Jeffrey Dodson

Return From The Sidelines

2015-11-26T12:21:00.000-08:00

It’s been awhile.
Just over 8 months actually. Drawn away from writing and blogging out of necessity.

First came retirement in April. That was a good thing.

Daily life now on my own terms rather than those of a corporate entity.

In June then, just a month and a half in, the challenge arose of providing caregiving attention to a sick relative who lives some 60 miles away. We gladly dusted off our caregiver banners and stepped up to lend a hand. That took us up through the month of October.

We have also been emerged in cleaning, repairing and rejuvenating our Elk Grove home in preparation to selling it. (Too much home to contend along with running up and down stairs every day).

While engaged in getting the Elk Grove home ready to sell, we have also been working nearly every day cleaning, refurbishing and clearing out the clutter and 60+ years of accumulated stuff at our new home, which is Penny’s parents old house.

Over 14 truckloads of junk taken to the local dump between the two homes along with dozens of deliveries to the local Goodwill of worn out items, home furnishings and clothing well past their prime.

The cleaning, repairing and rejuvenating of both of our homes has also provided us with an opportunity to heal and bind up the wounds of sorrow and the effects of stress we endured as caregivers to our parents over the past 11 plus years. Call it caregiver therapy. Self-administered and oh so timely.

The end of all this is close at hand and we look forward to wrapping up the sale of our other home then settle down for the Christmas holidays. Thank Goodness!

Taking up the writing and blogging mantle again is positive therapy for me and provides an outlet to dig into and investigate various topics. It’s my return from the sidelines and getting up off of the bench…so to speak.

I’m glad to be writing again!

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Jeff Dodson
November 26th 2015

The Big Little Things

2015-04-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

Image courtesy of: topnews.net.nz

Recognition. Being noticed. Greeted warmly. Hearing your name called out joyfully by others. In our everyday normal world we accept these tokens of interaction and communication with a grain of salt.

In a nursing home or a care facility for the elderly, such recognition, such acknowledgments of a resident by visitors does not happen much at all. Most folks who visit a nursing home are there to see and visit with their own family member, period. On their way from the parking lot, through the entry lobby, proceeding down any number of corridors to their loved ones room, pretty much every senior they walk past are invisible. In plain sight…but not seen.

By my own shameful admittance, I once behaved like that. It was early on with my late mother-in-law who was the first of our family members stricken with Alzheimer’s dementia. In the earliest months of her residency at the Asian Center in South Sacramento, my mission, upon arriving there, was to make a fast beeline to Marian’s room to see her and her alone. It never occurred to me back then to make any kind of effort to acknowledge, to greet or even to offer a nod of recognition to any of the other residents that I would stride right past.

My behavior was that of an uninformed, insensitive individual. Oh sure, I was most interested in getting to Marian’s room and interacting with her. It simply never occurred to me to make any kind of effort to show any kind of compassionate interest in any of the residents between the front door and the door to her room.

Something as apparent as broadening the scope of whom I was going there to be kind and compassionate with was not obvious to me early on. That was in late 2006 and early 2007.

Then a change in my awareness began. It began with a female resident, well into her 90’s, whom I’ll call Helen. Always well groomed and dressed, Helen was typically one of the first residents each morning to arrive in her Meri-walker at the lobby gathering desk. The front lobby desk at this nursing facility formed a 360 degree circle. Kind of like a hollow donut with the staff working in the space within. The early morning sunlight beamed down into this area which made it bright and inviting every morning for chilled or cold-sensitive geriatric bodies. This was, no doubt, why Helen was one of the first arrivals each day. Pick out the best (warmest) spot, then defend it like a lioness.

It was her well groomed appearance and perfectly coiffed hair that first caught my eye. In inquiring about who she was, I learned that Helen’s family came to visit her on a weekly basis and were very fussy about her appearance and how she was turned out in public. Not just about Helen’s appearance. Her family obviously cared a great deal about her and her welfare.

Once morning on my way in to see Marian, I noticed one of the resident CNA’s greeting Helen with an elaborate bowing gesture. Helen, in kind, matched the offering with her own bow of reciprocation, followed by a bright smile. Seeing this struck me out of the blue as something cool.

On my next visit to the Asian Center, I made it a point of looking for Helen to try my hand at greeting her with my own amateur bow. I didn’t see her on that visit or the next. On my next visit after that, Helen was parked in the lobby at her usual perch surveying everyone coming and going. I made a purposeful march down the hall right toward her. As she looked my way, I made a show of stopping, then offering her a bow. She immediately returned the gesture from her walker followed with a smile.

Wow. An ice-breaker with another resident. Just that it took me over 6 months to open my mind up to that simple level of kindness.

From that initial effort with Helen, I later learned that she had established a notoriety for herself at the Asian Center for making at least 2 or 3 half-hearted escape attempts out the front lobby door each day. Helen not only looked well groomed and taken care of, but she was gutsy as well.

Beginning with Helen, I next began to observe and notice other residents on my way in and out of Marian’s room. Offering a simple, “Hello,’’ or a “How are you today?” worked wonders with virtually everyone I made eye contact with.

It was all about validation. That man who comes in here often, notice Me today! He said I looked nice in my bright new robe. Complimented me last week on how pretty my head of silver hair looked.

A basic and fundamental human yearning is to be noticed, to be recognized. A lesson I’m glad I learned some 8 years ago. It served me well for the remainder of Marian’s lifetime at the Asian Center.

Later, in 2010 through 2013, I became a lot more proficient at practicing heartfelt kindness with other residents while visiting with my own parents who were living at the Sherwood Healthcare Center in Sacramento.

One elderly woman who lived at Sherwood, owing to being an active choir member in church in her earlier years, would often break out into spontaneous singing bouts from her hallway wheelchair. This often initiated all sorts of positive and negative reactions from those nearby. I always made it a point when I heard her of walking up to her, kneeling next to her and whispering in her ear of how delightful her singing was. It never failed to bring a broad grin to her face followed by a proud, “Thank You, kind Sir.”

Make the effort to notice others, to greet them warmly or extend a kind compliment. You just never know how big such a little thing like that will be to that other person. Often it will be received as a very big thing.

By God, a kind, perfect stranger noticed Me today!

Jeff Dodson

April 16th 2015

A Book Review of E-Cubed

2015-03-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

E-Cubed is the followup book to E-Squared by New York Times best-selling author Pam Grout. Pam is also the author of 17 books. She has her own luxury travel blog page as well as a personal blog site. E-Cubed is my first exposure to this author.

Pam Grout employs lots of positive upbeat humor and joy in her writing.

My first impression of E-Cubed is that the book represents Pam’s unique interpretation of the kind of manifestation and possibility thinking that Dr. Wayne Dyer wrote about in Wishes Fulfilled and The Power of Intention.

The format that she utilizes as an alternative to traditional sequenced chapters is unique and created to captivate the reader’s eye and attention as well as inviting participation.

Each of the Experiments numbering from one through nine (in lieu of numbered chapters) lays out the basic theory of what is presented and then concisely summarized by Pam at the conclusion of each of the Experiments with her Lab Sheet. These are a fun filled method of blending elements of science with those of the spiritual and metaphysical worlds to illustrate the author’s message.

Prior to the Experiments section I enjoyed two simple lines of encouragement. "Commit to having fun, and, commit to being overjoyed."

The Experiments are:

#1 The more fun I have, the better life works.

This one’s about changing the momentum that you begin with each morning in starting your day. Making a change up for the betterment of yourself. Invest 72 hours in starting each day with motivating music or an exercise program that is a break away from your norm.

#2 My beliefs and expectations impact what I draw from the field of potentiality.

A quote that sums up this experiment for me is, “our ability to shape energy is like breathing. We do it all the time without realizing it.” — Damien Echols. The experiment allots 72 hours to find 8 things that the world reflects what you expect to see.

#3 Nothing is absolute; only my thinking makes it so.

In this experiment, Pam writes, “A belief is only a thought we continue to think over and over again. We decide how thing are and proceed to do everything we can to prove that conclusion. What if instead of searching so hard for the right answer, we simply admit there’s no universal anything.”

In other words, if one flips a long held belief about oneself, you will find just as much evidence to support that reality. The experiment is to invest 72 hours investigating whether the opposite of a long held negative belief about you is just as valid.

#4 There is no “them.” It’s only “us.”

In other words, the negative circumstances and folks that we encounter in our lives may just be perfectly timed opportunities for us to grow and evolve for our own benefit. 72 hours are allowed for this experiment. The mission is to look for things to appreciate about your enemy.

#5 Money is nothing but energy and a reflection of my beliefs.

Two parts to this experiment. Part one is to begin giving out monetarily what you wish to receive back. Part two is to align with the Quantum Field by hunting for pennies.

#6 A vibrating, pulsing field with mystical information is available if I pay attention.

A quote shared in this experiment (chapter) worth repeating is, “Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough.” — George Washing Carver. The experiment involves banning the news and social media from your natural awareness. Your assignment is to walk in your neighborhood and be observant to what all is going on around you. While doing so, you are to actively expect and seek an important message.

#7 The words that spill from my mouth have a certain wattage and energy, and by using only words and phrases that bless and uplift, will I empower myself and others. The experiment is to actively monitor the words you use and to notice the change that shows up in your life as a result.

#8 My thoughts are insanely powerful. So powerful I can flip reality by withdrawing my attention and shifting it to a different reality. Here the challenge is to spend three days drinking self-created, energy infused water. Determine what you are going to improve or heal about yourself.

#9 There is an invisible energy force or field of infinite possibilities.

Invest 3 days consciously trusting, being receptive to and waiting for a sign of the presence of the river of life. It is about celebrating what you want to see more of.

#10 Bonus Experiment. If one person did something, its possible for all.

Here the experiment involves the application and use of what is called Qigong energy to alter the taste and appearance of water.

Additional quotes I liked in E-Cubed that Pam shared are:

“Our thoughts hold more medicine than many of the astonishing breakthroughs of our time.” — Kris Carr, Crazy Sexy Kitchen

“You can change your world by changing your words.” — Joel Osteen, Pastor of Lakewood Church

I found E-Cubed to be unexpectedly entertaining, informative and written to challenge the reader in fun ways that would light a fire of positive change in them.

Jeff Dodson

March 15th 2015

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Hay House Publishing for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are unbiased and reflect my honest judgment of the product.

A Grandchild To Care For

2015-03-01T13:31:00.000-08:00

It’s been just a little over four months since we lost our last parent, my father-in-law, Forrest Widdifield.

At no time during those first three months of mourning his passing did we ever imagine that we would be taking on again, so soon, another caregiving mission. One of a very different kind from what we had been accustomed to.

Caring for the needs and nurturing of our one and a half year old granddaughter is what we are now engaged in.

She is an absolute blast to have in our home to watch over, to protect and to teach. She also has proven to be an ace at pushing the energy expenditure of one adult in her late 50’s and the other in his early 60’s to the very limits of their original factory design tolerances. Most days, we find ourselves hitting the tachometer redline by early afternoon!

The best part of each day is at meal time. That’s because it is a crack up watching how she takes to the introduction of new food items. Presently, fruits seem to be an instant hit, while vegetables are touch and go (throw). Meats are a work in progress. My wife recently discovered a Zucchini bread at Costco that is heavenly. Granddaughter just craves it. Chock full of vegetables besides zucchini, it is both nourishing and tastes good.

Our granddaughter has brought a good measure of fun and has served as a positive influence with us that has countered the grief,mourning and exhaustion we have had on our plate for the past decade as Alzheimer’s dementia caregivers.

Caring for a grandchild is an excellent source of infusing your life again with squeals of joy, the patter and oomph of running little feet interspersed with lots of conks and falls as they motor about your home and hallways, either running away from you or running right at you to show or bring you a new toy or object of their immediate interest. It is eye opening and uplifting to be re-introduced to the world of no-limits, endless wonder and the joyful sparkle of bright little eyes amazed at the smallest or most ordinary things about the house.

The arrival of our granddaughter in our lives has been just the therapeutic balm my wife and I have needed for quite some time.

Living again with such an energetic wee person is like drinking down a shot glass of elixir from the fountain of youth.

It is good to be alive.

