Amazon.com: There's Still a Person in There: The Complete Guide to Treating and Coping with Alzheimer's (9780399145711): Michael Castleman, Dolores Gallagher-Thompson, Matthew Naythons: Books
The first comprehensive guide to the care--and possible prevention--of Alzheimer's disease since The 36-Hour Day.
Written for caregivers and anyone whose life has been touched by Alzheimer's, There's Still a Person in There is a kind, hopeful, and realistic guide to these trying years. It tempers its up-to-the-minute reports on medical advances, natural therapies, and coping strategies with affecting profiles of families living through this disease. These stories of the powerful love to be found along the Alzheimer's road offer a radically different view of what this illness can mean.
The authors Michael Castleman, Dolores Gallagher-Thompson, and Matthew Naythons are, respectively, one of America's leading health journalists, a Stanford psychologist considered a foremost expert in Alzheimer's caregiving, and a medical doctor who specializes in health communication.
In 1986, The 36-Hour Day defined Alzheimer's disease as dark hopeless, and never ending. There's Still a Person in There seeks to change that picture--to show the new face of Alzheimer's disease: gentle, often hopeful, and ultimately human. Index. Notes.
Alzheimer's disease strikes some 250,000 Americans annually, the editors maintain, and an estimated 2.4 million people care for the several million people who have the disease. What makes caring for someone with Alzheimer's particularly difficult is the transformation the victims undergo. As this book evidences through its case histories, people with Alzheimer's become almost unrecognizable: a quiet, shy person will suddenly shout in the middle of the street for hours at a time; a well-groomed woman will forget about showering and insist on wearing the same article of clothing for days at a time. Still, there is some cause for optimism, claim the authors (Castleman wrote Nature's Cures, Naythons is a physician and Gallagher-Thompson cared for her ailing mother). Diagnosis and treatment has changed over the past decade, so that with proper medication and a different approach by caregivers and health-care professionals, Alzheimer's sufferers can be made comfortable, which in turn helps their families. The case studies provide insights into the stages from diagnosis through progression of the disease. Practical information on new drug therapies, alternative treatments, tips on evaluating residential facilities as well as an appendix of other resources make this an indispensable guide for patients, caregivers and anyone who must deal with Alzheimer's disease. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
More than 70 percent of the two to four million people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease are cared for at home by family members, often until the disease's final stages. Numerous books for caregivers have appeared over the last decade, but the need for high-quality publications continues. This book's authorsACastleman, a health journalist, Dolores Gallagher-Thompson, a psychologist specializing in caregiving, and Matthew Naythons, a physician turned Internet entrepreneurAhave gathered the latest research on the causes, diagnosis, current and potential treatments for Alzheimer's and communicated these findings clearly and intelligibly. Essential information on getting a diagnosis, coping with behavioral changes, medications, and sources of support and assistance is provided. Such material is available elsewhere in greater detail (Nancy Mace and Peter Rabin's The 36-Hour Day, 3d ed., LJ 7/99); however, the authors emphasize the importance of families caring for themselves as well in order to avoid the physical and emotional tolls unrelieved caregiving can take. Stories of culturally and ethnically diverse families coping successfully with Alzheimer's plus an extensive bibliography and resource list increase the volume's reader-friendliness. A valuable addition to Alzheimer's and caregiving collections.AKaren McNally Bensing, Benjamin Rose Inst. Lib., Cleveland Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Michael Castleman is a journalist and novelist, author of more than 2,000 newspaper, magazine, and Web articles, 12 consumer health books, and three mystery novels.
He is "one of the nation's leading health writers" (Library Journal). For 35 years, he has been a prolific freelance medical journalist focused on optimal health, mainstream medicine, alternative therapies, nutrition, fitness, and sexuality. His nonfiction books have a combined total of more than 2.25 million copies in print. His comprehensive guide to herbal medicine, The Healing Herbs, recently expanded and updated as The New Healing Herbs, 3rd Edition (Rodale, 2009), has sold more than 1 million copies.
Three of Castleman's books have been Book of the Month Club Selections: The Healing Herbs; Blended Medicine (Rodale, 2000), a home medical guide that combines mainstream and alternative therapies; and Nature's Cures (Rodale, 1996), a scientific investigation of 33 alternative healing arts, everything from acupuncture to yoga. Two have won "Health Book of the Year" awards from the American Library Association: Blended Medicine and Nature's Cures. One was in print for 28 years, Sexual Solutions. Foreign-rights sales have included: the British Commonwealth, Germany, France, Latin America, Spain, Finland, and China.
Castleman has also written widely for magazines, among them: Smithsonian, Reader's Digest, Prevention, Family Circle, Redbook, Self, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, New Woman, Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Men's Journal, Psychology Today, Playboy, Parenting, Child, Natural Health, Natural Solutions, Mother Jones, and Salon.com, among others. Twice he has been nominated for National Magazine Awards--in 1997, for "Harm With Every Puff: How Smoking Hurts," in Mother Jones, and in 1996, for "The Real Truth About Breast Cancer," in San Francisco Focus.
His newspaper articles have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, San Francisco Examiner, and San Jose Mercury-News, among others.
Castleman's R-rated mystery series is set in San Francisco, and features newspaperman-sleuth Ed Rosenberg. Titles include: The Lost Gold of San Francisco (2003, movie option) Death Caps (2007) and A Killing in Real Estate (2010).
Castleman earned an M.A. in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism (1979), and returned to teach medical journalism there (1995, 1996). He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Michigan (B.A., 1972).
Castleman grew up in Lynbrook, New York, a Long Island suburb of New York City. Since 1975 he has lived in San Francisco with his wife, a family physician. They have two adult children. In his free time, he enjoys jazz, blues, yoga, downhill skiing, and scuba diving.
This review is from: There's Still a Person in There: The Complete Guide to Treating and Coping with Alzheimer's (Hardcover)
I work in a continuing care retirement community and I also have a grandmother who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's almost 4 years ago. This is the best book with the most current information I have read in a long time. I especially enjoyed reading the stories of how other caregivers have coped with caring for their loved ones with this disease. People with elderly parents or grandparents would benefit greatly by reading this book. This disease has already claimed 4 million across America and in the next 20 years will take over as many as 14 million. Very easy to understand and it offers some great general and detailed info on Alzheimer's disease.
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As a social worker, I really treasure books that provide excellent background information while speaking to the issues that people really care about. This book does this and more. It is a comprehensive and exhaustive resource on the current state of Alzheimers research, diagnosis, and treatment and it also provides several real family vignettes that have the realities that many face in an honest and postive (yes positive) manner. For example, it tells the story of a Stanford Professor who is diagnosed with Alzheimers in his late 50s/early 60s and his wife who struggle to care for him and her eventual decision to place her husband in residential care. It also tells of their continued love affair and how both of their lives change and adapt to living with Alzheimers. Of note it include information about wide range of community resources which will surely be helpful to families facing similar circumstances.
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I bought this book because I have an 84 year old father with Alz.
I found it interesting, and not as dry and dull as I had expected. I had a hard time putting it down even though MANY situations describe my family's case very closely and it hit near to my heart.
I recommend this book, even over the 36 HOUR DAY, as very informative. I particularly appreciated the personal stories, but did not care for the technical aspects described. I did learn a lot, and if you are not sure of your "person's" diagnosis, I feel this book just might help you figure out what is wrong. It made me more sure of the dx Alzheimers and skeptical of the dementia diagnosis by some and the nothing wrong diagnosis by other family members.
Good Luck and Lots of Love from me to all who need this book.
lpp 5-6-05
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