20 tips to help ward off dementia — ah, yes. Check out the little joke at the bottom

I can relate to 15 of these tips. All I can think of is that they must have staved off my developing LBD (Lewy Body Disease) at an earlier age. This, I will never know. I think it also tells us something about dementia. There have to be other factors involved other than these tips. Otherwise, people who have beefed up their brain by doing many of these tips, along with others (foods, etc.) which I’ve posted along the way, should be the last who would develop dementia. Why do some people live to be over 100 years old have a clear, solid mind when they have taken on few of these ideas? Again, will anyone ever truly know. There is so much more involved in this very complex syndrome called dementia.

The more I study about dementia, the more I realize that its prevalence has caused many of us to look at anything and everything as the culprit to this disease. But this is good. When we stop searching, we die.

 

20 tips to help ward off dementia           By Linda Shrieves

Timing is everything, comedians say.

It’s also important when it comes to taking care of your brain. Yet most of us start worrying about dementia after retirement — and that may be too little, too late.

Experts say that if you really want to ward off dementia, you need to start taking care of your bean in your 30s and 40s — or even earlier.

"More and more research is suggesting that lifestyle is very important to your brain’s health," says Dr. Paul Nussbaum, a neuropsychologist and an adjunct associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "If you want to live a long, healthy life, then many of us need to start as early as we can."

So what can you do to beef up your brain — and possibly ward off dementia? Nussbaum, who recently gave a speech on the topic for the Winter Park (Fla.) Health Foundation, offers 20 tips that may help.

1. Join clubs or organizations that need volunteers. If you start volunteering now, you won’t feel lost and unneeded after you retire.

2. Develop a hobby or two. Hobbies help you develop a robust brain because you’re trying something new and complex.

3. Practice writing with your nondominant hand several minutes every day. This will exercise the opposite side of your brain and fire up those neurons.

4. Take dance lessons. In a study of nearly 500 people, dancing was the only regular physical activity associated with a significant decrease in the incidence of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. The people who danced three or four times a week showed 76 percent less incidence of dementia than those who danced only once a week or not at all.

5. Need a hobby? Start gardening. Researchers in New Zealand found that, of 1,000 people, those who gardened regularly were less likely to suffer from dementia. Not only does gardening reduce stress, but gardeners use their brains to plan gardens; they use visual and spatial reasoning to lay out a garden.

6. Buy a pedometer and walk 10,000 steps a day. Walking daily can reduce the risk of dementia because cardiovascular health is important to maintain blood flow to the brain.

7. Read and write daily. Reading stimulates a wide variety of brain areas that process and store information. Likewise, writing (not copying) stimulates many areas of the brain as well.

8. Start knitting. Using both hands works both sides of your brain. And it’s a stress reducer.

9. Learn a new language. Whether it’s a foreign language or sign language, you are working your brain by making it go back and forth between one language and the other. A researcher in England found that being bilingual seemed to delay symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease for four years.

10. Play board games such as Scrabble and Monopoly. Not only are you taxing your brain, you’re socializing too. (Playing solo games, such as solitaire or online computer brain games can be helpful, but Nussbaum prefers games that encourage you to socialize too.)

11. Take classes throughout your lifetime. Learning produces structural and chemical changes in the brain, and education appears to help people live longer. Brain researchers have found that people with advanced degrees live longer — and if they do have Alzheimer’s, it often becomes apparent only in the very later stages of the disease.

12. Listen to classical music. A growing volume of research suggests that music may hard wire the brain, building links between the two hemispheres. Any kind of music may work, but there’s some research that shows positive effects for classical music, though researchers don’t understand why.

13. Learn a musical instrument. It may be harder than it was when you were a kid, but you’ll be developing a dormant part of your brain.

14. Travel. When you travel (whether it’s to a distant vacation spot or on a different route across town), you’re forcing your brain to navigate a new and complex environment. A study of London taxi drivers found experienced drivers had larger brains because they have to store lots of information about locations and how to navigate there.

15. Pray. Daily prayer may help your immune system. And people who attend a formal worship service regularly report happier, healthier lives.

16. Learn to meditate. It’s important for your brain that you learn to shut out the stresses of everyday life.

17. Get enough sleep. Studies have shown a link between interrupted sleep and dementia.

18. Eat more foods containing omega-3 fatty acids: Salmon, sardines, tuna, ocean trout, mackerel or herring, plus walnuts (which are higher in omega 3s than salmon) and flaxseed. Flaxseed oil, cod liver oil and walnut oil are good sources too.

19. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Antioxidants in fruits and vegetables mop up some of the damage caused by free radicals, one of the leading killers of brain cells.

20. Eat at least one meal a day with family and friends. You’ll slow down, socialize, and research shows you’ll eat healthier food than if you ate alone or on the go.

