June: Alzheimer's Disease & Brain Awareness Month

June is Alzheimer’s Disease and Brain Awareness Month. Alzheimer’s disease is a tragic scourge that affects more than 6 million Americans and is the more common form of dementia. Each year we see more and more cases where family members lovingly care for their relative with Alzheimer’s as best they can. However, as the disease progresses, the symptoms grow worse and the caregiving gets more demanding. Every June we stop to consider where we are and where we are going in terms of the this dreaded disease.

New York City Statistics Cause for Alarm

Unfortunately, in New York City and Nassau County, we have some of the highest incidences of Alzheimer’s in the 65 and older demographic. In the Bronx, 16.6% in that age group suffer with the disease and Brooklyn sees 15%, Manhattan has 14%, while Queens has 13.7%. At the same time, Nassau County experiences 12.5% while Staten Island has 11.3%. Westchester and Rockland are also high at 13.5% and 12.8% respectively. To put it in perspective, most of the rest of the counties in New York State have incidences in the 10-11% range. These stats are certainly cause for vigilance.

Early Detection May Mean Real Relief… AND HOPE FOR REVERSAL

Early diagnosis is key to this caregiving situations for the following reasons:

New drugs are either on the market or in the pipeline which hope to stem the progression of this disease.
Those diagnosed have time to plan for the future in terms of their living arrangements and/or elderproof their residence so they could age in place.
Patients and loved ones can make sure a support system is in place for the future when there will be a need to depend on them.
A new and exciting reason is that there is now hope for REVERSING the disease.

I am very proud of our posts for this Alzheimer’s Disease and Brain Awareness Month. Two posts are not to be missed:

Early Warning Signs of Alzheimer’s Disease details key things to look for,
Brain Health: Reduce Dementia Risk has a must see video on brain health and hope for symptom reversal

I hope you will find this accompanying Infographic on the 10 Early Warning Signs of Alzheimer’s Disease both useful and an easy reference. Please feel free to pass it around and print it out.

We owe it to ourselves and our loved ones to be forearmed and aware so we can take the best possible care for all concerned.

Since we have covered many of these issues extensively in the past, please feel free to search for even more information on a topic of interest in the search box in the upper right corner of our website. I would also love any feedback you may have.

Always here to help,

Anita Kamiel, RN, MPS
Owner & Director of Patient Services