“Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison now investigated a stem cell treatment in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease and found that neurons derived from stem cells can integrate into the correct regions of the brain, connect with native neurons, and restore motor functions.
[…]
Six months after transplantation, grafts from both types of neurons were present in all animals, showing that the transplanted neurons were able to differentiate to respective neuronal types and also project to different brain regions.”
We’re still years away from any practical treatments as a result of this study, but it still reads as a massive advance in the fight against Parkinson’s disease.
Brought to you bysmpltec.com, Technology for Seniors News.
The days are getting longer, the temps are rising, and it’s the perfect time to think about your elder loved ones’ financial health. Pick a day to sit down with them and follow some of these suggestions to keep their bank accounts healthy.
Examine credit card & bank statements for recurring charges. Many seniors have services they signed up for ages ago, which they no longer use. Sometimes they’ve forgotten about the charges or just never found the time to cancel the service. Taking the time to compile a list of these charges, and to cancel the unused ones, will be worth the effort.
Check credit reports. Seniors, in particular, are frequently the target of identity thieves. A quick, occasional look at their credit report can help spot identity theft before it gets out of hand. You may want to consider helping your senior loved one to lock their credit. This will prevent new lines of credit from being opened without their explicit OK.
Assemble & organize their regular payments. – Make a list of their principal, monthly payments, and assemble the most recent bills with their associated canceled checks or charges on a credit card statement. You may be surprised how many bills may slip through the cracks, or possibly be double-paid. Spending a couple of hours making a spreadsheet of these charges can help prevent a financial disaster down the road. These sorts of financial checkups should be done every 6 months to a year, with more comprehensive checks done every few years.
Brought to you bysmpltec.com, Technology for Seniors News.
Well, this isn’t a story I expected to read. From the Daily Mail UK,
“The research, from the Academic Centre for Dentistry in Amsterdam, looked at 50 people with rheumatoid arthritis and 50 with inflammatory joint pain.
They looked at bacteria on the volunteers’ tongues, saliva and plaque, and compared them with 50 healthy people of a similar age.
Those with rheumatoid arthritis and those at risk of getting it were found to have greater levels of two types of bacteria – including one known to cause chronic inflammation in the body.
The findings, published in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatology, suggest good oral hygiene could ward off harmful bacteria and the risk of the condition.”
As I always caution with the reporting of studies like this, don’t mix up causation with correlation. It’s possible these facts – more oral bacteria & greater instances of arthritis – are related but not guaranteed that one is the cause of the other. But, if something as simple as this could help relieve the torture of Rheumatoid arthrits for it’s millions of sufferers, it’s certainly something we should investigate more.
Brought to you bysmpltec.com, Technology for Seniors News.
A recent report showed that up to 1 million Americans are non-verbal. For someone who cannot easily communicate, the world can be a terrifying place. But there are some ways you can help a non-verbal loved one live a richer and fuller life.
Emotion Board. A simple device showing a person expressing different emotions. The non-verbal person can just point to the emotion they’re feeling to help express themselves. Caregivers can even use the board to communicate their emotional state, too. This simple tool can greatly aid in expressiveness.
SMPL Music Player. This simple device lets you give your loved one the gift of music. Simply load their favorite mp3 files onto the player, and they can control their music just by lifting or lowering the lid. No need to ask a caregiver for music.
Legos. The classic kids’ toy is actually one of the greatest entertainment tools for non-verbal people. The simplicity and elegance of the building blocks means they can play their own way, and create as they want, without relying on others. Brought to you bysmpltec.com, Technology for Seniors News.
The first therapy that comes to mind when you mention Parkinson’s Disease probably isn’t “boxing.” But in the Twin Cities, a former all-state athlete is taking to the squared circle in her fight against the disease. From the Star Tribune:
“The idea to use boxing training techniques followed a number of studies that indicate rigorous exercise — emphasizing gross motor movement, balance and rhythm — could help improve range of motion, flexibility and gait of people with Parkinson’s. More recent research suggests that certain kinds of exercise may slow disease progression….
