure. This med helped her for at least a year, before she went through another signficant decline about 3-4 months ago.. So the Dr. took her off of VAL-PROIC ACID and put her on ??? (I left the bottle at my Dads and it’s too late to call him now), so I will update you with this medication information. Please email me, if I forget to.. But this medication HELPED her again. My mom no longer suffers from the angry, paranoid feelings as before. She expresses love for him as she never expressed before. Of course, it’s not, by any means, a bed of roses here, but she has become her loving self, again. She says, frequently, that she wants to go home, but for now, she’s not angry about it and she doesn’t try to leave on her own. I don’t know if it’s the medication or if God has just blessed us with a miracle, for now. Perhaps it’s just a little bit of both. God Bless You. Sonja
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Evelyn, if it is ANY consolation, they do get past the point where they are agitated – probably because so much of their conscious mind has disappeared, they are reduced to a passive animal state (I can’t think of a better way to describe it – apologies to anyone who finds it offensive, but it really was like the person had vacated and what was left was pretty basic). My MIL spent the last two years of her life like that – just sort of in the twilight, sitting in her chair, not doing much of anything but gazing into space or sleeping, not really aware of her surroundings. Every now and then, a flash of her would surface, but less and less over time. It was horrible for family and friends that that stage went on so long, but perhaps better for her to be mercifully past the point where she had enough self awareness left to be upset by the jumble her life had become. I think the worst is when they are still anxious and upset, and there is not much you can do about it – you can’t comfort them with words or distract them anymore and you can’t fix what’s wrong. I think you’ve done a tremendous job with your MIL, and she has been so lucky to be with you two – in a lot of ways, from here on in, her surroundings become less important. For example, when my mother in law first went to a facility, we made sure she had a private room, since at that point, she was still with it enough to recognize her surroundings and want her own space and some familiar things. Later, it no longer mattered – she just couldn’t keep enough of a picture of where she was in her head for the place or even the people around her to matter much (i.e. when she stopped really knowing who anyone was, it may have felt important to us that she saw familar faces or things, but it certainly no longer mattered to her, since everything was a blur to her and she couldn’t tell what was real and what was not). When she finally had to go to the heavy care nursing floor for those last two years, she shared a room – and I don’t even think she knew she had a roommate – she was just kind of oblivious – when your life becomes nothing but a big NOW (no memory of past moments, no anticipation or understanding of future moments), you could be anywhere. Sorry you are going through this agony – and I totally understand your feeling about wishing that what comes next could be avoided. Believe me, a lot of caring people prayed that the end would come sooner for poor Dolli (including her son) – that she would be gently carried off by something, anything, other than soldiering on to the end of Alzheimers. Mary G.
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– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have no direct evidence, but both June and myself have been taking garlic supplement and tocopherol (Vitamin E) for about the last 4 years, and in June’s case the deterioration appears to be much slower than many I hear described on the this NG. Of course we have our bad times, but that I suspect is as much to do with my own weakness as it is with June’s deterioration. Both of these supplements have been associated with improved fluidity of the blood. Whether this is due to changes in the viscosity of the serum or improved deformability of the cells I don’t know, but it apparently does improve the overall fluidity, and that can only improve the distribution of the blood in the brain. Both supplements are relatively cheap and I am beginning to believe that any person who is diagnosed with AD should go onto 2000 IU’s of Vitamin E right away. Double blind clinical tests have shown that at this dose, cognitive improvement is quite evident. As I have mentioned before here, our Physician was a bit hesitant when I mentioned that June was on 2000 IU’s of vitamin E per day, and he recommended that we reduce it to 1000 IU’s. For a week or two we did reduce it. Then it occurred to me that the risk from AD deterioration was far worse than the risk from 2000 IU’s per day of tocopherol so we went back to the 2000 IU’s. When I explained my reasoning to him, to his credit he agreed and that has been the dose ever since. I noticed that June has been looking somewhat gray in her facial appearance, and she was looking distinctly older. A couple of years ago I recommended that we get something that would deep clean her facial skin and remove the dead cells which accumulate with age. We did, and I applied this to her face and rubbed it to defoliate the surface. The results were quite impressive. I began to feel that perhaps June wasn’t washing her face often enough, probably shear forgetfulness. So yesterday I suggested another facial treatment. She liked the idea and so we did it with a defoliant which uses finely powdered walnut shells as the abrasive. She lay on the sofa and the whole thing took maybe 30 minutes. Like most women, and even some men, she likes to be fussed, so it was a mental treatment in addition to a skin treatment. June had been to a beauty salon to get a facial treatment about 6 years ago but at $40 a treatment after she told me what was done I figured I could do just as well. Again she looked much better, and her natural color came back. She agreed she looked better and not surprisingly felt better. For 80 years of age I thought she looked pretty good. So Garlic at 2400 mg/day equivalent, 2000 IU’s vitamin E/day, and periodic defoliant facial treatment for anyone over 70 years, specially if they have AD and don’t wash their face often enough. It all helps, both the inside and the outside. Frederick Dear Frederick, You are such a sweetie to do that facial for June. Where Ida is concerned, she has always been very very vain and took exceptional care of her skin. She was a natural blonde with beautiful silky curls and dazzling blue eyes. Now the curls are snow white, and the eyes are losing their bright blue-ness, and taking on that grayish hue that older persons eyes often do. In spite of her forgetting to take baths, the ONE thing she does remember all the time is to wash her face, over and over and over, because she has forgotten that she washed it already before. I gave her a small bottle of rather expensive skin cream, and she applied that cream so many times after each face washing, that she went through the whole bottle in about two weeks, which should have lasted about six months! I am going to put some other stuff in the bottle or buy her a bottle of something cheaper to use, since I know she likes to moisturize. Best Regards, Evelyn
Evelyn, I really don’t consider it much to do for someone who has shared the good and bad in your life for most of it. I have a theory. Not another !!! Yes. There seems to be an inhibition that is quite prevalent to people touching each other. Even between husbands and wives! I suspect some of it comes from their early childhood upbringing where any sort of touch was considered borderline sexual and accordingly to be avoided. American men have had to learn to overcome their inhibitions to embracing each other in my lifetime,and I think that is slowly disappearing. There are other places where learning to interact socially can be observed and that is in the monkey house at the zoo. Monkeys attach great importance to mutual grooming. Usually picking out nits from each other. This not only gets rid of the nits, it also establishes a bond of trust between then that allows them to live in close quarters without tearing each other apart. Husband and wife live in close quarters and I think they would do well to emulated their simeon cousins. Primitive man knew all about these things. So called civilization and the modern day witch Doctors have caused him/her to forget them. Frederick
