Health: What You Can Learn About Dementia During Alzheimer’s Awareness Month

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

Chances are you either know or bathe, shower and dress an Alzheimer’s patient, since Blacks are about twice as likely as Whites to suffer from dementia.

But as the nation observes Alzheimer’s Awareness Month in November, focus on the facts. First, most Blacks will not receive an automatic dementia diagnosis. Instead, most Blacks must visit a doctor more than once to receive a dementia diagnosis.

Second, many Blacks will remain undiagnosed due to cultural habits, such as 1 in 5 saying they’d feel insulted if a doctor wanted to test their thinking abilities. Third, some Blacks consider fuzzy thinking to be a normal part of aging, not a disease. However, CDC records show dementia cases among Black adults are expected to more than double, from 1.3 million in 2024 to 3.1 million in 2060.

This means the typical Black Alzheimer’s patient will encounter multiple barriers and forget a lot of stuff unless they change their thinking. Hang in there if you suffer from memory loss. While there is no known cure for Alzheimer’s, you can obtain a prescription for certain medications which treat mild memory loss that may lead to the inability to carry on a conversation, carry out daily activities, or respond to your environment.

Kisunla, for example, is given via IV infusion through a needle placed in a vein in the arm once every 4 weeks. Kisunla  significantly reduces amyloid plaques associated with early symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease. While Kisunla cannot reverse or stop existing memory and thinking issues that are due to early symptomatic AD, it can help slow the progression.

Each Kisunla infusion takes around 30 minutes. After the infusion, you will need to stay at the medical center for 30 minutes or more for observation. During treatment, your doctor will monitor and evaluate your progress. Your doctor will determine how long you will be on treatment

Still, it is important to remember that Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurological disease in which brain cells die and the brain shrinks. Dementia is an umbrella term for several conditions and brain disorders that launch brain disorders, whose symptoms are marked by a decline in brain function – including but not limited to memory loss – that is severe enough to interfere with daily life. There are many types of dementia; Alzheimer’s disease is the most common, accounting for 60-80 percent of cases

In addition to getting a diagnosis and taking medication, you need to know that Alzheimer’s typically strikes people who are 60 or older. Alzheimer’s patients are often coping with other medical conditions including diabetes, heart ailments, strokes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, depression, and other conditions that may lead to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Other medications that are used to treat Alzheimer’s include Donepezil (used to treat confusion). Rivastigmine is a medication used to treat mild to moderate dementia caused by Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. It comes in oral capsules or transdermal patches and has various side effects and warnings. Namenda (memantine) reduces the actions of chemicals in the brain that may contribute to the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

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But medication is not the only answer. Bold success stories show some patients have successfully used lifestyle and diet changes to treat Alzheimer’s. For example, a 2019 study showed that women who reduced belly fat improved their cognitive function.

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“As the belly gets larger, the memory center in the brain gets smaller,” said Dr. Richard S. Isaacson, a neurologist and the founder and director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian.

Waist circumference is directly linked to the size of the hippocampus, the area of the brain that is associated with memory, Isaacson said in a June 2024 interview in Health Matters, a publication produced by New York Health Presbyterian.

Since men and women who are obese and over 50 are at an increased risk of developing dementia later in life, this is the point. Exercise and diet changes may help some people regain their memory.

In plain terms, a recent study showed that some Alzheimer’s patients reversed the disease by making lifestyle changes that included switching to a plant-based, Mediterranean diet with lots of whole foods and limited refined carbohydrates, alcohol, and sweeteners. They exercised at least 30 minutes a day. They also devoted one hour a day to stress management activities like meditation, stretching and breathing exercises. They attended three hour-long group therapy sessions per week.

“I’m cautiously optimistic and very encouraged by these findings, which may empower many people with new hope and new choices,” lead study author Dean Ornish, MD, founder and president of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute and a clinical professor of medicine at the University of San Francisco, said in the June 2024 Everyday Health interview.

“We do not yet have a cure for Alzheimer’s,” said Ornish, who is also a fellow of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. “But as the scientific community continues to pursue all avenues to identify potential treatments, we are now able to offer an improved quality of life to many people suffering from this terrible disease.”

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In other words, the study showed some people’s memories improved after they changed their diet and lifestyle. Several people in the study reported improvements in cognitive function that made a big difference in their ability to resume daily activities that had become difficult to perform due to Alzheimer’s.

Others said they were finally able to read a book or watch a movie, recall the plot, and keep up with the narrative.

Other participants who worked with numbers for a living and had lost their ability to easily manage complex financial information reported regaining these skills by the end of the study.

This is the bottom line. Although Blacks are more likely to experience dementia, they can go to the grocery store and purchase brain growth foods such as oil fish: salmon, mackerel, tuna, herring and sardines.

Throw some dark chocolate into your grocery cart. Dark chocolate contains cocoa, also known as cacao. Cacao contains flavonoids, a type of antioxidant. And make sure you buy these brain-boosting berries: strawberries: Blackberries, blueberries, Black currants and mulberries. Buy these nuts: sunflower seeds, almonds, and hazelnuts.

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Fuzzy-thinking Alzehimer’s patients can make diet and lifestyle changes that not only improve memory and concentration; but reduce the risk of stroke.