I had signed up to be a school volunteer…

– Howard Sieplinga

I had signed up to be a school volunteer and was helping a first-grader with her homework. But it turned out I was the one in need of help. The assignment required coloring, and I’m color-blind — can’t tell blue from red. As we finished our lesson, I told the little girl, "Next week you can read to me."

Looking confused, she said, "Can’t you read, either?"

 

Warmly………David

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I wonder if this is related to Pam

This article intrigued me. Pam has chronic pain and needs to take a lot of meds for it. Some months ago I blogged about her having to be placed on vitamin D supplements due to low levels in her blood. Now that her vitamin D levels are normal, her pain has mildly lessened. I never would have made the connection. I’d post the link to the article but it is for physician members only. Don’t worry about the technical jargon.   Medscape Medical News 2009. © 2009 Medscape Chronic Pain Linked to Low Vitamin D by Allison Gandey   March 25, 2009 — Inadequate vitamin D may represent an under recognized source of nociperception and impaired neuromuscular functioning, say researchers. "Physicians who care for patients with chronic, diffuse pain that seems musculoskeletal — and involves many areas of tenderness to palpation — should strongly consider checking vitamin-D level," Michael Turner, MD, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said in a news release issued Friday. "For example," he added, "many patients who have been labeled with fibromyalgia are, in fact, suffering from symptomatic vitamin-D inadequacy. Vigilance is especially required when risk factors are present, such as obesity, darker pigmented skin, or limited exposure to sunlight." Dr. Turner was lead investigator of a study published in the journal Pain Medicine in November 2008. The work suggests a correlation between inadequate vitamin-D levels and the amount of narcotic medication taken by chronic pain patients. Required Nearly Twice As Much Pain Medication The researchers found that patients who had inadequate vitamin-D levels and required narcotic pain medication were taking much higher doses — nearly twice as much — as those with adequate levels. These patients also reported worse physical function and worse overall health perception. Dr. Turner told Medscape Neurology & Neurosurgery his group was surprised by the finding. "We didn’t anticipate that the difference would be so high." The investigators retrospectively studied 267 patients admitted to the Mayo Comprehensive Pain Rehabilitation Center. They compared serum 25-hydroxyvitamin-D levels at the time of admission with other parameters such as the amount and duration of narcotic pain medication used, self-reported levels of pain, emotional distress, physical functioning, health perception, and demographic information such as sex, age, diagnosis, and body-mass index. Patients with vitamin-D levels below 20 ng/mL were considered to have inadequate amounts. The prevalence of low vitamin D was 26% (95% CI, 20.6% – 31.1%). Among patients using opioids, the mean morphine-equivalent dose for the inadequate vitamin-D group was 133.5 mg/day compared with 70.0 mg/day for the adequate group (P = .001). The mean duration of opioid use for the inadequate and adequate groups was 71.1 months and 43.8 months, respectively (P = .023). The researchers also observed a link between increasing body-mass index and decreasing levels of vitamin D. Inadequate Vitamin D May Create or Sustain Pain The preliminary results suggest that inadequate vitamin D may play a role in creating or sustaining chronic pain. During an interview, Dr. Turner suggested that patients with inadequate vitamin D may benefit from cholecalciferol 50,000 international units dosed according to the level of deficiency. But he urged caution for patients with calcium- or phosphate-processing disorders. "Increasing vitamin-D levels could be problematic in patients with kidney failure or stones or primary hyperparathyroidism or sarcoidosis. This doesn’t preclude increasing levels, but it might warrant discussion with an endocrinologist," he said. For patients with adequate vitamin D looking to maintain levels, he recommends10 to 15 minutes of sun exposure with no sunscreen on the trunk and arms and legs 3 times a week. Sun Exposure or Diet and Supplements? It is a recommendation often made by proponents of vitamin D but hotly contested by the American Academy of Dermatology. The academy recommends that vitamin D be obtained from a healthy diet and supplements and not from unprotected exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. "Unprotected UV exposure to the sun or indoor tanning devices is a known risk factor for the development of skin cancer," dermatologists write in the academy’s position statement. Dr. Turner and his team conclude: "Prospective trials utilizing a repeated-measures design are warranted to assess the effects of vitamin-D repletion on pain outcomes and physiological measures of neuromuscular functioning among patients with chronic pain and comorbid vitamin-D inadequacy." The researchers have disclosed no relevant financial relationships. Pain Med. 2008;9:979-984. Abstract

Warmly………David

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Long hours put workers at risk of dementia, according to research into damage to brain

Millions of workers are being put at greater risk of dementia by Britain’s long working hours culture, research has found.

