Disclaimer

I am not a doctor. I am providing information based on experiences that my mom has with natural remedies. The purpose of this blog is to help folks to educate themselves. Use this information with your own discernment.
Showing posts with label alzheimers thyroid link dementia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alzheimers thyroid link dementia. Show all posts

19 February 2010

Persistence Wins the Race Every Time

Yesterday was not a very good day for me personally.  I saw more "Blue Screens of Death" in one day than I've seen my entire career as a computer programmer.  WTF!?  Needless to say, I spent hours futszing with my machine, getting a little further in the process and then "BOINK" ... Blue Screen of Death.  Thank you Microsoft.  I worked on this problem until about 7pm before I threw in the towel and decided to take a new approach.  Today, I will rebuild my mom's laptop to have only work stuff on it, maybe this will help me to get real work done... my team mates are depending on me.

My mom, she was OK yesterday but she didn't sleep well the night before; her day was not as good as it could have been if she had gotten enough rest.  She couldn't find her words at all.  My mom was in a place where she thoguht she was better than she really was.  A really tough place for her to be in, especially for me the Care Giver.

What went wrong?  Is the question that I was asking myself, over and over again.  Then it hit me... I MADE THE RECORDING WRONG!  It's been a few years since I made one... I forgot the most important component, the binural beat track that would help my mom's brain to be receptive to the suggestions.

Simply, as described in Wikepedia,

Binural Beats are auditory processing artifacts, or apparent sounds, the perception of which arises in the brain for specific physical stimuli. This effect was discovered in 1839 by Heinrich Wilhelm Dove.



The brain produces a phenomenon resulting in low-frequency pulsations in the loudness and sound localization of a perceived sound when two tones at slightly different frequencies are presented separately, one to each of a subject's ears, using stereo headphones. A beating tone will be perceived, as if the two tones mixed naturally, out of the brain. The frequency of the tones must be below about 1,000 to 1,500 hertz for the beating to be heard. The difference between the two frequencies must be small (below about 30 Hz) for the effect to occur; otherwise, the two tones will be heard separately and no beat will be perceived.


Binaural beats are of interest to neurophysiologists investigating the sense of hearing. Second, binaural beats reportedly influence the brain in more subtle ways through the entrainment of brainwaves[1][2] and can be used to reduce anxiety[3] and provide other health benefits such as control over pain.[4]
I remixed the recording and had my mom sit in her chair and listen.  It took me a few times to get her to stay still and listen to it all the way through, it is only 15 minutes long.  The 3rd time she sat to listen, she listened.  She loved the music mix.  I put a new music track on the recording, one with ocean wave sounds and piano, my mom's favorite music instrument.

My mom appeared happier after she sat and meditated with the recording playing in her ears.  She was out like a light within 30 seconds when her head hit the pillow.  Perfect.  The recording worked.  I suggested that she would sleep through the night, getting a restful sleep. 

3am she did wake up to use the bathroom, she walked by her bathroom in her room.  I found her in the kitchen, "Susie, where's the bathroom?" 

I led her back to her bathroom and tucked her back into bed.  She woke up at 7 am, wide awake, alert and able to find her words.  No stuttering this morning.

Sometimes we need to try something else... trial and error.  As long as we don't quit, success will eventually come... that's how I feel with my mom and my computer troubles.  Persistence wins the race, everytime.

07 December 2009

A Different Kind of Morning


Day 5. 

My mom has been taking a small dose of thyroid medicine for 5 days. 

Today, we had a different kind of morning. 

As I made the morning coffee, the fear that I had as a child stirred in my mind, frightened that she would die in her sleep.

My dad too. I worried about this all the time as a small child, especially when my dad would wake up gasping for air in the middle of the night. His gasping always scared me.  I would wake at night and check to make sure my parents were still breathing.  Knowing that they were breathing, I could sleep.  This is something that has stayed with me even into my adult life.

This morning, that childhood angst of losing my parents came front and center. I couldn't hear my mom.  I can always hear a soft snore coming from her room when she's sleeping. Her cat, Savita, had already been up and greeted me, where was mom?

Slowly I walked toward her room, down the long hall that seemed like a mile. My heart raced as I thought to myself, "Will this be the morning I find her?"

I step in her room as I softly say, "Ma?"

"Good morning Dear!"  She replies.

Another Good Day Above Ground!


I woke my mom up at 7am.  She was different today, her confusion is less.

The thyroid med seems to be helping her sleep... alleluhia!

The thing I'm noticing most is that my mom's cognition appears better.  She is talking more clearly and able to find the words so that what she says doesn't sound totally crazy.  She's not back 100% but she's the best I've seen her since we moved in to our new house.

This morning I gave my mom her pills and sat and talked to her while I set her up for the week in her little pill minder container.  

My mom began to talk.


"It's all like a dream.  Everything.  Being in this room.  Moving.  Everything that I've been through is like a dream that I couldn't wake up from."

I looked at my mom and she appeared awake.  Wide awake.  Typically she was lathargic and had no energy, not even after a full night of sleeping.  Now, after the thyroid supplement, she is sleeping.  She slept all through the night. 

Today we are having a different kind of morning.  It's better.  Even though winter is closing in fast, inside I feel like it's Spring already, that we are opening a new chapter with my mom's health. 

All I want for Christmas is my mom to be happy, healthy and with clear cognition... do you hear that Santa?

Could we be getting our Christmas Miracle early?

04 December 2009

Thyroid Trouble Or Are You Just Nuts?


I started to do my research on thyroid troubles, ever since my mom began her thyroid therapy as prescribed by our Naturopath Doctor.

What I've learned is that there's a big controversy out there around the "right" levels.

Following is an article that discusses the controversy - The TSH Reference Range Wars

 What I learned from this article is that there's a wide range for what doctors deem to be a normal TSH Reference Range.  A range that is determined by a study of a group of 100 people who supposedly don't have thyroid trouble.  My question is, if the medical community can't agree on a normal range, the people in the test group (who are supposedly "normal") could actually have a thryroid problem.

Symptoms of thyroid trouble are :http://www.safemenopausesolutions.com/thyroid.html

Common symptoms of problem with thyroid due to low thyroid or hypothyroidism are:

• Fatigue and weakness • Low basal temperature ( cold intolerance) • Dry and coarse skin • Hair loss • Cold hands and feet • Weight gain • Insomnia • Constipation • Depression • Poor memory, forgetfulness, dementia • Nervousness and tremors • Immune system problems • Heavy menstrual periods

My mom, she's got every one of these symptoms except for the heavy menstrual periods, after all, she's freakin' 80 and that cycle stopped long ago.


My mom's readings were "low normal" for TSH.


Could it be that she's got a thyroid issue causing all of her troubles?


Our Naturopath Doctor has begun treating my mom's thyroid.  It's been 2 days.  My mom is doing way better.  She hasn't hallucinated at all today.  She's more relaxed and can carry a conversation.  She slept better last night too.

He advised me not to get too excited yet.  I can't help it.  It's absolutely amazing how one little supplement can make such a big change for her.

I was reading about Alzheimer's and Thyroid.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Endocrinology/Thyroid/10293

More and more I'm more hopeful that my mom will be cured.  I've been visualizing her healthy and happy... it's quite possible that her once beautiful head of hair grows back, she is able to lose the rest of her weight and more importantly, the dementia goes away.

If it wasn't for our Naturopath Doctor, we wouldn't be where we are today with my mom.  She has more good days than bad and everyone is finally getting to sleep at night.