Ideas to Incorporate in an Alzheimer’s Memory Book

As we age and get older, there are many different things we like to accomplish or take care of. Things such as traveling, spending more time with loved ones, and even taking care of our possessions. Estate planning is essential for those that want to provide for their family and friends, especially before one’s health declines. Failure to do so may result in delay for family members and costly court fees.

For those living with Alzheimer’s, it is hard to accomplish all the things that were planned. However, a memory book of how life was like is a wonderful asset for recentering and refocusing. A curated book of past memories is a great activity for reminiscing. Caregivers and home health aides who are interested in creating a memory book can easily make one with the following concepts.

1. Family Members

A great addition to a memory book is a beloved family member. Add photos of the member with simple captions that categorize their name and relationship. If the family member has passed away, and your elderly individual is cognizant of this passing, you can still put them in.

2. Homes (Past and Present)

Nothing triggers a more visceral reaction than a photo of a previous home! If you have access to photos of an old home, this would make a great addition to a memory book. Try and find detailed photos that will trigger a fond memory. Look for photos that include an old tire swing, treehouse, or beloved childhood bedroom. Your goal is to foster a conversation that will allow your loved one to freely associate memories.

3. Old jobs

Another great addition to a memory book are tokens of an old job. This could be a photo of an old workplace, an employee ID, or the embossing of an old uniform. Try to gather all of the stimuli in one place, to allow your loved one a solid foundation for jumping off of.

4. Furry friends

There is nothing better than the memory of a beloved pet! Gather together photos and supplement a collar, chew toy, etc. If your loved one is in a later stage of Alzheimer’s and cannot differentiate the memory of a pet that has passed away and the present moment, it may be best to omit this. As with everything, use discretion and tailor the book to your loved one’s needs!

5. A favorite food

For many of us, our history lies in the food we eat. Nothing can bring us back to a memory more than the smell of a favorite snack or dinner. Although you cannot incorporate a full meal into a book, you can always incorporate more ideas. Take photos of the ingredients; incorporate the dish that it was traditionally served in; you can even invest in a scratch and sniff to trigger fond memories!

Healthy Foods Associated with Living Longer

When it comes to living longer, you are what you eat! According to science, incorporating healthful and nutritious eating habits can add years to a life. Although there is no miracle cure that can prolong life, there is a direct correlation between longevity and healthier living.

For those seniors looking to make the most out of their golden years, here are five healthy foods associated with living longer! These are also great for home health aids, to know so that they can cook well for their patients. 

1. Whole Grains

Whole grains are a treasure trove of energy production. They include ample amounts of iron, magnesium, and vitamin B. All of these molecules coalesce in a healthful boost of energy to keep seniors active throughout the day. Even more so, they also can help reduce inflammation and lower bad cholesterol. 

When looking for whole grains, home health aides and caregivers should search for products like barley, brown rice, corn, quinoa, and wheat. 

2. Leafy Greens

Our parents were right: we’ve got to eat our greens! Dark leafy greens are especially dense in nutrition. Heavily dosed with Vitamin K, they can aid in the reduction of bone fragility. 

Leafy greens can help keep the brain sharp throughout the process of aging. In fact, a study reported by the National Institute of Aging found that seniors who eat one serving of green leafy vegetables per day underwent slower age-related cognitive decline. 

3. Salmon

For seniors, eating salmon is a great way to prolong longevity. Rife with Omega 3 fats, salmon has been directly correlated with healthy aging. This could be because Omega 3s can facilitate improved circulation, better heart health, and neurological wellbeing. Salmon is also lower in mercury than other fish, making it a safer diet choice for aging loved ones. 

4. Legumes

Beans are so much more than musical fruit! These legumes are packed with fiber, which aid in jumpstarting older digestive systems. They have loads of healthful vitamins and iron. Beans also provide the same protein amounts as red meat, without including the bad cholesterol. This all coalesce to make legumes a great addition to any senior diet!

5. Cruciferous Vegetables

Cruciferous vegetables are akin to crunchy vegetables. These are veggies such as broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, and cauliflower. The compounds that make up these vegetables are believed to protect cell degradation. This cell degradation can be seen on every sphere: be it protecting from bacterias, viruses, or inflammation. Cruciferous vegetables are even believed to help prevent certain cancers!

Do not hesitate to give this list to anyone you know who is caring for an elderly person. It is important to eat well to have good health and continue functioning well. A good diet and physical therapy can help keep a person feeling young for a long time. 

