Looking for Those Cures

Erase Alzheimer's in three short weeks! Then it wants you to stay on the page! It's a money scam you can bet. I didn't stay on that page because I smelled a rat.

Elaine Pereira is much more realistic. Alzheimer's can be in the brain ten years before it starts to appear she writes HERE.  

Alzheimer’s is a real, fatal, progressive disease with no treatments. It is not just a quirky personality change. 

Because of how the disease affects the individual’s brain, their personality is affected usually causing adverse changes. Hostility, paranoia, suspicion are frequent first indications in otherwise kind individuals.

Elaine has a book about her mother's illness as pictured and it can be ordered at Amazon. We caregivers are all writing and blogging about this disease.

I used to write here about coconut oil which I gave my husband consistently. Coconut oil did not cure my husband. I tried! However the Johnny Byrd Alzheimer's Center was doing a study. They sort of dismissed us when I told them we were using it. It certainly didn't hurt my husband and it does have medical benefits. I think that coconut oil calmed him down. Dr. Mary Newport who wrote the best seller even acknowledges that it isn't curing her husband Steve. She now works for hospice.

Marijuana will not be the cure I bet. Marijuana is being studied by the Johnny Byrd Alzheimer's center.

Those medicines we give our loved ones (Nameda, Exelon, Aricept) may prolong the illness, but not stop it. My husband took Nameda and Exelon almost until the end. When Hospice came to our home, we stopped them because they helped me see he was in his last stage where it wouldn't help. See this study.

In my husband's case, his Mixed Dementia caught up with us. Stable for so long the Vascular Dementia 
took over and he quickly went downhill. Had he just had Alzheimer's he might have lived longer. 

My Husband's Poor Appetite

Any old problem seems to be stressful for me lately.  Some care receivers eat all the time, but not my husband. With his mixed dementia he has lost weight and doesn't always eat much. It is also hard to get enough liquids down him which he needs because of UTI possibilities. 

Trying to Increase the Appetite 

Hubby likes to eat on a tray at his Archie Bunker spot in the den while watching TV. He is so at home there that I hesitate to change the routine. He will sit at the table when we have others eating with us. Pictured  is a mix of nuts, dried cranberries and dark chocolate chips in a red bowl. Food a red plate is supposed to work. They say 25% more will be consumed HERE if the it is on red a red plate or in a red bowl.  The red in that bottle comes from 1/3 diet cranberry juice mixed with diet Lipton ice tea and the cranberry juice helps him not get another UTI. He really likes this drink and it is red! I also try to give him bottled water because we have well water that doesn't taste so good.

Equal Mixture of Two Items Frozen in Ice Cube Tray

I have featured his coconut oil chocolate HERE on this blog. I even arrange for that coconut oil chocolate when we are out of town.  He has his coconut oil chocolate and a breakfast bar when I leave the house in the morning. At times when Kenny comes to give him his lunch, that breakfast bar is still there and the chocolate is melted. 

Between Kenny and I we always see that he gets his morning pills. Sometimes I text Kenny that he hasn't had his morning pills and Kenny takes care of that for me. I am responsible for his evening pills. Kenny also gives him two pills at lunch. 

We have gone through different kinds of lunches since hubby was diagnosed with mixed dementia. Kenny suggested a variety of frozen dinners with foods he likes for lunch. Hubby also has coconut oil chocolate for lunch. This lunch is working now and when I work it is easy for Kenny to fix while I work. 

One solution is out-and-out bribery. Your ice cream is ready after you eat a little more. Many care givers use ice cream I have read. I hear that a nutritious ice cream will be here soon. 

Hubby likes to eat with someone such as myself at dinner and he seems to eat more when we go out to eat. We usually bring some of that dinner home and it doesn't taste as good to him with the warm up. Tonight I am warming up his dinner for the second time. He won't remember that he had it last night. 

Hubby likes salads and can eat the salad and be too full for the dinner, but then wants his ice cream. So salad and ice cream! 

I do the best I can. Sometimes I hear his stomach growl in the early morning hours. I want to get up out of bed and get his false teeth and feed him, but he prefers to sleep. 

It is always something with dementia care receivers, and every one is different. Trying to tackle one problem at a time here, folks. 

Carol

Cures for Dementia?

Picture from Find Home Remedy link noted

Are you kidding? 
See HERE.

Find Home Remedy - The World's Largest Home Health Remedy Blog keeps spitting out cures.  Several a day. Dementia cures are written by Reubenna--do not know who this person is, but click on her name and she has written other cures as well for this site. With all the ads on this site Reubenna might be an ad writer. Who are you, Reubenna? 