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I have no direct evidence, but both June and myself have been taking garlic supplement and tocopherol (Vitamin E) for about the last 4 years, and in June’s case the deterioration appears to be much slower than many I hear described on the this NG. Of course we have our bad times, but that I suspect is as much to do with my own weakness as it is with June’s deterioration. Both of these supplements have been associated with improved fluidity of the blood. Whether this is due to changes in the viscosity of the serum or improved deformability of the cells I don’t know, but it apparently does improve the overall fluidity, and that can only improve the distribution of the blood in the brain. Both supplements are relatively cheap and I am beginning to believe that any person who is diagnosed with AD should go onto 2000 IU’s of Vitamin E right away. Double blind clinical tests have shown that at this dose, cognitive improvement is quite evident. As I have mentioned before here, our Physician was a bit hesitant when I mentioned that June was on 2000 IU’s of vitamin E per day, and he recommended that we reduce it to 1000 IU’s. For a week or two we did reduce it. Then it occurred to me that the risk from AD deterioration was far worse than the risk from 2000 IU’s per day of tocopherol so we went back to the 2000 IU’s. When I explained my reasoning to him, to his credit he agreed and that has been the dose ever since. I noticed that June has been looking somewhat gray in her facial appearance, and she was looking distinctly older. A couple of years ago I recommended that we get something that would deep clean her facial skin and remove the dead cells which accumulate with age. We did, and I applied this to her face and rubbed it to defoliate the surface. The results were quite impressive. I began to feel that perhaps June wasn’t washing her face often enough, probably shear forgetfulness. So yesterday I suggested another facial treatment. She liked the idea and so we did it with a defoliant which uses finely powdered walnut shells as the abrasive. She lay on the sofa and the whole thing took maybe 30 minutes. Like most women, and even some men, she likes to be fussed, so it was a mental treatment in addition to a skin treatment. June had been to a beauty salon to get a facial treatment about 6 years ago but at $40 a treatment after she told me what was done I figured I could do just as well. Again she looked much better, and her natural color came back. She agreed she looked better and not surprisingly felt better. For 80 years of age I thought she looked pretty good. So Garlic at 2400 mg/day equivalent, 2000 IU’s vitamin E/day, and periodic defoliant facial treatment for anyone over 70 years, specially if they have AD and don’t wash their face often enough. It all helps, both the inside and the outside. Frederick
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hi Friends, As I mentioned, Ida has been taking quite a decline. Scary stuff .. I figured years later .. knowing a little more about the subject .. it has to do with the blood flow .. or lack thereof.. She would be quite good UNTIL she stood up .. and then it was lalaland. This ariticle specifically shows cognition linked to bloodflow to the brain. Tocopherol is recommended in the treatment of those with alzheimers and it just so happens to be a prime induce of ‘hypoviscosity’ .. it ‘thins’ the blood allowing the blood to flow much more freely. There is also another method of treating hypoviscosity .. modern day bloodletting .. apheresis .. they call it. It is being used to treat many different diseases as evidenced below. Function in Older Men LONDON (Reuters Health) Jul 04 – Blood rheology, determined by viscosity and haematocrit, appears to be a significant determinant of cognitive function in older men, UK researchers report. Dr. Peter C. Elwood, from Llandough Hospital, in Penarth, and colleagues tested blood samples and performed cognitive function tests on 2154 men 55 to 69 years of age, who participated in the phase III Caerphilly study. The subjects were given the AH4 test of general cognitive performance as well as tests of reaction time and vigilance, according to a report in a recent issue of Age and Ageing. The investigators found a U-shaped relationship between haematocrit and cognitive function, with the best scores on cognitive function seen with a mean haematocrit of 0.46. There was, the researchers note, a significant relationship between haematocrit and choice reaction time, but the relationship between haematocrit and AH4 was not significant. In addition, at lower levels of viscosity both reaction time and cognitive performance were significantly better, Dr. Elwood’s group found. Fibrinogen concentrations, the researchers add, did not show any significant relationship with cognitive function. They add that "the relationships with rheology seem to be direct, presumably through blood flow at the time of testing, rather than through underlying long-term disease processes." In a journal editorial, noting that recent studies indicate that statins appear to reduce the incidence of dementia, Dr. Gordon D. O. Lowe, from the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, speculates that lipoproteins, because that have a strong effect on plasma viscosity, may play a significant role in cognitive function. The saying that "a man is as old as his arteries" needs to be changed, Dr. Lowe says, to "a man (or a women) is as old as their brain perfusion, which is determined not only by their blood vessels, but also by the ability to control the flow of the blood passing through them, which may be easier to modify." Age Ageing 2001;30:101-102,135-139. J Med 1999;30(5-6):299-304 Thromboembolic disease susceptibility related to red cell membrane fluidity in patients with polycythemia vera and effect of phlebotomies. Ambrus JL, Ambrus CM, Dembinsky W, Sykes D, Kulaylat MN, Patel R, Akhter S, Islam A Department of Internal Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo Medical School, Buffalo General Hospital-Kaleida Health System 14203, USA. Thromboembolic disorders are frequent complications in polycythemia vera. In addition to thrombocytosis with hyperaggregability, leukocytosis, and high hematocrit, hyperviscosity syndrome, a new component, is described in the pathophysiology of this phenomenon. There is decreased red cell membrane fluidity with decreased deformability which increases the susceptibility to microvascular occlusion and also increases the chance of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). Periodic phlebotomies improved the hematologic picture in these patients and results in the removal of the "stiff" red cells with an increased production of young red cells, greater membrane fluidity, deformability and less chance of microvascular occlusion. Publication Types: * Clinical trial PMID: 10851563, UI: 20310112 Save the above report in [Macintosh] [Text] format Order documents on this page through Loansome Doc Rheum Dis Clin North Am 2000 Feb;26(1):63-73, viii Apheresis. Illei GG, Klippel JH Arthritis and Rheumatism Branch, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institutes of Health, The removal of pathologic humors by various methods is an ancient medical remedy used in the management of diseases whose pathophysiology is poorly understood and whose effective treatment modalities are lacking. The contemporary means for such an approach involves apheresis, which is now possible due to advances in blood banking technologies. Apheresis has been used in most of the major rheumatic diseases, in particular systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. Although numerous case reports describe clinical benefits of apheresis in rheumatologic disorders, data from clinical trials are discouraging and suggest a limited role for apheresis in rheumatic disease management. Publication Types: * Review * Review literature PMID: 10680194, UI: 20144446 Save the above report in [Macintosh] [Text] format Order documents on this page through Loansome Doc http://www.wws.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/byteserv.prl/~ota/disk3/1983/8318 /831804.PDF. Apheresis Table I.-Reported Use of Therapeutic Apheresis Acute necrotizing hemorrhagic encephalomyelitis Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis Acute post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis Acute rheumatic fever Addison’s disease Adenocarcinoma of the colon Adenocarcinoma of the breast Allergic granulomatosis and angiitis Amyloidosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) Ankylosing spondylitis Aplastic anemia Atopic dermatitis Atrophic gastritis type A Autoimmune infertility & gonadal insufficiency Autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) Autoimmune hypogammaglobulinemia Autoimmune neutropenia Behcet’s syndrome Bone marrow transplant Bronchial asthma
… read more »
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– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – One thing you can do for Ida is to listen to her, ask her about when she milked the cows (what was it like? did she like the job? etc.). Then you can ask her about Pelli: what did he look like? does she miss him? Focus on feelings. When a person has dementia, that person has a neurological disease. Arguing with them does no good because they have a neurological disease. Ida’s delusions are not harming her; they are perplexing you. Medication just zonks them (or sometimes makes them more agitated) and often have side effects that look like Parkinson’s disease and drastically complicate the picture. Sometimes distraction works, such as looking at a picture book full of dogs. Hope this helps. Lest you think I don’t understand, my mother has multi-infarct dementia. Before she became bedfast and aphasic, she also had delusions and was hard for us to handle. This is where a specialized Alzheimer’s unit in a good nursing home helps because their treatment allows them to be demented while protecting them. Best wishes… Becky Sisk RN Your WZard at "Promoting Good Health for Seniors," http://wz.com/health/PromotingGoodHealthforSeni.html