Jeff Dodson

March 1st 2015

The Top Ten Things Dead People Want To Tell You

2015-01-12T08:18:00.000-08:00

This book is my first exposure to the work of author, Mike Dooley. He is also the author of theNew York Times bestseller, Infinite Possibilities: The Art Of Living Your Dreams.

The title of this book was the hook for me. Just what are those ten things that the departed want to tell us? What might I learn that I did not already know or sense? What might I learn that will validate or reinforce what I already believe?

So, according to Mike Dooley, what are those ten things the dead are most eager to communicate to us? They are presented in the following chapter order.

Were not dead

We chose to be here in the first place. Love and happiness are why we are here. Thought connects everything and all of us. We began from a place in eternity and will return to it.

There’s no such thing as a devil or hell

Wow! Really. This will come as a relief for many and create uneasiness for some whose beliefs expect fire, brimstone and punishment for sinners.

Mike Dooley contends that the only real hell each of us will suffer through is when we sit down and execute a review of our own life just lived through. All of the good and the negative that we lived thorough we will feel and experience through the emotions of those that we interacted with. We act as our own post-game locker room coach with lots of game film footage. That plus we get to experience first-hand every emotion of all of the folks that we ever interacted with, for better or for worse.

We were ready

A time to die is out there for each of us. “A life ends naturally when the adventurer either achieves what he originally came for or when he can no longer achieve it and there are no other alternative, achievable goals, “ according to the author.

Dooley’s position is that, “You are not alive to be tested, judged, and sentenced. You’re alive to live and learn, in unending spirals of love. Everything plays to these greater goals, and every decision you make while living becomes the core study material for your fabulous growth and glory — right down to the time and method of your passing.”

You’re not ready

“Life’s adventures are only possible because of life’s challenges,” writes Dooley.

We are embarked upon a journey of our own creation (one that we mapped out before we came here). We came here to ‘blaze a new trail,’ and learn and discover all that we possibly can before our game clock buzzer rings signaling the end of our game.

Were sorry for any pain we caused

Dooley writes that the dead want all of us living to know that they are all sorry for any of the pain that they caused each of us. These were mistakes they made on their well intentioned path towards positive growth.

Your dreams really can come true

“Your challenges are temporary, while their lessons are eternal.” Live your life to the

absolute fullest. You were born to soar, to achieve, and to grow. Go ahead and want it all. That’s what it’s there for!

Heaven is going to blow your mind

You are one of a kind. Irreplaceable. Kind of like the lyrics in that Katie Perry song,

“Firework.” Spiritual awareness occurs.

You finally comprehend that eternity precedes and then follows every lifetime upon this earth for each of us. We were all part of it before we came here, and it is that realm to which we return after our time on earth.

In heaven you learn a. how important you were, b. how powerful you were, and,

c. there are no mistakes. Whoa! Three great reasons to feel empowered and good about yourself here.

Life is more than fair

In this chapter, Dooley makes three interesting points.

First, It doesn’t matter where you’ve been — it will serve you (whether traumatic or joyous).

Second, It doesn’t matter where you now are, because where you are is never who you are.

Third, You can, starting today, with new thoughts, words and actions, create a new vibe that will begin orchestrating your own “luck, accidents and serendipities,” to blast forward, higher, richer, and happier — yee ha!

Your ‘old pets’ are as crazy as ever

I’m personally not an animal owner although many of my family members are or were. Good news for all animal lovers and pet owners: no animals are left behind. There are no bad dogs. Every cat gets more lives. And they’ll be joining us in eternity.

Love is the way; truth is the path

“The dead with their advantage of perspective, see love everywhere,” writes Dooley.

Dooley states that, “You spiritually feel love in an entirely new way, not as a choice but as a channel for something far greater. You judge nothing because you see yourself in everything. You blame no one because blame is the evasion of responsibility.”

“Eternity promises too much to spend one more moment looking back with regret than is necessary,” is another quote from Dooley that I like.

My final thoughts on this book:

If you currently are a caregiver, have just lost a loved one, or maybe just someone who is at a point in life struggling to make sense of their own spirituality and primary purpose, then, The Ten Things Dead People Want To Tell You, is a book you want to read. And for everyone else, it is damn well entertaining and thought provoking. So everyone else needs to read it too.

Jeff Dodson

January 12th 2015

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Hay House Publishing for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are unbiased and reflect my honest judgment of the product.

Be SureTo Tell Her It Was Good!

2014-12-22T11:16:00.002-08:00

Last week, while on our way to Costco holiday shopping, my wife and I stopped in at one of our local eateries for lunch.

While there, we became engrossed in a conversation with our server about caregiving and confided in her that pop (my father-in-law), would no longer be eating out with us anymore as he had passed away in October. Our server mentioned that she and her family were also struggling with a family member (her mother-in-law) who is dying at home under Hospice care. It is touch and go as to whether the mother-in-law would make it all the way to Christmas.

The mother-in-law is in only in her 50’s yet she is dying from cancer and other medical complications. As death draws nearer, she appears to have begun hallucinating; that is claiming to have been doing things or involved in tasks or activities that are impossible, given that she is bedridden. The adults in the family have found it easiest to just agree with or play along with whatever imagined event is announced by their loved one.

Why upset them any more than what they are already suffering from?

Recently, a grandson came to visit the terminally ill grandmother at her bedside. Beforehand, he had been alerted by his mother (our restaurant server) that grandma was now prone to hallucinations and talking about things that had not happened.

Mother instructed her son: “If she says anything about cooking a big meal for us, tell her it was good!”

Armed with this information, the grandson was ready to do his part in comforting grandma should the need for a “compassionate white-lie” be required.

In my own mind, I can imagine how the scene played out between the two of them.

Grandma: “You know honey, I spent all morning downstairs in the kitchen cooking up our holiday ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, the vegetables and several pies for that dinner we had tonight. I’m so exhausted now from all of that cooking.”

Grandson: (Thinking back to one of grandma’s lavish and tasty holiday meals a couple of years back), “Yes grandma, I loved your meal. The ham and pies were my favorites, but it was all good!”

Grandma: Oh honey, I’m so glad everything tasted ok and all of you ate your fill. It makes this old lady feel like she still has something to contribute to this family of ours.”

The elderly and the dying deserve the support of their family. And instilling respect for one’s elders in a younger family member will always be one of those right things to teach a child. In this case, though a small white lie was the response to grandma’s declaration of her imagined morning of cooking, the grandson’s comment served to comfort and validate grandma’s earned place within the family. Though on the doorstep of passing away during our holiday season, grandma knows she is loved and appreciated.

God Bless this grandma, this grandson, and this family.

Jeff Dodson

December 22nd 2014

Walking Home: A Book Review

2014-11-23T18:13:00.000-08:00

This is the second book that I’ve had the opportunity to review of author and speaker, Sonia Choquette. The first was Grace, Guidance and Gifts in 2012.

Imagine at the height of your professional career, to suddenly experience the loss of your father, your brother, and, to have your marriage suddenly collapse all within a three year period. Your personal life is now unravelling. Time to step off life’s speedway and bind up the wounds.

Walking Home is Sonia’s candid story of how she bravely chose to do this.

Her solution was committing herself to a pilgrimage walk of the Camino de Santiago. Also known as the Way of St. James, it is the ancient pilgrimage route stretching some five hundred miles between Arles in the south of France across northern Spain and ending at the Cathedral of Santiago. It is there that the remains of St. James the Great are said to be buried.

Sonia planned for and scheduled a month and a half off from her professional and personal life commitments to walk and complete this pilgrimage. She committed to this not long after having knee surgery with a knee that was not 100% healed. Secondly, she had not allowed for time to build up her physical stamina for the arduous daily hiking through wildly unpredictable weather and the unfamiliar terrain that the journey would entail.

She did not make extensive plans in advance for this undertaking as she had always felt confident in her intuition to guide her. For this, she paid a very painful daily price with injuries to her feet, sore legs and back and chronic pain with the unhealed knee. Still, Sonia was determined to make this journey because, in her words, “I wanted to walk the Camino more than anything to become free of guilt and anger and shame I was carrying so deep in my heart. I yearned for forgiveness for having all this guilt and resentment.”

It would take Sonia 34 days to complete her pilgrimage. During the course of her walk she experienced an amazing depth of adventures with fellow pilgrims she met, her surroundings, and, with dredging up emotions, some of which had been deeply buried since early childhood.

While on her journey of healing and transformation, Sonia said, “I let go of blaming myself for someone else’s behavior. I let go of feeling I had to hide and pretend it didn’t happen. I let go of the need to beat myself up about it.”

What I found fascinating about Sonia’s sojourn were the encounters she had that might best be described as spiritual or even supernatural in nature.

The first one occurred on the 15th day of her walk. While trudging along the Camino trail, she witnessed an elderly man dressed only in runners shorts and a tank top go trotting past her along the trail in freezing cold weather. Later she learned about the man. He had made a promise to God in earlier years that if his only son would be cured of cancer, he would commit to completing the Camino one hundred times. When Sonia saw him, he was on his ninth Camino journey. Witnessing the personal sacrifice and dedication of this elderly pilgrim inspired her to renew her determination to see her trip to its completion.

The second one happened on the 29th day of her journey. While absorbed in her thoughts, Sonya became disoriented and lost. Hiking further, she came upon several forks in the trail. Her intuitive voice compelled her to follow the one to the left. This she did and eventually came upon an old shed with a house attached. The door was open so she entered it. Within she was greeted by a smiling elderly man who invited her to accept a cup of coffee. She attempted to refuse but was informed by him that the Camino had brought her to his house for a reason. She sat down, accepted the coffee then was dumbstruck to be informed by the man, “Antonio your (dead) brother, brought you here.” She parted company with the old sage with an animal totem and crystal to protect and guide her on the rest of her journey.

Sonia’s daily narrative of her pilgrimage journey is a fascinating read as she wrestles with painful past memories, decades old emotional wounds and lots of raw anger. As each day passed, she began a process of first facing and confronting each of these feelings then allowing herself to simply let go of each of them.

Walking Home is a vivid account of one persons journey and transformation from being emotionally and psychologically wounded into one who became a reintegrated and healed soul. This book would make a great movie!

Jeffrey Dodson

November 24th 2014

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Hay House Publishing for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are unbiased and reflect my honest judgment of the product.

Alzheimer’s Research Game Changer

2014-11-07T12:55:00.000-08:00

On October 12th 2014 an article appeared in The New York Times by Gina Kolata entitled, Breakthrough Replicates Human Brain Cells for use in Alzheimer’s Research. The next day on October 13th 2014, the online website KurzweilAI (www.kurzweilai.net) featured an article entitled, Alzheimer’s-in-a-dish is ‘first clear evidence’ for amyloid hypothesis.

Both articles are reporting the work of Dr. Rudolph E. Tanzi, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Genetics and Aging Research Unit and investigator, Doo Yeon Kim, PhD who shared authorship in a report to Nature on Sunday October 12th.

The Kurzweil article began with, “Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers have created the first ‘Alzheimer’s-in-a-dish’ - a 3D petri dish capable of reproducing the full course of events underlying the development of Alzheimer’s disease.”

According to Dr. Tanzi, the key to their success was a suggestion by his colleague Doo Yeon Kim to grow human brain cells in a gel, where they formed networks as in an actual brain. They gave the neurons genes for Alzheimer’s disease. Within weeks they saw the hard Brillo-like clumps known as plaques and then the twisted sphaghetti-like coils known as tangles — the defining features of Alzheimer’s disease, The New York Times article stated.

Lead researcher, Dr. Rudolph E. Tanzi of MGH Boston, is now initiating an aggressive project to test 1200 drugs that are already on the market in addition to 5000 experimental ones that have finished the first phase of clinical testing. With the petri dish system, Dr. Tanzi states, “we can test hundreds of thousands of drugs in a matter of months.”

What’s so special about this dish research? Consider the following.

Mice Be Gone
It is an apparent successful breakaway from the laborious and expensive laboratory work associated historically with mice. Transgenic mice are carefully breed genetically controlled mice that have brains similar to we humans. Similar but not the same. In the ballpark but not in the exact tier, row and seat that is crucial.