My personal thoughts — As I think over the years of the number of individuals whom I have known and the long hours that they worked, I can’t help think that this is yet another theory which affects those who seem to be prone to developing dementia. It doesn’t affect all the long workers. Just some. I’ve known many physicians who have worked long and hard hours and are still sharp and alert as ever. The theories which are "out there" all seem to have some merit. However, it tells me that we are all struggling to come up with some kind of answer to help us make sense out of this demon called dementia.

The findings suggest the long-term damage to the brain caused by excessive time at work has been underestimated Photo: GETTY

Extreme tiredness and stress could be as bad for the brain as smoking, according to the study.

The report, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found middle-aged workers clocking up more than 55 hours a week have poorer mental skills, including short-term memory and ability to recall words, than those working fewer than 41 hours.

The findings suggest the long-term damage to the brain caused by excessive time at work has been underestimated.

One in eight British workers puts in more than the supposed European maximum of 48 hours a week.

Researchers, led by Dr Marianna Virtanen from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, monitored 2,214 British civil servants from the 1980s.

Participants in their early 50s were put through a series of brain function tests. Those doing the most overtime recorded lower scores in two of the five key brain function tests – reasoning and vocabulary.

The researchers said: "This study shows that long working hours may have a negative effect on cognitive performance in middle age. The link between cognitive impairment and dementia later in life is clearly established.

"The difference between employees working long hours and those working normal hours is similar in magnitude to that of smoking, a risk factor for dementia."

Professor Cary Cooper, an expert in workplace stress from Lancaster University, told the Daily Mail: "Working long hours obviously makes you very tired. If you do that on a consistent basis it’s going to affect your brain function. Long hours are not just bad for health, they are also bad for your performance."

 

VCR Skills Joke

– Teresa Donn

While reviewing math symbols with my second-grade pupils, I drew a greater-than (>) and a less-than (<) sign on the chalkboard and asked, "Does anyone remember what these mean?" A few moments passed, and then a boy confidently raised his hand. "One means fast-forward," he exclaimed, "and the other means rewind!"

 

Warmly………David

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The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled

The last week has been a busy and interesting one.

We’ve spent several days out and about looking at more trees, plants and shrubs. Thanks to Mary Francis Poe for pointing out that I need to have different species of blueberries for pollination. I didn’t know that so we bought a few more varieties. Mary is Dr. Hoe Poe’s wife. He is an anesthesiologist with whom I worked in California. They truly are supportive and loyal friends. Thanks Mary Francis for the advice!

Pam’s brother built our home and did the landscaping in front of the house. So this Spring he’s going to landscape the backyard and the street side of the house. Just can’t wait to start planting some of the plants. Hostas, ferns and ground cover in the shade near the side of the garage. I’ve have to take some pictures of everything after all is planted and blooming.

We had Pam’s brother’s family — Doug, Heather & Gunner over for dinner on Saturday. Tuesday was another long fun day. Pam had her thyroid biopsy down at Passavant Hospital in the North Hills area of Pittsburgh.

I guess the long busy days finally caught up with me. Yesterday, I was foggy most of the day and had a lot of trouble remembering things. Simple things. Needless to say I felt very tired. I’m just out of shape, that’s all.

I’ve noticed another problem beginning to surface. Over the past week I’ve had at least 3 episodes of wetting the bed at night. Will definitely need to keep an eye open on this one. No signs of urinary tract infection. Will monitor it and watch liquid intake before bedtime.

 

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled."

White Lie Joke

– M. M.

I am five feet, three inches tall and pleasingly plump. After I had a minor accident, my mother accompanied me to the emergency room.
The triage nurse asked for my height and weight, and I blurted out, "Five-foot-eight and 125 pounds."
While the nurse pondered this information, my mother leaned over to me. "Sweetheart," she gently chided, "this is not the Internet."

Warmly………David

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Hallucinations Part 3 of 3 — How to handle hallucinations

Hallucinations Part 1 — What are hallucinations?

Hallucinations Part 2 — Types of hallucinations?

Hallucinations Part 3 — How to handle hallucinations

Hallucinations can be frightening. On some occasions, individuals may see threatening images or just ordinary pictures of people, situations or objects from the past. Here are some ideas for handling hallucinations.

1. See the doctor
   
2. Ask the doctor to evaluate the person to determine if medication is needed or might be causing the hallucinations. In some cases, hallucinations are caused by schizophrenia, a disease different from Alzheimer’s.
   
3. Have the person’s eyesight or hearing checked. Also make sure the person wears his or her glasses or hearing aid on a regular basis.
   
4. The physician can look for physical problems, such as kidney or bladder infections, dehydration, intense pain, or alcohol or drug abuse. These are conditions that might cause hallucinations. If the physician prescribes a medication, watch for such symptoms as over sedation, increased confusion, tremors or tics.
   