Thank you for your excellent suggestions, Becky. You make some very good points and I know your advice is right -on. Best Regards, Evelyn
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This is one of the best posts I’ve read. Thank you. The Cranky Genee – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – One thing you can do for Ida is to listen to her, ask her about when she milked the cows (what was it like? did she like the job? etc.). Then you can ask her about Pelli: what did he look like? does she miss him? Focus on feelings. When a person has dementia, that person has a neurological disease. Arguing with them does no good because they have a neurological disease. Ida’s delusions are not harming her; they are perplexing you. Medication just zonks them (or sometimes makes them more agitated) and often have side effects that look like Parkinson’s disease and drastically complicate the picture. Sometimes distraction works, such as looking at a picture book full of dogs. Hope this helps. Lest you think I don’t understand, my mother has multi-infarct dementia. Before she became bedfast and aphasic, she also had delusions and was hard for us to handle. This is where a specialized Alzheimer’s unit in a good nursing home helps because their treatment allows them to be demented while protecting them. Best wishes… Becky Sisk RN Your WZard at "Promoting Good Health for Seniors," http://wz.com/health/PromotingGoodHealthforSeni.html
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I felt really sadened reading Eveyln"s story did Mil have any recreation in her life , such as coloring, playing games, or any group activities?Having Alheimers is much like being a child. They need alot of stimulation in their lives. My mother has alzheimers. she attends a daycare center three times a week . thanks to our local programs , Beleive me it was the best thing for my mom ,she gets the stimulation she needs with this illness. Her agitation has improved .She"s just so much happier, she looks forward to going to this daycare every week. This daycare program has helped releived my constant worry about mom. It also gives our family a much needed break. My family also attends Alzheimer meetings once a month. This meeting is a god send to our family and also to our mother , because now we can understand her more , and her needs. My family have all become active in her life now that we know her needs. We let her reminisse about her childhood , which she loves to do . It"s hard to deal with illness i know, but with the right support such as this great site. And other avenues it wil give us the support we need at this most trying times in our families lives. I wish the best to Eveyln and Mil http://community.webtv.net/EL2002/TREASUREDMOMENTS
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– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I felt really sadened reading Eveyln"s story did Mil have any recreation in her life , such as coloring, playing games, or any group activities?Having Alheimers is much like being a child. They need alot of stimulation in their lives. My mother has alzheimers. she attends a daycare center three times a week . thanks to our local programs , Beleive me it was the best thing for my mom ,she gets the stimulation she needs with this illness. Her agitation has improved .She"s just so much happier, she looks forward to going to this daycare every week. This daycare program has helped releived my constant worry about mom. It also gives our family a much needed break. My family also attends Alzheimer meetings once a month. This meeting is a god send to our family and also to our mother , because now we can understand her more , and her needs. My family have all become active in her life now that we know her needs. We let her reminisse about her childhood , which she loves to do . It"s hard to deal with illness i know, but with the right support such as this great site. And other avenues it wil give us the support we need at this most trying times in our families lives. I wish the best to Eveyln and Mil
Dear Elaine, Thank you so much for your kind thoughts. Ida goes to daycare 5 days a week. If they had it for seven I would send her the additional two days. She is past the point of remeniscing about her childhood, but did go through that a while ago. I think that the problem is quite simply that her disease is progressing, and I am observing it firsthand. Her cognitive abilities are declining sharply (that we noticed) since the first of the year. For the entire past year she has been relatively stable, although there have been times when the agitation seemed to increase. Each of those times the Zoloft was increased by increments, till she is now at 150 mg daily. The increases lasted long in the beginning, but as the disease has gone onward, the increases have proven to last only a short time. I cannot kid myself, this lady has had this since before 1999. In 2000 that we noticed it getting to be more of a problem and got her diagnosed officially. We are going to definitely move on putting her into a care facility while she is still capable of making a reasonable adjustment, rather than wait till she is bedridden or incontinent or both. If you knew the condition she was in when she came here a little over a year ago, and you saw her today, you would hardly believe it, since she has improved in general health so much since we are caring for her. I feel good about that, but of course with this disease it is something for its own sake only, since the path only leads downhill. Best Regards, Evelyn
Response:
One thing you can do for Ida is to listen to her, ask her about when she milked the cows (what was it like? did she like the job? etc.). Then you can ask her about Pelli: what did he look like? does she miss him? Focus on feelings. When a person has dementia, that person has a neurological disease. Arguing with them does no good because they have a neurological disease. Ida’s delusions are not harming her; they are perplexing you. Medication just zonks them (or sometimes makes them more agitated) and often have side effects that look like Parkinson’s disease and drastically complicate the picture. Sometimes distraction works, such as looking at a picture book full of dogs. Hope this helps. Lest you think I don’t understand, my mother has multi-infarct dementia. Before she became bedfast and aphasic, she also had delusions and was hard for us to handle. This is where a specialized Alzheimer’s unit in a good nursing home helps because their treatment allows them to be demented while protecting them. Best wishes… Becky Sisk RN Your WZard at "Promoting Good Health for Seniors," http://wz.com/health/PromotingGoodHealthforSeni.html
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hi Friends, As I mentioned, Ida has been taking quite a decline. She understands very little of what is said to her, retains none of it. She asked me tonight if I was "going out to milk the cows" I have never had cows in my life and the only place this could have come from was from when she was a young school girl and cared for the cows. I asked her where our cows (in her mind) were? She told me that (my little garden) shed was where the cows were kept. I told her we had no cows and that the shed was too little. She just looked at me as though I told her that a spaceship had landed. The delusion was so real in her mind. She asked me a million times where Pelli (her dog that has been dead for a year now) was. When I told her he was dead a long time, she insisted she had "many" Pellis and where was the latest one? Her grip on reality is definitely getting worse. I plan to call the doctor tomorrow when he returns to ask him if there is anything that can be done about these delusions. We are trying to do our best to keep her on a good schedule, since it seems that any variation no matter how small in her daily routine sends her into more delusions. This seems to have come about after the first of the year and has continued to get worse ever since. Anyone else have any experiences with delusions and what medications were prescribed – and if they have proven effective? I am getting to the end of my rope with this stuff! Regards, Evelyn
