Dementia

What puzzles Harry Gaines is that we typically plan our vacations with more care than we plan the rest of our lives, especially when it comes to health and fitness. Too often we neglect to make the investment in exercise that will pay rich dividends in well-being in our 70s, 80s, and beyond. Gaines, 74, a retired textbook-publishing executive who lives half the year in Newtown, Bucks County, and the other half in Florida, keeps a "bucket list" — goals and experiences he hopes to accomplish before he kicks the proverbial bucket.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Tennessee's Pat Summitt plans to coach "as long as the good Lord is willing" despite recently learning she has early onset dementia. In a statement from Summitt released by the university on Tuesday, the Hall of Fame coach said she visited with doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., after the 2010-11 basketball season ended, and early onset dementia - Alzheimer's type - was diagnosed over the summer. "I plan to continue to be your coach," Summitt said.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Tennessee's Pat Summitt plans to coach "as long as the good Lord is willing" despite recently being diagnosed with early onset dementia. In a statement from Summitt released by the university on Tuesday, the Hall of Fame coach said she visited with doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., after the end of the 2010-11 basketball season ended and was diagnosed with early onset dementia - Alzheimer's type - over the summer. "I plan to continue to be your coach," Summitt said.

Police are looking for a 90-year-old man who has been reported missing from an assisted living facility in Bensalem Township. John Plath suffers from severe dementia and cannot see well without his glasses, which he left behind, police said. He was last seen about 7 p.m. Sunday at the facility, which is in the area of Hulmeville Road and Bensalem Boulevard, police said. He is thin, about six feet tall and was wearing a long-sleeved gray shirt with dark pants. Anyone who sees Plath is asked to call the Bensalem Township Police Department at 215-633-3719.

Police are asking for the public's help in locating an 83-year-old man with dementia who has been missing since Wednesday morning in the Tacony section of the city. David Fleming was last seen in the 6300 block of Gillespie Street around 11 a.m., police said. He is described as 5-foot-11, 180 pounds, with blue eyes and gray hair. He was wearing a black T-shirt with animals on it, jeans shorts, black socks, and white sneakers. Anybody with information is being asked to contact Northeast Detectives at 215-686-3153 or -3154.

Mike Ditka says these are the times he thinks most about Mick Tingelhoff, Pete Pihos, Joe Perry, John Mackey, the late Jim Ringo, and dozens of other former NFL players who have suffered from dementia or Alzheimer's. Ditka, long a passionate advocate for the welfare of former NFL players suffering from injuries sustained on the field decades ago, recently read the news of a study commissioned by the NFL. It indicated that memory-related diseases were diagnosed in former players at a rate 19 times the rate for all men aged 30 through 49. The Hall of Fame player, who went on to coach two NFL teams and is now a broadcaster for ESPN, is angry that a study commissioned by the NFL is now being downplayed by a league spokesman and other doctors.

At 83, Mr. Hockey is still in demand and on the move. Gordie Howe is about to embark on another series of fund-raisers to support dementia research. It's a personal cause. The disease killed his wife, Colleen, in 2009 and is beginning to affect him. "He's a little bit worse than last year, but pretty close to about the same," son Marty said. "He just loses a little bit more, grasping for words. "The worst part of this disease is there's nothing you can do about it. " While the long-term effects of concussions have been very much in the news lately, the family is hesitant to link the Hall of Famer's condition to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)

For years, scientists studying the brain have quarreled over whether smoking protects people from such diseases as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. After all, the theory went, nicotine stimulates the brain, so it should help fight off brain diseases. A study from the Netherlands yesterday cast doubt on that theory, finding that smokers in fact suffered higher rates of Alzheimer's disease than nonsmokers. The results will cheer antismoking activists who have feared that research into the "benefits" of smoking would reduce smokers' efforts to quit.

As the population of people with Alzheimer's disease grows, election officials need to tackle a problem that is growing with it: how to regulate voting among people with dementia. In an article published today, a multidisciplinary research team said it saw evidence of two potentially big problems among the four million Americans with Alzheimer's disease: Some are still capable of voting but aren't allowed to. Others who shouldn't be voting still do and are vulnerable to fraud. The country has no clear rules on deciding who is competent to vote, the group said in an article that appears in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.

