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Ten Tips for Communicating with People with Dementia

I raised my voice, as if I my friend could understand me better if I turned up the volume.  Turns out, there are far better ways to communicate with the confused and demented, as I learned from a presentation sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Association. The...

The Vitamin D Dilemma

No one argues that we need Vitamin D. Although we call it a vitamin, our bodies also produce Vitamin D, along with melatonin, when we expose our skin to sunlight. According to Patrick Quillin PhD, RD, CNS, in his book Beating Cancer with Nutrition, both Vitamin D and...

Yes You Are

“I believe I’m supposed to share this,” Joanne told me. I smiled at my friend. She is a woman who weathered the premature death of her beloved husband, cared for her father and mother for years, and recently cried at her son’s memorial service. To look at her, you...

Greece Writers’ Round Robin

Occasionally our writers group pens what we call a “Round Robin.” It’s great fun, since none of us knows what literary masterpiece (or mess) will evolve from our blended imaginations. We each draw a number and wait for the writer who drew #1 to send us the first...

Melodies and Memories

Hearing the first two lines of “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas and Papas takes me back to the Poor House, a popular watering hole when I was a nursing student in Syracuse. The song’s beginning phrases about brown leaves floating in a grey sky put me right there...