5. Assess and evaluate — Assess the situation and determine whether or not the hallucination is a problem for you or for the individual. Is the hallucination upsetting to the person? Is it leading him or her to do something dangerous? Does the sight of an unfamiliar face cause him or her to become frightened? If so, react calmly and quickly with reassuring words and comforting touching.
   
6. Respond with caution — Be cautious and conservative in responding to the person’s hallucinations. If the hallucination doesn’t cause problems for you, the person or other family members, ignore it.
   
7. Don’t argue with the person about what he or she sees or hears. Unless the behavior becomes dangerous, you might not need to intervene.
   
8. Offer reassurance— Reassure the person with kind words and a gentle touch. For example, you might want to say: “Don’t worry. I’m here. I’ll protect you. I’ll take care of you,” or “I know you’re worried. Would you like me to hold your hand and walk with you for awhile?” Gentle patting may turn the person’s attention toward you and reduce the hallucination.
   
9. Also look for reasons or feelings behind the hallucination and try to find out what the hallucination means to the individual. For example, you might want to respond with words such as these: “It sounds as if you’re worried” or “I know this is frightening for you.”
   
10. Use distraction — Suggest that the person come with you on a walk or sit next to you in another room. Frightening hallucinations often subside in well-lit areas where other people are present. You might also try to turn the person’s attention to a favorite activity, such as listening to music, drawing, looking at a photo album or counting coins.
    
11. Respond honestly— Keep in mind that the person may sometimes ask you about the hallucination. For example, “Do you see him?” You may want to answer with words such as these: “I know that you see something, but I don’t see it.” In this way, you’re not denying what the person sees or hears or getting involved in an argument.
    
12. Assess the reality of the situation — Ask the person to point to the area where he or she sees or hears something. Glare from a window may look like snow to the person, and dark squares on tiled floor may look like dangerous holes.
    
13. Modify the environment — If the person looks at the kitchen curtains and sees a face, you may be able to remove, change or close the curtains.
    Check the surroundings for noises that might be misinterpreted, for lighting that casts shadows, or for glare, reflections or distortions from the surfaces of floors, walls and furniture. If the person insists that he or she sees a strange person in the mirror, cover up the mirror or take it down. It’s also possible that the person doesn’t recognize his or her own reflection. Turn on more lights to reduce shadows that could look scary to your loved one.
    
14. Hallucinations are very real to the person you care for. You can ease feelings of fear by using words that are calm, gentle and reassuring.
    

Warmly………David

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Hallucinations Part 2 of 3 — Types of hallucinations?

Hallucinations Part 1 — What are hallucinations?

Hallucinations Part 2 — Types of hallucinations?

Hallucinations Part 3 — How to handle hallucinations

Types

Hallucinations are categorized according to which sensory modality is involved and, in addition, are categorized as either mood-congruent or mood-incongruent. The types of hallucinations are:

• Auditory: The false perception of sound, music, noises, or voices. Hearing voices when there is no auditory stimulus is the most common type of auditory hallucination in mental disorders. The voice may be heard either inside or outside one’s head and is generally considered more severe when coming from outside one’s head. The voices may be male or female, recognized as the voice of someone familiar or not recognized as familiar, and may be critical or positive. In mental disorders such as schizophrenia, however, the content of what the voices say is usually unpleasant and negative. In schizophrenia, a common symptom is to hear voices conversing and/or commenting. When someone hears voices conversing, they hear two or more voices speaking to each other (usually about the person who is hallucinating). In voices commenting, the person hears a voice making comments about his or her behavior or thoughts, typically in the third person (such as, "isn’t he silly"). Sometimes the voices consist of hearing a "running commentary" on the person’s behavior as it occurs ("she is showering"). Other times, the voices may tell the person to do something (commonly referred to as "command hallucinations").
• Gustatory: A false perception of taste. Usually, the experience is unpleasant. For instance, an individual may complain of a persistent taste of metal. This type of hallucination is more commonly seen in some medical disorders (such as epilepsy) than in mental disorders.
• Olfactory hallucination: A false perception of odor or smell. Typically, the experience is very unpleasant. For example, the person may smell decaying fish, dead bodies, or burning rubber. Sometimes, those experiencing olfactory hallucinations believe the odor emanates from them. Olfactory hallucinations are more typical of medical disorders than mental disorders.
• Somatic/tactile hallucination: A false perception or sensation of touch or something happening in or on the body. A common tactile hallucination is feeling like something is crawling under or on the skin (also known as formication). Other examples include feeling electricity through one’s body and feeling like someone is touching one’s body but no one is there. Actual physical sensations stemming from medical disorders (perhaps not yet diagnosed) and hypochondriacal preoccupations with normal physical sensations, are not thought of as somatic hallucinations.
• Visual hallucination: A false perception of sight. The content of the hallucination may be anything (such as shapes, colors, and flashes of light) but are typically people or human-like figures. For example, one may perceive a person standing before them when no one is
• there. Sometimes an individual may experience the false perception of religious figure (such as the devil, or Christ). Perceptions that would be considered normal for an individual’s religion or culture are not considered hallucinations.
• Mood-congruent hallucination: Any hallucination whose content is consistent with either the depressive or manic state the person may be in at the time. Depressive themes include guilt, death, disease, personal inadequacy, and deserved punishment. Manic themes include inflated self-worth, power, knowledge, skills, and identity and a special relationship with a famous person or deity. For example, a depressed person may hear voices saying that he or she is a horrible person, whereas a manic person may hear voices saying that he or she is an incredibly important person.
• Mood-incongruent hallucination: Any hallucination whose content is not consistent with either the depressed or manic state the person is in at the time, or is mood-neutral. For example, a depressed person may experience hallucinations without any themes of guilt, death, disease, personal inadequacy, or deserved punishment. Similarly, a manic person may experience hallucinations without any themes of inflated self-worth, power, knowledge, skills, or identity or a special relationship to a famous person or deity.