Question : Do puzzles and memory exercises really help to stave off getting Alzheimer's disease? Answer : Using the brain by doing various "cognitive activities" like puzzles, reading newspapers and books, watching television or playing cards and board games does help stave off Alzheimer's. Research does indeed show that more frequent activity to stimulate memory and learning is associated with a slower rate of cognitive decline compared to older folks who spend little time stimulating their brain.

Dementia and its evil twin, Alzheimer's, may have moved ahead of cancer on the list of most feared diseases, especially among baby boomers, who have begun to believe it is their inescapable fate if they have the bad luck to live too long. So we grasp at any news about aging, hoping that medical science has indeed found a way to preserve that most essential part of who we are - our memories. Do we protect our minds by doing the New York Times crossword puzzle or by doing aerobics?

Frank Diamond is a freelance writer in Langhorne When Bernie met Mary, he was a budding scholar and she looked like Goldie Hawn: short skirts, nice legs. Hey, love happens. There were flowers, dinner dates, movies - plenty of what's celebrated on St. Valentine's Day. They married, settled in the Olney section of Philadelphia, and raised four children who are now successful, good-hearted adults. They were active in their church and maintained a large network of friends. Every Christmas they were hosts to a huge party where songbooks were distributed and carols sung.

At 83, Mr. Hockey is still in demand and on the move. Gordie Howe is about to embark on another series of fund-raisers to support dementia research. It's a personal cause. The disease killed his wife, Colleen, in 2009 and is beginning to affect him. "He's a little bit worse than last year, but pretty close to about the same," son Marty said. "He just loses a little bit more, grasping for words. "The worst part of this disease is there's nothing you can do about it. " While the long-term effects of concussions have been very much in the news lately, the family is hesitant to link the Hall of Famer's condition to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)

At least four lawsuits blaming the NFL for concussion-related dementia and brain disease will be consolidated in federal court in Philadelphia, and more could follow. A U.S. judicial panel approved requests Tuesday by the NFL and plaintiffs lawyers to try similar cases before Senior U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody . The lawsuits represent more than 300 retired players or spouses. The players accuse the NFL of negligence and intentional misconduct in its response to the headaches, dizziness, and dementia that former players have reported.

THE EAGLES who won back-to-back world championships in the late 1940s were a rugged bunch of birds - and one of the toughest was their star receiver, No. 35, Pete Pihos. The son of Greek immigrants, hardened by serving in World War II's Battle of the Bulge under Gen. George Patton, Pihos dashed his way into the Pro Football Hall of Fame not so much for his ability to catch a long pass as the way he flattened defenders on the way to the end zone. Like many NFL greats of postwar years, Pihos then galloped into retirement and relative obscurity, ending up as a construction manager in North Carolina.

Nela Baker and Claudia Sequeira, a program assistant at Adult Care of Chester County, were playing a matching game called Memory. It involved turning over cards with pictures on them - a grandmother, a clown, a windmill - in pairs and turning them facedown again. The object was to remember where the cards were and match pairs. Baker's failing memory had brought the two small, slightly built women together in a new program - likely the first of its kind in the region - for people with early-onset dementia.

Three caregivers vilified after being caught on tape allegedly harming an elderly dementia patient had their day in Delaware County Court on Thursday. The verdict: not guilty. Judge Kevin F. Kelly called the behavior of the three "wholly inappropriate and repugnant" but ruled in favor of Tyrina Griffin, 22, and Ayesha Muhammad, 19, both of Philadelphia, and Samirah Traynham, 22, of Yeadon. The three were initially charged with aggravated assault, criminal conspiracy, harassment, and neglect of a care-dependent person.

They were the kind of allegations likely to ratchet up the fear level for anyone who has ever had an elderly dependent. Three caregivers, allegedly caught on a secret camera, were arrested this spring and charged with taunting and abusing a 78-year-old woman with dementia living in Haverford Township's Quadrangle Senior Living Community. But at a trial before Judge Kevin F. Kelly in Delaware County Court on Friday, two very different versions of the events emerged. Kelly did not render a verdict, saying he would announce his decision Thursday after reviewing the matter.