“Leonia”, is a Model Nursing Home for the elderly and the largest provider of geriatric care services in Greece. Our vision is to offer the elderly a hospitable living environment, which will provide security, quality of life and will promote “well-being” in every aspect of the daily life of our residents. In accordance to that, we are highly interested in the new data that emerge from research in the medical community and the new technologies that are being developed with them. Alzheimer disease, Dementia and Parkinson disease are some of the most significant topics for our research, since our tenants suffer mostly by them.
In one of our latest focus groups, we researched the new updates in Alzheimer Disease, therefore we are presenting here briefly, our findings.
It is known that Alzheimer’s, is a disease characterized by deterioration in cognitive function beyond what might be expected from normal ageing. It affects memory, thinking, orientation and comprehension, calculation, learning capacity, language and judgment. Dementia on the other hand, results from a variety of diseases and injuries that affect the brain, such as Alzheimer disease or stroke.
A few years back, doctor’s said that these diseases that affect brain, were hard to prevent, because what caused them often was not known. Nowadays, things have changed. According to the new guidelines issued by World Health Organization, people can reduce their risk of dementia or Alzheimer’s, by exercising regularly, quitting smoking, avoiding harmful use of alcohol, controlling their weight, eating a healthy diet, and maintaining healthy blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
According to a new study co-funded by the American Institute of Anti-Aging, a blood test can accurately predict the presence of β-amyloid plaques in the brain, and actually help Alzheimer’s prevention. This study analyzed the prospect of testing to detect the β-amyloid protein, which is now inextricably linked to Alzheimer’s disease. This disease is characterized by the accumulation of this protein, which forms plaques in the brain thus causing damage to brain cells.
This new blood test seems to be just as reliable as the existing CT scans of the brain and spine and it is estimated that it could reduce the cost of diagnostic tests for the disease …and not only!
Leonia, the Model Nursing Home for the elderly, is always drafted with the instructions of the World Health Organization (i.e. WHO) and the specialized Institutes in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Especially, with regards to the field of preventive medicine, since we are interested in providing the best care to our patients though an alternative action plan and a healthy lifestyle.
All in all, we are highly inspired and guided by the new trends developed in medicine and WHO, internationally; therefore in our next article we will present new updates with regards to Parkinson’s.