                                                                                                          –William Osler

Warmly………David

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Hallucinations Part 1 of 3 — What are hallucinations?

Hallucinations Part 1 — What are hallucinations?

Hallucinations Part 2 — Types of hallucinations?

Hallucinations Part 3 — How to handle hallucinations

Understanding the difference between hallucinations and delusions is important. A delusion is defined as a false idea, sometimes originating in a misinterpretation of a situation. For example, when individuals with dementia have a delusion, they think that family members are stealing from them or that the police are following them.

A hallucination is a false perception occurring without any identifiable external stimulus and indicates an abnormality in perception. The false perceptions can occur in any of the five sensory modalities. Therefore, a hallucination essentially is seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling, or smelling something that is not there. The false perceptions are not accounted for by the person’s religious or cultural background, and the person experiencing hallucinations may or may not have insight into them. Therefore, some people experiencing hallucinations may be aware that the perceptions are false, whereas others may truly believe that what they are seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling, or smelling is real. In cases when the person truly believes the hallucination is real, the individual may also have a delusional interpretation of the hallucination.

Hallucinations must be distinguished from illusions, which are misperceptions of actual external stimuli. In other words, an illusion is essentially seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling, or smelling something that is there, but perceiving it or interpreting it incorrectly. An example of an illusion might be hearing one’s name called when the radio is playing. There is an external auditory stimulus, but it is misperceived. True hallucinations do not include false perceptions that occur while dreaming, while falling asleep, or while waking up. Unusual perceptual experiences one may have while falling asleep are referred to as hypnagogic experiences. Unusual perceptual experiences one may have while waking up are referred to as hypnopompic experiences. Hallucinations also do not include very vivid experiences one may have while fully awake (such as especially vivid daydreaming or imaginative play).

Hallucinations are a symptom of either a medical (e.g., epilepsy), neurological, or mental disorder. Hallucinations may be present in any of the following mental disorders: psychotic disorders (including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, schizophreniform disorder, shared psychotic disorder, brief psychotic disorder, substance-induced psychotic disorder), bipolar disorder, major depression with psychotic features, delirium, or dementia. Auditory hallucinations, in particular, are common in psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.

Use of certain recreational drugs may induce hallucinations, including amphetamines and cocaine, hallucinogens (such as lysergic acid diethylamide or LSD), phencyclidine (PCP), and cannabis or marijuana. For example, visual hallucinations are commonly associated with substance use. Individuals may report false perceptions of little people or animals (sometimes referred to as Lilliputian hallucinations). In addition, withdrawal from some recreational drugs can produce hallucinations, including withdrawal from alcohol, sedatives, hypnotics, or anxiolytics. Withdrawal from alcohol, for instance, commonly causes visual hallucinations, especially at nighttime.

 

"We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from life."

                                                                                                          –William Osler

Warmly………David

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It’s Brain Awareness Week!

It’s Brain Awareness Week!

March 16th – 22nd

Brain Awareness Week is a worldwide celebration of the brain and advances in neuroscience research that takes place every year in March. It’s also a great time to get smart about your brain and how to keep it healthy!

What do I think about embryonic stem cell research?

Embryonic stem cells, as their name suggests, are derived from embryos. Specifically, embryonic stem cells are derived from embryos that develop from eggs that have been fertilized in vitro—in an in vitro fertilization clinic—and then donated for research purposes with informed consent of the donors. They are not derived from eggs fertilized in a woman’s body. (In vitro fertilization—A technique that unites the egg and sperm in a laboratory, instead of inside the female body).

