The Whitworths of Arizona, bringing science to you in everyday language.

Friday, February 26, 2016

Nutrition for the Aging: Chia seeds

These tiny black seeds can be healthy additions to your diet. Although they apparently don't do much for dementia specifically, they are good soldiers against aging in general. They also are helpful with diabetes, fighting infections, increasing energy, and decreasing wrinkles. But caregivers beware! If you or your loved one are prone to swallowing or intestinal problems, do NOT eat them unless they've been cooked or well soaked. In the presence of fluid, these raw seed swell up to at least twelve times their size and have caused serious blockages in the esophagus or intestine.

This doesn't have to stop you from using them. They have little flavor and you can toss them into almost anything you cook. In mac and cheese, they look like pepper. In oatmeal, they add bulk--great for the dieter. You can even make no-cook puddings with them. See the recipes below. I made the chocolate pudding and found it tasty, although the slimy texture is a bit of of a put-off.

These tiny black seeds are NOT supplements. They are "plant-based food," which makes them especially good for your diet. With a few exceptions, it is best to get your vitamins and minerals from foods rather than supplements. Research has shown over and over that food based nutrients metabolize and do their job than supplements do.

One ounce of chia seeds (app. 28 grams or 3 tablespoons) contains:

• 10 grams of fiber (app. 30% of RDA). Fiber is a much needed substance, used for bowel regularity, colon detoxification, and to eliminate toxins. It does its job as it passes through the body and is mostly indigestible.
• 12 grams of carbohydrate, only 1 of which is digestible (the rest is fiber!)
• 138 calories. With the fiber subtracted, the useable amount is only 101 calories.
• 8-9 grams of fat. Over half is Omega3, a very healthy fat.
• 5 grams Omega3, 200%+ of the recommended daily amount (RDA)
• 4-5 grams of protein. That's almost as high as meat and higher than eggs. Although chia seeds are a vegetarian protein, they contain all the amino acids. This can be said of very few other types of plant-based vs. animal-based foods.
• 11 grams of fiber, app. 30% of RDA.
• 18% RDA of calcium
• 27% RDA of phosphorus
• 30% RDA of manganese
• 30% RDA of magnesium
• 9% of your daily requirement of calcium (more per oz than dairy products!)
• 7% of your daily requirement of iron
• "Decent amounts" of zinc, potassium, and Vitamins B1 (Thiamine), B2 and B3 (Niacin)
• Enough antioxidants so that the seeds can be stored for long times without deteriorating or becoming rancid.

Chia seeds, used safely, are fun to experiment with and they can improve your diet.

• Add 1 T chia seeds to 1 c water and store your fridge to use raw. Add these soaked seeds to smoothies, or stir them into cold cereal, yogurt, applesauce, etc. Quick method: Add seeds to boiled water and soak at least 2 hours. Stir several times.
• For a smoother texture, use a coffee grinder to pulverize the seeds or put them in the blender with juice, milk or water before use.
• Make thickened fluids by adding raw chia seeds to juice, soup or other fluids. Let stand until fluid thickens before serving. (Overnight, or at least two hours.)
• Use 1 T of chia seeds with 3 T of water as a substitute for 1 egg in baking. Let the mixture sit until it turns into a gel before adding it to the mix.
• Use soaked chia seeds in place of oil or butter in cooking or baking.
• Use chia seeds as a thickener for stews or casseroles. Soak 1 T chia seeds in 1 c water overnight (or at least 3 hours).
• Chia fruit pudding: Blend 1/2 cup of fruit, sugar, honey or sweetener to taste, 1 t vanilla extract and 2 1/2 c milk until smooth. Pour over 1/2 c chia seeds, stir thoroughly. Let rest for 5 minutes and stir again. Repeat in 10 minutes. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Serves 4. Vanilla pudding: Leave out the fruit and decrease the milk to 2 c for vanilla pudding.
• Easy chia chocolate pudding: Mix 1 pkg hot chocolate mix, 1/4 c chia seeds. Add 3/4 c water or milk and 1/t vanilla and stir well. Let rest for several hours, stirring occasionally. Serves two.