Expert Reubenna writes: Although proper medication along with therapy is the way to cure this, there are certain natural ways with the help of which dementia can be tackled. 

Reubenna, what would that proper medication be? What would that therapy be?

Reubenna lists these eleven home remedies:

1. Give them warmth
2. Familiar environment
3. Healthy diet
4. Antioxidants
5. Vitamin E
6. Omega 3
7. Ginkgo
8. Salvia
9. Aromatherapy
10. Pet therapy
11. Message 

I can say that coconut oil and turmeric does help. My husband gets both, but he is still going downhill maybe because of his Vascular Dementia which could have been avoided. He also has Alzheimer's which I do not think has a cure once one has it. But coconut oil helps his brain fog and turmeric reduces brain swelling. The Byrd Institute in Tampa, where my husband was diagnosed with mixed dementia, is currently conducting research on coconut oil. 

Can we predict dementia early? Peanut butter can help. Google that. Also check out this infographic HERE for what might predict Alzheimer's. It says at the top of thin infographic that it is in partnership with the Alzheimer's Association. 

I pinned the Reubenna's dementia cure post on my scam board on Pinterest and am going to try to put this post as a comment for Reubenna to read. 

Diet, Cholestrol, Axona and Coconut Oil

from coconutoil.com

Those low-fat, no-fat diets are not good. Now Weight Watchers insists that we have fat. Another site on coconut oil just confirmed here. This site led me to "The Clue to Why Low Fat Diet and Statins may Cause Alzheimer’s" here.

Dr. Mary Newport has reported that CBN are featuring coconut oil here. When you start that coconut oil, you need to build up tolerance and we did with my husband who has been on it for three years. Dr. Newport says that CBN will:  feature Butch Machlan, a man with familial ALS (Lou Gehrig's) who has been stable for three years taking 9 tablespoons per day of coconut oil and magnesium chloride, and will also feature a man from Connecticut with Parkinson's who has had considerable improvement since shortly after the first story aired [Dr. Newport's], taking a mixture of coconut oil and MCT oil.  

Meanwhile there is the suggestion that Axona can be prescribed and monitored better than coconut oil; Dr. Richard Isaacson reports on Axona on The Alzheimer’s Reading Room here. He reports two clinical US trials.

Not all doctors know about Axona and I will ask my husband's doctor about it on his next visit. My husband's doctor approves of his coconut oil (his glucose and cholestrol are great) and coconut oil does not elevate my husband's triclyceride levels as Dr. Isaacson suggests.  Finally there are research studies on coconut oil beginning. Perhaps my hubby doesn't get enough coconut oil, but he does get it everyday with dark chocolate and when I can use it in cooking. I even arranged for him to have it on our trip.

He takes turmeric pills. They say that in India that turmeric and coconut oil may account for less dementia in the older population.

When your loved one has been diagnosed with any kind of dementia as my husband has, you cannot wait for the research studies to come out and I am glad I haven't.

Coconut Oil Recipes

"Preventing Alzheimer's: Coconut Oil Recipes"  by Lorie Johnson you can see here. The CBN news medical reporter writes:

Thanks to the spectacular work of Dr. Mary Newport, many people with Alzheimer's disease as well as other neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and ALS, have enjoyed improvement by adding coconut oil to their diet.

The coconut granola recipe looks soooo good. She also has that Coconut Fudge recipe from Dr. Newport that we use.

Preventing Alzheimer's may not be as simple as using coconut oil, but it sure does help my husband and other ailments. Oops. My husband is not an ailment! He is wonderful--not a diagnosis.

The Pill Pusher and Other Routines

Tuppleware cup with pills now works

We were out late last night. We both forgot our pills last night because we were out to midnight after a wedding and came home tired and the PILL PUSHER (me) forgot to take the pills to the reception and forgot to have us take our pills when we came home.

Pill-taking has been trial and error. Sometimes hubby refuses to take pills if it isn't in the routine that works. He has often forgotten pills in the SUN-SAT pill container even though those are in plain sight. But routine does work with dementia patients.
 
