Another milestone for the blog

The number of page views during the life of the blog has just passed 20,000.  I know of course that blogs about cup cake recipes and fashion accessories for pets probably get more page views in a month, but I'm very grateful to all our readers across the world for taking the trouble to have a look at my musings.

Thanks also to those who have left comments and become members.

I always hope to start posting more regularly, but this is very dependent on circumstances.  In some ways, looking after S has become less demanding since I started the blog but there are still times when significant pieces in the support jigsaw that enables me to have some time to myself become less available, for unavoidable reasons.

As well as being featured on Mumsnet and Gransnet as a guest blog, AWD can also be found on loveallblogs and talk health.

Now this could be a bit of a breakthrough

The latest Alzheimer Research Newsletter:
http://www.alzforum.org/
contains a fascinating account of research which has found that some people who appear to have Alzheimer's symptoms do not have the biomarkers indicating the presence of amyloid deposits (plaques) which most people with these symptoms do have.

Regular readers of this blog will know that there seems to be a growing scepticism amongst researchers about the almost universally promoted view that the build up of these plaques in the brain constitutes 'the cause' of the disease.

There is also recently reported research which suggests that some of those with the symptoms but not the plaques tend to have a type of dementia that progresses significantly more slowly than the AD which people with symptoms and plaques have.

The question arises: do these groups of people even have the same disease?

As usual, the reports on this site are quite technical.  If anyone can explain these finding more clearly. they are more than welcome to comment.

I have posted prviously about the nuns study
http://adventureswithdementia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/possibly-most-exciting-research-into.html

The research discusssed above might begin to explain why some nuns whose brains post-mortem showed no sign of deposits had all the symptoms of AD.  I still await with interest any explanation as to why some nuns had significant deposits but were not, whilst alive, dementia sufferers.

Spread the awareness

The link below will explain how you can help your MP to become more dementia aware.  You can send a proforma letter (which you can edit/personalise if you wish) inviting your MP to a meeting at Westminster.  It will only take you a couple of minutes.
http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/news_article.php?newsID=1747

Care workers on zero-hours contracts

It's interesting to learn from the current, and fully justified, campaign against the use of zero-hours contracts that thousands of care workers are on zero-hours contracts.

Could there, I wonder, possibly be any connection between this fact and the often-expressed view that the service provided by organisations that provide care for profit is not always acceptable?

(The many readers of this blog who aren't UK-based may not be aware of this controversy.   It is becoming clear that hundreds of thousands of people 'employed' in the UK, some of them by very well-known companies, are on 'zero-hours contracts'.  This means that they are not guaranteed any work and do not have the same employment rights as other workers.  Yet some of the companies actually forbid them to take any other employment while they are 'contracted'.)

Dementia rates in the UK falling????

I was on holiday when this story broke.  If you google it you'll find it's reported in several places.

I haven't seen any comments on it  -  very odd, as we have been bombarded for several years with the opposite message.

I'd be interested in any views. I notice that it seems to concern dementias in the elderly exclusively. Some people believe there has been a dramatic increase in the incidence of young onset dementias, though I have not seen firm evidence on this.