A Big Win for Alzheimer's!

The Alzheimer’s Association will receive $1.5 million from American Express to begin an education campaign highlighting the importance of early detection among physicians and the general public. This is a positive step toward helping those who go undiagnosed for many years, losing valuable time that could be spent planning for the future and starting treatment.

Funds from the American Express Members Project will enable the Alzheimer's Association to:

• Collaborate with other health leaders to get the word out and combine resources.
• Engage people with Alzheimer's to be advocates, allowing them to spread awareness about the importance of early detection.
• Increase public education about early detection via paid advertising, public relations and other forms of proactive communications.
• Promote participation in clinical trials of groundbreaking treatments.
• Empower those who suspect they may have Alzheimer's to find the help and hope they need.
• Educate physicians about the 10 Warning Signs® and patient support services.

Find out how you can stay involved with the Alzheimer's Association and this critical cause by visiting actionalz.org.

Reflections, Suggestions, & Seed Thought

Reflections
Understand how natural it is for a wide range of feelings to arise: numbness, denial, sadness, dread, despair, fear, grief, anger, and so on. Each of us has different ways of handling our feelings, but we care for our health and well-being when we open to their intensity. Be gentle and nonjudgemental with yourself, your spouse, and others when strong feelings arise; acceptance is a gradual process.

Suggestions
Is there any one person who stands out for your who might be an ally for you? This person might be a family member, friend, wise elder, minister, rabbi, or teacher.

Seed Thought
May I accept the surprises of this illness.

World Alzheimer's Day is Sunday, September 21, 2008

Did you know that every 71 seconds someone in America develops Alzheimer's?

World Alzheimer's Day, September 21, is a day when Alzheimer's associations around the world concentrate their efforts on raising awareness about Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Currently there are more than 26 million people across the world living with Alzheimer’s and that number will quadruple by 2050.

To find out what you can do to help, please visit http://www.actionalz.org/about_wad.asp.

Memory Walk

The Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk® is the largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer's in the nation. The Memory Walk is occurring September-November 2008 in communities nationwide.

Teams are the heart of Memory Walk - people working together to support the millions affected by Alzheimer's. Team up to have fun, make new friends and support a great cause.

Select a walk near you and register online. You will have access to your very own Web site that you can use as your fundraising headquarters. http://www.alz.org/memorywalk/team.asp

Walk and make a huge impact on helping people living with Alzheimer's!

Reflections, Suggestions, and Seed Thought

Reflections
Accept that the diagnosis, with all its implications, will have a profound impact on your marriage, relationship, or friendship. A diagnosis of Alzheimer's, or any form of dementia, marks a dramatic passage for everyone and naturally brings up strong, unpredictable feelings.

Suggestions
Develop a care plan for the immediate future--perhaps the first six months--because with this illness, circumstances keep changing and the care plan will need to evolve in response. Create a plan that addresses the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of the patient.

Besides the practical advantages of developing a care plan, you can have a strategic discussion about how you hope to handle this illness. What hopes, attitudes, and convictions might you bring to the situation? Are there intentions you could set? Two words that guided us were consciously and lovingly.

Seed Thought
May I remember the positive things that uplift us.

Early Stage Alzheimer's Patients 'Don't Want to be Stigmatized'

According to an article by Mary Brophy Marcus in USA TODAY, being treated with dignity is a universal human need, and perhaps even more so if you have early Alzheimer's disease, a new report indicates.

After a year of listening to the thoughts of more than 300 people diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer's disease, the Alzheimer's Association today releases "Voices of Alzheimer's Disease," which reveals many patients in the early stages of dementia feel they are prematurely perceived as debilitated — even by close friends and relatives.

Those who have early-stage Alzheimer's don't want to be defined by their memory loss or functional decline, says Peter Reed, senior director of programs at the Alzheimer's Association.

"We are seeing a growing trend of people in early Alzheimer's who really retain the capacity to contribute," Reed says. "They don't want to be stigmatized. They are saying, 'We are still vibrant contributing members of the community.' "

About half of the 5.2 million Americans estimated to be living with the disease — a form of dementia that slowly destroys memory and a person's ability to function independently — are in the early stage. The report says top concerns include:

• Frustration with how the stigma and misconceptions affect their relationships.

• Dissatisfaction with the medical community, including difficulties in getting the right diagnosis, treatment and follow-up care.

• A lack of knowledge about the availability of support services.

• The prospect of relying more on friends and family to meet daily needs as memory fails.

• The desire to stay involved.

"These are the voices of our mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers, husbands and wives, and they are telling us that Alzheimer's is a significant but not insurmountable problem," says Michelle Barclay, a gerontologist and vice president of programs at the Alzheimer's Association Minnesota/North Dakota chapter in Minneapolis.

Barclay says the feedback describes situations that communities and care systems can improve.

"Alzheimer's is like a monster under the bed. You have two choices: You can either look under the bed and scope out the monster and see what tools you have to fight him, or you can sit there and wait for him to come. There's so much you can do if you know early on."

Educating the public about early dementia will increase earlier diagnoses and could help boost participation in drug trials, says Samuel Gandy, associate director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. "It will almost certainly be these early-stage patients who will lead the way toward new drugs since they are poised to benefit from them."

The report, Reed says, is "a call on the part of people with early-stage Alzheimer's … to continue to treat them with respect and dignity and help them maintain their personhood and humanity."

Nominate the "Alzheimer's Disease: Early Detection Matters" project today. With your support, it could get funding from American Express!

With just a few clicks, you can help make a huge impact in the fight against Alzheimer's disease.

The American Express Members Project encourages everyone to nominate project ideas that create positive change in the world. The winning project (and associated organization) receives $1.5 million from American Express to fulfill their vision.

Nominate the "Alzheimer's Disease: Early Detection Matters" project today! (Find it in the Health | Education and Outreach section.)

Here's how:

1. Click or paste this link: http://www.membersproject.com/project/view/OGSSPK to the Members Project site in your browser to see the Alzheimer's project.
2. Click "Nominate this project." You will be prompted to log in as a Cardmember or guest.
3. You'll return to the main page. Search for "Alzheimer's Disease: Early Detection Matters" project. There are two ways to find it:

· Search by project ID: Enter OGSSPK into the search box.

· Find the category: The project is under the category "Health | Education and Outreach."

4. Once you get to the project page, confirm that it has project ID: OGSSPK.
5. Click "Nominate the project."

Nominate today and bring us one step closer to a world without Alzheimer's disease!