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have no direct evidence, but both June and myself have been taking garlic supplement and tocopherol (Vitamin E) for about the last 4 years, and in June’s case the deterioration appears to be much slower than many I hear described on the this NG. Of course we have our bad times, but that I suspect is as much to do with my own weakness as it is with June’s deterioration. Both of these supplements have been associated with improved fluidity of the blood. Whether this is due to changes in the viscosity of the serum or improved deformability of the cells I don’t know, but it apparently does improve the overall fluidity, and that can only improve the distribution of the blood in the brain. Both supplements are relatively cheap and I am beginning to believe that any person who is diagnosed with AD should go onto 2000 IU’s of Vitamin E right away. Double blind clinical tests have shown that at this dose, cognitive improvement is quite evident. As I have mentioned before here, our Physician was a bit hesitant when I mentioned that June was on 2000 IU’s of vitamin E per day, and he recommended that we reduce it to 1000 IU’s. For a week or two we did reduce it. Then it occurred to me that the risk from AD deterioration was far worse than the risk from 2000 IU’s per day of tocopherol so we went back to the 2000 IU’s. When I explained my reasoning to him, to his credit he agreed and that has been the dose ever since. I noticed that June has been looking somewhat gray in her facial appearance, and she was looking distinctly older. A couple of years ago I recommended that we get something that would deep clean her facial skin and remove the dead cells which accumulate with age. We did, and I applied this to her face and rubbed it to defoliate the surface. The results were quite impressive. I began to feel that perhaps June wasn’t washing her face often enough, probably shear forgetfulness. So yesterday I suggested another facial treatment. She liked the idea and so we did it with a defoliant which uses finely powdered walnut shells as the abrasive. She lay on the sofa and the whole thing took maybe 30 minutes. Like most women, and even some men, she likes to be fussed, so it was a mental treatment in addition to a skin treatment. June had been to a beauty salon to get a facial treatment about 6 years ago but at $40 a treatment after she told me what was done I figured I could do just as well. Again she looked much better, and her natural color came back. She agreed she looked better and not surprisingly felt better. For 80 years of age I thought she looked pretty good. So Garlic at 2400 mg/day equivalent, 2000 IU’s vitamin E/day, and periodic defoliant facial treatment for anyone over 70 years, specially if they have AD and don’t wash their face often enough. It all helps, both the inside and the outside. Frederick Dear Frederick, You are such a sweetie to do that facial for June. Where Ida is concerned, she has always been very very vain and took exceptional care of her skin. She was a natural blonde with beautiful silky curls and dazzling blue eyes. Now the curls are snow white, and the eyes are losing their bright blue-ness, and taking on that grayish hue that older persons eyes often do. In spite of her forgetting to take baths, the ONE thing she does remember all the time is to wash her face, over and over and over, because she has forgotten that she washed it already before. I gave her a small bottle of rather expensive skin cream, and she applied that cream so many times after each face washing, that she went through the whole bottle in about two weeks, which should have lasted about six months! I am going to put some other stuff in the bottle or buy her a bottle of something cheaper to use, since I know she likes to moisturize. Best Regards, Evelyn Evelyn, I really don’t consider it much to do for someone who has shared the good and bad in your life for most of it. I have a theory. Not another !!! Yes. There seems to be an inhibition that is quite prevalent to people touching each other. Even between husbands and wives! I suspect some of it comes from their early childhood upbringing where any sort of touch was considered borderline sexual and accordingly to be avoided. American men have had to learn to overcome their inhibitions to embracing each other in my lifetime,and I think that is slowly disappearing. There are other places where learning to interact socially can be observed and that is in the monkey house at the zoo. Monkeys attach great importance to mutual grooming. Usually picking out nits from each other. This not only gets rid of the nits, it also establishes a bond of trust between then that allows them to live in close quarters without tearing each other apart. Husband and wife live in close quarters and I think they would do well to emulated their simeon cousins. Primitive man knew all about these things. So called civilization and the modern day witch Doctors have caused him/her to forget them. Frederick
Frederick I think you have spoken a great truth here. Human touch is something we all need, not just children, but all of us. Back rubs, foot rubs, holding hands, just touching an arm, all convey kindness and concern and genuine compassion. Regards, Evelyn
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have no direct evidence, but both June and myself have been taking garlic supplement and tocopherol (Vitamin E) for about the last 4 years, and in June’s case the deterioration appears to be much slower than many I hear described on the this NG. Of course we have our bad times, but that I suspect is as much to do with my own weakness as it is with June’s deterioration. Both of these supplements have been associated with improved fluidity of the blood. Whether this is due to changes in the viscosity of the serum or improved deformability of the cells I don’t know, but it apparently does improve the overall fluidity, and that can only improve the distribution of the blood in the brain. Both supplements are relatively cheap and I am beginning to believe that any person who is diagnosed with AD should go onto 2000 IU’s of Vitamin E right away. Double blind clinical tests have shown that at this dose, cognitive improvement is quite evident. As I have mentioned before here, our Physician was a bit hesitant when I mentioned that June was on 2000 IU’s of vitamin E per day, and he recommended that we reduce it to 1000 IU’s. For a week or two we did reduce it. Then it occurred to me that the risk from AD deterioration was far worse than the risk from 2000 IU’s per day of tocopherol so we went back to the 2000 IU’s. When I explained my reasoning to him, to his credit he agreed and that has been the dose ever since. I noticed that June has been looking somewhat gray in her facial appearance, and she was looking distinctly older. A couple of years ago I recommended that we get something that would deep clean her facial skin and remove the dead cells which accumulate with age. We did, and I applied this to her face and rubbed it to defoliate the surface. The results were quite impressive. I began to feel that perhaps June wasn’t washing her face often enough, probably shear forgetfulness. So yesterday I suggested another facial treatment. She liked the idea and so we did it with a defoliant which uses finely powdered walnut shells as the abrasive. She lay on the sofa and the whole thing took maybe 30 minutes. Like most women, and even some men, she likes to be fussed, so it was a mental treatment in addition to a skin treatment. June had been to a beauty salon to get a facial treatment about 6 years ago but at $40 a treatment after she told me what was done I figured I could do just as well. Again she looked much better, and her natural color came back. She agreed she looked better and not surprisingly felt better. For 80 years of age I thought she looked pretty good. So Garlic at 2400 mg/day equivalent, 2000 IU’s vitamin E/day, and periodic defoliant facial treatment for anyone over 70 years, specially if they have AD and don’t wash their face often enough. It all helps, both the inside and the outside. Frederick
Dear Frederick, You are such a sweetie to do that facial for June. Where Ida is concerned, she has always been very very vain and took exceptional care of her skin. She was a natural blonde with beautiful silky curls and dazzling blue eyes. Now the curls are snow white, and the eyes are losing their bright blue-ness, and taking on that grayish hue that older persons eyes often do. In spite of her forgetting to take baths, the ONE thing she does remember all the time is to wash her face, over and over and over, because she has forgotten that she washed it already before. I gave her a small bottle of rather expensive skin cream, and she applied that cream so many times after each face washing, that she went through the whole bottle in about two weeks, which should have lasted about six months! I am going to put some other stuff in the bottle or buy her a bottle of something cheaper to use, since I know she likes to moisturize. Best Regards, Evelyn
Response:
I noticed that June has been looking somewhat gray in her facial