Facts from Chia Seeds: Health Benefits and Nutritional Information.

For information about Lewy body disorders, read our books:
A Caregivers’ Guide to Lewy Body Dementia
Managing Cognitive Issues in Parkinson's and Lewy Body Dementia

Helen and James Whitworth are not doctors. As informed caregivers, they share the information here for educational purposes only. It should never be used instead of a physician's advice.

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Meeting Old Friends

A while back, we met up with some old friends. It was a bittersweet time…Donna was no longer the young bride I made the wedding dress for over 30 years ago. She was still petite and shapely but she shows her age, which is close to mine. Ben isn't the strutting young man I remembered either. He's now white haired, hesitant and newly diagnosed with PD. This disorder shows up differently for each person. For many, a first noticeable symptom is tremors. But Ben doesn’t have tremors. For others, poor posture and balance are common. Ben doesn’t have this either.

But he is beginning to be forgetful. “I get so discouraged,” he says. “I read a whole page and when I’m done, I can’t remember what I read.” Then he grins, “But I can still run!” He seems to be as physically fit as his wife. I wonder if he’s been misdiagnosed and actually has DLB, dementia with Lewy bodies. It can start with symptoms like this instead of movement problems. They said that he’d been pretty bad…couldn’t even dress himself before changed doctors. The new doctor changed his meds and now he’s much better. How often we hear this! Those PD drugs can really do a number on a person’s thinking abilities. I can’t help wondering what he’d be like if they decreased his PD drugs he’s on now, or even stopped them entirely. Maybe he wouldn’t be able to run anymore. But maybe he could remember what he read…

Ben can still speak clearly and easily but he says, “I’m losing my voice—it’s a lot softer than it used to be.” He’s been attending Big and Loud classes and says they help. I also notice that his facial muscles are not allowing him to be as expressive as I remember either. He credits Donna with his successes. “She keeps me moving,” he says. “We walk the dogs several miles a day,” she says. She adds, “He’s right. I make him do it. I know he has to keep moving.” We gave them both kudos for the great exercise program they have going and reminded then that the exercise is as good for the mind as it is for the muscles.

Donna says that several years ago, Ben traveled to his sister’s funeral and came back "a different man." More like he is now. Ben talks about his last job, which was very stressful followed by that trip which had also been a stressful time filled with family dissention. “Did all that stress cause the PD to show up?” he asked.

“No, but it might have made it happen sooner,” I answer. Our bodies are very efficient at fighting off a lot of things that we aren’t even aware of. Adding a certain amount of stress actually makes them work better. We function better with a bit of challenge. But when the stress becomes greater than we can handle, it becomes destructive. That is, it becomes a priority and the body’s resources go to trying to managing the stress instead of other functions, like fighting off unwanted intruders, diseases, and the like. Age does the same thing as the body wears down and can’t be as efficient anymore. And so Ben would probably still have developed PD, but the stress may have hurried it along. Ben and Donna work now to keep stress at a minimum.

“Ben sleeps a lot,” Donna confides. I reassure her that this is normal...living with PD, or DLB for that matter, is hard work. And they are still quite social, going to church, Ben's men’s group, out with friends, and such. Each of these events is likely to bring on a bout of Showtime, (where he appears better than he is at home with just Donna) and this takes a lot of energy too. Later, though, I wondered if he might be depressed. Several times he voiced his unhappiness with having PD…not unreasonable feeling. No one WANTS this baffling disorder! Depression due to the news that one’s golden years aren’t going to be what was expected is a common reaction. Sadly, depression is also be a common Lewy body symptom. We suggested that Donna and Ben talk to his doctor and ask about some safe anti-depressants. There are some that usually work fairly well with the Lewy body disorders.

My friends are managing well, or at least as well as they can with this confusing disorder. Jim and I encouraged them again to follow up on the depression issues and to continue with their physical and social endeavors. We added that Donna needs to find a support group and she agreed to work on this. I hope she does. Like most caregivers, she is less diligent about her own care than she is about her husbands. Maybe we should have caregivers for caregivers!

