Absolute codswallop

One tip (from a retired medical scientist) I have been given that evidently the blogger doesn't know about is: a daily banana can help to ward off dementia. Oh yes! Well, almost everything else has been mentioned at some time so why not bananas? My policy? A little (or even a lot) of what I fancy.

Brenda there are no absolutes. We all know someone, who against all odds, smoked 60 a day and lived to 100. Of course academics get dementia. But good research looks at large numbers (such as the Nurses Health Study with over 200,000 participants) over long periods (started 1976) and they spot trends in lifestyle and outcomes.

If you read the link I posted, which references dozens of studies, you will find it informative.

It was very interesting, I have passed it on to a friend who is having a fight with her Mum's care home over nutrition.

As for me - I have been advocating the Mediterranean diet for years, as that was what my mother and grandmother brought us up to eat. I felt very ill and slow on the preferred heavier diets of Ex and DBH, it took quite a fight to get them to accept garlic and olive oil and peppers and oily fish in such quantities but seeing my DCs cooking they way they do makes me very happy, knowing that I have given their nutrition a good start.

The trouble is, once you reach 80 or so (I'm not far off) getting dementia or Alzheimers is the least of your worries. I fact it would be nice to forget all the other aches pains and assorted health and practical problems.
What's the difference between the 2 by the way?

Dementia affects communication and performance of daily activities, and Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia that targets parts of the brain that control thought, memory and language. There are lots of different varieties. I've been reading up about it all for a friend in huge distress because her mother has it. Until you know which form the dementia takes it's hard to treat.

Dementia is a generic term for cognitive degenerative diseases. There are many of these eg Alzheimer's, vascular dementia etc. as Jane says.

Tricia you still feel pain if you have dementia.

Jane you've picked up on a good point. I've seen what some care homes feed their residents

In my, not inconsiderable, experience, most ballroom dancers look demented... for my sins, many and various, I used to play for ballroom sessions at the Empire, Leicester Square - and it attracted some truly extraordinary eccentrics; our girl singer had fan letters written in pencil in Friern Mental Hospital paper...

They were just as happy as if they were in their right minds.

Brilliant feetlebaum!

feetle On the occasions I have tried ballroom dancing I have looked demented, and so did the poor chap whose feet I was treading on

Feetle - as a student in the late 50s I had a holiday job at Friern Mental Hospital (oka Colney Hatch.) Brings back memories.
It was a very lively place, I had to accompany the patients to a dance once, don't ask!

My Mum was fit as a fiddle and out and about and eating healthily until she was struck down by Lewy Body Dementia at the age of 76; she died 4 years later - and not a moment too soon as she suffered so. It has a hereditary element to it apparently, so maybe my current ill health is the first sign - I hope not; and hope that my DDs do not succumb to it.

No-one knows the cause; we just have to hope it does not strike us.

I worked on a dementia unit for about 8 years and the patients came from all walks of life, were fat and thin, educated and uneducated, athletes and couch potatoes ......

It is a b*****d illness.