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.
Having arthritis or similar chronic conditions doesn’t mean you have to give up on living life. There are some simple tools you can employ to relieve the pain & discomfort associated with these conditions, without prescription drugs or unknown supplements.
At-home physical therapy – Creaky Joints has a great rundown of exercises for the hands you can do at home with no special equipment. These simple activities can help alleviate pain, improve flexibility, and potentially stave off any further degradation.
Learn which tools can help – As they say, the right tool for the right job. There are a plethora of tools available now which can help ease stress on arthritic joints. From jar & bottle cap openers in the kitchen to grab sticks in the yard to seat belt aides for the car. Even small devices can often yield significant results when used correctly and consistently. Almost any tool which lets you avoid bending, stretching, or making a fist can help alleviate arthritis pain.
Listen to your body – Anyone with arthritis knows that certain activities simply hurt more than others. Identify those painful activities and take steps to avoid them. If your hips hurt, get up and stretch every hour or so. Maybe use your elbow or shoulder to open a door rather than your hand and wrist. Try changing the lead leg you use when going up or downstairs. There are a plethora of small changes you can make to help keep your body healthy.
Ask for help – Maybe the hardest step to take, but the most important. Whether this means going to a rheumatologist, or asking your loved ones for help making your home “arthritis-friendly,” or just asking them to help you with regular tasks. Sometimes, a little help can go a long way.
Brought to you bysmpltec.com, Technology for Seniors News.
When caring for an elder loved one, some conversations are unpleasant but necessary. One of those conversations is often about alcohol consumption.
To be clear right off the bat: this isn’t about alcoholism or addiction. Those are distinct conditions, which have to be addressed on their own.
What we’re talking about here is ‘casual’ or ‘social’ drinking. A beer in the afternoon. A couple of glasses of wine at dinner. A cocktail with their friends. The sorts of activities an older person may have engaged in regularly for most of their lives. But the body of a 70-year-old is not the body of a 25-year-old or a 40-year-old. Metabolisms change, organs and systems don’t heal up as quickly as they used to, and ‘minor’ impairments are more likely to lead to significant injuries. But this doesn’t mean your senior loved one needs to become a teetotaler.
This is one of the core messages you should convey: no one is taking away all of your drinks. Simply telling an elder loved one “you can’t drink anymore” is a fast way to ensure they drink more often and more irresponsibly, going forward.
Try to schedule alcohol consumption in advance. Much the same way, dieting goes better when you have regular “cheat days” to look forward to, and a moderated alcohol intake regimen also works better when there are clear and frequent breaks. Bloody Marys at Mother’s Day brunch? A bit of the bubbly at their daughter’s birthday party? Those are great, so long as it’s not an everyday occurrence.
Family members should also try – whenever possible – to make sure alcohol consumption is done in conjunction with meals and nonalcoholic beverages. Mix in some juice or iced tea in between drinks. One of the biggest dangers of alcohol consumption comes from dehydration, and the elderly are more susceptible than most to that complication. Slowing the absorption of alcohol by eating while you drink, and consuming nonalcoholic drinks will help stave off dehydration.
Some studies show that moderate, regular alcohol consumption can have medical benefits, including improved bone density and better overall cardiovascular health. But those benefits are obliterated once the drinking moves to “excessive” levels. As a caregiver, part of your role is to find ways to allow your elder loved one to have the occasional drink while preventing overconsumption. It’s not an easy task, but a necessary one.
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.