For information about Lewy body disorders, read our books:
A Caregivers’ Guide to Lewy Body Dementia
Managing Cognitive Issues in Parkinson's and Lewy Body Dementia

Helen and James Whitworth are not doctors. As informed caregivers, they share the information here for educational purposes only. It should never be used instead of a physician's advice.

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Don't Take It Personally!

Most LBD caregivers have heard this: “It’s not my loved one acting out. It’s the disease.” Mary Givens often responds to that with a “Yes, but.” “Yes, but it is so difficult to separate the person who still looks and often acts like Ed from his disease.” “Yes, but it still hurts.” “Yes, but I forget.” And so on. Being able to separate yourself from a person’s action is a learned behavior—an adult behavior. It takes insight, and the ability to make a conscious choice to look at the situation a different way.

Mary is a grandmother as well. For her two year old grandson, Jerome, everything is about him and he acts on his feelings without thinking. This is normal and he will grow out of it. Not as quickly as you may think, however. Mary’s son just went through a divorce and his 15 year old daughter, Megan, is devastated. She believes she caused the divorce because her dad couldn’t deal with her teenage behaviors. Even though her parents have insisted that this isn’t so, that it was their inability to get along, Megan still feels to blame.

In fact, do we ever grow out of our self-centeredness completely? Well, yes, most people do, but we often regress, especially when stressed. Stress limits our resources and we tend to regress back to earlier coping behaviors—to acting on feelings impulsively with little or no evaluation as to their validity and to seeing things from a lens that excludes other people's feelings and concerns. The person who “never” cries, cries. The usually careful dieter pigs out on junk food. The caregiver who can usually recognize that her loved one’s behavior isn’t about her takes the behavior personally.

With LBD, the person begins to regress back to that place where everything is again taken personally. like Mary’s grandson, everything is about "me."

Mary is like most people. Her initial response to Ed’s negative behaviors, even when she knows it isn’t really about her, is to take it personally. For a moment, she is shocked, angered, scared, insulted, etc. However, she has found that when she acts on that initial feeling, she is in a no-win situation, squabbling with Ed like a couple of toddlers. No one gets their needs met. Certainly not Mary, who probably ends up crying. And not Ed, whose behavior was likely a stress-related communication about something he needs.

Ed can’t change. He will likely continue to express his needs with shouting and other acting out behaviors. And Mary will continue to respond initially by taking it personally. But Mary doesn’t have to stay there. She can still think and make judgments and choices and act on them. And so Mary makes a conscious choice to view the behavior as a symptom of Ed’s disease. Immediately, this reduces her stress level. It is no longer a personal assault. It is now a cry for help. Now, in caregiver mode, Mary starts looking for the cause of Ed’s irritability. She knows that if she finds it and responds to that, Ed will probably calm down.

For information about Lewy body disorders, read our books:
A Caregivers’ Guide to Lewy Body Dementia
Managing Cognitive Issues in Parkinson's and Lewy Body Dementia

Helen and James Whitworth are not doctors. As informed caregivers, they share the information here for educational purposes only. It should never be used instead of a physician's advice.

Sunday, February 7, 2016

New Bookstore and New Workshop

This week, I'm using our blog to share information about a new feature here and about an upcoming workshop.

The new feature is a link to our new LBD Bookstore. You can find a link to it at the top of the Right Panel. Do check it out. Feel free to make suggestions for additions as well. Eventually, the one on LBDtools.com will be like this one as well, but changes take time. In the meantime, use this one. It is much more current.

The flier below tells about the workshop we are co-sponsoring. We are excited and know it will be both educational and fun to attend. If you live in the area, do check it out! For more information and to register, go to HealingThings.com. This time it is is local, but even if you don't live in Arizona, let me know if it sounds like something you'd like to attend. We'll be doing them again, I'm sure, and next time we plan to make it a two day affair.


For information about Lewy body disorders, read our books:
A Caregivers’ Guide to Lewy Body Dementia
Managing Cognitive Issues in Parkinson's and Lewy Body Dementia

Helen and James Whitworth are not doctors. As informed caregivers, they share the information here for educational purposes only. It should never be used instead of a physician's advice.