Hi,
We have been taking care of my mom since May 9th in our home. It has been a doozy of a time in a NOT FUN way. As she has had dementia, depression, and just not with it.
We have been working with good food (organic) whole foods, grass fed meats, NO SUGAR, NO BREAD, and the following supplements:
Lift, Mind (Amino acids, B-Vitamins), Phosphatidyl Serine, and Prevagen, and quality fish oils from Nordic Naturals.
Websites:
lifepriority/category-s/30.htm
prevagen/
Prevagen takes up to 90 days to really start noticing a significant difference. And we are THERE! My mom is the most like herself and no downers. She is even keeled, not the wicked, weird person that came to us in May. She is like my mother again! I am so thankful. And I expect this will continue. She makes sense, she is her old self, she is happy and she is thoughtful, caring and interested in the world around and not in the demented world we have been suffering with until late.
I just wanted to share what food and good stuff can do.
I thought I lost my mother (because of her mind), but she is BACK! And I am glad and happy to have her here and to be able to help her. Now this is rewarding.
LastOne
No intentions or creating any $$ from telling you about it. I was just sharing information and where I get this from. So believe it or not - that's up to you.
So I stepped in and started going to her independent living apartment every morning and making her a healthy breakfast (includes grains and fruit, some eggs, peanut butter) and making her a ready-to-eat lunch. Mom doesn't care for meat, so we're not doing any kind of meat, but an occasional biscuits and gravy breakfast or ham salad lunch sandwich. Any calorie is a good calorie in my book - so as much sugar as she wants, cereals and bread. My mom is eating a can of deluxe mixed nuts every few days and I couldn't be happier. She's gone from 107 lbs to 118 lbs in two months. She's more coherent (still no short-term memory unfortunately), her blood work is perfect and the village nurse said whatever I'm doing is working. She's also awake now whenever I call. I'm also getting her dressed every day, instead of leaving her in her pajamas like she was doing before I intervened.
So I tend to believe that any kind of intense intervention can cause a turnaround in an elder. I also think just being around someone (me) every morning has had a big effect on my mom - she's got someone interacting with her and checking on her and talking about the news of the day.
So while I don't doubt that your mom may be getting some benefit from your overall plan (I'd dispute the benefit of the fish oil though), I think 1. your daily attention and 2. your loving presence are just as important if not more important as anything you're *specifically* doing.
And I'm in the same horrible boat I've been living with for the last 2.5 months. And I'm sick of it.
I know this is a fossil post....but new things DO come up....and MIGHT be helpful.
It's a study about using good, _broad-spectrum_ probiotics supplement daily, to help decrease the severity of Alzheimer's.
IDK if it also helps other Dementias, but it very well might, since gut health is what every other system depends on.