A More Accurate Model
The dish research brings it all home in that human neuron cells from the outset are what’s being tinkered with. Researchers are viewing exactly how human rather than mouse cells are behaving and reacting. Thus a more accurate and exacting model of how the mechanics of Alzheimer’s disease works in the human brain is now available for research.

Accelerated Testing Process
New drug testing can now be profoundly accelerated going forward with the petri dish approach. Up to now, each single drug test with mice can take up to a year. It has been the absence of new drugs coming to market that has acted as the dark black cloud hanging over the Alzheimer’s community for too many years. Millions of people worldwide are dying every year without the hope of any new significant drugs coming to market that will slow down, let alone stop the disease. The last new Alzheimer’s medication that was approved by the FDA was Namenda back in 2003.

A Key Enzyme
An additional bonus discovery in this petri dish work was learning how to block the action of an enzyme known as GSK3-beta, an active agent in the formation of protein tau aggregates and tangles.

Going forward, I’m keeping my eye on how this petri-dish AD work advances.

We are long overdue for a breakthrough of some kind with our dementia diseases.

Three of our four parents passed away within the past two years with Alzheimer’s as either their primary cause of death or a co-contributing factor.

It’s time for a turning point involving Alzheimer’s.

Jeff Dodson
November 7th 2014

Attributes Of A Father

2014-10-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

Introduction
It has been twenty three days since my father-in-law passed away with my wife and I close by his side. In this intervening period, We have contemplated what qualities he possessed that we most admired and that we would affirm to share with others. We made a list, then settled on what we call pop’s most enduring attributes. This then, what follows, is our tribute…our eulogy to father, and father-in-law, Forrest Earl Widdifield.

Devotion
Pop was most definitely a devoted man. Especially when it came to his late wife Marian. From December of 2006 up through March 23rd 2013, her final day with us in this life, Marian, owing to late stage Alzheimer’s dementia, was a resident of two local skilled nursing facilities. Pop dutifully got up each morning, prepared his own breakfast, then drove himself to see his beloved wife at least once nearly every day for all of those 6 plus years that they were apart. On some days, he would drive back again to visit her a second time in the afternoon. On the rare occasion that he could not make the trip, it was because he was down with the flu or a cold. And it just ate at him when he could not make the trips to see his wife.

He arranged for my mother to have a small digital TV set in her room to watch either TV or enjoy many of the old DVD movies she liked or any one of a variety of taped Lawrence Welk Shows that pop recorded for her enjoyment.

At home, in the privacy of his own bedroom, he hung his most favorite photos of either Marian or the two of them in their early years of marriage. Timeless treasures to look upon and reimagine that place in time again.

It made his day each time he walked into the room when their eyes met and she broke into one of her pleasant smiles of recognition and love for him.

Pop’s tender devotion to my mom and his daily trips to spend time with her may just as well have been taken right out of Nicolas Sparks’ book, The Notebook. Unwavering devotion to his life-long partner and spouse. His dedication to his wife Marian epitomized what devotion to another is all about.

An Active Mind
Coping with the reality of having your spouse living apart from you in a nursing home is something that is very upsetting and stressful for any senior. Pop found ways to keep himself busy mentally. He designed and assembled stereo speakers. He tinkered with household electronic clocks, toasters, and gadgets. He repaired a decades old hi-fi stereo cabinet system record turntable for his sister. He puttered in his backyard electronic repair shop. He read up on Alzheimer’s diseases and the various dementias. He began refurbishing an old three-wheeled adult trike to ride around his home. Pop pursued ways of keeping himself busy.

Simple Pleasures
Pop loved a good meal. Either home cooked or a well prepared, satisfying one from one of his favorite restaurants. Pop still cooked and prepared his own meals. His recipes for bean soup, stew and what he called a goulash were all hearty and satisfying. His favorite dining places were few and predictable. Mr. Perry’s, IHOP, the Waffle Barn or Shari’s. Unpretentious and low budget. All offered the kind of food he had become accustomed too so many decades before as a young teen traveling far and wide every week. Road house and all-night diner food. Omelettes, pot-roast dinners, hamburgers and the occasional fish-n-chips. It was all comfortable and familiar for him.

As his health declined and his doctor’s office visits became more frequent so arose the opportunities for him to ask to be taken to one of his favorite places after the doctor’s office visit or checkup.

My husband and I were fortunate to accompany him so many times as we did at one of his local diner lunches or dinners.

In between enjoying a good meal either at home or out, pop enjoyed a handful of favorite TV programs. Channel 3.2 offered up all of his favorite shows from back in the 1950’s onward. Most of those favorites were all Westerns. Bonanza, The Rifleman, Wanted Dead or Alive and The Big Valley topped the list. His mid-morning favorite soap opera was The Young and the Restless.

He Made All His Own Decisions
Woody made all of his own decisions, including his final one, which was to be taken home to be comfortable and pass away there when all of the medical reports and tests began to stack up against his continued longevity.

While transitioning in his care at the Sherwood Nursing Home after more than a week in ICU and time at Mercy Hospital, pop made a decision. He declared to Penny that he wanted to be transported home to live out whatever time he had left under Hospice care rather than remaining at the nursing home. We acceded to his wish and put it into motion.

He was thus able to spend his final week with us in this world while residing in his own home.

Hospice care personnel along with members of his family were at his bedside 24 hours a day for that final week.

We admire and love you pop for these qualities, these attributes that we have spoken of today. We love and cherish you for all of the kind words that you shared as a father, all of the life lessons that you taught or modeled for us over the years and for all of the good deeds that you performed for others, for family and for your community in the time that you were with us.

George Strait got it right in the lyrics to his song, Love Without End, Amen, when he sang about the timeless love a father holds for his children. Pop loved country western music, and, recently decided that he liked this particular song by George Strait. It turns out, pop was living out those lyrics every day with his family since day one.

We will miss you pop and love you for all time. God Bless You Forrest Widdifield.

Jeff Dodson & Penny Widdifield Dodson
October 27th 2014

Forrest Earl Widdifield Life Notes

2014-10-15T10:33:00.000-07:00

Born December 22nd 1921.

Passed away on October 4th 2014

Rest in Peace Pop

Forrest E. Widdifield was born on December 22nd 1921 in the Canadian farming town of Creelman. Creelman is located within the prairie province of Saskatchewan. He was the eldest child of Stewart and Marie Widdifield. His siblings also included brothers Lloyd, Lyle and sister Joyce. His own children are daughters Lynn Goodman and Penny Widdifield.

As a child, Forrest learned first-hand about the economic hardships of the 1929 Stock Market Crash and the Depression era that followed as the negative hallmark of the early 1930’s. For the remainder of his life, Forrest practiced being thrifty, never throwing anything away, learning how to fix or mend what he had or owned and making do with what he had.

He began his professional career while in his early teens barnstorming across Saskatchewan and Manitoba showing Hollywood motion picture films in a variety of town halls, churches and clubs for the company General Films of Canada. He spoke warmly of the network of young teenage boys that he worked with that would assist him each time his film touring route brought him back through their specific town. His shows would feature two reel films and then either cartoons or a newsreel highlighting world events.

He was full of stories about the all-night cafes and his favorite towns to visit or stay in while on the road during his early film showing work. A dinner meal on the road ran .75 cents. One of his favorite stops on the road was in the small town of Storthoaks. Pop declared once that Storthoaks was the town he used as “his home base” when he was showing films on the road. A large French-Canadian family named Chicquin lived there with their seven sons. On one occasion, Forrest suffered a bad asthma attack after arriving at their home. He was in a bad way and needed medical attention. One of the boys loaded Forrest into a vehicle and drove him to a medical clinic some 25 miles away to get the life-saving medication that he needed. No matter what time of day or night that he arrived, the Chicquin family would be up and ready for him with a hearty hot meal and conversation.

In 1951, with his wife and year old daughter, he immigrated down from Canada to Sacramento, California. That same year he also went to work for the McCurry Brothers camera and photography store. Years later pop would open and operate out of his home, his own hi-fidelity stereo sound equipment and camera repair business. His work brought in hundreds of customers from all over Northern California. In time the experience that he gained operating his own business afforded him the opportunity to go to work for the audio visual department at Sacramento State University.

In 1957, Forrest and wife Marian became parents a second time with the arrival of their second child, daughter Penny.

In 1963, at the age of 42, he was awarded his Master Mason Certificate as a member of Sacramento’s local Tehama Lodge. He put in countless long hours working towards this level of Masonic achievement and was most proud of his accomplishment.

Forrest loved to maintain and tinker with audio-visual and stereo equipment. He owned and maintained an impressive library of eight track audio tapes of country western and popular music.

He also had a life-long love of automobiles and prided himself on maintaining and servicing every one of the cars and trucks he owned. He shared with his son-in-law Jeff a substantial amount of his car care tips and what to look for when maintaining a vehicle. On several occasions the two of them teamed up to repair several of the family vehicles.

In addition to metal work, machinery and audio-visual equipment, Forrest also was adept at both rough and finish carpentry. Over the years he extensively added to or remodeled his Edna Street home as well as performing carpentry work at two of his daughter Lynn’s family homes.

His favorite plants and flowers included Azaleas, Roses, Begonias, Vincas, Sweet Peas and Crepe Myrtles.

While working at California State University in the Audio-Visual Department, one of his film students was Carol Bland, who would later go on to become a local KCRA TV news reporter.

He loved becoming a great-grandfather to great granddaughters Ella and Haley, and great grandson, Liam.

In his final years, Forrest loved having a meal whenever he could at the original Mr. Perry’s roadhouse diner in South Sacramento. The attraction was always the free tapioca pudding that was included in a seniors meal. In addition, he also loved the wonderful split pea soup served on Wednesdays and the hearty navy bean soup served all day on Saturdays. His other favorite local restaurants included the Black Bear Diner and Brookfield’s in Rancho Cordova.

Forrest passed away on Saturday October 4th 2014 with his daughter Penny and son-in-law Jeff at his side.

In the mind of this writer and son-in-law, pop was the toughest and most resilient 92 year old man I’ve ever met or had the pleasure of spending any time with.

We will miss you pop. We love you for all that you shared with us and how you immeasurably enriched each of our lives. Thank you so much for providing us with such a wonderful blueprint of what compassionate parenting is all about.

Jeff Dodson

October 15th 2014

The Power of No: A Book Review

2014-09-30T14:49:00.003-07:00

The Power of No. This is a book about taking back control of your life. A substantial number of us have spent most of our lives subconsciously or otherwise giving up our power to others around us much to our own detriment. Taking back control of your life is another means of gaining back your personal power. James and Claudia Altucher have written this book to serve as a blueprint for reclaiming that power of ours back. All with the selective and judicious use of the simple word, no.

James and Claudia share with us their ideas on the application and use of No through seven chapters. Highlights of each chapter are shared here.

Chapter One: The No That Choses Life

Devoted to learning how to say no to stress, to taking your own life, your emotional life, to avoid disease, learning how to navigate away from negative chatter, and how to pick yourself up from rock bottom. James shares his own compelling story of plummeting from lofty financial heights to rock bottom and the aftermath.

Chapter Two: The No That Brings True Love, Creativity and Abundance

I loved the quote from the Altucher’s in this chapter which is: “ If we have crappy people around, we have a crappy life.” With this quote in mind, a second quote carries the though further: “Reconsider who you call your friends, lovers and partners. You could be surprised. Because if you don’t say no to crappy people, your life will go down the drain.”

Chapter Three: The No to Phony Storytelling

One topic taken up in this chapter speaks to the danger of allowing others to make our choices for us who themselves are unhappy about many things in their own lives.

Other topics are saying no to being a slave for others, plotting your escape from the 9 to 5 world, and, finally, taking steps to getting healthy, getting well, getting inspired, and getting knowledgable.

The Altuchers inform us that complaining is draining. By disciplining yourself to eliminate complaining (if that is what you are prone to do) from your daily behavior. With regard to complaining, this is what they had to say: “Complaining sucks the air out of any new possibilities that may appear in the present moment; it drags things down into a depressive mode and leaves us drained.”

Thought attacks: The average person experiences up to 70,000 thoughts a day.

Learn how to say No to social pressure. That social pressure is countered with what the authors call ABC. Acknowledge, Boundary, Close. This is a means of politely but firmly shutting down those who are trying to overload you or who make unreasonable demands upon you and your time.

