My 87 yr. old father was diagnosed with AD about three months ago. He
has not been his active self ever since, having become extremely
sedentary. The result has been extreme weakness to the point that he can
hardly stand up from the sitting, position, has to be bathed and
dressed. I feel this is not due to AD as he was diagnosed as suffering
from the beginning stages of AD, but rather from his continuous sitting
and sleeping day and night. I have designed a physical training program for him to avoid further atrophy.
He is doing wall assisted squats, bench press, arm raises, assisted
crunches and bent leg leg lifts from the supine position. He uses 3 lb.
dumbbells and is doing 1 set of 15 reps, trying to work up to 3 sets of
15 reps before increasing the weight. He also does a daily 30 min. walk.
He is under medication for arrhythmia, and we have noticed that after
the exercise his arrhythmia is present and after some rest it goes away.
Our questions are as follows:
Are there exercise guidelines for AD patients. Am I doing the right thing?
What about his apparent exercise induced arrhythmia? Should we stop
the exercise?
Thank you. Jose A.
Gonzalez--------------------------------------------

Just found this site and read through your posting. My mother is 83 and was diagnosed with AD 4 years ago. Up to this point she had always been extremely active and interested in lots of things. She immediately quit doing many of her favorite things and the only physical activity that she'd do was walk, and only by herself. She feared that people might find out that she had alzheimer's and didn't want to embarass herself. Her overall attitude about life was poor. Her neurologist put her on a lose dose anti-depressant, which has perked her up tremendously. Your dad may have decided to just give up and be depressed. Might not hurt to get him checked out. Elder depression is a big problem that I hadn't known much about. As far as exercise workouts, you might check with his doctor or a sports medicine doctor for ideas.