“Alzheimer’s is certainly one of the most frightening diseases. While early diagnosis and treatment can have an impact on several types of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease continues to resist the efforts of researchers to find effective treatments. There is, however, a “but” in Alzheimer’s dismal profile: small steps are being made to relieve at least some of the disease’s symptoms,” writes Dean A. Haycock for FYI Living.
“A recent study confirms the well-established, positive effect music therapy has for patients with Alzheimer’s disease,” he wrote. “It shows how patients with mild to moderate symptoms can benefit even more from this type of therapy by letting them choose the type of music they listen to. This simple approach resulted in significant decreases in anxiety and depression in patients. Moreover, the benefits lasted for up to two months after the music sessions were discontinued.”
“Even a little help like this could provide significant benefits since more than 5 million people in the United States now have this type of dementia, and more than 3 times that many will have it in just forty years.”
My mother and I expressed joy to each other through music and dance. When she danced to Latin music, she lost herself – something that Alzheimer’s had already done for her. But unlike losing herself to a disease, she lost herself on her own terms, her own beat, her own rhythm.
When she danced, she connected to the air, the ground, the people around her, the energy that she felt. She was no longer an Alz patient banished from a community where she once belonged. She was a Latina giving life to the music that she heard.
Celia Pomerantz
Author/Photographer
Alzheimer’s: A Mother Daughter Journey
celiapomerantz.wordpress.com