A no to abusive people primarily means avoiding them altogether, or, removing yourself from their spheres of influence.

Chapter Four: The No to the Angers of the Past

No’s listed here include the following examples.

The application of a compassionate no. The example given here would be like the Highway Patrol officer at the scene of a horrific accident who gently but firmly prevents a mother from approaching the crushed vehicles and witnessing the mangled remains of a husband, a son or a daughter. Compassionately preventing another from witnessing an unspeakable horror.

No to mindless selfishness. Consider treating everyone else as if it’s their last day.

Saying no to lies; to the costume ball masks of life that we all learn to select and put on from childhood onward. Look outward for others that are true to themselves on the inside. Just like you are evolving to be. These are the kinds of folks that may well be . your new tribe.

Chapter Five: The No to Scarcity

In order to counter scarcity one must take up the belief in abundance. Believe in it first and then it will come.

Getting unstuck. Here the Altuchers offer a nine step guide to getting unstuck by turning the flywheel of forward progress.

Practice the art of listening to others with an open heart. All people are drawn to those who are good patient listeners.

Chapter Six: The No to Noise

The opening quote to this chapter is a great one. “You have the right to silence and be fully present, here and now.”

Identify the noise and distractions in your life and set out to minimize or eliminate them.

Consider adding Yoga to your regimen to help you focus and become grounded. This is Claudia Altucher’s area of expertise.

Chapter Seven: The No to “Me”

We are not our thoughts (refer back to the thought attacks in Chapter Three).

The benefits of cultivating silence are: trust, value, time saved, mystique, observation, more brain energy, less web to untangle, and, less stress.

I enjoyed reading this book because the solutions and exercises offered within are imaginative, make sense and liberally laced with humor and wit. The Power of No is real world grounded with personal, shared stories of failures as well as successes that the duo author couple have lived through. The Power of No is clever, candid and what is presented within is all doable!

The Web page for James Altucher are: www.jamesaltucher.com (The Altucher Confidential). Web pages for Claudia Azula Altucher are: www.claudiayoga.com and www.earthyogi.blogspot.com

Jeff Dodson

September 30th 2014

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Hay House Publishing for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are unbiased and reflect my honest judgment of the product.

Don’t Die with Your Music Still in You: A Book Review

2014-08-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

Serena Dyer is a daughter of world renowned spiritual author and speaker, Dr. Wayne Dyer.

In reading this book, I learned that Serena was by no means a perfect child. Growing up, she experienced many of the challenges and obstacles most children and teens contend with. She shares examples of being independent minded, stubborn, contending with failures and working hard at overcoming being quick to judge others.

One of the great gifts she was provided by her parents was to follow her own destiny rather than to fit in, to conform. In this ten chapter book Serena shares how she grew up and how she grappled with recognizing what her own destiny was to be and how to pursue it.

This is her first book and it is entitled “Don’t Die with Your Music Still in You.” From the outset, I must tell you that I found this book to be an easy read, informative and entertaining.

The book is composed of ten chapters. My thoughts and takeaways from each are incorporated here.

1. Don’t Die with Your Music Still in You
Serena writes,“it isn’t about what you do with your life. It is about how you lead your life. Live a life of purpose. Wow! Get right to it.

In this first chapter, I loved this quote of hers: “When we hide who we really are in order to fit in or belong, we are suffocating are souls.”

This is the best description I have ever read of something I have occasionally felt on the inside from time to time in my own life when I strayed far from what I was put here to do. The emphasis on the word suffocating in the quote is my own as the word she chose here so closely aligns with my own personal experience.

2. Have a Mind That Is Open to Everything and Attached to Nothing
In this chapter, Serena shares with us several stories about her early childhood. Some are humorous and served to illustrate just how independent minded and strong willed this young lady was. Serena talks about establishing alignment with her purpose. She learned that she was and is a communicator. She is very good at conversing with and speaking to others.

3. You Can’t Give Away What You Don’t Have
In other words, if you don’t have love and compassion on the inside, then you don’t have those attributes to give away and share with others.

4. Embrace Silence
In Chapter Four, Serena reflects upon how her mother served as a model of demonstrating listening and silence. Serena describes her mother as “an ocean of calm,” while she raised Serena and her seven other siblings. Serena shares how silence can be used as a powerful tool: “When we are quiet and focus on our thoughts, we’re able to realize what kind of thinking patterns we have, and change the ones that aren’t working for us anymore.”

I love silence. Working in silence, or performing my hobbies in silence. Have done so ever since I was a kid. This chapter resonated for me also.

5. Give up Your Personal History
Serena begins Chapter Five with this quote: ‘Don’t look back, you’re not going that way.”A variation of this quote I have found is: “You cannot march forward into your future facing and walking backward.”

Serena writes,that your personal history does not have to define who you are. Letting go of the past better allows you to embrace and live in the present.

6. You Can’t Solve a Problem with the Same Mind That Created It
Revising your self-talk. Serena asserts that, “ If you allow anything to stop you from pursuing your passion, you’re stopping your soul from expanding.” Another great quote about one’s mind set here is offered by Spanx founder, Sara Blakely who stated: “I think very early on in life we all learn what we’re good at and what we’re not good at, and we stay where it is safe.”

7. There Are No Justified Resentments
Serena shares how she learned this from her father. Anger does not serve you. It only keeps you in the same place that you want to get away from. Taking back control of your life. Blame yourself for your mistakes but not others. Own your own choices and the consequences that follow them.

8. Treat Yourself As If You Already Are What You’d Like to Be
Believe it first then you will see it. Serena quotes Pablo Picasso here who said: “Everything you can imagine is real.” She devotes time in this chapter speaking about visualization and cultivating the emotional feelings that would arise from achieving higher goals and accomplishments.

9. Treasure Your Divinity
A quote from Louise Hay begins this chapter: “You have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.”

Serena writes that, “Treasuring your divinity simply means accepting all parts of yourself as having come from pure, Divine love.”

In chapter nine, Serena shares her experience of choosing to be immersed in the holy water spring at Lourdes. This occurred while she accompanied her father, Wayne, on a trip that took in three of the most spiritual places in Europe. She describes the event as follows: “ I left the baths rejoicing, crying, laughing; I was ecstatic. I probably looked like a lunatic on the street, but I didn’t care. I felt great.” Become what you seek.

10. Wisdom is Avoiding All Thoughts That Weaken You
I loved the quote that begins this chapter which is, “You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.”

In this final chapter, Serena shares the principles that are set forth in the book, Power vs. Force, by author David Hawkins, M.D. , Ph. D. This is one that her father shared with her when she was young. Power allows you to live and operate at your best without effort. By contrast, Force requires movement and burns up energy. Peak athletes focus on performing at their highest capacity and using their own inner strength to excel. Power thoughts thus strengthen us while those of force weaken us.

Overall, I found this to be a great first book by a new author who offers a unique personal perspective of what she learned growing up for herself in addition to a peak inside the family of one of our greatest and most popular spiritual teachers and public speaker.

Serena Dyer has her own website, www.serenadyer.com.

Jeff Dodson
August 27th 2014

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Hay House Publishing for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are unbiased and reflect my honest judgment of the product.

One Of A Kind

2014-08-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

Our religious leaders and philosophers are noted for their attempts to impress upon each of us just how unique each one us really is. We are told that from the beginning of time up until the very end of time (if such a thing is possible), there will only ever be just one being that we know as our self.

That means just one you, one me, one Uncle Jonas.

So for the curious at heart, just what kind of mathematical odds against the possibility that each of us were ever born to begin with? What does the science of statistical probability tells us about just how unique we individually are?

An intriguing article on this topic by writer Tara MacIsaac was featured in the July 17th-23
2014 issue of the newspaper, Epoch Times. (www.theepochtimes.com)

Tara cites self help author/blogger Mel Robbins’ remarks at a 2011 Ted Talk (Technology, Entertainment & Design) conference in which she declared that the likelihood of you being born as you has been calculated out to about 1 in 400 trillion.

To quote the writer Tara, “This is the probability of you being born at the time you were born to your particular parents, with your particular genetic makeup.”

Tara reported that Dr. Ali Binazir, author and personal change specialist, was also in attendance at Mel Robbins Ted Talk. Dr. Binazir did his own computations and came up with the odds of 1 in 700 trillion.

Dr. Binazir’s conclusion was: “the odds that you exist at all are basically zero.”

By way of illustration, Dr. Binazir shared this scenario: “It is the probability of 2 million people getting together each to play a game of dice with trillion-sided dice. They each roll the dice and they all come up with the exact same number — for example, 550,343,279,001.”

Then there are those characterizing attributes that make up the individuality of each of us that perhaps serve to reinforce the uniqueness factor.

Internet writer/blogger, Mary Jaksch, offers a website, Goodlife.Zen (www.goodlifezen.com), that speaks to individuality. In an essay entitled, 35 Things That Make You Special, she lists the following: personality, signature style, beliefs, spirituality, aspirations, dominate sense, thoughts, goals, creativity, happiness, attitude, attraction (whom/what are we drawn to?), genes, body, face, ethnicity, culture, voice, diction, gender, health, hormones, age, intelligence, life experience, childhood, trauma, opportunities, relationships, learning, habits, work, quirks and foibles, communication style, and, last, your life journey.

Whew! This list of 35 attributes or qualifiers, by her reckoning, would seem to lend support to the mathematical odds discussed beforehand.

In attempting to comprehend what these kinds of hyper-sized numbers represent, and, in review of the spice cabinet variables writer Jaksch has listed, one can’t help but feel a sense of awe and wonder at the apparent hand of Divinity that is at work here.

Way too many of us for too damn long have ignored just how individual and unique we all are and were meant to be.

So stop and pause the next time you come upon a mirror, give yourself a long gaze and then smile. You’re looking at a one-of-a-kind original.

Jeff Dodson
August 18th 2014

Gratitude

2014-08-09T11:44:00.002-07:00

image courtesy of: joettles.com

Gratitude

This topic of discussion arose between my wife and I recently. How many people nowadays express their gratitude for something to another? Much less than there should to be. Too many folks just take what they receive for granted or sadly, with an attitude of entitlement.

For many, gratitude means to be thankful or to give thanks for something we value. An emotional feeling of appreciation for a kind of act directed towards you.

From the online reference source, Wikipedia, we are provided with this:
“Gratitude, thankfulness, gratefulness, or appreciation is a feeling or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive. “

Browsing the web, I discovered the following quotes about gratitude:
“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”
— William Arthur Ward (writer)

“Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts.”
— Henri Frederic Amiel

“When a person does’t have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity.” — Elie Wiesel

“Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy.” — Jacques Maritain

What lessons did I learn from my parents and grandparents about gratitude?

As a small child, it was always thank those who provided you with a gift at your birthday party. You did that either face to face or afterwards on the old fashioned house telephone.

As a teen and later young adult, I was taught to send a small note or a card of thanks to someone who taught you a new skill, provided assistance in a job lead, a tip that paid off for you or maybe just a note of admiration and thanks to a person you just damn well felt good about.

The responsibilities of caregiving drove home the necessity of expressing gratitude to all of my parents’ medical providers, nurses, can’s, whenever we had an appointment or need for their services. My late father’s banker, for example, is now the banker for my wife and I primarily due to the conscientious and loving attention she provided to dad.

Sociologist Georg Simmel calls gratitude, “ the moral memory of mankind.”

Robert Emmons, professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis campus, and a leading scientific expert on gratitude, has discovered through his research that practicing gratitude has proven to be one of the most reliable methods for increasing happiness and life satisfaction. Gratitude appears to strengthen the immune system and lower blood pressure. Gratitude has also been found to strengthen and enhance relationships.

Gratitude is viewed as a prized human propensity in the Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish and Hindu traditions.

Gratitude is something we need to show and spread around a lot more in our society today in place of smugness, entitlement and the notion that, ‘the world, or, somebody owes me something.’

It is an easy trap to fall into. That is, taking for granted all of what we have today that, at one time, was all merely dreams or a bucket list of achievements yet to be fulfilled.

A simple statement and a quote to end this blog comes from the late President John F. Kennedy.
“We must find the time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.”