This is a classic symptom of too much iron in the body. Slate gray. This article below shows .. when we age .. we have MUCH more iron than previously thought. It seems the iron does build slowly but surely to higher and higher levels in the body. The second article is about magnesium and how when iron ‘docks’ .. INSTEAD of magnesium .. we have aggregates build in the brain. If there is too much iron .. I suppose it would be ‘logical’ that the iron would have a much better chance to ‘dock’ .. than magnesium? Am J Clin Nutr 2001 Mar;73(3):638-46 Iron status of the free-living, elderly Framingham Heart Study cohort: an iron-replete population with a high prevalence of elevated iron stores. Fleming DJ, Jacques PF, Tucker KL, Massaro JM, D’Agostino RB Sr, Wilson PW, Wood RJ Mineral Bioavailability Laboratory and the Epidemiology Program, Jean Mayer-US Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA. BACKGROUND: Although iron deficiency occurs commonly in vulnerable groups of women of reproductive age, infants, and children, less is known about the iron nutriture of the elderly. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to evaluate the iron status of a noninstitutionalized, elderly US population, with a particular focus on 2 concerns unique to the elderly: 1) potential confounding effects of chronic disease on iron measures and 2) increased occurrence of elevated iron stores. DESIGN: Multiple iron measures, including serum ferritin (SF), transferrin saturation, mean cell volume, and hemoglobin, were used to evaluate the prevalence of iron deficiency (ID), iron deficiency anemia (IDA), and other measures of iron nutriture in 1016 elderly white Americans aged 67-96 y from the Framingham Heart Study. "Diseased" subjects were defined as those with possible pathologically altered iron measures due to inflammation, infection, elevated liver enzymes, hereditary hemochromatosis, or cancer. The effect of altered iron status on various prevalence estimates was assessed. RESULTS: The elderly subjects had a low prevalence of ID (2.7%), IDA (1.2%), and depleted iron stores (3%; SF < 12 microg/L). In contrast, 12.9% had elevated iron stores (SF 300 microg/L in men and SF 200 microg/L in women), of which only 1% was attributable to chronic disease. The prevalence of ID, IDA, and depleted iron stores was unaffected by the presence of chronic disease. CONCLUSIONS: The Framingham Heart Study cohort is an iron-replete elderly population with a high prevalence of elevated iron stores in contrast with a low prevalence of iron deficiency, with insignificant effects of chronic disease on these iron status estimates. The likely liability in iron nutriture in free-living, elderly white Americans eating a Western diet is high iron stores, not iron deficiency. PMID: 11237943, UI: 21133919 Save the above report in [Macintosh] [Text] format Order documents on this page through Loansome Doc J Biol Chem 2002 Feb 15; Magnesium inhibits spontaneous and iron-induced aggregation of alpha -synuclein. Golts N, Snyder H, Frasier M, Theisler C, Choi P, Wolozin B Dept. Pharmacology, Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, IL 60153. [Record supplied by publisher] Multiple studies implicate metals in the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases. Disturbances in brain iron metabolism are linked with synucleinopathies. For example, in Parkinsons disease, iron levels are increased and magnesium levels are reduced in the brains of patients. To understand how changes in iron and magnesium might affect the pathophysiology of Parkinsons disease, we investigated binding of iron to alpha-synuclein, which accumulates in Lewy bodies. Using fluorescence of the four tyrosines in alpha-synuclein as indicators of metal-related conformational changes in alpha-synuclein, we show that iron and magnesium both interact with alpha-synuclein. alpha-Synuclein exhibits fluorescence peaks at 310 and 375 nm. Iron lowers both fluorescence peaks, while magnesium increases the fluorescence peak only at 375 nm, which suggests that magnesium affects the conformation of alpha-synuclein differently than iron. Consistent with this hypothesis, we also observe that magnesium inhibits alpha-synuclein aggregation, measured by immunoblot, cellulose acetate filtration, or thioflavine-T fluorescence. In each of these studies, iron increases alpha-synuclein aggregation, while magnesium at concentrations 0.75 mM inhibits the aggregation of alpha-synuclein induced either spontaneously or by incubation with iron. These data suggest that the conformation of alpha-synuclein can be modulated by metals, with iron promoting aggregation and magnesium inhibiting aggregation. PMID: 11850416 Save the above report in [Macintosh] [Text] format Order documents on this page through Loansome Doc – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – This ariticle specifically shows cognition linked to bloodflow to the brain. Tocopherol is recommended in the treatment of those with alzheimers and it just so happens to be a prime inducer of ‘hyperviscosity’ .. it ‘thins’ the blood allowing the blood to flow much more freely. There is also another method of treating hyperviscosity .. modern day bloodletting .. apheresis .. they call it. It is being used to treat many different diseases as evidenced below. Function in Older Men LONDON (Reuters Health) Jul 04 – Blood rheology, determined by viscosity and haematocrit, appears to be a significant determinant of cognitive function in older men, UK researchers report. Dr. Peter C. Elwood, from Llandough Hospital, in Penarth, and colleagues tested blood samples and performed cognitive function tests on 2154 men 55 to 69 years of age, who participated in the phase III Caerphilly study. The subjects were given the AH4 test of general cognitive performance as well as tests of reaction time and vigilance, according to a report in a recent issue of Age and Ageing. The investigators found a U-shaped relationship between haematocrit and cognitive function, with the best scores on cognitive function seen with a mean haematocrit of 0.46. There was, the researchers note, a significant relationship between haematocrit and choice reaction time, but the relationship between haematocrit and AH4 was not significant. In addition, at lower levels of viscosity both reaction time and cognitive performance were significantly better, Dr. Elwood’s group found. Fibrinogen concentrations, the researchers add, did not show any significant relationship with cognitive function. They add that "the relationships with rheology seem to be direct, presumably through blood flow at the time of testing, rather than through underlying long-term disease processes." In a journal editorial, noting that recent studies indicate that statins appear to reduce the incidence of dementia, Dr. Gordon D. O. Lowe, from the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, speculates that lipoproteins, because that have a strong effect on plasma viscosity, may play a significant role in cognitive function. The saying that "a man is as old as his arteries" needs to be changed, Dr. Lowe says, to "a man (or a women) is as old as their brain perfusion, which is determined not only by their blood vessels, but also by the ability to control the flow of the blood passing through them, which may be easier to modify." Age Ageing 2001;30:101-102,135-139. J Med 1999;30(5-6):299-304 Thromboembolic disease susceptibility related to red cell membrane fluidity in patients with polycythemia vera and effect of phlebotomies. Ambrus JL, Ambrus CM, Dembinsky W, Sykes D, Kulaylat MN, Patel R, Akhter S, Islam A Department of Internal Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo Medical School, Buffalo General Hospital-Kaleida Health System 14203, USA. Thromboembolic disorders are frequent complications in polycythemia vera. In addition to thrombocytosis with hyperaggregability, leukocytosis, and high hematocrit, hyperviscosity syndrome, a new component, is described in the pathophysiology of this phenomenon. There is decreased red cell membrane fluidity with decreased deformability which increases the susceptibility to microvascular occlusion and also increases the chance of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). Periodic phlebotomies improved the hematologic picture in these patients and results in the removal of the "stiff" red cells with an increased production of young red cells, greater membrane fluidity, deformability and less chance of microvascular occlusion. Publication Types: * Clinical trial PMID: 10851563, UI: 20310112 Save the above report in [Macintosh] [Text] format Order documents on this page through Loansome Doc Rheum Dis Clin North Am 2000 Feb;26(1):63-73, viii Apheresis. Illei GG, Klippel
… read more »
Response:
Anyone else have any experiences with delusions and what medications were
prescribed – and if they have proven effective? I am getting to the end of my rope with this stuff! Regards, Evelyn << I guess I am lucky. Mom has had only one delusion. She wanted to go down to the corner to visit with her uncle Leo. She was adamant that he lived down there. Down there is a liquor store and deceased Leo lived on the east coast. Maybe it’s the Rhisperodol(sp?) that keeps her calm and delusion free. Mo I haven’t lost my mind, it’s backed up on disk somewhere.