Any condition in which there is tissue degeneration can be a potential candidate for stem cell therapies, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury, lung disease, stroke, burns, heart disease, Type 1 diabetes, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, Lou Gehrig’s disease, muscular dystrophies, sickle cell anemia, liver diseases, cancer, multiple sclerosis, hundreds of rare immune system, genetic disorders and organ failure.

Arguments for embryonic stem cell research

• Stem cell transplants already save lives everyday.  Between 100 and 150 million people in the United States suffer from diseases who could also benefit from potentially treatment with stem-cell-derived therapies.
• Bone marrow transplants transfer tens of thousands of cells of many different kinds to a patient, most critically this procedures transfers hematopoietic (adult blood) stem cells.  Hematopoietic stem cell transplants routinely save the lives of people with diseases such as leukemia, lymphoma, and immune deficiencies.
• Embryos created at the request, and financial and emotional costs of couples attempting to conceive should have full rights to decide what to do with unused embryos — even permit them to be used to stem cell harvesting and research.  The idea of having their "baby" defrosted on a lab surface to die, rather than contribute to the "good of mankind" has been a spoken issue for parents whose embryos fate was decided for them.
• Without private business and investors willing to take risks, we would have fewer medications, treatments, and technology than we have available to us today.  There would be less competition to find better and more affordable ways to manage disease.  To demonize the privatization of stem cell research is unfounded:  even government and "not-for-profit" science still must generate success in order to receive continued funding and recognition.  The notion that simply because a business seeks to make a profit makes it incapable of ethical practices and abiding by government regulations is like saying just because you work for a paycheck — for personal profit — that you will not be a good employee.  Money is not evil, and not all those skilled in business lack morals and ethics.  Look at Bill and Melinda Gates, Lee Iococa, or many of the other successful businesses that give back generously.
• The stage at which human embryos are harvested (the blastocyst stage) occurs about 5-7 days after conception.  At this point in development, the blastocyst consists only of a mass of cells and a personal identity as not yet been decided.  From a biological point of view, this is still a stage of human cells, not of a human.  Cells are the building blocks that differentiate (specialize) to form organs, tissues and systems.  These things are what make up a human.  Cells that have not even formed into organs are tissues are pre-human, at best.
• The Catholic Church states that life begins at conception.  They also state that life is chosen by God and therefore prohibit the use of any birth control — even the rhythm method.  They teach that the use of birth control keeps a person from being born.  Do we then need to address the rights ofeggs or sperm being denied a chance at life when a couple decides to use birth control?
• The Catholic Church also (currently) forbids the use of condoms — even between married couples when one partner may be HIV infected.  Not all religious decisions intended to "save" lives do just that.  Some "moral" proclamations, like forbidding condoms, actually result in the loss of life.
• Cord blood, and adult stem cells are older cells.  They grow more slowly than do embryonic stem cells, and are harder to isolate.  While embryonic cells have almost unlimited potential to differentiate, adult stem cells do not, and not all adult stem cells have yet been isolated for all tissues of the body.
• Adult stem cells are often only present in very small quantities.  Embryonic stem cells are more plentiful, easier to identify, isolate, purify, and are not only more plastic (easier to manipulate) that are also easier to grow.
• In order to use adult stem cells, they must be isolated and grown in sufficient quantity for treatment.  Adult stem cells are fewer, reproduce slower, and it is therefore more difficult to grow the quantity needed — more difficult and more costly.  For persons suffering from acute disorders, stem cell therapy from a patient’s own adult stem cells might not be able to be generated quickly enough to help the patient.
• Adult stem cells are not the best choice for treating diseases that are genetically based:  the adult stem cells would probably also contain the same genetic defect and therefore, could not be used for treatment.
• Adult stem cells also have more DNA structural abnormalities.  Daily living can cause DNA changes that would result in less certain "quality" of stem cells.  Even exposure to sunlight, toxins in food and the environment can damage DNA.  As a person ages, there are also naturally occurring changes (errors) in DNA replication as part of the aging process.
• Using embryos may not always be necessary, but may prove a more expedient way to find appropriate and alternative approaches using adult stem cells.  Already, several scientists have developed new harvesting and stem cell technologies that do not require destruction of an embryonic cell.
• The NIH defines stem cell lines as: "Stem cells which have been cultured under in vitro conditions that allow proliferation without differentiation for months to years."  There are currently many adult stem cell lines (e.g., hematopoietic stem cells) and there are presently 78 embryonic stem cell lines) from IVF embryos around the world. But scientists want more embryonic stem cell lines because the existing ones cannot be used in people.  Many are not good quality, and because they are grown on mouse tissue they might transmit animal viruses.
• The class of stem cells called pluripotent, meaning the cells have the potential to develop into almost all of the more than 200 different known cell types. Stem cells with this unique property come from embryos and fetal tissue.  Stem cells in adult tissues do not appear to have the same capacity to differentiate as do embryonic stem cells or embryonic germ cells.  When undifferentiated embryonic stem cells are injected into mice, benign tumors form.  For this reason, scientists do not anticipate that undifferentiated embryonic stem cells will be used for transplants or other therapeutic applications.

