Check out our St. Patrick's Day Videos!

We had a fabulous St. Patrick's Day celebration at our Ambridge adult day services center - and you can check out how much fun we had!

Visit our YouTube channel to see clients and guests dancing to the wonderful sounds of the Pittsburgh Doo Wop Combo.

Study Finds Alzheimer's Disease May Be Frequently Misdiagnosed

REPRINTED FROM AOL HEALTH

By Catherine Donaldson-Evans

Alzheimer's disease is often and easily misdiagnosed in the elderly, a new study shows -- raising new doubts about existing detection methods for the traumatic, memory-loss illness.

Read more about the study.

Art Therapy Program in the News!

Our art therapy program and its wonderful benefits for older adults was featured in the Feb. 17th edition of the Sewickley Herald. You can read the article online.

Healthy Life Style

How you can take brain health to heart:

• Adopt a long-term, heart-healthy “food lifestyle” rather than a short-term diet and eat in moderation. A long-term study of 1,500 adults found that those who were obese in middle age were twice as likely to develop dementia in later life. Those who also had high cholesterol and high blood pressure had six times the risk of dementia.
  
• Reduce your intake of fat and cholesterol.Studies have shown that high intake of saturated fat and cholesterol clogs the arteries and is associated with higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Use mono- and polyunsaturated fats, such as olive oil, for example. Try baking or grilling food instead of frying.
  
• Exercise. Walking or other moderate exercise for 30 minutes each day gets the body moving and the heart pumping.
  
• Don’t smoke.Smoking interferes with blood flow and oxygen to the brain and is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke.

• Manage your numbers. Controlling your body weight, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar helps reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke

A Fun-Filled February in Ambridge

POSTED ON BEHALF OF TAMMY TACKAC

Hello! I hope everyone is keeping warm! Keeping busy at the Ambridge center is helping us to be warm. In January, we had a visit from KDKA weatherman Dennis Bowman. He came with 3 puppets and put on a very entertaining show for us. He also simulated a tornado for us which was very educational. He mentioned his visit here twice the next day on the morning news broadcast. Everyone enjoyed his visit.

Thank you to everyone who submitted recipes for National Cookbook Day. We had a nice variety of recipes to exchange and take home. One day we made homemade wedding soup and served it for lunch with an Italian ham and provolone cheese sandwich for National Soup day. Our service project in January was making homemade cat treats for the Beaver County Humane Society.

February will prove to be just as eventful. In honor of all the presidents' birthdays in February, we will be baking Mrs. Truman’s recipe for coconut balls and playing a game of “What First Lady am I?” We are celebrating Chinese New Year by making a good fortune hanging craft and having a Chinese scavenger hunt. On Thursdays, we are happy to have 2 Pitt occupational therapy students at the center from 10am – 4pm. They will be here for a few months as part of their schooling and will assist us with various tasks. We are welcoming Frank Lavelle back to the center for an entertaining afternoon. Please make sure you look at the February activity calendar for all the other programs that are offered this month.

We are in need of BINGO prizes. If you have any knick-knacks lying around the house that you want to get rid of, we will take them here at the Ambridge center. This would be greatly appreciated!

Volunteers are always needed. If you are interested, please contact Tammy Tackac at 724-266-9626.

Benefits of Day Center for People with Alzheimer's

Here is a good summary of the benefits of adult day programs for both people with Alzheimer's disease and their caregivers, from a post on EldercareABCBlog by Bob Kohut.