Absolute codswallop

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.

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!

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

Brilliant feetlebaum!

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

I have nursed many people with dementia including academics, doctors, judges and ex leaders of industry.
I have also seen a film of a math genius whose MRI scan shows very little brain with a big void in the centre.
Again stupid incorrect research.

Try this for size you need to read all of it if you are to get the best from it, but pages 7-11 are most relevant.

I think people still do remember how to dance; my SIL dances a lot and some of their group have dementia and can still dance.
However, dancing does not prevent you from getting dementia if you apply that criterion

People with larger brains or who took more education are protected against dementia

Really? Really??
If I am reading that correctly, that statement has to be 100% false in my opinion.

No. 9. I doubt, and I dont see how it could be proved in any way in my opinion.

If you’re eating good things with a glass of wine and dancing to music, at the very least you’re enjoying life to the full now.

I dont like that as a sentence. Someone who is experiencing domestic abuse can be doing those things. I very much doubt that the person is enjoying life, let alone life to the full.

So if you get dementia you’ll continue to do that, because you’ve had lots of practice

Do they mean still enjoy life?? Still dance and eat good food and have a glass of wine??

annsixty I'm sorry to hear that and of course you didn't go wrong.

Don't drink too much. Don't get obese. Breastfeed all your children. Don't take HRT. Do exercise (and/or yoga). Make sure you come from a family that has no history of breast cancer and you will be fine.
Another load of codswallop.
As recent studies in the USA have shown, most of it is just down to chance.

My father never touched fish in his life, he hated it, oily or white. He didn't have a touch of dementia to the end of his days.

Surplus "his" in there!

To anyone who can find any merit at all or even partly condones this article, I can only say I personally find it distressing.
My DH is/was a FRICS and a Chief Officer with a very large MBC.
He played football and cricket into his 30's then took up squash and golf,the latter he played until his 70's .Healthy eating,loves red wine and has perfect blood pressure. Until we started the investigations which diagnosed his dementia his he hadn't been to the Dr for about 14 years so were did we go wrong? The answer of course is that we didn't go wrong.
Dementia can,and will, strike anywhere.

So, one woman dies of her cancer. Another one survives. Did the first woman not "fight" the disease?

I look at stuff like this article and if I'm interested I read it and if not (as in this instance) I think "Well, they have to find content for the website somewhere" (not always easy) and then I get on with my day. Life's too short - and so is my memory!

vegas I certainly get plenty of mental exercise working out where I was when I was last wearing my glasses. The most humiliating answer of course being that I have already got them on
jingl what are you getting so worked up about?
Yes the blog has limited value because we knew all that already, and it is written in a simplistic, if not patronising, tone.
But advising people how they might be able to reduce their risk of something is not at all the same thing as blaming them if they succumb.

Oh now I get your point jingl ...... it's the ridiculous notion that we are somehow responsible for the state of our own health? It was the bit about being obese and eating too much that gave me the clue.