Shirts Up!

I uploaded all of the shirts with the design theme

"My Brother (or, sister, cousin, son, daughter, grandson, etc). has Down Syndrome. He (or she) wasn't terminated. He's (or she's) loved."

They can be seen at www.gotdownsyndrome.net/shirts.html .

I also uploaded two of the other design theme -

"I'm Thankful to be a Brother (or sister, mother, grandma, father, etc) to someone with Down Syndrome"

They can be seen at www.gotdownsyndrome.net/shirts2.html

I plan to upload the rest of the shirts in this design soon, Lord willing. Keep checking back to see when they are uploaded. I hope to have them uploaded by Sunday or Monday.

Vaccine article

Here's a link to an interesting article on vaccines and their safey, or lack thereof - http://www.lewrockwell.com/miller/miller15.html

Brain Scan May Spot Early Alzheimer's

Brain Scan May Spot Early Alzheimer's

Study Shows fMRI Could Some Day Confirm Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease

By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Medical News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Sept. 26, 2007 -- A specialized type of brain scan may spot early signs of Alzheimer's disease and aid in treatment of the disease.

In a new study, brain scans suggest a shift in brain activity that may be an early warning sign of Alzheimer's.

Until now, doctors have only been able to confirm an Alzheimer's diagnosis during an autopsy. But the new study suggests that brain scans using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) may spot Alzheimer's earlier.

Although more research is needed to confirm these preliminary results, researchers say an fMRI scan may one day be used in conjunction with other tests to confirm an early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease or identify people at risk for the disease.

There is no cure for Alzheimer's, but early diagnosis of the disease can significantly improve treatment options and quality of life.

"As new therapies for Alzheimer's disease enter the pipeline over the next five years, early diagnosis will become critical," says Jeffrey Petrella, MD, professor of radiology at Duke University, in a news release. "fMRI may play a key role in early diagnosis, when combined with clinical, genetic and other imaging markers."

New Test for Alzheimer's?

In the study, researchers studied 13 people with mild Alzheimer's disease, 34 with mild cognitive impairment, and 28 healthy people with an average age of 73. The results appear in Radiology.

All of the participants were monitored with fMRI while they were asked to complete a face-name memory task. The scan revealed increased activity in the area of the brain associated with episodic memory in people with Alzheimer's compared with the others, as suggested by previous studies.

But more surprisingly, fMRI showed there was a change in activity in the brain's memory circuitry that deals with turning off personal memory while performing another memory-related task. The magnitude of impairment in this area was closely related to the degree of memory impairment in the three groups of participants.

"In other words, the brain not only loses its ability to turn on in certain regions, but also loses its ability to turn off in other regions, and the latter may be a more sensitive marker. These findings give us insight into how the brain's memory networks break down, remodel and finally fail as memory impairment ensues," says Petrella.

Shirts for Down Syndrome

I haven't done much with making any bumper sticker designs lately (www.gotdownsyndrome.net/bumperstickers.html). But, I've been slowly playing around with some t-shirt designs. This is the newest one I did. It says

"My Brother Has Down Syndrome. He wasn't terminated. He's loved."

I've made this for "My Son", "My Daughter", "My Sister", "My Niece", "My Nephew", "My Grandson", "My Granddaughter", "My Cousin", "My Sister", and "My Friend". I only have the "My Brother" one uploaded at the moment, but I plan to put the other ones up soon.

Here's the link: http://www.cafepress.com/mybrotherds .

I also have made a design that says "I'm thankful to be a brother to someone with Down Syndrome." It has it for sister, aunt, uncle, grandma, grandpa, mother, father, cousin, and sister. I plan to upload that design soon too, but I've run out of time for tonight ;).

More later . . .

Accomplishment!