Alzheimer's patients like routine, but not always variety. Hubby's meal routines work for us when I have to leave the house. For breakfast DH has coffee usually or Diet Lipton Green Tea, one Emerald Breakfast on the go! packet, unsweetened applesauce that I put in a little container (I keep several in the frig) and two "ice cubes" of coconut oil fudge I have written about on this blog. His pills come out of a Sun-Sat AM pill box that I put in a little Tuppleware cup on the plate.  Lunch will be on  plate in the frig when I am gone: a sandwich in a baggie, yogurt with blueberries added and crunchies, and two more coconut oil fudge "ice cubes", a lunch that he rarely  needs to warm up because most of the time it is just a sandwich.  I use this pill tupperware cup at dinner for his PM pills as well (just didn't work last night).

This morning I left the house at 6:30 AM for my 7 AM Weight Watcher meeting before assembling my husband's simple breakfast above, letting him sleep in. I thought I would be home in time for us to have breakfast together. Instead I called him to tell him how to put it together so I could go to breakfast after Weight Watchers with two ladies. On the phone I gave him one idea at a time: get the breakfast packet, etc. He was able to do this because this simple breakfast he has many days is part of his routine. He likes to feel he can do things.

He even called my cell this morning  to see how he could feed our dog. He remembered that he is supposed to ask me each morning if I have fed the dog and if The Pill Pusher has had her pills--then he checks these off on his clipboard schedule for the day. Routine is soooo important for Alzheimer's patients.

So in summary on routines:

• Clipboard schedule with activities to check off. Schedule also has phone numbers on it. Husband requested schedule some time ago and it works for us because he knows he has dementia and needs reminders.
• Tuppleware with pills on the breakfast and dinner plate so that Pill Pusher doesn't have to nag.
• Keep items in the same place. Don't change where the cell phone gets plugged in for example!

But oh those cell phones and keys! I am the one that needs to have a routine to check on these things!

Supplements That May Help

Regularly my husband gets all the nutrition we can afford. The Alzheimer's Reading Room (http://www.alzheimersreadingroom./ has many posts that give insight and here is one with a chart I saved from their research.

What? No coconut oil? I know it works. It is interesting that Dr. Mary Newport's video on coconut oil is the most popular post ever viewed on Plant City Lady and Friends--top of that list. I do not think that my husband would still be in stage one and so happy if it weren't for his coconut oil. Dr. Newport also told me by e-mail to not neglect his Alzheimer's medicines because of the coconut oil, and so twice a day hubby gets Namenda and Exelon pills.

My husband prefers Lipton Diet Green Tea. Notice that green tea is high on that list. So is Omega 3 oil which according to an article by Megan Brooks  may protect against Alzheimer's. I got some that is like candy to give my husband from Winn Dixie the other day. He does take fish oil tablets, but does not like salmon as I do and try to eat whenever I can.

Fran Lowry writes that berries help cognitive decline in this article. Daily my husband has been getting blueberries with his 4 ounces of Activia yogurt. I get the 24 oz container of Activia and make six portions that include those blueberries. At times I substitute strawberries for the blueberries. Yesterday he ate two of those yogurt/blueberry mixtures from the frig. Last night I served my husband strawberry shortcake, instead of his usual ice cream.

There is a lot to say for super foods. Recently I heard that cooked spinach, tumeric, tomatoes, almonds and dark chocolate are super foods. Now spinach is a hard one to sell on my husband, but I'm going to try to put it into dishes. He gets tumeric in supplements from Vitacost. Tomatoes are easy--salad. I found some almonds with cinnamon that are good snacks for him. When I can I will make his daily coconut fudge with dark chocolate chips--maybe next time I will put almonds in his fudge.

When our loved ones with Alzheimer's get the best nutrition possible, surely this helps their overall health. When they get an infection, or break a bone, I have read, their disease progresses quickly. And, whatever I do for him, also helps his caregiver/spouse--me.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Fats



Husband Gets Coconut Oil With His Chocolate, Applesauce and Breakfast to Go

Not to paraphrase The LORD's Prayer, with Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread, but we do need fats along with bread (wheat if possible). When I joined Weight Watchers in the 1970s, you were not allowed fats. Today in Weight Watchers with their "healthy food guidelines" you must have 2 tsp. of fats per day. I often put in on my thin bagel for breakfast. There is even a book called Eat Fat Lose Fat. I have that book, but don't tell because I have enough books loaned out.

But what kind of fats? Lisa, in her post "The Complete Guide to Fats and Oils--What to Cook With (or not), What to Avoid and Why" here at the Read Food Digest spells it all out. Of course coconut oil takes the prize so to speak. Lydia, in her post "The Benefits of Taking Coconut Oil" here at Why I Have a Coconut Oil Fetish lists these benefits from The Coconut Oil Miracle a book I have loaned out now. The book by Dr. Newport Altzheimer's Disease: What If There Were a Cure? where she explained how coconut oil helps dementia is also loaned out. People in my life can't get enough of oil literature.

