New Newsletter Contest update!
Beginning now there will be a newsletter contest and all lodges will be eligible to win!
Simply insert the exact statement; “Lodge name– Supports a Dementia Friendly Society” as a permanent part of your lodge newsletter’s masthead.
Submit your newsletters to me, Dirk Hansen Submissions will be judged on prominence and overall appearance. A $100 donation will be made to the 3rd District Charitable Trust in the winning Lodge Editors name. Sorry, Southern Star is not eligible even though they have already begun to do this.
I am happy to report that this has really caught on. So much so that it will be extremely difficult to choose a winner. Helpful Hint: To win it will take more that just displaying the declaration-it needs to really “pop”. Be sure to email me your entries. Yes I do read them. ED
On Sunday, October 16, 2022 Norrona Lodge 3-467
will be participating in its 3rd annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s at Clover Stadium ( home of the NY Boulders) 1 Palisades Credit Union Park Drive, Pomona, NY 10970.
This beautiful minor league baseball stadium is located in Rockland County. Norrona Lodge would like to encourage neighboring lodges and all members and friends of Sons of Norway to join us. Wear something Norwegian or bring your Norwegian flags so we can stand out as a group. All funds raised will further the care, support and research efforts of the Alzheimer’s Association. The Alzheimer’s Association is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization and donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law. Please use the attached donation form or contact Kaare Hansen for more information at 914-424-5831
In November, Norskevenner Lodge 3-678
We will be walking in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s which will take place in the Atlanta metro area on Saturday, November 5, 2022. The location is: The Battery at Truist Park 800 Battery Avenue SE Atlanta, GA 30339. Bill Browning, Zone 7 Director, created a walk team for Norskevenner Lodge. With this link, potential walkers/donors can either join the team and walk with Norskevenner lodge or can donate to the Alzheimer’s Association in Norskevenner lodge’s name. Click here to view.
For older adults at risk of dementia, regular exercise from light stretching to rigorous aerobics can help slow memory and thinking decline, a new study shows.
Alzheimer’s researchers said the findings are from a late-stage trial measuring exercise as a potential remedy for people with mild cognitive decline. And they described it as a new avenue to attack a neurodegenerative disease that for decades has stymied researchers and pharmaceutical companies.
Drug companies have focused on a theory that Alzheimer’s is triggered by amyloid beta plaques in patients’ brains, but drugs targeting amyloid have failed to slow the mind-robbing disease that afflicts 5.8 million Americans.
Maria Carrillo, chief science officer of the Alzheimer’s Association, said the exercise study fits a broader, multifaceted strategy to attack the disease with both drugs and behavioral changes.
“There’s just more understanding of the underlying biology and what potential treatments can impact the disease, which actually includes exercise,” said Carrillo.
A research team from Wake Forest School of Medicine recruited people who lived sedentary lifestyles and assigned them to two groups. One group regularly engaged in moderate to high-intensity aerobic exercise while a second group did less rigorous exercises.
Laura Baker, a Wake Forest University School of Medicine professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine, said she’s encouraged by her study’s findings that exercise benefitted both groups – older adults who did more rigorous aerobics and those who did less strenuous exercise. The study’s results were presented earlier this month at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.
“The results are exciting to me,” Baker said. “If it was only the high-intensity exercise that was protective it would be very difficult to roll out and make it sustainable. It’s just too hard.”
The Wake Forest team recruited 296 people with memory problems who lived sedentary lifestyles and randomly assigned them to two groups. One group regularly exercised with moderate to high-intensity aerobics. A second group completed less rigorous stretching, balance and range-of-motion exercises. Study participants were paired with YMCA trainers.
All participants had mild cognitive impairment, which is when memory and thinking worsen beyond normal aging but not enough to be diagnosed with dementia.
Participants exercised four days each week for 30 minutes or more. They were evaluated using a cognitive test store at the beginning of the study, at six months and at 12 months.
Participants’ memory and thinking scores, as measured by a cognitive test, did not slip over the 12 months. Baker expected the more rigorous aerobic group would perform better, but the test scores showed both groups maintained similar levels over the year.
