Festival focuses on aging
The University of Indianapolis Center for Aging and Community (CAC) co-sponsored the annual Spirit and Place Festival on Nov. 3-14.
This festival provided various events around Indianapolis for people to learn about aspects of aging and other aspects of wellness. Some of these events included “Almost Heaven,” a play exploring aging at the Indy Fringe Theatre.
On Nov. 9 Bruce Miller, Director of the Memory and Aging Center in California and professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco, spoke about degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and the various forms of dementia.
His lecture, entitled “Working Toward a Future Without Dementia,” covered the latest research on degenerative diseases and prevention methods. The lecture was held at the Atherton Center at Butler University, one of the locations for the festival.
Miller’s focus at the Memory and Aging Center is on frontal temporal dementia, which refers to the part of the brain where dementia is located.
The CAC frequently teaches about these diseases and their effects on the aging process.
Miller used MRIs and other scans to show the audiences what specific parts of the brain the diseases affect.
These scans color-coded the sections and the colors showed the difference between an Alzheimer’s patient and a dementia patient. According to Miller, his research has showed that some of these diseases are caused by the folding of certain proteins in the brain.
Recent research has found that degenerative diseases cannot all be lumped together. These diseases have subtypes, which call for different forms of treatment.
“We’re getting better and better at breaking these diseases into their subtypes,” Miller said.
Miller said that 5.3 million people have Alzheimer’s and caring for these patients has reached $172 billion in costs. He showed a chart that highlighted the fact that Alzheimer’s as a whole is increasing, but funding about research and treatments is staying the same.
He believes that this is directly affecting the work that can be done for this disease.
Even though funding is a concern for Miller, he stayed positive as he gave a brief history of the progress researchers have made with the diseases.
This progress has allowed physicians to detect the diseases earlier and, in some cases, find prevention methods those who are vulnerable to the diseases.
“The older we get, the more vulnerable we get to these degenerative diseases,” Miller said.
Understanding these vulnerable spots can help the center teach students who want to work with older adults or will work with them.
Risk factors for degenerative diseases include diabetes, head trauma, high cholesterol, blood pressure, stoke, specific genes, little exercise and many more.
Some of these risk factors can be easily corrected by a change in diet or in daily activity.
Miller also said that older people who are trying to keep themselves happy should participate in social networks, which include group activities and even online social networks.
He also suggests mental activities to keep the brain healthy, such as puzzles or word scrambles.
Associate Professor of the UIndy Center for Aging and Community Constance McCloy was present at the lecture and enjoyed all of the new information.
“I thought it was a good presentation,” McCloy said. “I see presentations on Alzheimer’s and dementia every two years. And so every two years, you get to be updated on what’s the latest research.”
McCloy is a physical therapist and frequently works with older patients. Many of her patients have a degenerative disease, and she helps them to find routines that will suit them.
“I’ve really loved working with older adults. I’ve been a physical therapist since 1977,” McCloy said. “I’ve worked in all aspects of PT work, from rehab, to hospital, to home care, [to] sports medicine [to] orthopedic, the whole thing, and I always come back to working with older adults.”
Some of the information mentioned in the lecture is applicable to McCloy’s profession.
McCloy teaches classes on “nutrition and aging” and “spirituality and aging,” which can all be affected by degenerative diseases.
One of her favorite parts of the presentation was Miller’s use of graphs and the pictures from the scan.
“The exciting part of his presentation was that he did a beautiful job kind of graphically showing us through functional MRIs and other scans, the differences between the different kinds of dementia and differences in the causes,” McCloy said.
Research on these diseases is ongoing and more information is available at the UCSF website memory.ucsf.edu.