Inherent Dangers of Motorcycle Accidents

Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Auto accidents are all serious in their own way, but motorcycle accidents are typically more dangerous than others. One-third of motorcycle accidents are caused by other drivers on the road, so even if you are committed to safety, you could get injured while on a ride. Why are motorcycle accidents so dangerous?

Motorcycles Don’t Offer the Same Protection

Think about the structure of a car compared to the structure of a motorcycle. In a car, you are encased by a metal frame that protects you when you are in an accident. On a motorcycle, there is nothing that protects you. You receive the brunt of the crash. Cars also have other safety features such as seatbelts and airbags, and you won’t find those on a motorcycle. 

Motorcycles Don’t Have the Same Braking Power

Braking on four wheels often comes with more control than braking on two wheels. The brake system of a car is going to be stronger than the brake system of a motorcycle. When a motorcyclist slams on the brakes, the cyclist is often thrust into a spin or a slide that results in more serious injuries. Riders also get thrown off their bikes quite often when braking too quickly. 

In some cases, the motorcycle brakes are simply faulty, and that can happen in a car as well. Unfortunately, when a motorcycle has faulty brakes, the results are often more severe than when a car has faulty brakes.

Motorcycles Don’t Offer the Same Control

The steering capability of a car is also a lot stronger than the steering capability of a motorcycle. If a motorcyclist gets startled by something, that small action can result in a big accident because the steering is so sensitive. Drivers of cars often have more slack when they are startled on the road, so they don’t crash as often for those same reasons.

Motorcycles Don’t Get Seen as Often

Unfortunately, too many drivers are quick to look for large vehicles when changing lanes or making other driving maneuvers, but they are slow to look for motorcycles. It can be easy for a driver to miss a motorcycle that is passing in a blind spot, but if drivers would take just 20 more seconds, there are many accidents that could be avoided. Cars and trucks are much easier to see.

Getting Legal Representation After an Accident

If you are injured in a motorcycle accident, you deserve legal representation offered by a qualified motorcycle accident lawyer like one from Davis & Brusca, LLC. Regardless of why your accident happened, you could be entitled to compensation. Contact a motorcycle accident lawyer today.

Types of Physical Therapy Intervention for Traumatic Brain Injury

After a traumatic injury, you may have loss of movement and strength. However physical therapy can actually help you, because physical therapy helps individuals with their mobility via various targeted interventions to the areas that they’re having issues with. And of course the primary goal of physical therapy for someone with a traumatic brain injury is to regain independence, and you need to be able to move independently to truly have independence.

The brain is very malleable in some ways. One of those ways is called neuro- plasticity, and this is the central nervous system’s ability to re-circuit the brain. So repetitively performing a behavior is going to be able to help your brain to figure out what way to categorize the movement in the brain. If there is a part of the brain that is not functioning correctly, then your brain may use neuroplasticity to recategorize that movement to an entirely new part of the brain.

Practicing weakened movements helps to reinforce the demand for that movement in your brain and will help to promote neuro-plasticity.

Please reach out to a physical therapy office if you have questions about how physical therapy can help your traumatic brain injury. There is more than just neuro- plasticity that can help after you have a traumatic brain injury. This is not an exhaustive list but it is some of the most common treatments for someone with a TBI working with a physical therapy office, such as the ones available at Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab.

Neuromuscular reeducation is the retraining of the nervous system to get that normal movement that you’re missing. Sadly after a brain injury the relationship that the brain and the muscles in your body have is being disrupted. This means that your brain has to learn how to activate neuroplasticity so that new neural connections can be formed.

Passive exercise is another type of physical therapy process where a therapist is going to move the effect that area for you; and this is done because after a TBI the active area is usually unable to be moved by the person that is experiencing the traumatic brain injury.

Home exercise, because physical therapists do believe that consistent exercise is the key to brain injury rehab, is another way for you to regain function and make a recovery. Your physical therapist is going to encourage you to continue exercising, even if you are not at the clinic. Almost anything can become a physical therapy exercise.

Vestibular training is going to be important when you have balance issues after a physical incident that has left you with a traumatic brain injury. Vestibular training looks something like your therapist performing a series of vision and balance tests, and then they will create a customized exercise plan to address your issue.

Last but not least, gait training and tasks training is important. After a traumatic brain injury you may not know how to walk, you may not know how to do things like picking stuff up. So one of the types of training that you may undergo is relearning the motions before you actually try to walk or hold something.