Thank you, alisande, who started this thread. My older sister (64 yr. old) starts having dementia, and the classic symptom of Alzheimer's (constantly accusing people) ... Your info. gave me hope. Here's an excerpt from alisande's link: http://abc7news.com/health/non-drug-treatment-may-reverse-alzheimers/336963/ "Ten memory-loss patients, some with brain-scan-confirmed patterns of Alzheimer's, participated in a small UCLA trial called MEND (Metabolic Enhancement for NeuroDegeneration). In the UCLA protocol, patients made dramatic lifestyle changes. They avoided simple carbs, gluten and processed foods. They increased their fish intake, took yoga and meditated. They were instructed to take melatonin, get adequate sleep, incorporate vitamin B-12, vitamin D-3 and fish oil. Within six months, nine patients saw a noticeable improvement in memory. One patient, who was in the late stages of Alzheimer's, did not show improvement." **** From StrawChicago: fish-oil is best absorbed in liquid form. We used to take fish-oil capsule ... but after reading someone saw fish-oil capsules floating INTACT in the toilet bowl .. I tested it: I soaked fish-oil-capsule in vinegar (same pH as stomach acid) .. and it took hours to dissolve !! We use NOW fish-oil liquid since it's cheapest on Amazon. The liquid is from Norwegian fish (cleaner water) ... The liquid-form of fish oil is often the freshest since they can't disguise the taste with enteric-coated capsule (takes even longer to dissolve), and these often pass through if one doesn't have enough stomach acid. Another one of my favorite fish oil is Barlean's Omega-swirl, it tastes yummy like a sorbet. My teenager daughter likes that taste & it helps to weather her puberty. I tried Barlean's at my local health-food store: tasted good & like orange sorbet, zero fish-taste. I also tasted the LIME flavor, and the orange cream flavor. My ranking: 1) citrus sorbet 2) Lime 3) Orange cream. Very impressive Omega-3 profile: 910 EPA, 590 DHA, and 370 other Omega-3 .... for a total of 1,500 mg of Omega-3 per Tablespoon. I bought the Citrus Sorbet, only one left in the store's refrigerated section. I prefer buying fish-oil at local store's REFRIGERATED section, it's fresher that way. Also saw Barlean's swirl at Sam's club, but not sure about its freshness.

@sleeperblues - The fluctuation of hormone levels can decrease you ability to concentrate and recall things - so loss of estrogen when going through menopause, and thereafter, can contribute to memory loss. I had a wonderful friend who told me nouns were the first to go, and I think (what's her name) was spot on! ;-) They are also calling Alzheimer's "Type III Diabetes" due to it's association with insulin, which also causes plaque (mentioned in the article). I think there are a number of contributing factors, not just one - insulin, infection, inflammation..... It's just which one, or combination, wins the "race". How many older people do you know who snack on candy, sweets, and highly-processed carbohydrates constantly throughout the day? One third of Americans have type II diabetes or insulin resistance. And for inflammation - from my personal experience - going gluten-free reduced so much inflammation in my body I couldn't believe it.... (for more information check out: "Grain Brain" by David Perlmutter, MD).

Alzheimers is one of those diagnoses that is given when all other medical tests have been done and nothing is definitively found (eg TIA's) and yet there is definite signs of noticeable cognitive impairment. Then to assess the extent of the cognitive impairment the MoCa or MMSE tests which measure short-term and long-term memory (my mom doesn't remember what a lion looks like), fine motor skills, reasoning skills, etc is given and scored. lily - That's the thing, lead a healthy lifestyle and you (the generic you) help yourself in so many ways to head off so many diseases. Cr#p still happens as in the case of my mom. I feel for all those people and their families who are going through this. It isn't a journey that is travelled alone and unfortunately we all know the outcome.

Chisue, you raise some very good questions. In my 40+ years of hospital nursing, I have seen heartbreaking instances of people with advanced dementia being forced to undergo life extending procedures -- such as open heart surgery! -- because their family members felt that it was the right thing to do. But, they fail to see the terror, the pain, the combativeness, the inability to leave drains and IVs and wounds alone, the patient sometimes injuring themselves or a staff member, and so on, because he/she is unable to comprehend what is being done to them or why, and unable to feel safe in such a foreign environment. Then those family members come in and demand that the patient not be receiving sedation or pain medication because it leaves them drowsy when the family wants to interact with them. And, those families often have failed to understand that Alzheimer's, for one, is itself a fatal disease. One of the ways that medicine has changed in the past 40 years is the way that we respond to fatal illness -- back then, we wouldn't put terminally ill or advanced dementia patients on life support, or ask families if they wanted us to "do everything, including CPR", when we knew that would be futile or merely extending their dying process. We just didn't (and I think society in general didn't) consider it a reasonable option: Now, we are obligated to do just that. I made the decision on the behalf of both of my parents -- who each had dementia of different types, my mother from repeated cerebellar strokes, my father from microvascular ischemia -- that they would receive comfort care only in the event of a major illness. Therefore, any treatment would be solely for the sake of relieving pain, shortness of breath, and so forth; not to extend life just for the sake of extending life. I feel strongly that we need to respect the gift of life, however we are designed to have our lives end and we need to respect that and recognize that death is sometimes a gift also.