Just thought I'd share what my brother did the other day. He has always had a hard time with doing fine motor activity, because of his short and wide fingers and hands ;). We bought a whole bunch of knob puzzles and fine motor building games several months ago and have been working on him with them. He has never been able to pick up small knob puzzle pieces by holding the little knob (the knobs are so small, he has to hold it with two fingers [pincer grasp] to be able to do it). He would always just put the pieces in the puzzle by holding to the piece itself - never attempted to hold it by the small knob. Well, I decided to let him try to do the small knob puzzle this morning and guess what?!! He picked up the pieces by the small knob and was putting them in the puzzle and taking them out of the puzzle. He did it over and over again and was very excited to show mom his new thing he learned ;).

Mealtime Notions New Book: Homemade Blended Formula Handbook

Just thought I would post info on the new book that Mealtime Notions (mealtimenotions.com) has. It is called "Homemade Blended Formula Handbook." It's supposed to give alot of recipes and info for those who have to make pureed food for their child or who's child is tube-fed. Just thought I'd post the info incase anyone could benefit from it.

http://www.mealtimenotions.com/HomemadeBlendedFormulaHandbook.htm

Snippet from Introduction:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Introduction
by Marsha Dunn Klein, MEd, OTR/L and Suzanne Evans Morris, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
(Reprinted with permission from Mealtime Notions, LLCand Marsha Dunn Klein and Suzanne Evans Morris)

Many families who are providing tube feedings for their children have asked, “Why can’t I feed this child the nutrition I feed my other children?” or “What can I offer my child besides the same formula every day?” or “How would I go about providing real blended food through the tube?” or “Can I still use the commercial formula and just add a little food?” or “Where would I start”?

These families have often asked dietitians, pediatricians and other feeding team members these questions, only to have them admit to having little or no experience with blended foods in tube feedings. Much to the frustration of families, many of these professionals have asked them, “Why would you want to offer something besides commercial formula?” Some professionals have said, “Well, I’ve never had anyone ask that question, but let’s learn together.” This handbook is for them, all of them: the families who ask “why?” “how?” and “what?” and the professionals who have limited experiences and want to learn. It provides a starting point for making homemade blended formulas and a sharing of information, based on what we already know about feeding children. It incorporates what we know about mealtime experiences and what helps children grow. It combines this knowledge with the experiences of parents and other professionals who have written these chapters.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Study on Glutathione in DS

Another study showing the decreased levels of Glutathione in DS. Reduced levels therefore mess with the whole antioxidant system. There's then more SOD (due to overexpresssion in DS) and excess hydrogen peroxide, creating increased oxidative stress. When the Glutathione levels are reduced it is not able to combat the free radicals and excess hydrogen peroxide. The full text of the study (which can be seen at a link at the bottom of the abstract) is really interesting - full of information, for those who like to read this stuff that can be brain-racking at times ;).

The redox state of glutathione in erythrocytes of individuals with Down syndrome.

Muchova J, Garaiova I, Sustrova M, Liptakova A, Blazicek P, Kvasnicka P, Durackova Z.

Institute of Medical Chemistry, Biochemistry and Clinical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia. jana.muchova@fmed.uniba.sk

BACKGROUND: The redox state of glutathione has been used as indicator for the redox environment of the cell. OBJECTIVES: To investigate relationships between the redox environments, the SOD activity, total antioxidant status and the oxidation stress markers production (MDA and lipofuscin). METHODS: Individuals with Down syndrome and age-matched healthy controls were enrolled into a study. Some parameters of oxidative stress in serum were determined: reduced glutathione, oxidized glutathione, redox potential of this couple (Eh), activity of superoxide dismutase in the red blood cells as well as malondialdehyde and lipofuscin. RESULTS: In the group of persons with DS statistically significant decrease in the GSH concentration was found, however, no differences in the GSSG concentration versus controls was observed. The redox potential values for couple GSH/GSSG are a statistically significantly increased in DS individuals compared to controls. CONCLUSION: In this study we highlighted the different ways of view at the role of GSH in metabolism of persons with DS. It is useful to look at the GSH and GSSG concentrations separately as well as at redox potential value, which influence total redox state of organism (Tab. 2, Fig. 3, Ref. 30) Full Text (Free, PDF) www.bmj.sk.