White said the program has her moving better, feeling better. That, and a diet focusing on grass-fed meats and only certain types of vegetables — called Plant Paradox — helped her shed the weight she’d gained.”
Athletic training is more and more being incorporated into therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. Boxing is actually a very good activity as it involves whole-body coordination, cardio, and strength training. Look for more senior centers to add a heavy bag to the rec room in the near future.
Brought to you bysmpltec.com, Technology for Seniors News.
Father’s Day is just around the corner, and I’m sure most of us have an elderly loved one who needs a gift. So I’m here to help you out with some great suggestions.
The Gift of Music – The SiMPL Radio & Music Player. A simple device that lets your loved one control their music with only 1 touch. Add music to the included USB drive, or program in their favorite terrestrial radio stations.
The Gift of Snacks – The SnackSack healthy snack pack. Every month your loved one gets a box of new, exciting, and healthy snacks. There are options for vegan or gluten-free subscriptions, too. The treats walk the line between ‘tasty’ and ‘healthy’ even for seniors.
The Gift of Activity – Nintendo Switch with Ring Fit Adventures. The evolution of the WiiFit games from a decade ago, now on Nintendo’s new gaming platform. This includes tons of games & activities which will get your senior loved ones and the young kids in the family playing together, even if they cannot do so in the same room. It includes lots of fun and safe activities to get people up and active.
The Gift of Memories – A family photo on metal from ShutterFly. We all have precious family moments, but as we’ve moved to digital images, fewer and fewer of those moments get printed. That’s why I love this new trend of printing photos directly on metal or glass. No need for frames, and they genuinely pop in almost any room. These are just some of the gifts which your senior Dad may love this summer.
Brought to you bysmpltec.com, Technology for Seniors News.
From the AP, a large scale study in the Empire State to help understand Alzheimer’s
Researchers would aim to map the genes of one million people living with or at-risk of Alzheimer’s disease over five years through a proposed initiative at the State University of New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed Friday to establish the SUNY Curing Alzheimer’s Health Consortium within the state university system.
SUNY statistics show that about 400,000 sufferers of Alzheimer’s reside in New York State, roughly 2% of the state’s 20M residents. That number is expected to rise to almost 5% in the coming years. This genetic database may help identify at-risk individuals so they can begin preventative treatments early in life.
Brought to you bysmpltec.com, Technology for Seniors News.
From the NY Times, one of the more promising medical studies relating to Alzheimer’s in a long time.
A newly developed blood test for Alzheimer’s has diagnosed the disease as accurately as methods that are far more expensive or invasive, scientists reported on Tuesday, a significant step toward a longtime goal for patients, doctors and dementia researchers. The test has the potential to make diagnosis simpler, more affordable and widely available.
What does this mean? As with most diseases, early diagnosis can lead to early intervention. People whose blood tests come back positive for Alzheimer’s can begin moderate treatments & memory care activities at a stage where cognitive decline has not yet begun and those efforts are more effective. This isn’t a cure for the disease, but it may be welcome news for the millions of baby boomers who fear it’s effects.
Brought to you bysmpltec.com, Technology for Seniors News.
Sometimes the greatest hurdles when growing old are technological. Seniors often lack the muscle memory or ingrained experiences to properly use modern conveniences. But that doesn’t mean those experiences cannot be made more accessible with some basic tools and aids.
Bluetooth hearing aids – An old medical device, with a modern twist. These hearing aids can connect to audio sources via Bluetooth, allowing persons with hearing impairment to get the sound directly from the source. By connecting wirelessly to your stereo, computer or TV, the wearer can hear their media clearly without boosting all other sounds around them. Many such hearing aids can also boost the clarity of spoken words, helping those with conditions like auditory neuropathy or tinnitus.
