In the past, we wrote about research regarding the role that music can play in improving the lives of people with dementia. We particularly highlighted the documentary, Alive Inside, which illustrated the power of music to call those with severe dementia back to our world. Research in this area continues.
In fact, Dr. Vaishali Phatak, contributor to Beating the Dementia Monster, has been involved in research at the University of Nebraska to study music and dementia. Her research is through an initiative called "Nebraska Heartbeats." It's a multidisciplinary collaboration of experts from the fields of music, neuroscience, geriatric psychiatry, dementia care, and music therapy.
The concept is that the music we knew in our 20s and 30s lives deeply within us, and these memories are less vulnerable to the ravages of neurodegenerative disease. Memories of music can be used to bring us back to a familiar place, eliciting happy and comforting thoughts. So the researchers expose persons with dementia to music corresponding to their ages to get a beneficial result.
The researchers tried to launch an in-person pilot in the fall of 2020, but covid restrictions required postponing the effort. During that time, they noted something we wrote about here -- that the increased isolation of the covid restrictions themselves caused what appear to be premature deaths of some with dementia. (We wrote about a particular premature covid death of our own here.) But during that period, the Nebraska Heartbeats team looked for ways to apply music and other therapies to dementia patients living in isolation.
They published a peer-reviewed article, "Leveraging Cross-Campus Expertise to Contribute to Dementia Care
Through Music," in the journal AMA Journal of Ethics in July of this year. At this point in time, they're seeking a grant to continue this promising research. They hope to focus research on the efficacy of music interventions to retrieve memories and benefits to general well being.
Hi Dave, this is not a comment on this newest blog post, but I am very interested to know -- since you follow the MIND diet, which I'm also trying to follow, and since you've also mentioned more than once in your blog that you follow a low-carb diet -- how many servings of whole grains do you eat in a day? I read the MIND diet book, which recommends three servings of whole grains per day, but I also see that you are doing really well with a low-carb diet -- and so I'm a little confused. I am really trying to maximize my own brain health and cognition and want to do things optimally, as much as possible! Thank you, Joan
ReplyDeleteJoan, thanks for your thoughts and question. I must have mis-spoken somewhere along the way, because I no longer follow a "low-carb" diet. I did that for a number of years to control my weight, but when the Alzheimer's came along and I began to learn more about healthy eating, I first transitioned to the Mediterranean diet. I call it a "low-ish" carb diet, because it doesn't qualify as a low-carb diet, but it steers you away from the big-carb deserts and so forth. Then, after getting literature on the MIND diet from my neurologist (I'm thinking 2017), I transitioned over there. I get my grain in the form of whole grain bread. I like Dave's Bread ($$$), so I eat two slices a day. The slices are pretty big, and I find them satisfying.
DeleteThank you for answering! I'm not sure if you misspoke or if I misunderstood, but either way, it sounds like you are eating two of the three servings of whole grains the MIND diet recommends and that is working well for you. I can try reducing from three servings to two servings a day and see how that goes (I like Dave's Bread too, and I've also been eating brown rice and sometimes whole wheat pasta). I've also started intermittent fasting 12 hours a day, trying to work my way up to 16 hours. I really appreciate you and your blog; you are a great inspiration to me. Thanks again, Joan
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