The easiest way to get coconut oil (about 2 TBSP. per day) in my husband’s diet is for him to have it melted with chocolate chips--dark chocolate when I can get it. I have written about that elsewhere on this blog and he gets two coconut fudge for breakfast as pictured above and two for lunch.

What is the skinny (or the fat) on coconut oil? Here are some ideas from Lydia again on her coconut oil fetish quoting her post:

• "The body can use coconut oil for energy more rapidly and efficiently than any other fat source. Special fats in coconut (called medium-chain fatty acids, MCFA's) are not normally stored in your body as fat. Instead, they're quickly converted to energy."
• "Small amounts of the MCFA's in coconut oil are used in the complex processes that enable cells to communicate with each other."
• "People in countries where coconut is an important part of the diet has lower rates of heart disease and cancer than Americans."
• "The fats in coconut help fight infections of all kinds."

Lydia also notes from The Coconut Oil Miracle that:

• "Improves digestion and absorption of other nutrients including vitamins, minerals, and amino acids."
• "Helps relieve symptoms and reduce health risks associated with diabetes.
• "Helps protect against osteoporosis."
• "Supports tissue healing and repair."
• "Helps prevent periodontal disease and tooth decay."
• "Is utilized by the body to produce energy in preference to being stored as body fat like other dietary fats.
• "Has no harmful or discomforting side effects." You do have to build up to taking it, however, or you will get diarrhea. Plus it is expensive, so you want to treat it like gold.
• "Is completely non-toxic to humans."

Lydia also adds in her fetish post a list of ideas for getting it. I realized from her list that I can put the tsp. that I measure it with in my coffee to help rinse it. She doesn't deal with Alzheimer's as Dr. Newport does, however. I do remember that Dr. Newport in her inspiring book tells of a day when Steve Newport, her husband with Early Onset Diabetes, was agitated, a common problem for dementia patients. She game him coconut oil and he calmed down. My husband doesn't take any drugs to calm him down.

So, folks, this is why Plant City Lady and Friends also has a coconut oil fetish. Will I use other fats? Yes, we use real butter and olive oil all the time. Sometimes I combine coconut oil, butter and olive oil to sauté foods. Great! You can refer to Lisa's post above for good fats and oils and the ones to avoid.


Saute vegetables in good oil



Alzheimer's Disease: What If There Was a Cure?

Earlier in the blog I did review The Coconut Oil Miracle and how it helps diseases. But I have been eagerly waiting for this book at the left to come out for two years. Dr. Mary Newport and I even e-mailed each other about the topic of coconut oil and how it can help someone with Alzheimer's. I read the article she wrote here.  Her husband has Early-Onset Alzheimer's and you have to read their love story. I ordered my copy through Barnes and Noble, but you can get it through Amazon with e-books to follow.

This summer when finances were tight, I wondered if coconut oil was really necessary. When I read her book this month, however, I knew my husband needs to have that coconut oil once again.

• The ketones in coconut oil provide an alternate fuel to keep the brain cells alive. Lots in the book about the science of ketosis.  
• Dr. Mary's husband's energy returned.
• Steve Newport's personality and sense of humor returned.
• His gait or walk returned.
• Coconut oil seems to take the fog away.
• I think all of this is true for DH as well.

There has not been significant clinical testing to determine if it works. People tried to stop Dr. Mary's crusade. She was able to speak in Europe about it, but not in our country. Humm. This is the same thing that our chiropractor said about Ribonucleic Acid and CoQ10 that he recommended my husband take. There aren't studies. But we think these supplements do help.

Dr. Mary recommends a combination of MCT (I get this from Vitacost) and coconut oil (I get from Tropical Traditions).See my links at the side. You can't heat coconut oil over 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  You can use coconut oil from the drug store section at Walmart.

I am just using coconut oil, however, and had trouble lately adapting recipes that my husband would eat.  While coconut oil in oatmeal worked for a time with my husband, he got tired of oatmeal for breakfast.

New recipe. There is a simple recipe in this book that may have helped my husband pass that Alzheimer's driving test for the second year in a row--"Coconut Fudge". Lately I have been serving this to my hubby after I got Newport's book and before he took that driving test last Friday.

Melt  chocolate chips and combine with an equal amount of liquid coconut oil. Freeze in ice cube trays. You can add walnuts and/or shredded coconut before you freeze. When frozen, pop each fudge piece out of tray and refrigerate. This works with my husband. I know it does, and he likes the fudge.

