Mad Men Tackles Dementia

As an avid fan of Mad Men, and an elder law attorney, the way the show dealt with one of the character’s senility brought the show right into the present. Back in the ‘60s, so many women were stay at home mothers. When a parent, or an -in-law started needing more help, it was these… Read More »

Elder Law: It's about people, not just money.

Sometimes when attorneys talk about elder law and Medicaid planning, they get caught up in the technical details of the various rules and strategies: Medicaid planning trusts; the look-back period, spend-down plans, the half-a-loaf strategy, the penalty period, and on and on. It’s easy to forget sometimes that we’re talking about human beings — people… Read More »

Does Size Matter?

Does the size of your brain predict the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease?  One study released December 2011 in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, finds that smaller brain size has a high correlation with the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.    Technically, the researchers found that the thickness of regions of… Read More »

The Real Reason You Should Have Paid Attention in High School French

  In a recent interview in the New York Times Science Section, cognitive neuroscientist Ellen Bialystock was interviewed about recent studies that have found that being bilingual delays the onset of Alzheimer’s symptoms by an average of five to six years. Unfortunately, the occasional use of a second language does not qualify for bilingualism.  The… Read More »