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Dolli (my MIL) had similar periods of rapid decline. For example, in the year following diagnosis, she was amazingly stable, to the point where the social worker who was monitoring her ability to live alone, started to space out her visits – and then suddenly, she went for a brief free fall over a period of a month or two, and then the decline went back into the very slow descent mode again. It happened a couple of times – she really went for a slide around the time she broke her hip for the second time (the end of continence and walking), but the more dramatic one for us was the loss of intelligible speech – which literally evaporated over a two week period, totally out of the blue. It wasn’t that she hadn’t had speech problems prior to that, but she could get enough sensible words out that you could interpolate what she was trying to say, and she could confirm what she meant if you asked her a question (your shoe hurts Doll?? and you’d get a nod). It was really odd – it wasn’t that it gradually got worse – it just went – wham – from short phrases and words you could understand to pure garble – not just not able to put any thoughts into words, but also to comprehend them. I’ve said this before, but it really did feel like she’d been working her way through the excess capacity in her brain, working every possible connection to hang in and keep on going, and when the last neuron that formed the speech connection winked out, the ability went with it, poof! Mary G.
Hi Mary, We have discovered that when she gets some idea in her head, there is NO way to counteract it. She imagines that "we" my husband and I went to California and left her here alone in charge of the house and our dogs. In truth that would never happen! I went to Texas to visit my daughter at the end of March, and Peter had to stay here with her. We have told her this a thousand times, but she has that one thing in her head. Her memory is completely shot altogether. But the big thing is that she is getting agitated and worried again. Each time this has happened the Dr. upped the Zoloft till she is now taking 150 milligrams and she was relaxed and happy for a while then it started again. I don’t see this as anything to do with the medication, but simply the disease progressing. When we try to correct the mistaken ideas, she gets temperamental and cries etc. But you cannot tell her "yes, we left you alone in charge of the dogs", because that would reinforce her delusion, and she would be trying to walk our dogs in the traffic or something! I always agree with her if it is something harmless, but I am always conscious of the fact that this is a person whose cognition is severely handicapped and could do some damage of some kind or another if not watched all the time. So far she is still good with toileting, eating, talking, but her understanding is getting worse. You can tell her something and she just looks at you blankly and says "….. yes…." like she isn’t sure what you said. I know her understanding is getting much worse lately since I deal with her most. This is just such an awful disease. I get totally depressed in dealing with it sometimes, and it is so hard to be on duty 24/7/365. I never thought I would be able to make it to a year, but she has been with us over a year now! I am definitely going to start searching for a nursing home as soon as her house is sold. I cannot possibly do this much longer or I will be having a heart attack or something myself. I wish that there was something more I could do to help her, but really just trying to keep her calm and comfortable has been quite a job. I neglect myself all too often in trying to keep her on track. I will tell you this and from the heart….. when she dies, I will consider it a blessing. Not that I wish her any ill, if I could make her well again I would do all I could. But living in such a state of confusion has just got to be horrible. Today I told my husband as we returned home from buying groceries, while Ida was at daycare; "Imagine how it would be if you were driving down this road and suddenly you didn’t know where you were. What road you were on, where it went, why there was these bags of food in your car, and your head hurt you just trying to imagine where you lived. Imagine how horrible and scary and confusing it would be to feel that way?…. that is how she must feel all the time in every situation….. Imagine not knowing who people are, what room is yours, what clothes are yours, and not knowing how to manage or change anything in your life and others had to do all your thinking for you, and told you when to eat and when to sleep and what to do…. Imagine further how it feels when you ask them something and they yell at you and you can’t even trust your own mind and what you think you see with your own eyes anymore." He thought about it, and I think we are both trying to come to terms with what she is experiencing. The term "stranger in a strange land" comes to mind. It has to be a heck of a way to come to the end ones life…… Regards, Evelyn
Response:
Evelyn, June started taking Celexa 20mg/day in the hope that it would reduce the delusions that she was having. It did improve things a little, but even now I still get her parents coming into a conversation just like they were alive. We still have multiple dogs and cats, but June knows that I persist in telling her that we only have one cat, one dog, one husband, and one house. It has become one of several my mantra’s. When she brings up the multiple animals I just go into my mantra. Now June immediately says "Alright lets forget it." I know she hasn’t forgotten it, but she is exercising some control over her desire to persist with the delusion. Then the delusion passes and we are back to normal, whatever that is. We all know the mental condition is going to get worse. The question is do we accept the deterioration passively or actively. Some I accept passively but when the delusion becomes so persistent, then maybe the AD person has to feel the emotions that they produce. Some may say that is cruel, but in the caregiver/AD condition maybe the best we can hope for is a balance of cruelty. I don’t mean physically but certainly emotionally. This will never be a happy situation, but maybe it can be made into a tolerable situation. One wonders whether the "Experts" would feel the same if they were faced with the condition 24 hours a day 7 days a week. When the AD person becomes more helpless, perhaps the very passive approach does work, much the same as a child can be more easy to handle when they are more dependent, but much less easy when they start to feel some of their independence. Except that in the case of the AD person the time scale is reversed. Ida is probably in the same stage as the child in the terrible two’s wanting to do there own thing, but lacking the reasoning power to do very much at all. The child has to eventually learn that some things please you, and some things displease you, and are better avoided. I think that is where June is now. Can you get Ida to that point? If she does not respond to what you say, then tell her you are angry and don’t want to talk to her any more. Then see what happens. If her mind is become childlike, maybe it will respond as a child responds. Perhaps you have built up a large enough emotional bank balance to take that approach. If ever there was a situation where one size does not fit all, this is it. Frederick
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hi Friends, As I mentioned, Ida has been taking quite a decline. She understands very little of what is said to her, retains none of it. She asked me tonight if I was "going out to milk the cows" I have never had cows in my life and the only place this could have come from was from when she was a young school girl and cared for the cows. I asked her where our cows (in her mind) were? She told me that (my little garden) shed was where the cows were kept. I told her we had no cows and that the shed was too little. She just looked at me as though I told her that a spaceship had landed. The delusion was so real in her mind. She asked me a million times where Pelli (her dog that has been dead for a year now) was. When I told her he was dead a long time, she insisted she had "many" Pellis and where was the latest one? Her grip on reality is definitely getting worse. I plan to call the doctor tomorrow when he returns to ask him if there is anything that can be done about these delusions. We are trying to do our best to keep her on a good schedule, since it seems that any variation no matter how small in her daily routine sends her into more delusions. This seems to have come about after the first of the year and has continued to get worse ever since. Anyone else have any experiences with delusions and what medications were prescribed – and if they have proven effective? I am getting to the end of my rope with this stuff! Regards, Evelyn
Response:
Hi Friends, As I mentioned, Ida has been taking quite a decline.