Jeff Dodson
August 9th 2014

Alzheimer’s Research: The Alarming New Drug Failure Rate

2014-07-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I came across an article written by John Carroll at the online website FierceBiotech (www.fiercebiotech.com). The article was entitled, Alzheimer’s R & D suffers as trial failure rate hits an astounding 99.6%.

My immediate reaction was, this cannot be true. Turns out, sadly, that it is true.

Jeffrey Cummings, director of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health has been researching the medication studies and clinical trial data available at www.clinicaltrials.gov for the time period between 2002 to 2012. He reported his findings to FierceBiotech that determined that the clinical trial failure rate for a new Alzheimer’s drug was indeed 99.6%.

Three most recent Phase III clinical trials that ended in failure with their respective new drugs were Ely Lily and their Solanezumab, J & J’s Bapineuzumab, and, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals version of Bapineuzumab. A successful Phase III clinical trial is the last step in the process for a pharmaceutical company to obtaining FDA approval of the new drug and delivering it to the consumer marketplace. It is worth noting that the time a new drug takes to reach the market place from its original inception in a laboratory is between 12 to 15 years. The total financial expenditure for all this according to industry claims comes to approximately 1 billion dollars. That’s for just bringing one drug successfully to consumers.

The bigger pharmaceutical firms are starting to move away from investing their money in any medication that deals with late stage Alzheimer’s. The thinking within the industry is that it is too late to do anything measurably corrective for anyone with late stage AD.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) devotes $600 million a year just for Alzheimer’s research. Though this is a substantial sum, it represents approximately one tenth of the money that is directed towards cancer drug research. The large pharmaceutical firms contend that if the NIH would pump a greater amount of funding into AD and neurological research they would up the investment risk ante as well.

So where do we go from here? Is there anything offering hope out there for AD?

Promising new work is being done with delivering small amounts of medications across the so called blood-brain barrier. Nature provided us with this barrier as a means of preventing harmful and infectious organisms from entering the brain. It has taken scientists the better part of the past century to learn how to introduce what are known as small-molecules across this barrier and into the brain. To make a difference in treating a disease such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s disease, or a brain cancer, a step up to large-molecule medications is required.

The transferrin receptor pathway is a natural protein transport mechanism that is one of the hot research areas to use to transport large-molecule drugs into the brain.

On January 13th 2014, www.fiercedrugdelivery.com reported that Roche laboratories had developed a transferrin receptor pathway delivery method for getting their experimental drug, gantenerumab into the brain to reduce amyloid plaque.

On March 19th 2014, www.fiercedrugdelivery.com reported that AstraZeneca’s MedImmune had worked out a deal with Canada’s Bioasis Technologies to utilize their version of a blood-brain barrier breaching technique called the Transcend platform. The Transcend platform acts a shuttle to piggy-back medications across the blood-brain barrier directly into the brain.

Another area of early detection research has been underway in Australia. An early diagnosis trial in Perth involves an eye test to identify who will develop AD up to 20 years before the first disease symptoms begin to appear has shown promise. Natasha Harradine of ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) News reported about this study on Sunday July 13th 2014. The trial participants consumed curcumin, a yellow compound found in the spice turmeric. The curcumin makes any beta-amyloids glow in an eye scan. This particular trial is a joint project between the CSIRO, Edith Cowan University and the McCusker Foundation.

While these are promising new technologies for catching AD very early in it’s development, I don’t believe that researchers should completely give up on our loved ones who have already descended into late stage AD. NIH and Big Pharma, please take note and up the anty with more funding….just like what’s been done with cancer and HIV research. Breakthrough medications and treatments for both of these diseases did not come through cheaply.

Jeff Dodson
July 21st 2014

A Book Review of Letting Go

2014-07-03T14:25:00.000-07:00

Letting Go: The Pathway Of Surrender is the work of author David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D.

This book is my first exposure to the work of this author, who has written seven other books including co-authoring the 1973 groundbreaking work, Orthomolecular Psychiatry, with Nobel Laureate, Linus Pauling. Letting Go, his most recent work, was written just prior to his death in 2012.

Letting Go is an extensive, thorough primer that walks you through how are mind works with respect to the emotions that we attach to everything and the thousands of subsequent thoughts that arise as a result of those emotional feelings.

The essence of what this author is teaching you is this:

A thought is a “thing”. It has energy and form. Thoughts are caused by suppressed and repressed emotional feelings. When a feeling is let go, thousands or even millions of thoughts that were activated by that feeling disappear. We surrender a feeling by allowing it to be there without condemning, judging, or resisting it. We simply look at it, observe it, and allow it to be felt without trying to modify it. With the willingness to relinquish a feeling, it will run out in due time. It is all about learning how to shed our emotional baggage.

The primary emotions to contend with are these:

Apathy and depression
Grief
Fear
Desire
Anger
Pride
Courage
Acceptance
Love
Peace

Each of these emotions generates a vibrational frequency level. Apathy and depression rank the lowest. The vibrational frequency level increases up through grief, fear, desire and so on until you come to courage, acceptance and love which have the much higher levels. Peace generates the highest vibrational frequency level.

Our minds have come to handle our emotions in one of four ways: expression, suppression or repression and escape.

The goal is to learn to be set free from emotional attachments. It is the underlying emotions, untapped, bottled up and not dissipated that serve to act like the carbonation in a soda can (my own visual image device). A built up pressure that eventually must be released.

Dr. Hawkins sets forth many principles in this book. Among them, here are a few of the ones that struck me as compelling:

A thought is a “thing.” It has energy and form, as previously mentioned.

The mind with its thoughts and feelings control the body; therefore, to heal the body, thoughts and feelings need to be changed.

What is held in the mind tends to express itself through the body.

An illness tends to result from suppressed and repressed negative emotions plus a thought that gives it a specific form (i.e., consciously or unconsciously, one particular illness is chosen rather than another).

Feelings are not the real self. Whereas feelings are programs that come and go, the real inner Self always stays the same; therefore, it is necessary to stop identifying transient feelings with yourself.

Dr. Hawkins had this to say about the emotion of anger:

“With regard to the emotion anger, the price we pay for chronic anger and resentment is sickness and premature death. Anger is binding, not freeing. It connects us to another person and holds them in our life pattern.”

A final quote that I loved of his is this one:

“If we look back on our life, we will see that every mistake we ever made was based on an opinion.”

The book is very comprehensive and not one that you can knock off in one afternoon.

It is more like a detailed blueprint to lovingly take your time with and soak up each aspect as you delve into it.

I have already applied the principles set forth in the book in dealing with old repressed anger feelings about an encounter in my childhood with a bully. It works!

I love what this book is all about. Finding a pathway through the thicket of old stored away emotions to ones higher, inner spiritual Self.

For more information about the author, David R. Hawkins, visit his website at www.veritaspub.com/

Jeff Dodson

July 3rd 2014

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Hay House Publishing for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are unbiased and reflect my honest judgment of the product.

A Book Review of Percolate

2014-06-02T13:48:00.000-07:00

It was the title that caught me at first. Percolate. Just like a coffee maker. Second, since I have been an avid coffee drinker for decades, another reason to give this book a read.

Percolate is the first book by author, Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino. She is the founder of her own business, The Best Ever You Network and the host of The Best Ever You Show.

Percolate is a book that offers a Nine Point Plan of self improvement. Each of the nine chapters headings of the book are entitled Percolate Points. Coffee and the love of it is the vehicle that this author employs to capture your attention and illustrate a step by step plan to make changes in your life for the better.

“Every day you wake up with the opportunity to think, behave, and relate differently; and that moment of choice is what Percolate is all about,” is a quote from Elizabeth that sets the tone of her book.

Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino shares three words that she lives by: motivation, consistency and discipline. These three words, really, are the building blocks, the ingredients necessary with any self-improvement program. Motivation is the reason or reasons that propel you towards making a change. Consistency is what you strive for in your efforts at making forward progress. Discipline is the stick to it no matter what final element.

The author sets forth what she call Percolate Principles. There are thirty five of them. Those that resonated for me were:

Be authentic (remaining true to heart, to what your purpose really is)

Be inspired (what or whom do you admire and desire to emulate?

Be resilient (how tough are you in the face of setbacks?)

Be yourself (follow your own character script rather than that of someone else)

Take away quotes that I loved from this author:

“Everyone has challenging health problems, or other issues, but your potential has no limits.”

In terms of listening, “are you still enough to hear yourself and others?”

“You have an expiration date, and despite your wanting to claim control over life circumstances, you’re not entitled to know when your expiration date will be.”

Percolate is a down to earth, well crafted book that is both humorous and informative. The author shares many of her most inspiring lessons along with a few of her most comical and embarrassing ones. I loved her statements about the importance of Contributing amazingness to the world, and , learning to like your own blend.

Percolate is a book, in part, about making the transition from ego-based decisions centered from the mind into making decisions and exercising thoughtfulness from the heart towards yourself as well as others. “Think with your heart and uncover your authentic, best self,” is how this author put it.

I enjoyed Percolate along with my favorite cup of java!

Websites of author Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino are www.thebesteveryou.com, and, www.Percolatebook.com.

Jeff Dodson

June 2nd 2014

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Hay House Publishing for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are unbiased and reflect my honest judgment of the product.

Learning From The Animal Kingdom

2014-05-25T17:19:00.000-07:00

image: courtesy of coolfunpedia.blogspot.com

How do we treat our pets?

Mostly with high regard and an abundance of

devotion. We love them unconditionally.

I learned a new phrase recently for the way an animal is looked upon with a missing or malformed limb. Not disabled as we look upon our own kind who are born with such a challenge. Instead of disabled, one pet owner referred to her devoted pet as differently abled.

What an open minded view in which to look upon an animal born with less than all of it’s appendages or by attack from another!

The program, broadcast on PBS, My Bionic Pet, was captivating, entertaining and thought provoking.

How is it that so many animal owners have a more compassionate way of treating their pet or animals they encounter in nature that exhibit missing or malformed parts of their bodies?

Why are more of us in our society not more compassionate about those among us who are differently abled?

As a long time caregiver for four aging parents of whom three have passed away due to illnesses complicated by Alzheimer’s dementia, the thought occurred to me of viewing what happened to my parents and others who suffer from dementia in a new light. Rather than considering my late family members and other dementia stricken folks as cognitively disabled, might it simply have been that each have merely been rendered differently abled?

In other words, each of them were compelled to have to operate, to communicate by a means different from what they and we were accustomed to for so many years. Except that now…the onus is on us to figure out, to be open minded enough (cast off judging attitudes along the side of the road) to embrace different ways of communicating/connecting with our loved one. So maybe, going forward, it has to be a kind of sign language, or abbreviated style of contact that conveys our acceptance, our understanding of what that person wants or is trying to say, just now in a different way than before.

Speech has become slurred or sentence structure is jumbled. How do we work around this?

Comprehension has become lessened. What simplified words, phrases, pictures, signs or miming will work to achieve the same thing?

As a caregiver, when faced with the care of a declining dementia patient or loved one, a unique challenge is definitely in store for you. Why not look upon it as a puzzle solving opportunity instead of drudgery or despair? The old key no longer works with the old lock. The tumblers inside the lock changed. Time to get busy and fashion a new key that will work on the old lock.

Our dementia afflicted loved one is still there, trying to hold onto hope and also hoping for a helping hand and heart

Find out in what ways they are still able to function and at what level. Make room for empathy, compassion and patience as additions to your caregiving tool kit. It’s differently abled time.

Thank You PBS!

Jeff Dodson

May 25th 2014

I Can See Clearly Now A Book Review

2014-04-29T13:53:00.000-07:00

This writing and the release of this book has been one that millions of fans the world over have been patiently waiting for. I choose to include myself among these folks.

Though I have been a fan of Dr. Dyer for over 20 plus years, the first book of his that I actually purchased was, The Power Of Intention, published by Hay House in 2004.

Dr. Wayne Dyer is the author of 40 plus books devoted to self-help, self improvement and spiritual awareness and growth. It is because of his writing, his teaching and his many PBS programs that a worldwide audience of readers and viewers have learned how to live more enriched, spiritually inspired lives and treat those around them with more compassion, empathy and tolerance.