This is not a formal review of Dr. Mary's book, folks, but I just had to get the word out. Is coconut oil a cure for Alzheimer's once someone has it?  Probably not, but coconut oil may help prevent health problems in general and improve the quality of life for the dementia patient.

This is good news!

How to Get MCT and Coconut Oil

Bloggers want to know about MCT, a coconut oil extract that has been purified. I have gotten Smart Basics MCT Oil 16 oz. for $7.94 plus shipping and handling from vitacost.com, 130 Lexington Parkway, Lexington, North Carolina 27295. You can get it sent to you on a regular schedule, or you can order only one or two bottles. Carefully read the directions or talk with customer Service number at 700-793-2691. Recently I baked brownies with it. As I shared in posts below, I put it in oatmeal and pancakes and anything else I can think of including salad dressing.

I also get a huge tub from Tropical Traditions, Inc., P.O. Box 333, Springville, CA 93265, 1-866-311-coco--http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/.

One Week of Cooking With Coconut Oil

Cooking Simply

Last Friday my husband started on coconut oil. It was put in breakfast oatmeal all week. The coconut taste is so pleasant. Several nights I had to be gone and I put a little cup of that coconut oatmeal left over from breakfast with his dinner that he heated up.

I spread it on his sandwiches--especially delicious with BLT sandwiches. However, he did not usually get much oil at lunch and we ate out several lunches.

For dinner I put it in hamburger stroganoff and we had that two nights. He and I like salads with chicken or beef. Several nights I sauteed meat in coconut oil to serve in the salad. Then I dumped the coconut oil in his salad.

I had ordered the liquid MCT from Vitacost in NC (800-793-2601) last Friday and it came in the mail yesterday. So this morning I made a batch of pancakes with it, using 1/4 of it for the liquid instead of the milk. It was great and I have left-overs in the freezer for other breakfast pancakes that I can easily toast.

I have a new Swedish cookbook, a gift from family. I plan to put it in soup recipes from that book. There are great salmon recipes in that cookbook, but he doesn't like salmon. (Maybe, I can try it anyway sometime.)

Happy Husband

Tuesday was the last day my husband worked before retiring. He wasn't sure he would like retirement. Thought he would want to get a job in August. But he loves it so far! Of course it is great for me because I am semi-retired. I have felt like I am on vacation with him. Tuesday we went to a senior karaoke to celebrate his retirement. This week we have gone to the gym. He walked 2/3 of a mile on the treatmill. We went to two malls. We have seen two movies. He was interested in reviewing what all we did on Wednesday, his first day of retirement. Could it be that some short-term memory is improving? This morning his blood presure was 120/76. His agitated state is quite a bit toned down. He is patient when he tells me to turn off lights when I leave a room.

Thank you, Lord! You are blessing us!

Coconut Oil and MTC

Thursday

I got a clue. Coconut Oil. It and MCT oil help dementia. Have it in oatmeal or salad dressing, Dr. Mary Newport says. Her husband has been using it for a year now and he has improved dramatically. Side effects might be diarrhea, so you need to start slowly.

So I e-mailed her and she wrote back:

My husband is doing very well with the oil. Thank you for asking! I have a website now with a lot of information on it that may help you out with this - www.coconutketones.com . There is a research group on Cortez about a mile east of the Suncoast, called Meridien Research - 597-8839. They have several studies going now for Alzheimer's and may be able to evaluate him further. Also, the Johnny Byrd Institute in Tampa at USF could do a complete evaluation - 813-974-4355. There are several causes of dementia, such as hypothyroidism that are treatable, so you may want to have him checked out thoroughly. Please let me know how it goes! Take care-
Dr. Mary Newport
http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com/dr-mary-newport-coconut-oil-alzheimers-cure-episode-240/

http://www.coastcoconutfarms.com/download/Article_on_Coconut_Oil_and_Alzheimers.pdf

Friday Morning

I explained to Sweetheart why we would be having oatmeal with coconut oil for breakfast. He loves it with non-fat milk, walnuts and Splenda Brown Sugar Blend. He leaves his badge at home and I bring it to him; counting today he works only three more days before retirement. On the trip I listen to Dr. Newport's interview on my iPod. Check it out. "Dr. Mary Newport On Coconut Oil As An Alzheimer's Cure", 3/30/09, on "The Livin La Vida Low-Carb Show" from iTunes. Inspiring! Coconut oil and MCT are supposed to help MD and weight loss and other conditions.