Imagine waking in the morning every day and not knowing where you are. Imagine not knowing if you have family -- or friends. Imagine that every single day is fresh devastating grief as you are reminded that loved ones you expected to find next to you -- have died years before.
...and of course feeling the shame which comes from forgetting and forgetting.
If you can imagine all this then you are only beginning to touch the very edge of the world of Alzheimer's disease. Thousands and thousands of people in this country suffer from this disease directly and thousands more suffer because it is their loved one who is stricken.
What Alzheimer's disease feels like to an individual -- to a family -- is a loss of control. And interestingly, physical losses of control, including incontinence (both types) are symptoms as well.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the system which we attribute to the Kidneys, is responsible for such a heartbreak.
The Kidney channel rules not only growth and reproduction and immune function and teeth and bone health -- but also leads cognitive health and brain function. By strengthening the Kidney channel we can help memory, cognitive difficulty, even incontinence.
Health care workers who help Alzheimer's patients and their families will report that when a person who has Alzheimer's develops a bladder infection, it will seem as though they make a huge cognitive drop and no one knows why. Yet within the framework of Traditional Chinese Medicine, understanding that the Kidney channel is responsible for all of this, it makes perfect sense.
Plus, the Kidney energy is more exhausted at the end of the day, which explains the syndrome of "sundowning" -- which describes how Alzheimer's patients make cognitive drops as the day closes.
For more reading on the Kidneys and the care of the Kidneys, you can click here to link to my post: The Kidney Freak http://springhopehealth.blogspot.com/2009/03/kidney-freak.html
My prayers go out to all families and individuals who have been touched by this illness.
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