I Can See Clearly Now is his most recent title. I Can See Clearly Now is Dr. Dyer’s life story shared with us in his own words. The book is 371 pages of compelling reading chronicling the life story of one our most recognized and beloved authors, speaker, PBS fund-raising personality and evolving spiritual advocate.

Wayne Dyer’s life story is a captivating and intriguing one. Born into a world of hardship and a fractured family, he appeared already comfortable within his own skin as early as the third grade while residing in a foster home. In other words, he trusted his instincts and struck me as one of those possibility thinkers, one who, by his own words, was an enthusiastic optimist. Wayne came to know at an early age that the act of writing held an immense satisfaction for him. As he grew older, the realization that he possessed the talent to teach others began to take root and mature.

What I enjoyed about I Can See Clearly Now:

1. A dream of wanting to become a teacher

Time spent with his uncle Bill who was a popular, well-read and intellectually stimulating school teacher inspired Wayne to prepare for college and set a goal for becoming a teacher himself.

2. Inspiring assistance along the way

His life’s pathway included a handful of memorable mentors such as his 4th grade school teacher, a high school biology instructor, and an assassinated president. Prominent writers in the field of psychology such as Abraham Maslow, Albert Ellis, would come along later.

3. Learning to trust in himself; in his own instincts

At the age of fifteen, Wayne discovers the book, Walden, by Henry David Thoreau and begins to solidify his embrace of independent thought and adhering to ones’ own conscious.

4. Displaying a knack for writing in his own individual style

While in high school Wayne discovered he enjoyed and had a flair for writing. He initiated his own modest business enterprise by writing book reports for .25 cents each. Fellow students were not required to pay if they received a grade of less than a B for the report. By the time Wayne reaches the age of twenty, he’s in the navy in Guam and already the author of hundreds of essays on all variety of topics.

5. Self reliance born out of necessity

Growing up in a divided household with a primarily absentee father whom he never got to know in his lifetime compelled Wayne to becoming self-reliant and resilient at a young age.

6. Embracing the call to spiritual teaching

His transition from a teacher in the field of psychology and interpersonal relationships into a teacher of spiritual principles and healing.

7. Forgiveness

Reconciling the anger and rage he held for his absentee father for so many years in his youth and coming to a point of unconditional forgiveness for his dad after being lead to his father’s indigent grave marker in rural Mississippi.

Who should read this book

If you are a writer or aspire to be one you’ll enjoy reading Dr. Dyer’s life story. If you are a teacher or one who’s goal is to improve and re-invigorate the way you motivate your students, then this book should be added to your reading list. If you are a spiritual leader or one who is drawn to the subject of spiritual awakening and improvement, pick up a copy of this book. Finally, if you are one of those avid readers who just plain loves learning about an exemplary role model who is active within our society, then this book is also for you.

Jeffrey Dodson

April 29nd 2014

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Hay House Publishing for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are unbiased and reflect my honest judgment of the product.

Nursing Home Eloping

2014-04-02T15:58:00.000-07:00

From time to time, many of the nursing homes across the country must contend with residents who try to or are successful in escaping. Within the nursing home industry, this dreaded activity is known as elopement. American Healthcare (AHRQ) defines elopement as: when a resident’s location is unknown.

Thankfully, most of those residents who do, are found, caught, and returned safely to their facility. Alarms, procedures and protocols are reviewed extensively to insure that such an event will not occur again. Elopement is a BIG DEAL with nursing homes and can cost nurses, licensed vocation nurses, certified nursing assistants's and administrators their jobs and livelihood as well as lead to loss of certification and licenses from state authorities.

Sadly, on some occasions, an escape event leads to either serious injury or even the death of a resident. These are the kinds of situations that incur the sensational media headlines, lawsuits and recriminations amongst the parties.

A case in point recently was reported in the March 25th 2014 issue of the Sacramento Bee by reporter Cathy Locke. The Sky Park Gardens, an assisted living facility, was the scene of an escape by a 70 year old man suffering from dementia. He was last seen leaving the facility on March 18th, On the bright side, this elderly gentleman was then found the following day, March 19th at an out of the area medical facility. Two similar incidents such as this occurred in 2012 which has caused the State of California to initiate a possible State License Revocation proceeding against Sky Park Gardens according to the Sacramento Bee article.

On one occasion, my wife and I went to visit a nursing home and as we were about to leave through the main lobby entrance/exit, we came upon a scene of chaos. A wheelchair bound resident had succeeded in making it all the way through both sets of motion sensor activated lobby doors with alarms, rolled onto the sidewalk and tumbled off the curb and down to the blacktop. EMT’s were called and the elderly gentleman suffered head trauma and facial lacerations as a result. This resident had never made an impulsive move for the exit doors like this before and caught everyone by surprise.

My own mother, Beatrice, in 2010, pulled off one of her own elopements from a local Sacramento nursing home. She went missing after breakfast in her room and was gone for less than a couple of hours. By the time I arrived at the facility after they had alerted me by phone, Mom had already been caught approximately six blocks away from the facility. A concerned residential citizen, recognizing the facilities’ gown design, called in to report a lost resident (mom) perched under a shade tree with a broken branch (read switch) in her hand for protection. Mom used the switch to hold the certified nursing assistant's at bay until a local police cruiser arrived to help persuade mom to give up her standoff and return to the nursing home peacefully. The incident surprised both us as a family and the nursing home staff as to just how ambulatory mom could compel herself to be in an agitated or combative state.

Thereafter, mom received a souped up alarm unit that remained with her whether 24 hours a day. Extra certified nursing assistant's and staff were assigned to keep a diligent watch over her from that point on. When necessary, mom was also placed under close watch right next to the nursing station in her wheel chair.

In my own opinion, escapes occur for two primary reasons:

Not identifying the flight risk level of a resident

The first one is due to a failure of the nursing facility staff to really get to know and understand the psychology and propensities of each of those residents “most at risk” for flight. This concern is born out in much of the on-line literature available addressing nursing home risks. This was the shared shortcoming between our family and the nursing home staff early in mother’s residency there.

Inadequate staffing levels

The second reason is simply one of understaffing. Not enough personnel to handle and keep an eye properly on all of the residents they are left to cover on their work shifts. This is particularly true for graveyard shifts between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am. The presumption behind the lowest ratio of staff to residents during graveyard hours is that vast majority of elderly residents will all be peacefully at sleep. However, bathroom visits during the night still occur along with soiled bedding, gowns and diapers due to accidents or incontinence. Add to this, “Sundowner’s Syndrome” that occurs with Alzheimer’s dementia patients and you can have a substantial amount of night time patient/resident activity demanding more from what few staff are on duty than they can adequately deliver. Staffing at a nursing home can be at the ratio of one for every five residents during the day but then be reduced down to a one for every twenty or more overnight.

Lets say that your facilities’ overnight goal for a CNA is to check in and attend to each of your twenty residents at least once every hour. That allows you ,approximately, 3 minutes for each resident check per hour? And this does not allow for the walking time through the halls, wings and corridors that each CNA must cover. Suppose that during each graveyard shift, a CNA receives 4 buzzer or alarm calls to rooms to change a resident for incontinence issues. Changing and cleaning up a soiled resident who is even partially cooperative and ambulatory can easily take up to 20 minutes or more (I know from firsthand experience). Try the same thing with a resident who is not ambulatory, paralyzed, or just plain feisty or combative. Now that 20 minutes can easily become an hour. And that CNA may need to call in a helper to contend with that resident. So now let’s say you’ve had two 30 minute incontinence calls plus two difficult incontinence cleanups that took an hour each. There went 3 hours of your 8 hour shift. There goes your timetable of checking on each of your residents once each hour. You now have residents that you were not able to check on as quickly as you wanted. You may also still have residents who may have soiled themselves in bed in their sleep and were not awakened to hit their room buzzers or door lights. And what about what’s going on with those residents most at risk for flight or eloping attempts. Which ones had time to get out of their bed, their room or get themselves locked in a closet, an elevator or a supply room?

In my opinion, the perfect staffing ratio at a nursing home ought to be one to one, or, one staff member assigned to two residents. This however is not the reality of how residential coverage is dispersed. It also, unfortunately, would be a prohibitively expensing proposition for what a nursing facility would have to charge the public. At a minimum, graveyard staffing at nursing homes should at least be doubled up from where they are now.

The key to reducing (not eliminating entirely) the level of elopements that occur is a greater focus on education and action plans such as those listed here.

Better informed staff about their individual residents including those who are most at risk for flight (dementia patients rate high on such lists).

More exhaustive internal “Code Silver” practice drills to nail down quicker response times and more thorough searches of a facilities physical layout prior to executing an external search. Practice these enough so that every employee is familiar with the drills in terms of what to do, when to do it, and where they are supposed to meet at. Also included in these drills should be knowing (and how to get there quickly) where an established fire and storm resistant ‘safe room’ is upon the premises.

Better use of camouflage and internal decorations to hide or reduce the visual attractions of vulnerable exits, doors, etc.

For more detailed information on how a skilled nursing facility or even an assisted living complex can address the elopement issue, I found the website www.elopement.org a helpful one. I also found a very detailed outline on the topic of elopement at the University of Iowa, Iowa Geriatric Education Center: Info-Connect, Great Escapes: The Wandering Dilemma.

Jeff Dodson

April 2nd 2014

A Book Review of The Turning Point

2014-03-20T14:34:00.000-07:00

Gregg Braden’s newest book is entitled, The Turning Point, by Hay house Publishing, 2014. His eight previous books include New York Times Best Selling titles, Deep Truth, The Divine Matrix, and Fractal Time.

In essence, it is about creating and instilling personal and societal resilience at a time when we are confronted with extremes in our world. World wide events show us that the new normal is change. The old world as we knew it has evaporated and will not be returning.

Resilience is defined as the ability to recover readily and quickly from an illness, depression or adversity.

The reason for all of this upheaval is that our planet and it’s population are currently experiencing:

Extreme and disruptive climate changes: the kind that only come in cycles every 5000 years or so.

Massive world economic debt load.

Exhaustion of the availability of cheap fossil fuel deposits.

A world population explosion that began around 1650 and that now teeters near 7 billion people as of 2012. Prior to 1650, and for nearly 11,000 years, the population of our planet remained stable at around 500 million.

All of these above events are happening at once. How has this all come about? Looking back at the geological history of our planet, we find that we are on track for a cyclical weather change that occurs once every 5000 to 5200 years. The weather challenge is being brought to us by Mother Nature. The debt load problem along with over population, feeding everyone and the depletion of cheap energy fuel is our own doing.

All of these challenges are pushing us to the brink or a tipping point of no return as Gregg writes. A tipping point has been described by Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, as the “moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.” A tipping point arises as a result of a pile up of extremes and leads to irrevocable change.

Before this tipping point happens, there is time to execute a turning point. A turning point can be thought of as an opportunity that arises to take advantage of. There is a time when every crisis can be turned into transformation: when simply surviving can become thriving. That time is the turning point, and, based upon Braden’s writing and research, that time is now.

Gregg argues that we are close to a tipping point now but that there is still time to pull away from such an event by means of executing a turning point.

Our outdated world view that we have embraced up to now has substantially lead us to where we are. It is a story of separation and competition amongst us all that had it’s origins along with the birth of modern science approximately 300 years ago. Charles Darwin’s 19th century theory of life being a struggle and a contest of survival of the fittest has also reinforced the mindset of competition among people and nations for mineral resources, currency and power.

The counter to the above is Nature’s world view model that has begun to gain traction:

Nature exemplifies cooperation. The natural world is widely recognized as a proving ground for experiments in unity, cooperation, and survival among insects and animals. From nature’s lessons we’re shown, without question, that unity and cooperation are advantageous to living beings.

Gregg writes, “The latest discoveries in the fields of biology, physics, archeology, and genetics are forcing scientists to rewrite the story of who we are and how we fit into the world. In biology, for example, the publication of more than 400 studies showing that nature is based upon a model of cooperation, rather than Darwin’s “survival of the fittest,” has turned the thinking of evolutionary science upside down.”

Becoming collectively resilient in order to adapt to the changes we must make, a study funded by the Rockefeller Foundation came up with the following elements:

Spare capacity

The notion of being supplied or stocked up with food and other basic household items to counter when the power is knocked out, a freak storm arises or fewer stocks of available goods arise causing shortages.