Vertical Mice – 90 degrees can make a world of difference. Vertical mice function just like normal mice, but are ergonomically designed to alleviate stresses on the hand, wrist and forearm. They’re often used by sufferers of carpal tunnel syndrome or chronic wrist tendonitis, but they can be extremely beneficial for arthritis sufferers, too.
Digital Magnifiers – These relatively inexpensive items combine a camera and a screen to help magnify small text or objects for the reader. They have several advantages over your basic looking glass, including the ability to take still images, and even to digitally highlight or sharpen text to make it easy to read. Some now even have the ability to ‘read’ text and convert it to speech on the fly. This is a tremendous aide for persons with compromised vision who don’t want to stop living life to its fullest.
Large-Button or Simplified TV Remotes – We take the remote control for granted. I’m sure a lot of people reading this may never have used a TV without one. But as you grow older, they can become a problem. For starters, the buttons are getting smaller and harder to press in modern remotes. A remote with larger buttons and ergonomic casing can help with that. But then you get to the issue of too many buttons. Modern remotes have so many functions which the average user will rarely – if ever – utilize. In those cases, a simplified remote with fewer functions may be helpful.
Brought to you bysmpltec.com, Technology for Seniors News.
“Claire Dinneen’s daughters thought that worsening dementia was causing her growing confusion, but her doctor suspected something else.
Dr. Pei Chen asked them to round up medicines in the 89-year-old woman’s home and they returned with a huge haul. There were 28 drugs ordered by various doctors for various ailments, plus over-the-counter medicines. Chen spent a year sorting out which ones were truly needed and trimmed a dozen.
To her daughters’ surprise, Dinneen got better, able to remember more things and to offer advice on what to wear and how to raise their kids. Her symptoms were from “medication fog,” not her dementia getting worse, Chen told one daughter.”
Claire’s situation may be an outlier, but there’s no question many seniors are on a lot of medications & supplements. Often these drugs are prescribed by several different doctors who don’t communicate with one another. It’s essential that you sit down with your senior loved ones regularly and go over the medication regimens they’re on. Make a chart or spreadsheet detailing all of the drugs and supplements they take, what they treat, who prescribed them, and when they began taking it. At their next appointment with their primary care physician, make sure that the chart or spreadsheet is discussed. It’s possible there are drugs there which should be stopped or even ones which may be having harmful interactions.
Brought to you bysmpltec.com, Technology for Seniors News.
You can talk to rosie with your normal voice. Using these commands, you can setup and talk to rosie.
hello reminder rosie
Wake up Rosie (trigger). She is now ready for your next command. In addition, will announce all missed reminders.
cancel
Said after Rosie says, “can I help you?” or a beep sound within 4 seconds will put Rosie to sleep.
reminder off
Will turn off reminders.
record reminders
Record a reminder.
What can I say?
Hear all of Rosie’s voice command phrases.
What time is it?
Rosie will announce the current time.
What day is it?
Rosie will announce the current date.
Cancel
Snooze the current alarm.
Wonderful alarm!!!
We needed to get this to protect my Grandmother with dementia from exiting the front door without our knowledge. This has been a Godsend!!!!!
C4Explorer
Exactly as advertised
Purchased and installed this for a friend. It works via radio signal so as long as you have good batteries in the device, it works flawlessly. The base unit is compatible with up to 20 triggers and you can customize the signal for each door or window you’re monitoring. Highly recommended!
Tim B. Whitley
Peace of mind
I have an Autistic child that wanders and an older parent so this all in one kit was great. My mom has the pendant and I use the door alarm for my son. The absolute best part is that the alarm is portable!! I can move around inside n’ outside our apartment and always be aware of alerts.
It’s not terribly loud but since you wear the alarm base it doesn’t really need to be unless you’re a deep sleeper. If you are a deep sleeper than only rely on this during your awake hours and invest in a loud one for naps or sleep.
Also like that you can turn off the alarm on the base as my son figured out alarm means I’m going outside n’ he thinks it’s time to go buy toys lol, so if I just need to take out the garbage I turn it off til I get back inside.
