I believe that most of us have read about the rising incidence of dementia.
Dementia is a loss of brain function that occurs with certain diseases. It affects memory, thinking, language, judgment,
and behavior. Most types of dementia are nonreversible (degenerative). Dementia
symptoms include difficulty with many areas of mental function, including:
- Language
- Memory
- Perception
- Emotional
behavior or personality - Cognitive skills
(such as calculation, abstract thinking, or judgment)
Dementia usually first appears as
forgetfulness.
There is growing evidence that some kinds of mental exercises can help slow down dementia. To this end, I
am contemplating developing a series of mental exercises which may be used
hopefully to help slow the effect of dementia.
I have a series of mental
exercises which help children improve their learning abilities , you may want
to visit www.mindmax.com.sg to know a little more. I intend to modify certain portions of the training protocol to
suit senior citizens who may worry about the onset of dementia.
What I have in mind is not something commercial, but a social outreach—with trainers (SHC members) going
down to centres or elderly groups to train the centre helpers to run these programs.
So, it remains for me to size up how many SHCian are interested to do such
social outreach programs.
James
Hi James
Like you, I am rather concern about the prevalence of Dementia as age develops.
Do include me if you have such a social outreach.
LS
Personally, I was never concerned about dementia, until I started reading about the illness. Then recently, Steven Ng started to indicate that I have pre-dementia tendencies.
Recently, I began to experience difficulties remembering members’ names. A few seconds later, the names came back. Well, I am no expert in dementia. It’s the doctors, journalists and SHC members that make me more worried about Dementia.
If you have some knowledge or experience with people having dementia, I have a question for you. Is Dementia reversible, in other words, if someone has dementia, can this be treated with games, playing sudoku, learning a language or playing a musical instrument. Your good advice will help me live another 20 years.
Terence Seah
My mother was diagnosis with dementia about three years ago. According to the Geriatrician, you can only slow down the deterioration of dementia through medication and exercises. Currently dementia is irreversible however there may be a cure few years down the road since there are substantial fundings to find a cure.
We spent almost $1k a month for my mother’s medication and attendances at the day care centre (3 times a week) excluding the employment of a maid to take care of her daily needs.
Try to be active mentally and physically as it will slow down any onset of dementia — that’s the advice of the Geriatrician which my mum has to visit once every three months.
Yes, I agree with Steven. However, medication are given at a last resort, and often due to some neuro-problem.
The trick is to start before dementia sets in, which most of us are just over confident that we are still ok.
Physical exercises are usually the neuro-motor type, which help you coordinate better. Mental exercises are the one our kids do in school – concentration, recall, mental calculation,sustaining attention etc. This work up our brain to keep it in tune.
Hi James,
Just read your article on Dementia and please do include me if you have such a social outreach programme in the near future. Its a great idea and I hope it will be able to get off the ground soon.