Here is Alzheimer's Research UK webpage where you can donate to help find a cure ❤

RICE Alzheimer's Research Institute

Terry died on 12 March 2015, having given his PCA a run for its money.  Open about his diagnosis, he has helped to unlock the secrecy and stigma that often surrounds dementia.  His legion of fans is undoubtedly grateful that despite the inevitable progression of the PCA he was able to fight his ‘embuggerance’ and continue to produce a number of both well-received and well-reviewed books.  Terry was also a great example to me in emphasizing how important it is that, in caring for people with any type of dementia, we always look for what people with a condition like PCA can still do, rather than what they can’t: by maximizing what is possible, a person can still live well with dementia for a significant time.

--Professor Roy Jones, Director of RICE (taken from “Terry Pratchett: His World”)

I wanted to post something for the Glorious 25th about the Research Institute for the Care of Older People (RICE) in Bath, where Sir Terry Pratchett received treatment for Post-Cortical Atrophy, the type of Alzheimer's disease that eventually took his life. From the organization's website:

RICE established one of the first memory clinic services in the UK in 1987 – a service which has since been widely replicated and is now considered standard and best practice by the NHS. In fact, RICE now runs the NHS Memory Clinic in Bath and North East Somerset on behalf of the local clinical commissioning group and local authority through a sub-contract with HCRG Care Group. To date, we’ve assessed, diagnosed, treated and advised 12,000 people with memory problems and their families in our memory clinic. 

Most of RICE’s clinical services and research activities take place in our own purpose built, specialist centre located on the Royal United Hospital site. The building of the RICE Centre was possible as a result of generous donations from major donors, trusts and foundations, and members of the public. RICE moved into the ground and first floor of the centre in 2008. Following the success of the DementiaPlus Appeal and further generous donations from major donors, trusts and foundations and members of the public, RICE converted the attic floor in 2019 to create more office space. This has given us access to much needed additional rooms and offices which will enable us to grow and run more services and activities. We’ve worked hard to ensure that the areas of the centre visited by our patients meets their needs and we regularly receive feedback on how much our patients enjoy their visit to our centre.

RICE not only provides clinical services to patients, but also conducts research into aging and dementia, including performing clinical trials for new drug treatments for memory-related diseases and developing other "techniques for diagnosing, managing, treating and understanding dementia and memory changes in older adults."

Lady Lyn Pratchett is the patron of the organization, and the website includes a page about how people can donate funds or volunteer at the clinic and participate in fundraising events.

SO, if you'd like to help fund Alzheimer's research on this Glorious 25th of May--or at any time--in honor of the Man in the Hat, take a look!

The virus behind the common cold sore could put people at greater risk of Alzheimer's disease. A long-term study of more than a thousand 70-year-olds in Sweden has now found those exposed to the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) face double the risk of developing dementia. The association stuck regardless of the two strongest known predictors of Alzheimer's disease today: age and a genetic variant called APOE-4. The findings are the latest to suggest that some common viral infections may be a neglected source of cognitive decline.

Continue Reading.

Are you the cure of Alzheimer's? Because you're unforgettable.

it sure feels like this is pretty much incontrovertible at this point....

Please help my family

I'm a young autistic and queer mom and my family has been severely struggling for a long time. My boyfriend, the father of our two toddlers, has stage 3 stomach cancer and together we also take care of his disabled mother who has Alzheimer's, diabetes, and a multitude of other conditions.

I'm unable to work rn because my boyfriend works extremely long and varying hours and I have to be here to care for our kids and his mother and we can't afford childcare at all. My boyfriend regularly pulls overtime but we're severely struggling to keep up with our bills and his and his mother's medications.

His mother just started using her last pen of insulin today and it only lasts about a week. Medicare used to cover it but in January they changed things and now we have to pay $75 per box and that is the cheapest possible way we can get it, we have already looked into GoodRX and everything else.

We just paid our rent and most of our bills for this month and we barely have enough money to feed our kids and his mother. We can't afford her insulin and she will die without it.

Please can anyone help us? We desperately need to buy her insulin as soon as possible and we also really need help being able to afford food for the rest of the month.

Anything you can send helps and reblogs are extremely appreciated

P*ypal: [email protected]

V*nmo: jayep7

C*$happ: jayep7

My father's been in the hospital for 12 days with COVID. He's fully vaccinated so he hasn't had breathing problems, but it's weakened him horribly. He's gone from being able to walk, talk some and feed himself to not being able to do any of those things. (With the dementia, rehab isn't an option. He wouldn't do the exercises even if it even if he physically could.)

I just found out my father's going back to the assisted living home, but will be under hospice care. I hope he passes quickly and peacefully. He wouldn't want to live like this, or to have lived through any of the last six years.

you make one joke post about pulling an all-nighter and here comes tumblr's gaggle of unsolicited medical advice enthusiasts passive aggressively telling you to enjoy having alzheimer's or terminal disease or whatever like hey man have you tried talking this way to people in real life and seeing how it turns out for you?

Today's my 31st birthday, and the first one since the passing of someone I was very close to last November.

It's hard, because my aunt hadn't really been there for the past few years - that's the cruelty of early onset Alzheimer's. She was my mom's best friend, but I was closer to her than any of my blood related aunts or uncles. Many of the things I love - writing, art, travel, learning about other cultures - she helped foster in me. She cared about human rights, animal rights and welfare, and equality.

It's hard to not just mourn her, so I try to honor her instead. I'm devastated that I haven't been able to share my adult life with her, but I'm trying to live it in a way I think would make her proud. I'm trying to impact the world around me as positively as she impacted my world.

So, with that in mind, for my birthday, I'd like to encourage you all to do something that matters today. Look for an opportunity to help a neighbor. Donate to a cause you care about, if you can. Tip extra nice at the restaurant. Write a letter or email to a government representative regarding an issue you care about. Doesn't have to be huge, it can be super small, but it might mean the world to someone.

I'll still celebrate my birthday, and I'll still have a good time I'm sure, because I know my Aunt Bette would want me to. She'd want me to continue living my life to its fullest. So, celebrate with me today by making a difference. Together, we can change things for the better.

04-02-24 | 217truckdrivinman. MisterLemonzMen.tumblr.com/archive

Sharing Brains

Brain imaging resource of data collected from individuals genetically inheriting predisposition to Alzheimer's disease provides insight into the onset in the much larger population who develop the disease sporadically and into brain ageing generally

Read the published research paper here

Image from work by Nicole S. McKay and colleagues

The Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Nature Neuroscience, July 2023

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Could ultrasounds be a cure for addiction?

I wish I could use to beat my carb addiction.

Neurosurgeon pioneers Alzheimer's, addiction treatments using ultrasound | 60 Minutes

American neurosurgeon Ali Rezai is pioneering ways to try to help people with drug addiction and with Alzheimer's disease. One experiment focuses beams of ultrasound on the brain.