As you may have read elsewhere, November is National Alzheimer’s Awareness Month. But surely, the public is already well aware of this horrible disease. After all, Alzheimer’s has directly affected approximately one in every two families, and the others must have certainly noted its prominent coverage in the news. We don’t really need more awareness, right?

Wrong.

Some of the information below may surprise you. That's to say, it's information about which you're not presently aware. However, by merely learning the seven facts below, you'll be helping to reduce the Alzheimer’s problem. That’s right…making you aware of this information and encouraging you to share it with your social networks will facilitate a more informed and more effective approach to combating the threat we face from this disease.

First, here are a few facts and figures that you may already know. Alzheimer’s currently affects more than 5 million Americans, and that number is likely to triple by 2050...  Read more

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Let me say straightaway that Alzheimer's isn't funny. And yet… there sure are plenty of moments that make you want to laugh. Or me, anyway.

No doubt dementia is a horrible affliction, in the progressive way it erodes the memories and connectedness of someone you love. But it's exactly that long slow progressiveness, the years of everyday living situations, that present so many opportunities for absurdity and comedy —as well as so much need for stress release. And laughter (even cracking a smile) really is a proven stress reliever with healing benefits.

Many people cringe at the idea of finding anything remotely lighthearted about their dementia stories, and I respect that. Humor is a pretty individual taste, too. The black humor batted heartily around in some families (mine) is seen as distastefully verboten in others.

Before you strafe me with indignant comments over daring to suggest...  Read more

What could be more elementally human than recognizing people -- the loved ones who feature in all your family memories, the friends you wave to on the street, the special face you wake up to every morning? I can't imagine what it must it feel like when Alzheimer's or another dementia turns those once-familiar faces into blanks.

But I well know about being on the receiving end of a blank stare. I've experienced the strange sensation of not being recognized by your own parent.

Intellectually, you understand the day might come. You know it's not unusual that recognizing people will become a challenge for someone with later-stage dementia. But the first time you're called by another name, it jolts. The gulf between you seems to widen.

The first time Dad introduced me as his "sister," my heart sank. It was a confirmation of what I'd long suspected, that he only vaguely got who I was. He seems to register me as family (as opposed to a total stranger), but can't quite place me...  Read more

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Sometimes it's the little things that get you with Alzheimer's. Phone challenges, for example. Difficulty using the telephone is an early sign of Alzheimer's disease. But even once you already know someone has dementia, phone issues can be an ongoing source of trouble.

Any of the following "ring a bell" in your house?

• Not recognizing the voice on the other end.

Before she died at 99, my grandmother's deafness had made our weekly phone calls harder as the years went on. But between my shouting and repeating, we somehow managed to have a talk that made us both feel good. Then sometime in her early 90s, Alzheimer's disease made her less likely to answer a ringing telephone, and when she did, she didn't always understand who I was. Eventually it got too hard, and looking back, was sadly the factor that changed our relationship most.

• Not recognizing the phone.

Another personal story: My siblings and I began to expect the same drill every time we called home...  Read more

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On World Alzheimer's Day, Monday, September 21, most people with Alzheimer's disease won't be able to participate in an Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk. But they directly benefit from events like these being held around the world.

That's because World Alzheimer's Day events are meant not only to raise funds for research but to raise awareness about Alzheimer's and people with Alzheimer's disease. That makes this World Alzheimer's Day an opportunity for each of us to think about what messages we'd like to give to those who aren't yet affected by this living tragedy called Alzheimer's.

So here are three facts about Alzheimer's that I want the whole world to know:

1. Alzheimer's is not an inevitable effect of aging.

Senility doesn't strike everyone; it's a terrible disease. In a generation, much has been done to change this old public misperception. The fitting theme of World Alzheimer's Day this year is "See it Sooner...  Read more

Parents are known to gaze into their babies' eyes and wonder, What's going on in there? Adult children of parents who have Alzheimer's disease or another dementia do the same thing.

I know, because I found myself wondering about my own dad's self awareness just the other day. A recent stroke left him wheelchair-bound. This is a big change for someone who was in a bowling league 'til this spring, at 87. But the stroke also seemed to worsen his dementia. He's living in a rehabilitation facility for now, and when I visit and find him lined up with other wheelchair-bound elders in the dementia unit, watching TV, I can't help thinking that he's doing exactly what he swore he never would: "sit around with a bunch of old people who don't know any better." Thing is, he doesn't seem to mind it.

As Alzheimer's, a progressive disease, worsens, it robs the ability to have conscious awareness. What...  Read more

Feelings outlast facts. That's the key kernel of wisdom behind a fresh approach to dementia care that can make the difference between frustration and contentment for people with Alzheimer's and other forms of cognitive impairment -- and between frustration and understanding for their caregivers.

All of us have an emotional "temperature" that changes minute by minute. People are said to get "hot and bothered," for example, or to be "coolly detached." I know you know how your own impatience rises when you're asked the same question for the thousandth time. Likewise, resentment can simmer when your plans are usurped by your family member's needs. (All perfectly natural, by the way.)

For someone with Alzheimer's disease, emotions outlive the ability of language, memory, and understanding to express them. Working within this truism -- keeping the person's emotional temperature constant -- results in daily life that's mellower and easier...  Read more

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My 87-year-old Dad, who has dementia, had nine visitors recently: his grandchildren, who ranged in age from 4 to 17. Four of my own kids and my six nieces and nephews made a lively parade as they threaded through the halls of the care facility where he's doing stroke rehab. Their chattering and bouncing reminded me that although visiting a nursing care facility can feel unnatural if you're not used to it, in some ways nothing could be more natural than what sometimes happens when life at either end of the spectrum connects.

Grownups, in particular, often find it awkward to spend time with a loved one with Alzheimer's or another form of dementia: What do you say to someone who hasn't followed the news in months or years, who can't remember what he ate for breakfast, who you know will try your patience asking you the same questions or getting stuck on the same anecdote over and over?

Watching...  Read more

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Were you among the thousands last week who raised your evening glass of wine in toast to the news that a daily tipple appears to protect older adults from dementia? Or maybe you were tempted to add vitamin D and the spice turmeric to your diet, with the goal of warding off Alzheimer's, a link suggested by a different new study.

Many an informed, health-conscious caregiver is spurred to action by the latest research. But past studies have also sung the praises of things like avoiding aluminum, the omega 3 fatty acid DHA, and ginko biloba in the fight against Alzheimer's, associations that later didn't seem to hold up.

So which lifestyle tweaks to adopt? That's what I asked Gary Small, director of the UCLA Center on Aging, a psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and prolific author (The Memory Bible, iBrain, The Longevity Bible). Small was just back from the International Conference on Alzheimer...  Read more

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A summer bumper crop of Alzheimer's disease and dementia headlines sprang out of last week's 2009 Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in Vienna, Austria. Some headlines worth highlighting:

Avoiding dementia yourself--what works:

• One more time, it's exercise. More evidence for maintaining or even increasing physical activity throughout life. Sedentary adults had the worse cognitive functioning at the start of one study and fastest rates of decline. Another study showed that the benefit was greatest to people who did not have the apoe-E4 gene type that's linked to the highest risk of developing Alzheimer's.

• Also effective: A heart-healthy diet. Older adults who most closely followed the so-called DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) were least likely to have memory or attention problems or to develop dementia...  Read more