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Arguments against embryonic stem cell research

• The first tenet of ethics asks us to consider this responsibility:  to do what is right and shun what is wrong.  Although what is "right" and what is "wrong" is subjective, there are many that feel strongly that to take a life, any life, even that of an embryo, is inherently wrong.  And even those in favor of embryonic stem cell harvesting, may offer the argument that the end justifies the means.  Those that use this argument, are in essence, agreeing that the killing of embryos takes place.  They simply place a higher value of life on those already born, than for those unborn.  Who are we to decide whose life is more important?
• The deliberate destruction of human life cannot be justified even with the goal of saving another life.  Who speaks for the embryo?  It is different to offer up one’s own life from being offered for sacrificed without a say.  Harvesting stem cells from embryos results in death of the embryo — a life is sacrificed without a choice.
• To say that an embryo in the blastocyst stage, a point in development where neither a human identity nor capacity to feel or think is yet present diminishes the value of life.  In less than nine months, any embryo has the potential to grow into an organism that will have emotions, thoughts, feelings, and needs.  In fact, this ability occurs months before actually being born.
• To say that simply because a person lacks self-awareness, or the ability to feel or process feelings is invalid.  Persons who are comatose also lack these abilities but we don’t kill them.  There are forms of mental illness and personality disorders that make it impossible for a person to experience normal awareness, emotion or feeling.  We do not execute people simply because that lack, or lost, an ability to partake in daily life activities with personal meaning or awareness.
• Frozen embryos will eventually die (or be discarded, resulting in death).  This does not warrant an excuse to kill them prematurely. Everyone dies eventually, but in the United States it is still illegal to assist a person in suicide (premeditated, premature death). Even those incarcerated for life are entitled to the natural course of death.
• Funding is limited when it comes to research.  So far, the use of embryonic stem cells is expensive, difficult, and controversial. Funding for research should be funneled into adult stem cell research which has already produced encouraging breakthroughs and would result in the ability to help others without killing embryos.
• Adult stem cell research has already been shown to have potential.  If adult stem cells can be used, it would negate the need to create embryos for the purpose of research or treatment.  Using adult stem cells eliminates the potential "market" nightmare of persons that would by or sell eggs to create embryos.  A black market already exists for selling body organs.  What is to stop a black market developing for selling embryos as well?
• As the U.S. government severely limits funding and restrictions on human cloning and stem cell research.  Already, many of the cell lines available for research currently belong to private companies.  A major hallmark of any business is to be profitable.  Private industry may put profit ahead of principle and public opinion and vote will have minimal impact on the privatization of stem cell research ethics.
• There are many in the scientific community that believe the potential benefits of embryonic stem cells are still a long way off in the future.  Should we continue to invest time, money and human suffering in an avenue that may not even prove to be the best or only way to find new treatments for devastating disease?
• The destruction of human embryos for research is morally repugnant to many individuals, human rights advocates, as well as to influential religious groups including the Catholic Church and Christian fundamentalists.  These voices, when united, may have the power to limit, or halt certain research.  So does it make sense to invest in something that may not be able to stand up to public opinion?
• Unused or unwanted embryos left over from couples who underwent in vitro fertilization does not make an embryo less human, or less entitled to rights.  If only humans who are "wanted’ had rights, where does that leave children placed for adoption, the homeless in society, the institutionalized, or those "stashed" in nursing home facilities?  Even those incarcerated have certain rights.
• Immune rejection, when the body detects and rejects what it perceives as "foreign" invaders is a potential problem when using embryonic stem cells because the cells.  Using adult stem cells from the same person in need of treatment (using one’s own stem cells) would eliminate the need for anti-rejection drugs which can have serious side effects.
• The Nuremberg Code specifically states that "voluntary consent is absolutely essential" in medical research.  It strictly prohibits experimentation that causes injury, disability or a person’s death.  Any practice that results in injury or death to a human embryo violates this code.
• There are plenty of people willing, and actively "adopting" unwanted embryos.  By placing embryos for adoption we offer children a chance to be born and more couples to become parents.
• Once we open "Pandora’s Box" what is to stop science from taking embryos and growing them into babies to be harvested for organs, tissues, or simply for research purposes?  If supporters of stem cell research do not believe life begins until late-pregnancy or birth, and that until a baby is born has no rights, there may be other moral lines too easily crossed.

