Senior citizens of the Long Beach community and Cal State Long Beach students and faculty gathered at The Pointe in the Walter Pyramid for the sixth annual Donald P. Lauda Wellness Lecture on Thursday.
The event was coordinated by the College of Health and Human Services and featured Laura Mosqueda, the Ronald Reagan Endowed Chair in Geriatrics at UC Irvine, to discuss, “Alzheimer’s: Hope on the Horizon.”
“This is an epidemic we can see coming, and we’re not doing anything about it,” Mosqueda said.
She said that there are four million in the U.S. currently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. That number is estimated to grow to 14 million by the year 2050.
Mosqueda also discussed the economic impact of Alzheimer’s, stating that $199 billion is spent each year to care for these individuals.
“Families bear the greatest burden of expense,” she said.
Mosqueda started by clarifying the difference between dementia and Alzheimer’s. She said dementia is a symptom and is the impairment of thinking and memory loss that interferes with a person’s ability to remember how to do things. Alzheimer’s disease is the common cause of dementia, and is particularly common in older people.
When detecting if a loved one has Alzheimer’s, Mosqueda said to ask him or her to memorize three words. If the response is “what words?”, it is likely that the individual has a form of the disease.
Paying attention to emotional context rather than content is important when treating the disease. Mosqueda mentioned a specific patient that would say “I want to go home,” to which the daughter would respond, “Well, dad, you are home.”
Mosqueda said this goes deeper than expected. “If they are saying that over and over again, give them a hug and tell them you love them because what home means to them is comfort. If they do not feel at home they do not feel comfort.”
She also warned against too many patients being prescribed unneeded medications. “I’m a pretty anti-medicine doctor; I’ve stopped more medicines than I have prescribed.”
Mosqueda found it important to be educated about these different medications in order to help loved ones and where not to find them.
“There’s a lot of garbage on the Internet. Don’t get sucked in with garbage,” she said.
During a question-and-answer portion of the lecture, Mosqueda was asked for advice to college students who have parents or grandparents dealing with the disease.
Mosqueda responded, “Being there, being available, having a consistent presence and just loving them and not being afraid.”
Mosqueda found it important that young adults also find a meaningful activity to do with them and enjoy together.
It was also asked if there was a relationship between Alzheimer’s and alcohol abuse. Mosqueda said that there are some specific Alzheimer’s symptoms that are associated with alcohol.
“There’s no doubt that alcohol poisons the brain. If you have Alzheimer’s and you are drinking, it will make it that much more worse. It kills nerve cells,” Mosqueda said.