GabeOz
DAD LOVES LISTENING TO HIS FAVORITE CUSTOM PLAYLIST – PROVIDES GREAT COGNITIVE ENGAGEMENT
This music player/radio is outstanding. It is simple to set up, simple to use and well made. (I ordered ours in July 2020. We have had no problems with the construction.) You can add to the pre-programmed songs on the enclosed USB stick, or you can delete those songs and load a custom playlist of favorite songs. Or you can buy an additional USB stick and upload a custom playlist onto that. Make sure your playlist songs are mp3 formatted. (Not iTunes format, THE SONGS MUST BE MP3 FORMATTED. I purchased/downloaded the mp3 songs from Amazon.) I loved putting together the playlist for my Dad. It brought back so many memories and gave me a connection with him that I haven’t had in a long time. Other family members live closer and have been doing most of the heavy living for my Dad so it was great to be able to do something like this from far away. I shipped the radio to his assisted living facility after uploading his favorite songs onto the USB stick. My Dad’s nurse found it easy to set up too. Best of all, she told me our Dad loves it. Music therapy for dementia sufferers is well documented. This music seems to be helping my Dad. He smiles more, he’s engaged and he’s calmer. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
SpryMomDC
Mom LOVES this music box!!!
My 85 year old mother LOVES this music player!!! I’ve tried boom boxes, clock radios, cable tv music, Alexa, etc, but she couldn’t remember how to work any of them.
I went to the website & figured out how to format the music box to work with my Mac. It was fairly easy & after that, it’s just drag & drop. The time consuming part was finding & selecting the music to be loaded. All in all, it’s well worth the time it takes to set it up.
My only suggestions to improve this product would be to make a volume knob easily accessible (mom can handle one knob and some songs are just louder/quieter than others) and figure out a way to access Pandora. It would be much easier for me to pick a great station than find & download a limited assortment of songs.
Mary L
It works well
The max sound level could be higher…. but so much depends on the source so not always a SMPL problem. I found it hard to see the embossed information on the silver buttons. Perhaps add stickers to the package for vision impaired people 🙂 I made up a bunch of flash drives, for different moods for my brother who has dementia and used colour coding and printed info for the nurses. I used 8GB drives and have hours and hours of music on each.
Amazon Customer
Linda D.
Peace of mind
Got this product for my diabetic father who is in mid-stage of Alzheimer’s and so far we’re finding it to be very helpful. He responds daily to our reminder to inject himself. He says he likes hearing our voices. It gives us peace of mind until we can attend to him.
Virginia M.
This is the best clock for a visually impaired person. All they have to do is speak and it changes the times and alarms for them. A very durable piece of equipment and it will speak clearly so you are sure the time is correct.
Judi R.
Love it. Easy to program, great for my mom who has Alzheimer’s. She doesn’t have to do anything and it reminds her of all her various activities, meals, etc. at her retirement home.
Kim M.
I purchased Rosie at the recommendation of a rehabilitation specialist at the assisted living facility where my elderly dad lives. He has his own studio apartment but was rapidly losing his short term memory. As a result, the rehab specialist was working with us to see if we could find a way to allow him to remain in his current unit and maintain his independence as long as possible.
This device is helping him even more than we’d hoped it would. It was a simple process to record brief personal messages reminding him to take medicine, move around and go to meals. He especially likes hearing my voice and he responds well to the prompts.
Easy to use
Easy to setup and easy to use. I had some difficult removing the screw for setup. After that much better than the million button remote from the cable company for my senior family member.
Anita
Great for seniors with low vision
This is a terrific little remote for my 94 year old grandmother that is visually impaired. It set up perfectly for me within a matter of minutes on a Samsung tv with antenna connection (no set top box). Favorite channel buttons were easily programmed. She pretty much only watches 5 channels (FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS) so this remote works well for her and is very simple and basic. Exactly what we need!
Amazon Customer
Great for someone with dementia
I bought this for my mother, who has very poor eyesight and has dementia as well. With the usual remotes she couldn’t see any of the labels, and the sheer number of buttons led her astray. I programmed this control so that the only things that work are the power button, the mute button, and the volume control button.