“We really did expect the high-intensity group to have more protection,” she said.
The study did not include a placebo group because researchers thought it would be unethical to withhold something potentially beneficial, Baker said. Instead, researchers found a comparable group from another study called the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. The comparison group, which included people of similar age, education and genetic risk, showed a significant cognitive decline over 12 months, Baker said.
Baker’s conclusion: Sedentary adults at risk of dementia can prevent or slow cognitive decline if they exercise regularly with supervised support. Having someone to help older adults exercise – or just providing social interaction – is critically important, Baker said.
“If that exercise does not include regular support, I have no confidence that they’re going to see (cognitive) protection,” Baker said.
She said there are caveats to the study. It did not answer whether regular exercise helps all older adults prevent or delay cognitive decline expected with normal aging. Nor did it evaluate whether regular movement can help those diagnosed with dementia.
While high-profile studies of drugs targeting amyloid beta protein that builds up in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients have commanded most of the headlines, experts are studying other targets for the neurodegenerative disease.
In an article published this week in the medical journal JAMA, a National Institute on Aging official said only 13 of 61 early- or midstage clinical trials funded by the agency involve therapies that target amyloid.
Another target is the protein tau, which forms tangles in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Researchers at Washington University are studying a combination of drugs targeting both tau and amyloid.
Other potential targets focus on inflammation, vascular and microglia, immune cells of the central nervous system that might perform a protective role.
Dr. John Hardy, a London geneticist who first described the amyloid cascade hypothesis three decades ago, said he still believes an amyloid-targeting drug will show a clear clinical benefit. But he’s also interested in the role of microglia, which may play a role in clearing amyloid.
“I’m optimistic an amyloid drug will be the first out of the box,” Hardy said. “And then we’ll be looking at other types of drugs, which, for example, go for tau or go for the microglia and inflammation. We’re going to be adding those to the cocktail.”
Federal agencies and pharmaceutical companies have invested hundreds of millions in amyloid drugs. Only one amyloid-targeting drug, Biogen’s Aduhelm, has gained Food and Drug Administration approval for people with mild forms of the disease.
Sons of Norway Foundation News release from Jon Tehven
I bring you greetings from the Sons of Norway Foundation Board of Governors. With this greeting comes a huge ‘thank you’ for making our ‘Together We Are The Future’ so successful in 2020 and in 2021. But, before we get to the recap of past years, let’s look at 2022.
We begin our 2022 ‘Together We Are The Future’ campaign in October – Foundation Month – and it will continue through January 15, 2023. Why into 2023? To allow for IRA contributions.
Here are our goals:
Lodges and members will donate $175,000.
This represents an increase of 10% in the number of lodges and members donating.
What can you do?
Dedicate October as ‘Foundation Month’ and share the success of our Foundation.
Celebrate any grants and scholarships your lodge has received in the past . . . or present.
Encourage your lodge and members to join all the SON members by making a donation, thus ensuring the future of our Foundation.
What will the Foundation do?
Have a Foundation article in the October Viking Magazine about the ‘Together . . . ‘ campaign, and
Include an envelope for you to make your donation.
Send periodic reports on our success to our lodges.
So, how has our District benefited from the Foundation?
District 3 Lodge grants in 2020 were $2,900 and scholarships were $5,400.
District 3 Lodge grants in 2021 were $2,000 and scholarships were $10,800.
District 3 Lodge grants in 2022 were $6,030 and scholarships were $18,500.
In 2021, 137 SON lodges donated $68,657. In District 3, 22 lodges donated $4,000.
Here is a brief ‘Together We Are The Future’ recap:
In 2020 our goal was $100,000. Our lodges and members donated $137,000.
In 2021 our goal was $150,000. Our lodges and members donated $164,607.
And how have our lodges and members benefited:
Lodge grants in 2020 were $27,330 and scholarships were $119,012.
Lodge grants in 2021 were $30,990 and scholarships were $119,767.
Lodge grants in 2022 are $33,329 and scholarships are $140,000.
Remember . . . the Foundation is here for you . . . and it is here for good!