Scary stuff .. I figured years later .. knowing a little more about the subject .. it has to do with the blood flow .. or lack thereof.. She would be quite good UNTIL she stood up .. and then it was lalaland. This ariticle specifically shows cognition linked to bloodflow to the brain. Tocopherol is recommended in the treatment of those with alzheimers and it just so happens to be a prime induce of ‘hypoviscosity’ .. it ‘thins’ the blood allowing the blood to flow much more freely. There is also another method of treating hypoviscosity .. modern day bloodletting .. apheresis .. they call it. It is being used to treat many different diseases as evidenced below. Function in Older Men LONDON (Reuters Health) Jul 04 – Blood rheology, determined by viscosity and haematocrit, appears to be a significant determinant of cognitive function in older men, UK researchers report. Dr. Peter C. Elwood, from Llandough Hospital, in Penarth, and colleagues tested blood samples and performed cognitive function tests on 2154 men 55 to 69 years of age, who participated in the phase III Caerphilly study. The subjects were given the AH4 test of general cognitive performance as well as tests of reaction time and vigilance, according to a report in a recent issue of Age and Ageing. The investigators found a U-shaped relationship between haematocrit and cognitive function, with the best scores on cognitive function seen with a mean haematocrit of 0.46. There was, the researchers note, a significant relationship between haematocrit and choice reaction time, but the relationship between haematocrit and AH4 was not significant. In addition, at lower levels of viscosity both reaction time and cognitive performance were significantly better, Dr. Elwood’s group found. Fibrinogen concentrations, the researchers add, did not show any significant relationship with cognitive function. They add that "the relationships with rheology seem to be direct, presumably through blood flow at the time of testing, rather than through underlying long-term disease processes." In a journal editorial, noting that recent studies indicate that statins appear to reduce the incidence of dementia, Dr. Gordon D. O. Lowe, from the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, speculates that lipoproteins, because that have a strong effect on plasma viscosity, may play a significant role in cognitive function. The saying that "a man is as old as his arteries" needs to be changed, Dr. Lowe says, to "a man (or a women) is as old as their brain perfusion, which is determined not only by their blood vessels, but also by the ability to control the flow of the blood passing through them, which may be easier to modify." Age Ageing 2001;30:101-102,135-139. J Med 1999;30(5-6):299-304 Thromboembolic disease susceptibility related to red cell membrane fluidity in patients with polycythemia vera and effect of phlebotomies. Ambrus JL, Ambrus CM, Dembinsky W, Sykes D, Kulaylat MN, Patel R, Akhter S, Islam A Department of Internal Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo Medical School, Buffalo General Hospital-Kaleida Health System 14203, USA. Thromboembolic disorders are frequent complications in polycythemia vera. In addition to thrombocytosis with hyperaggregability, leukocytosis, and high hematocrit, hyperviscosity syndrome, a new component, is described in the pathophysiology of this phenomenon. There is decreased red cell membrane fluidity with decreased deformability which increases the susceptibility to microvascular occlusion and also increases the chance of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). Periodic phlebotomies improved the hematologic picture in these patients and results in the removal of the "stiff" red cells with an increased production of young red cells, greater membrane fluidity, deformability and less chance of microvascular occlusion. Publication Types: * Clinical trial PMID: 10851563, UI: 20310112 Save the above report in [Macintosh] [Text] format Order documents on this page through Loansome Doc Rheum Dis Clin North Am 2000 Feb;26(1):63-73, viii Apheresis. Illei GG, Klippel JH Arthritis and Rheumatism Branch, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institutes of Health, The removal of pathologic humors by various methods is an ancient medical remedy used in the management of diseases whose pathophysiology is poorly understood and whose effective treatment modalities are lacking. The contemporary means for such an approach involves apheresis, which is now possible due to advances in blood banking technologies. Apheresis has been used in most of the major rheumatic diseases, in particular systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. Although numerous case reports describe clinical benefits of apheresis in rheumatologic disorders, data from clinical trials are discouraging and suggest a limited role for apheresis in rheumatic disease management. Publication Types: * Review * Review literature PMID: 10680194, UI: 20144446 Save the above report in [Macintosh] [Text] format Order documents on this page through Loansome Doc http://www.wws.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/byteserv.prl/~ota/disk3/1983/8318 /831804.PDF. Apheresis Table I.-Reported Use of Therapeutic Apheresis Acute necrotizing hemorrhagic encephalomyelitis Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis Acute post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis Acute rheumatic fever Addison’s disease Adenocarcinoma of the colon Adenocarcinoma of the breast Allergic granulomatosis and angiitis Amyloidosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) Ankylosing spondylitis Aplastic anemia Atopic dermatitis Atrophic gastritis type A Autoimmune infertility & gonadal insufficiency Autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) Autoimmune hypogammaglobulinemia Autoimmune neutropenia Behcet’s syndrome Bone marrow transplant Bronchial asthma Bronchogenic carcinoma Bullous pemphigoid Cardiac allograft rejection Chronic membranoproliferative hypocomplementemic glomerulonephritis Chronic active hepatitis Circulating anticoagulant (Anti-Factor Vlll) Cold agglutinins Colon carcinoma Crohn’s disease Cryogenic fibrosing alveolitis Cryoglobulinemia Cutaneous vasculitis Dermatitis herpetiformis Dermatomyositis Discoid lupus erythematosus Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) Dressier’s syndrome Eaton-Lambert syndrome Endomyocardial fibrosis Erythema multiform Fabry’s disease Felty’s syndrome Gastric carcinoma Gaucher’s disease Giant cell arteritis Glomerulonephritis in subacute bacterial endocarditis Goodpasture’s syndrome Graft versus host disease Graves’ disease Graves’ ophthalmopathy Guillain-Barre syndrome Acute Chronic Relapsing Hashimoto’s thyroiditis Hemolytic uremic syndrome Henoch-Schonlein purpura Hepatic coma Herpes gestations Hodgkins disease Hypercholesterolemia Hyperglobulinemic purpura Hypersensitivity pneumonitis Hypersensitivity angiitis Hypertension Hypertriglyceridemia Hyperviscosity syndrome Idiopathic membranous glomerulopathy Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) Idiopathic