Comments on: Brain Failure and Brain Fitness: A Farewell to Dementia? http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/08/13/brain-failure-and-brain-fitness-a-farewell-to-dementia/ Brain Fitness and Cognitive Health news Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:58:08 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Margo http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/08/13/brain-failure-and-brain-fitness-a-farewell-to-dementia/comment-page-1/#comment-252687 Margo Mon, 13 Apr 2009 04:06:12 +0000 http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/08/13/brain-failure-and-brain-fitness-a-farewell-to-dementia/#comment-252687 The article is helpful. My great-grandmother lived at home with Alzheimer's until 89, then into a nursing home for the last two years of her life. 'Second childhood' certainly sounds warmer, and hopefully more optimistic than demented or senile. I particularly appreciate the concept that we can work with people having dementias and continue to engage in meaningful care. Good news, indeed! The article is helpful. My great-grandmother lived at home with Alzheimer’s until 89, then into a nursing home for the last two years of her life. ‘Second childhood’ certainly sounds warmer, and hopefully more optimistic than demented or senile. I particularly appreciate the concept that we can work with people having dementias and continue to engage in meaningful care. Good news, indeed!

]]> By: stark http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/08/13/brain-failure-and-brain-fitness-a-farewell-to-dementia/comment-page-1/#comment-182578 stark Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:32:42 +0000 http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/08/13/brain-failure-and-brain-fitness-a-farewell-to-dementia/#comment-182578 i think you make a terrific point here that what we choose to call it, and what connotations that evokes for sufferers and their families, is a tremendously important issue in this disease. and i applaud you for opening a discussion of the issue. i am in this situation now with my grandmother, who recently stopped being able to live independently. i find myself at a loss with how to cope with my own sadness at what she's going through, which is making me even less able to help her -- especially since i dont have a mental image of how, and i think that has a lot to do with the framing of "dementia" culturally, as basically synonymous with "doom." i will agree with the poster above that "brain failure," for me a as a non-medically trained person, is not neccesarily helpful to me in approaching what's happening to my grandma. while i understand the analogy to "heart failure" -- the word "failure" still sounds just as doomed in everyday parlance, whereas i know its more specific and precise in medicine. what would you think about a term i haven't heard used in a long time, "second childhood?" or a variation on that somehow. because, childhood isnt something you cure, which for me as the family member, i cant do for what my grandma is undergoing. but, depending on how others treat you, you can have a happy childhood or an unhappy one. what do you think? i think you make a terrific point here that what we choose to call it, and what connotations that evokes for sufferers and their families, is a tremendously important issue in this disease. and i applaud you for opening a discussion of the issue. i am in this situation now with my grandmother, who recently stopped being able to live independently. i find myself at a loss with how to cope with my own sadness at what she’s going through, which is making me even less able to help her — especially since i dont have a mental image of how, and i think that has a lot to do with the framing of “dementia” culturally, as basically synonymous with “doom.”

i will agree with the poster above that “brain failure,” for me a as a non-medically trained person, is not neccesarily helpful to me in approaching what’s happening to my grandma. while i understand the analogy to “heart failure” — the word “failure” still sounds just as doomed in everyday parlance, whereas i know its more specific and precise in medicine.

what would you think about a term i haven’t heard used in a long time, “second childhood?” or a variation on that somehow. because, childhood isnt something you cure, which for me as the family member, i cant do for what my grandma is undergoing. but, depending on how others treat you, you can have a happy childhood or an unhappy one.

what do you think?

]]> By: Paul http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/08/13/brain-failure-and-brain-fitness-a-farewell-to-dementia/comment-page-1/#comment-179587 Paul Fri, 15 Aug 2008 07:35:07 +0000 http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/08/13/brain-failure-and-brain-fitness-a-farewell-to-dementia/#comment-179587 Instead of Brain Failure, I suggest Brain Insufficiency or Brain Dysfunction Instead of Brain Failure, I suggest Brain Insufficiency or Brain Dysfunction

]]> By: jane http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/08/13/brain-failure-and-brain-fitness-a-farewell-to-dementia/comment-page-1/#comment-179540 jane Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:20:12 +0000 http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/08/13/brain-failure-and-brain-fitness-a-farewell-to-dementia/#comment-179540 Yes, good doctor you are on target Unless you have experienced a parent with dementia, you would not fully understand what lies within the lack of brain function...yet, in my eyes, we need to address the brain function which is still alive...one which says..what is wrong, I am sorry for acting this way..violent and incoherent and scared all wrapped up in one breath...it is the live brain that is the problem at this point America is beginning to come to terms with this illness. But, to institutionalize? NO that is not the answer. We need trained indidiuals to help with home care...the hospice team to recogognize this it terminal. Maybe not soon enough for them, but it is a fatal disease; one in which they do not die from. The brain will stop the heart or kidneys first and the death will be ill... I can go on...but the ones dealing with the patient are the ones who are troubled. Please write about that ...the family..the search for help, the inablitly to pay high prices for good ...and i mean good nursing care... help those of us who are trying and taking on two jobs..to help one ill dementia patient who still has a living part of her brain and is in distress..thanks jane Yes, good doctor you are on target Unless you have experienced a parent with dementia, you would not fully understand what lies within the lack of brain function…yet, in my eyes, we need to address the brain function which is still alive…one which says..what is wrong, I am sorry for acting this way..violent and incoherent and scared all wrapped up in one breath…it is the live brain that is the problem at this point America is beginning to come to terms with this illness. But, to institutionalize? NO that is not the answer. We need trained indidiuals to help with home care…the hospice team to recogognize this it terminal. Maybe not soon enough for them, but it is a fatal disease; one in which they do not die from. The brain will stop the heart or kidneys first and the death will be ill… I can go on…but the ones dealing with the patient are the ones who are troubled. Please write about that …the family..the search for help, the inablitly to pay high prices for good …and i mean good nursing care… help those of us who are trying and taking on two jobs..to help one ill dementia patient who still has a living part of her brain and is in distress..thanks jane

]]>