Flexibility

The ability to change, evolve, and adapt in the face of disaster

Limited or “safe” failure, which prevents failures from rippling across systems

Rapid rebound

The capacity to reestablish function and avoid long-term disruptions.

Constant learning, with robust feedback loops

What I liked about this book.

It appealed to my interest in science and history. Gregg’s disclosures and arguments are set forth in a logical order, and, backed with scientific research studies and citations, are very credible and compelling. It is not a gloom and doom prophecy offering. Neither is the book a contrived ‘survivalists’ manual.

This latest book of Gregg Braden offers a detailed in-depth look at the multiple global problems we are collectively facing all at once. He then sets forth a novel but achievable series of common sense steps we all need to embrace in order to execute a turning point away from where we have been headed.

If you are a citizen concerned about our planet including it’s global weather changes, the escallating cost of food and the energy required to grow it, and, how our countries have struggled with natural disasters in recent years, then you’ll want to grab a copy of this book. Become informed about the kinds of choices we all need to be contemplating then acting on.

Jeffrey Dodson

March 20th 2014

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Hay House Publishing for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are unbiased and reflect my honest judgment of the product.

Five Cultures That Revere Their Elders

2014-02-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

image: islandandcities.tumblr.com

So just what are some of the cultures today that show reverence and respect to their elder citizens? Are they any at all? Why do I even bring this topic up?

As a caregiver, I was faced with having to place an aging demented parent in a skilled nursing facility. Three different parents, three different times. All of them are now passed. God Bless each of them. They all went home within a nine month period. In each nursing facility I was able to observe just how many seniors actually received visits from close family members. On a scale of 1 to 100, perhaps 8 to 10 percent received regular visits from a family member on a weekly basis. Another 20 percent received visits maybe once a month. The other 70 percent received a family member of friend to visit them at maybe their birthday, at Thanksgiving, or at Christmas or not at all.

American Culture, the one that I was brought up in, seems to be skewed one way. It worships independence and youth. It appears to be infatuated with overnight fame, immediate gratification and a preponderance of activities that glamorize the young along with products that claim to stave off aging or the appearance of growing old.

We are enthralled with “selfies,” (self-shot, cell phone photos), building ‘personal brands,’ and spending enormous amounts of time texting and posting upon Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Pintrest, etc. Who bothers to just sit down and talk face to face with another person anymore without the presence of a vibrating cell phone or I-Pad in their hand? And when was the last time you actually talked to a grandparent or aging parent face to face or visited with them?

American culture devalues and marginalizes it’s elderly and seniors.

Some writers attribute the decline in how we view our seniors and the elderly to the so called Feel Good Generation of the 1960’s - 70’s. A period that sensationalized youthful self centered and self-indulgent activity.

In researching the web prior to composing this blog, it turns out that there are others out there with a much more scholarly background who are asking the same question.

Jared Diamond, UCLA professor of geography and physiology, recently lectured on this topic. His presentation was entitled, “Honor or Abandon: Why Does Treatment of the Elderly Vary so Widely Among Human Societies?” Jared Diamond is a Pulitzer Prize winning author of “Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies,” which also aired on PBS. Diamond is also a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” award.

In the online newsletter, UCLA Today, I read a summary of Dr. Diamond’s address, a portion of which is conveyed here.

“Parents and children both want a comfortable life --- there are limits to the sacrifices that they’ll make for each other.” Those circumstances include life’s often heart-wrenching realities --- from the threat of starvation among indigenous tribes to the difficult choices posed by modern societies’ life-prolonging medical care.

The elders usefulness in a society plays a big part in determining their fate, Diamond said. While old people in traditional societies can no longer spear game or battle enemies, they can still gather food to care for children. They are also often expert at making tools, weapons, baskets and clothes. In many societies they serve as “tribal elders” in medicine, religion and politics.

In those cultures that lack a written record of their history, song and other forms of culture, older people are invaluable sources of information.

“The repositories of knowledge are the memories of old people,” Diamond said. “If you don’t have old people to remember what happened 50 years ago, you’ve lost a lot of experience for that society.” from communal history to advice on how to survive a cyclone

or other natural disaster.

So what cultures out there embrace, include and revere their older citizens today?

I was surprised to learn the following about these five different cultures.

African

There are more than five hundred tribes that occupy the African Continent. Common among them is that elders are respected, obeyed and considered a source of tribal and family wisdom.

To survive until and old age is often considered an accomplishment reflecting personal strength, resourcefulness and faith.

American Indians

Native Americans are known for referring to their elders as “wisdom keepers.”

The web site: www.sapphyr.net/nacodeethics.htm features a detailed list of behaviors shared by a number of Native American Tribes. The article is entitled, Native American Indian Traditional Code of Ethics. This code first appeared in print in the book, The Sacred Tree, published by The Four Worlds Development Project in 1982.

I’ve listed here those that speak to the treatment of older tribal members.

1. Treat every person from the tiniest child to the oldest elder with respect at all times.

2. Special respect should be given to Elders, Parents, Teachers and Community Leaders.

3. Touch nothing that belongs to someone else (especially Sacred Objects) without permission, or an understanding between you.

4. Speak in a soft voice, especially when you are in the presence of Elders, stranger or others to whom special respect is due.

5. Listen to and follow the guidance given to your heart. Expect guidance to come in many forms: in prayer, in dreams, in times of quiet solitude, and in the words and deeds of wise Elders and friends.

Chinese

China owns some of the oldest cultural rituals dedicated to the reverence of their oldest citizens including these which are but a sampling:

1. The oldest person in a family or an organization has the most respect, honor, and dignity.

2. Young folks will call an older person “Ye Ye” (grandfather), and “Nai Nai” (grandmother), “Tai Tai” (aunt) and “Shu Shu” (uncle) as a sign of respect even if that person is not family by blood.

3. When you arrive at a meeting or banquet you should always remember to greet the member with the highest seniority ranking at that occasion first.

4. Whatever you do, you should not ever interrupt the senior member’s speech.

Japanese

The Japanese have a phrase for their elders: “Oji-San.” Translated, it means Venerable One.

In Japan, many of the small towns and older villages hold a parade for any of their citizens who reach their 88th birthday.

On the third Monday of each September, the Japanese observe a holiday they call Respect for the Aged Day that dates back to 1947. It is called ‘Keiro no Hi.’

Hispanics

Latino elderly occupy a central role in the family group and are treated with respect (respeto), status (su lugar), and authority (su experiencia y sabiduria). Mexican American culture does not typically take advantage of the nursing home system that many Americans rely upon for caring for the elders.

The cultures that have been touched upon in this article all have been around for many centuries before the formation and growth of the United States of America. We on the other hand are still a relatively young nation grappling with a wide variety of social issues besides how we treat our seniors and elders.

It seems to me that we have a lot to learn from some of these other cultures to add to our own in re-connecting and improving our relationships with our older citizens.

With regard to how we handle and accommodate our elderly, a quote from Mahatma Gandi comes to mind: “A society is measured by how it treats it’s weakest members.”

Viewing our country from Gandi’s point of view here, our mid-term report card grade leaves room for substantial improvement.

Want to learn some things you never knew but might appreciate and be awed about your grandparent or an older family member?

Try this: the next time you meet one of them, sit down and ask them this question: “Hey grandpa, how did you earn all of those wrinkles on your face?

After the laughter, you might be surprised at what they tell you and what kind of memories and experiences will be rekindled that you never knew before. At that point consider yourself as having sipped your first taste from the “teacup of wisdom.” It is, by the way, a bottomless cup and there is no limit on how many refills you can go back for.

Jeff Dodson

February 24th 2013

Power Words: A Book Review

2014-01-14T12:42:00.001-08:00

Sharon Anne Klingler is the author of this book and it is my first exposure to her writing. Sharon is also the author of Intuition & Beyond, and, co-author of Secrets of Success with Sandra Anne Taylor.

Sharon introduces us to the power and force within our words and language. In her own words: “this book is about using the energy of precise words to lift your own energy and to stimulate immediate mental, emotional, and physical responses.”

I enjoyed reading this book and found that the premise of power and energy behind the words of our language tracks right along with the principles Dr. Wayne Dyer set forth in his book, The Power of Intention, by Hay House Publishing, 2004. As a blogger/writer I also found an attraction to Sharon’s book for how I might improve my word craft in what I present and write about.

Words carry the power to positively elevate, expand, empower and energize either individuals or an audience. On the dark side, they also have the power to disenfranchise, spread fear and hate or marginalize individuals or groups of people.

Happily, Sharon's book is about finding the appropriate positive words and phrases that we can use on a daily basis to improve our behaviors, divest ourselves of limiting beliefs and habits and inspire us to take action towards goals and achievements that will bring out the best in us.

Sharon writes, “for those who seek change, their everyday language must resonate with a new purpose --not just at special times of affirmations, but all the time.” I interpreted this to mean that our everyday language must come into alignment and mirror what we wish to evolve into for the better.

I loved her statement, “Your language is the electrical current that moves through your life.” Thus it would follow, in my opinion, that one should endeavor to choose positive,high voltage words to identify ourselves and our everyday actions with. Words that reinforce “walking our talk.”

The author writes about two kinds of words, They are Trigger Words and Lifting Words.

Trigger Words are those that compel or ignite and action. Lifting Words are those that elevate one’s energy and creativity.

There are six elements of word energy. They are meaning, imaging, emotion, vibration, color and shape.

Sharon also writes about Power Words, Prayers and Invocations.

Invocations are words or phrases that mean to call or call upon. Prayers are meant to capture the attention of our God, a saint or spiritual force, often in time of great need or urgency. Turning words into a power tool involve six components. They are belief, emotional engagement, novelty and interest, focus and meaning, frequency and repetition, and, a call to action -- possessing the will and the intention.

In the process of changing your circumstance by improving your vocabulary with empowering, meaningful language, phrases and new words, Sharon offers these tips:

Make your first word your best word. The first word in a sentence can act like the locomotive at the front of a train. The right word offers pulling power.

Write a new language with words of power. Stop employing the dull edged knife of everyday meaningless, overused words. Such words weaken you and lessen the energy around them.

Become a word warrior. Look for the deeper meaning of each word along with a positive emotional punch behind each.

Test your words and their energy. Which ones have the best effect on you emotionally and motivationally?

Take action with the words that you have chosen that lift.

A quote from Sharon Klingler at the end of chapter eighteen distills down what her Power Words book is about: “Live your life like you mean it. Your destiny is in your hands --- and in your words.”

I loved reading this book because I possess a fascination for language and how I might use it to elevate my own word usage and to better communicate and inspire my own readers.

If you are the person who is looking for that transformational edge in how you negotiate your personal life safari, grab a copy of Power Words and get busy.

A web site link to this author is www.SharonKlingler.com

Jeff Dodson
January 14th 2014

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Hay House Publishing for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are unbiased and reflect my honest judgment of the product.

Dementia Care Far From Home

2014-01-08T15:09:00.000-08:00

In our local Sunday January 5th 2014 issue of the Sacramento Bee newspaper, an article by Denis D. Gray of The Associated Press was published under the headline caption, Some find Alzheimer’s care in far-off nations.

Denis’ article described a growing trend of Swiss citizens who are looking to place their elderly loved ones, suffering from Alzheimer’s, in nursing facilities overseas rather than within their own country, citing formidably expensive monthly rates in their own nation. Switzerland, by the way, was ranked No. 1 in health care for the elderly in 2013 in an index compiled by the elderly advocacy group HelpAge International and the United Nations Population Fund.

Swiss citizen Ulrich Kuratli placed his elderly wife, Susanna Kuratli, in Baan Kamlangchay, a residential treatment facility for dementia 5,600 miles away in Chiang Mai,Thailand. Dementia care in Switzerland at high end clinics costs $15,000.00 or more per month. Although the Swiss government would cover two-thirds of the bill for Susanna’s care were she to remain in Switzerland, that still leaves $5,000 a month or more that Ulrich would have to shoulder. By contrast, the Thai facility located in Chiang Mai, cost only $3,800 per month.

