Laugh at yourself sometimes

To an Alzheimer’s patient, there is nothing funny about forgetting to turn off the oven, losing a telephone number or misplacing books from the library; but turning those mishaps into punch lines might turn out to be therapeutic.

The new research comes after a poll this week revealed Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most joked about conditions in the UK. Click here to read DPS eNews’ story.

However, the latest research shows that the idea of improvisational comedy might help those in the early to middle stages of Alzheimer’s cope with their disease. This theory is being tested by the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Centre of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Company.

Researchers say not having to memorise lines or remember a story narrative might spur confidence by freeing patients from worry over lost words or thoughts, and may actually stimulate their brain chemistry to forge new protections against further onslaught of the disease.

Researchers are now looking at whether theatre classes have a measurable effect on seniors’ brains, and in Northfield, a day services facility is encouraging spontaneous storytelling.

At a recent session, skits progressed unexpectedly, for example, a pair of lovers morphed into a mushroom hunting expedition; an ice skating adventure became a camping trip.

“I don’t know what I’m doing; but it’s freeing,” one of the performers with Alzheimer’s says. “I’ve learned that I am imaginative, playful and creative. I can be funny.”

The wife of one dementia performer says her husband could not tell her 10 minutes later what he had done, but, “every day after class, there was lightness in his spirit. There was buoyancy about him, a more positive attitude.”

Researchers say the program opens an avenue of new experience for people with Alzheimer’s disease.

Director of the Memory and Ageing Centre at the University of California, Dr Bruce Miller, says the work involving improvising is a “hopeful” area.

The work, which was based on research that showed people with dementia who participate in cognitively stimulating activities and are socially engaged, often have a better quality of life and suffer less depression.

“At the same time, patients build up what is called ‘cognitive reserve’, resilience in the brain that seems to slow down or stop the disease’s onset,” Joe Verghese, a leading neurology researcher at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York, says.

“So, for instance, people with large amounts of cognitive reserve might begin showing symptoms of Alzheimer’s at 75, instead of at 70,” he says.

Researchers say patients in the early and middle stages of the disease most likely still have the brain plasticity to create new neurons and synaptic connections that might provide something of a “bulwark” against the disease or might shift functioning to areas of the brain that are unaffected or less affected.

The study’s participants reported feeling more confident and able to cope with their diagnoses, as well as less isolated and depressed.

“Alzheimer’s disease doesn’t completely eradicate the ability to think, create, form friendships and have fun,” one researcher says.

Therapies involving creative arts might be especially effective in helping ease the burden of Alzheimer’s because it infuses mentally challenging activities with meaning, emotion and a social connection.

“Theatre is an especially powerful medium of expression for people with Alzheimer’s, because it enables them to stand up in front of an audience and tell the people, both who care for them and who love them, how they feel,” researchers say.

“I say forget memory and go to the imagination. It’s about making it up in the moment, not about remembering the chronology of a life.”