My thoughts on embryonic stem cell research

1.  If it is true that life begins at conception, then it is only fair to completely abolish in vitro fertilization.  (I don’t see objections to this from opposers to embryonic stem cell research). How can they have it both ways? Since embryos are created knowing that most will never survive and those unused will either be frozen or thrown away.  If using am embryo for research is "killing" then why is it not killing to discard embryos, or implant 2 or 3 at a time in hope that even 1 will survive?

2.  How can something which is frozen be considered life?

 

Yes, I do believe in the arguments for embryonic stem cell research.

 

Warmly………David

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Gardening Said to Improve Quality of Life for Alzheimer’s Patients

This is certainly an interesting article following on the heels of our weekend shopping spree for trees, flowers and plants. We ended up buying 9 trees, a golden raspberry bush, a blueberry bush, herb seeds, hostas, and tons of other flower and wildflower seeds. We plan to start working outside tomorrow. I find playing around with veggies, plants and flowers to be quite invigorating. I can fully appreciate this article. Ah, yes. We’re still not done…..as soon as the weather breaks, then we get quite a few day lilies to plant as well.

Gardening Said to Improve Quality of Life for Alzheimer’s Patients
Mar 06, 2009
Kenny Goldberg

There is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia that affect the elderly. Mental health professionals believe there are activities that can enhance quality of life. One therapy uses gardening as a way to improve patient’s moods and decrease problem behaviors. KPBS Health Reporter Kenny Goldberg has the story.

(Photo: Horticulture therapist Kathleen Brand helps patients shape up the planters. Kenny Goldberg/KPBS)

It’s late morning on the senior behavioral health unit at UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest. Horticulture therapist Kathleen Brand tries to gather her charges.

“Would you like to come with us to the garden?, ” Brand says to a patient. “Outside, we’re going to go for a walk. Uh huh, a walk. Would you like to come? I can help you? Go for a walk?”

Twice a week, patients on this unit are invited to go outside and do some gardening.  Occupational therapist Elizabeth Refn says there are always some patients who don’t really want to go.

“So sometimes we need to make a deal with people about going outside, says Refn.

“Sometimes juice or ice cream works quite well. Is that right? What would make you want to come with us today?”

Finally, Brand and Refn manage to convince patients to come along. The group shuffles to the elevator, goes down to the ground floor, and walks out into the sunshine. This outdoor patio has a number of small planters and raised flower beds. Brand lays out the agenda.

(Photo: The patients’ work is on display in the senior behavioral health unit. Kenny Goldberg/KPBS)

“All right,” says Brand. “We have a couple of different projects we’re gonna work on today, we have some planting, we have this empty planter here. Then we’re gonna do some deadheading of any of our dead flowers, and then I also would like to make some plant markers.”

Some patients just sit around blinking in the bright sun. One man takes a pen and starts to make some labels. Two patients eagerly grab some trowels and plants, and start to dig.

“Oh, this kills my wrist,” says Alice.

Alice is small and frail. Doctors say she has dementia and short term memory loss. But when she touches the soil, old memories come flooding back.

“I had a huge yard,” says Alice. “33 trees, 24 rose bushes, we had a big, big, big yard. Apricot, and a fig, and a lemon and a lime. And we were on a steep hill. I kept falling, but luckily it was dirt.”

Horticulture therapy is not a new invention. It’s been around for centuries. In fact, it’s long been thought gardens have beneficial effects on people with mental illness.

Only recently has horticulture therapy been subject to the rigors of modern behavioral science.

Dr. Christina Gigliotti was one of the first to publish research on the effects of horticulture therapy on patients who have dementia.

“What we have found in our research,” says Gigliotti, “is that people in horticulture activities compared to other types of activities that are traditionally offered, were more productively engaged, that is they engaged in the activity that was presented to them, rather than staring off into space, rather than wandering around the room, rather than doing some behaviors we would call self-stimulating behaviors.”

(Photo: Kathleen Brand clears out some excess flowers. Kenny Goldberg/KPBS)

Gigliotti says she found dementia patients reacted more positively to horticulture therapy than to other activities like coloring. She believes it’s because gardening is inherently stimulating.

Plants are able to stimulate the sense of smell, the tactile experience as well as the visual interest,” Gigliotti says. “So if somebody has deficits, there’s still something for them in terms of the sensory experience. In addition, it’s something that is able to capitalize on people’s social histories.”

UCSD staff say patients seem to sleep better and are less agitated after a session in the garden.

Gigliotti says her research has found some short term effects from horticulture therapy. The long term benefits, if any, have not been measured.

Kenny Goldberg, KPBS News.

“This is lantana, that’s what this is called,” Brand says. “It has these gorgeous little flower clusters. Butterflies like this plant. See how little it is? And now feel this leaf.”

Warmly………David

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