According to this article reporter, it comes down to basically this:

“Relatives in western nations are increasingly confronting Kuratli’s dilemma as the number of Alzheimer’s patients and costs rise, and the supply of qualified nurses and facilities struggles to keep up.

Faraway countries are offering cheaper, and to some minds better, care for those suffering from the irreversible loss of memory. The nascent trend is unnerving to some experts who say uprooting people with Alzheimer’s will add to their sense of displacement and anxiety, though other say quality of care is more important than location.”

In my own opinion, though there are always exceptions, quality of care trumps location.

Besides Thailand, the Philippines is offering Americans care for their dementia loved ones for rates between $1,500 to $3,500 a month. According to this article, approximately 100 Americans are currently seeking dementia care placement in the Philippines.

I can personally vouch for the fact that this rate range is at roughly half of the rate we were paying for each of my now deceased parents in a local Sacramento, California skilled nursing home. The monthly amount we were being charged was at the daily rate of $245.00. Thus, a thirty-one day month would run $7595.00. Mind you, this rate that we were being charged was about average for what dementia care nursing homes are charging in California. There are higher end specialized facilities elsewhere in our state that can range anywhere from $9,000 to $10,000 per month.

Facilities along with active hotel and resort builders in Thailand see this trend continuing and are lining up building projects for dementia and Alzheimer’s care residents throughout their nation to handle the influx of Europeans and those Americans that they feel will also follow.

Citizens of Germany are already seeking dementia care outside the borders of Germany in eastern Europe, Spain, Greece and the Ukraine.

What does all this have to say about dementia care as we know it in the industrialized nations?

According to Alzheimer’s Disease International, there are more than 44 million Alzheimer’s patients globally and that figure is projected to triple to 135 million by 2050.

Dementia / Alzheimer’s care, whether provided to patients who remain within their own homes or for those whose continued care compels a skilled nursing facility, must become affordable for family members that are so often called upon to bear the burden of both the caregiving portion and the financial expense as well.

Our US health care system has grown up out of a landscape of separate grain-siloed cottage industry specialized professions that are paid and rewarded based upon offering activity rather than delivering corrective results.

We are overdue for a topdown integrated healthcare system, affordable to all, that includes provisions for senior dementia / Alzheimer’s care.

We needed it yesterday.

Jeff Dodson

January 8th 2014

Ten Alzheimer’s Risk Factors

2013-12-26T11:53:00.001-08:00

image courtesy of: globalpost.com

So what can medical science tell us about Alzheimer’s disease in terms of risk factors? What are they? Can we lessen our chances of developing AD by reducing or better controlling them? What steps have I taken as a writer/blogger to lower my own health risks?

First, lets have a look at what the latest medical science and research reveals. Next, I’ll comment on what my own corrective measures have been.

Age
On January 19th 2012, the Dr. Oz Show (www.doctoroz.com/media.print/11815) offered a download of an article entitled Alzheimer’s: 5 Greatest Risk Factors. Of the five risk factors listed, age was number one. The Dr. Oz Show article had the following to offer with respect to age:

“The biggest risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s is age. For reasons we still don’t entirely understand, as we get older, we accumulate more beta-amyloid. The chances of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s increases steadily as we age. Right now, the risk of Alzheimer’s doubles every year after the age of 65. About half of people who are 85 and older have Alzheimer’s.”

The online web site, Caring.com provides an informative blog by senior editor, Paula Spencer Scott. In a blog entitled, Alzheimer’s Risk Factors, What Causes Alzheimer’s Disease and Who Gets It,
www.caring.com/articles/smoking-and-weight-alzheimers-risk?print=true) Paula Scott also lists age along with gender and family history. This is what she had to say with respect to gender and family history:

Gender
“Because women live longer than men, on average, and Alzheimer’s disease risk rises with age, more women than men develop it. In addition, some research indicates that a lack of estrogen after menopause may contribute to the fact that, overall, slightly more women are affected. Taking hormone replacement therapy has not been shown to protect against Alzheimer’s.”

Family History
“People with a family history of Alzheimer’s are more likely to develop the disease. The risk is thought to rise with each relative who had it. It’s unknown, though, exactly how much of this association is due to genetic factors and how much is due to shared lifestyle factors. Most experts believe that some combination of the two is responsible. Even when an immediate family member has the disease, however, your increased risk is only slightly higher than if your family had no history of dementia.”

Lifestyle & Body Health
The Mayo Clinic published an article entitled, Alzheimer’s Disease, on January 19th 2013 on their web site, www.mayoclinic.com/health/alzheimers-disease/DS00161 The article is a fifteen page summary of Alzheimer’s disease. In it, the following lifestyle factors are mentioned.

“There’s no lifestyle factor that’s been conclusively shown to reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s disease. However, some evidence suggests that the same factors that put you at risk of heart disease may also increase the chance that you’ll develop Alzheimer’s. Examples include: Lack of exercise, smoking, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, poorly controlled diabetes, a diet lacking in fruits and vegetables and a lack of social engagement. These risk factors are also linked to vascular dementia, a type of dementia caused by damaged blood vessels in the brain.”

High Blood Pressure
Also known as hypertension, high blood pressure, over time, weakens the walls of the arteries. Primarily in and around the heart. What causes high blood pressure? Obesity, stress, excessive use of alcohol, too much salt in your diet, diabetes and smoking. Obesity, stress, excessive use of alcohol, diabetes and smoking each on their own have been linked to a higher probability of putting one at risk for AD.

High cholesterol
First of all, cholesterol has taken a bad rap over the past twenty five or so years. Clarification is in order here. What is the purpose of cholesterol within your body in the first place?

Cholesterol, according to the Mayo Clinic, “is found in every cell in your body, and without it’s presence, our bodies would not function properly. One of the crucial missions that it serves is to aide in body hormone production. Cholesterol also aides your stomach and intestinal tract in food digestion. Thirdly, it serves as a structural component of each of the cells in your body.”

Cholesterol, as we have been informed, comes in three forms. The two we hear about the most and need to be aware of in terms of this article are LDL (low density cholesterol, or, the bad guys), and HDL (high density cholesterol, or, friends to have).

The bad stuff or LDL is responsible for the plaque buildup and logjams within your arteries.
Clogged up arteries reduce the amount of blood that is essential for keeping your brain healthy. A reduced blood flow to the brain also reduces the amount of crucial glucose, or fuel, that your brain actually uses on a daily basis for optimum health.

The good stuff or HDL guards against heart problems and serves to keep the heart and arteries working properly.

Obesity
With respect to people who are overweight, the caring.com blog had this to say: “Being overweight or obese as measured by body mass index is well associated with an increased risk of developing dementia. Men with the leanest body mass index (BMI) in their late 40’s and mid 50’s were the least likely to develop Alzheimer’s in a 20-year study of more than 7,000 Swedes: those who were heaviest were most likely. This same study also later found that women who were overweight at 70 were more likely to develop Alzheimer’s in the next 10 to 18 years.”

Stress
In a blog article entitled, Women, Stress and Alzheimer’s Disease, at alz.org/blog by Dr. Neelum T. Aggarwal, Dr. Aggarwal states that stress is a risk factor for AD. She cites a 35-year study of 1,415 women that began in Sweden in 1968. The women’s ages ranged from 38 years to 60 years at the beginning of the study and they were then reexamined in 1974, 1980, 1992 and 2000. For purposes of the study, stress was defined as a sense of irritation, tension, nervousness, anxiety, fear or sleeping problems.

Dr. Aggarwal discloses that: “Of the women initially assessed in 1968, 161 developed dementia during the follow-up period of 35 years (105 diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, 40 diagnosed with vascular dementia, 16 with another type of dementia). The average age of dementia onset was 76 years. Stress was rated as “frequent/constant” at the baseline and follow-up cycles (1968, 1974 and 1980) was related to increased risk of developing dementia and these associations did not change when adjusted for potential confounding variables.”

Diabetes
Paula Spencer Scott’s article offered this with respect to diabetes: “People with type 2 diabetes have at least double the risk of developing AD compared with people without diabetes. The risk was 65 percent higher for diabetics in 2006 data from the ongoing Religious Orders Study of priests and nuns. Some studies have found that the higher the blood sugar levels, the higher the dementia risk.”

Smoking
Scott’s caring.com article had this to say about smoking:
“It’s thought that smoking damages the cardiovascular system and causes oxidative stress, both conditions associated with Alzheimer’s. Evidence is growing that smoking raises the risk of developing AD by as much as 50 percent.”

Head Injuries
In recent years, much has been written and televised about the connection between head injuries and dementia in later life, focusing upon our military soldiers who sustained head trauma from blast type injuries in combat. Such head injuries can lead to aggregate brain damage that is called TBI, or , traumatic brain injury.

CTI, or, chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a type of brain injury that arises from repeated impact concussions to the head. Work by the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at the Boston University School of Medicine is making progress on the kind of tissue and cellular damage the brain accumulates.

Symptoms of this condition present themselves as a form of dementia including loss of decision making control, aggression, depression, sleep disorders and headaches. CTE can also lead to a higher incidence of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

In 2012, the National Football League donated $30 million to the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health for research studies affecting athletes, with brain trauma being the primary area of focus.

Parental Lifestyles
My mother passed away in the Fall of 2012. Mom had been placed in a nursing home 13 months prior, having been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Risk factors that weighed against her were several.

For one, she had been a lifelong smoker beginning in her teen that then continued for approximately fifty years. As Mom’s AD became more apparent, she shied away from solid foods of any kind in favor of high sodium soups. She loved any kind of soup there was as long as it was chicken soup. Second, she also suffered from adult diabetes and struggled in keeping up consistently with her diabetic medications and injections. In time, she resisted taking and swallowing her pills. A pill crusher and apple sauce or pudding were then introduced as the medication masking foodstuffs to get her to ingest what was crucial for her. Third, mom sustained a very nasty concussion injury in an automobile accident in her early sixties.

Dad passed away in early summer, 2013 after having been placed in a nursing facility less than seven months before for dementia/Alzheimer’s disease. Dad’s risk factors were several in number as well.

First was high cholesterol from a lifelong diet heavy in buttermilk, ice cream, cheese, processed meats, and high sodium snacks. Pop loved milk! He could easily knock down a gallon of milk in a day. Salami was another. Wolfing down a whole six inch long stick of high sodium/high fat/high nitrate/nitrite salami in a day was not out of the ordinary for him. Potato chips or corn chips were another favorite; along with quarts of Picante sauce to shovel the chips into. Hershey’s chocolate kisses were another item he loved to consume as well as hand out to others. Second, he struggled with cardiovascular disease. Third, dad also developed adult diabetes in his early sixties. The last couple of years of his life before he was placed in a nursing home, my wife and I had made substantial inroads into weaning him off many of his favorite junk foods and overindulgent items. A move in the right direction but too late in the game to counter the bad effects of what had already set in.

My Corrective Measures
Well over a decade ago, and before I took on my unforeseen calling as a parental caregiver, I made several affirmative changes to my diet and lifestyle. I cut back substantially on processed meats, dairy products (cheese was my passion), and high sugar snacks and soft drinks. Exercise and physical activity increased and my weight and waistline began to diminish. Salads, fruits and vegetable consumption have been my focus for quite some time. My wife has introduced a substantial number of organic based food items into our diet as well.

My primary care physician was delighted with the results of my physical exam, as much as I was, in early December 2013. I was within seven pounds of my optimum weight goal, blood panels were all good for cholesterol, blood sugar and other vitals. No signs nor symptoms of heart issues. Blood pressure and pulse are boringly normal.

Occasionally I have been asked if I worry a lot about eventually developing Alzheimer’s disease myself? The answer is No, I do not.

What will be will be. In the meantime, it is my belief that taking charge of and making affirmative changes in my lifestyle choices some twelve to fifteen years back most certainly have lowered my risk factors for developing one of the dementia's, diabetes or cardiovascular disease.

Education, empowerment and self discipline have been my tools. My disappointment in a way is that much of what we now know about AD and dementia was not out there or available to my folks in their younger years to avail themselves of.

Sometimes, during the course of caring for those that are dying or very ill, your takeaway is that you learn how to live better or differently for yourself. This has been so for this writer.

Jeff Dodson
December 26th 2013