The battery compartment and the programming controls are locked behind covers that can only be opened with a small screwdriver (supplied).
That does it.
Jerry Schwartz
Over all is a good product
Good product, you might have a little problem programming phone numbers, it doesnt seem to want to accept the numbers at first but if you keep doing it , It will eventaully work. All in All it worked out OK
PMT
Not very good directions, but was able to figure it out.
Purchased for 95 yr old who had mild stroke. With some guidance and training, she was at least able to call us.
Donna J
It’s very helpful
This phone has been very useful for my mother who is 87 and it’s on the early stages of dementia
And Alzheimers, with the pictures she is able to recognize who the people are and it’s very easy to dial just press the button, I highly recommend this phone, we are very happy with this product.
Carmen
The key pad is really big and clear
I needed a phone for a mom that has the beginning stages of memory lose. She was able to operate this phone. Thank you to the company which designed it.
Olivia G Lopez
My Mother-in-Law loves it!
For an aged person, 90’s, she can no longer manage a cell phone. With this new phone she easily manages speed dial buttons and the key pad. This has been a great boon to her keeping in touch with family. She love it.
Mark H
Effortless
How convenient and easy for my mom to use
Mark Rhodes
This is great!!
We got this for my mother in law and installed it yesterday. She argued at first because she said she can see just fine, but we reminded her she can’t remember phone numbers well. She hasn’t made a phone call in at least six months, but about an hour after we set this up, she gave us a call to try it out. So great to see her name pop up on caller ID again!!
Christi Clark
It works well
The max sound level could be higher…. but so much depends on the source so not always a SMPL problem. I found it hard to see the embossed information on the silver buttons. Perhaps add stickers to the package for vision impaired people 🙂 I made up a bunch of flash drives, for different moods for my brother who has dementia and used colour coding and printed info for the nurses. I used 8GB drives and have hours and hours of music on each.
Amazon Customer
Love, Love, Love This Player
I’ve been searching for something simple so my friend/ward with dementia can listen to her classical music and a little Sinatra in her nursing home room. It was super easy to load. It came preloaded with big band music which she also seems to enjoy. I emailed the company for questions and got a prompt reply. Solid, large and very well made. Good sound quality.
Update: being that she lives in a nursing home and lots of her items have gone missing, I wanted to insure this music player stayed put. I talked to the manufacturer and learned the player is actually made of wood. I was able to attach a small lock on the back and then secured it with a small cable to her end table. I drilled hole in the back of the end table, secure a cable clamp inside hidden behind the drawer. It will take pliers and some effort to take (or cable cutter 😔) it if wanted. It also prevents my ward from moving it or dropping it.
JosieofOhio
Absolutely perfect product for its intended purpose
As the computer nerd in my family, I was tasked with finding a music player for my 95-year-old grandmother. She was vision-impaired and pretty forgetful when it came to using devices.
It seems like this should be an easy problem to solve but it isn’t. I spent hours on Amazon reading product reviews and manuals, and more hours going to Best Buy and office supply stores to examine their offerings. Nothing was suitable. Everything requires many delicate button presses to turn on, select the appropriate input source, select the song (so it doesn’t always play the same song first), etc. etc.
After hours of searching, I had the idea to search for “Alzheimer’s music player” and landed on The Simple Music Player. It looked perfect. My family originally balked at the price for something that seems like it should be so simple and cheap. But it was really the only option we had and it ended up being absolutely perfect. My grandmother loved it. In the end, it was money very well spent. Five stars, no question. If you are considering this product, you should probably just buy it immediately!
Ingot Marker
Limitation of Liability
In no event will SiMPL Technology LLC, its representatives, affiliates, associates and the like be liable for any damages, including without limitation
direct or indirect, special, incidental, punitive or consequential damages, losses or expenses arising in connection with any failure of performance of any SiMPL devices.