Having been a caretaker of two people with Alzheimer's, I have spent a combined total of almost 16 years helping to take care of people close to me with this terrible disease. I have seen it consume people to the point where they can no longer function when in their normal, daily lives, they were upbeat, quick thinking and positive people. I have seen it turn my mother from sweet and innocent to physically violent, to sweet again all in the span of a few years. I have seen it turn my grandmother who loved gardening into being docile and depressed constantly; she herself going through a broad spectrum of personalities and demeanors. It is probably one of the most horrific diseases I think one could suffer from because it robs you of literally everything you hold near and dear to you, your memories being the most valuable of them all. I think the most difficult thing for my mother was the fact that she lost total sense of independence. Once she felt like she didn't have the ability to go and do things as she once did, a great deal of depression set in, and it became almost a full time job to help manage that stress for her. This is a disease that is currently ranked as the 6th leading cause of death, and there is absolutely no cure or mostly effective medicine. I wonder when we are going to treat this like the epidemic it is?
It appears as if the first cures or treatments are going to be for early onset, rather than the late stages my mother is suffering from. It is much more likely within the next few years for a cure to come from control groups of clinical trials than the people who are beyond the moderate stages. However, I have been doing a great deal of research almost every single day, and being proactive about maintenance of this disease since she first was diagnosed. You would be very surprised how often I keep getting referred back to spices and herbs. It appears as if a combination of tumeric, sage, oregano, and rosemary are highly effective in staving off some of the sharp decline that happens in late stages, at least in our experience. Now, in now way am I a medical professional, but much like every other caretaker dealing with looking for answers frantically, I have had to do my own research where modern medicine is failing. Either way, you can't go wrong with better nutritional standards, so I don't see a loss in trying this myself. I am keeping my fingers crossed, and I'll keep you up to date with any progress I have come across. Much love to all of you who have had to go through this in one way or another.