hypoparathyroidism Insulin resistant diabetes mellitus due to anti-receptor antibody Juvenile onset diabetes mellitus Lipoid nephrosis Lymphomas Malignant melonoma Mixed connective tissue disease Multiple sclerosis Multiple myeloma Myasthenia gravis Necrotizing cutaneous angitis Neuroblastoma Other neoplasms Pemphigus vulgaris Pernicious anemia Poisoning or overdose (paraquat, mushroom, digitalis) Polyarteritis nodosa Polymyositis Post-transfusion purpura Primary cardiomyopathy Primary biliary cirrhosis Proliferative/membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis Psoriasis Pure red cell aplasia Rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis Raynaud’s disease Refsum’s syndrome Reiter’s disease Renal allograft rejection Reye’s syndrome Rhesus iso-immunization Rheumatoid arthritis Sarcoidosis Scleroderma Sjogren’s syndrome Subacute bacterial endocarditis Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) Takayasu’s arteritis Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (lTP) Thyroid storm Ulcerative colitis Viral hepatitis Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia Wegener’s granulomatosis White cell isoantibodies Who loves ya. Tom — Jesus was a Vegetarian! http://www.nucleus.com/watchman Moses was a Mystic! http://www.nucleus.com/watchman/light.html
Response:
Anyone else have any experiences with delusions and what medications were prescribed – and if they have proven effective? I am getting to the end of my rope with this stuff! Regards, Evelyn << I guess I am lucky. Mom has had only one delusion. She wanted to go down to the corner to visit with her uncle Leo. She was adamant that he lived down there. Down there is a liquor store and deceased Leo lived on the east coast. Maybe it’s the Rhisperodol(sp?) that keeps her calm and delusion free.
Dear Mo, We are definitely outgrowing the Zoloft. I have to get her on something stronger but our appt. isn’t till next Tuesday morning! Regards, Evelyn
Response:
Anyone else have any experiences with delusions and what medications were prescribed – and if they have proven effective?
Delusions and hallucinations are what brought us to where we are today. Christmas day, Mom was as "normal" as she’d been, short-term memory pretty much gone, but able to function, knew where she was, etc. By the next day, she was asking us to come get the neighbor kids out of her house (at midnight). These delusions continued off and on for the next day, and then she decided to call the cops to come get the people out of her house. We awoke to two cars of cops outside out door. The next morning, we contacted her doctor, and he arranged to have her admitted to the hospital for evaulation. While she was there, she lost a whole lot more of her grip on reality, but the delusions stopped when they put her on Respidol (sp?). However, there was no way that she was able to continue to live at home, since it became apparent that she was only "here" part of the time and would require 24/7 monitoring. We moved her to a nursing home on Jan. 15. Since then, she has taken another dramatic decline. When she was admitted, she was scoring a 6 on a mental competency test….now she’s down to a 1. She can still talk, but what she says makes no sense. When we visit, she usually knows my kids, almost always knows my husband, and may or may not know me, or may confuse me with someone else. It’s been a see-saw trying to get her medications balanced so that the delusions are held at bay, and she is not in constant terror. I think we’re making some progress, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed. Fortunately (or unfortunately), she can still walk, but that puts her at risk for falls since her vision is also being affected. I had always expected this disease to be a gradual decline. This sudden, total change caught all of us off guard. I guess, at this point, we’re just down to watching the lights go off one by one. Sorry for the ramble, and Evelyn, the only two meds that have helped the delusions at all with Mom are Respidol and Depakote. Good luck with whatever you can try for Ida. Lois (NC)
Response:
Dolli (my MIL) had similar periods of rapid decline. For example, in the year following diagnosis, she was amazingly stable, to the point where the social worker who was monitoring her ability to live alone, started to space out her visits – and then suddenly, she went for a brief free fall over a period of a month or two, and then the decline went back into the very slow descent mode again. It happened a couple of times – she really went for a slide around the time she broke her hip for the second time (the end of continence and walking), but the more dramatic one for us was the loss of intelligible speech – which literally evaporated over a two week period, totally out of the blue. It wasn’t that she hadn’t had speech problems prior to that, but she could get enough sensible words out that you could interpolate what she was trying to say, and she could confirm what she meant if you asked her a question (your shoe hurts Doll?? and you’d get a nod). It was really odd – it wasn’t that it gradually got worse – it just went – wham – from short phrases and words you could understand to pure garble – not just not able to put any thoughts into words, but also to comprehend them. I’ve said this before, but it really did feel like she’d been working her way through the excess capacity in her brain, working every possible connection to hang in and keep on going, and when the last neuron that formed the speech connection winked out, the ability went with it, poof! Mary G.
Response:
Hi Friends, As I mentioned, Ida has been taking quite a decline. She understands very little of what is said to her, retains none of it. She asked me tonight if I was "going out to milk the cows" I have never had cows in my life and the only place this could have come from was from when she was a young school girl and cared for the cows. I asked her where our cows (in her mind) were? She told me that (my little garden) shed was where the cows were kept. I told her we had no cows and that the shed was too little. She just looked at me as though I told her that a spaceship had landed. The delusion was so real in her mind. She asked me a million times where Pelli (her dog that has been dead for a year now) was. When I told her he was dead a long time, she insisted she had "many" Pellis and where was the latest one? Her grip on reality is definitely getting worse. I plan to call the doctor tomorrow when he returns to ask him if there is anything that can be done about these delusions. We are trying to do our best to keep her on a good schedule, since it seems that any variation no matter how small in her daily routine sends her into more delusions. This seems to have come about after the first of the year and has continued to get worse ever since. Anyone else have any experiences with delusions and what medications were prescribed – and if they have proven effective? I am getting to the end of my rope with this stuff! Regards, Evelyn
Response:
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