Misleading media articles or am I just a bit sensitive?!?!

Max68

Registered User
Aug 21, 2018
178
0
Sussex
Very good points indeed, I am glad I'm not over sensitive!! I am for my sins a smoker and as said above the egg and chips king and I certainly won't change despite the "risks". After seeing dad drop dead on a golf course at 58 I won't rely on broccoli and beetroot for a long life - mainly because I can't stand the stuff!!! ;-) I'd rather enjoy what I like and if I pop my clogs 10 years earlier than I would then that's the way it is because there is no guarantees that I'd get those extra 10 years anyway even if I turned Vegan!! ;););)
 

RosettaT

Registered User
Sep 9, 2018
866
0
Mid Lincs
I get very upset when news items mention keeping active & living healthily all prevents dementia, if that were correct my OH wouldn't have it.
He worked two jobs, walked 3-5 miles every day, hardly ever sat still, he would always be doing something be it decorating, tiding the garage, gardening whatever. He never smoked, drank only in moderation and rarely ate junk food.
I think canary is correct when she states the general population get the impression dementia could well be self inflicted.
 

annielou

Registered User
Sep 27, 2019
1,917
0
Yorkshire
My mum thinks her memory has gone because she hadn't been going out much, or talking to many people lately. She thought it was just old age and loneliness that was her problem. The Dr at memory clinic told her though her alzheimers has only been showing symptoms over last couple of years she had it around 10-15 years earlier. At that time mum was working and chatting to people at work and home.
She has always done lots of crosswords and puzzles and read loads of books magazines and newspapers which she struggles with those things now. She also used to watch quite a few quiz programmes and knew lots of the answers. She was quite good at school and when her and my dad split up in her early 40s and she had to get a job she picked it up quickly.
She didn't eat particulatly healthy and didnt get much exercise apart from walking around work and shopping etc and she was a smoker until about 12 year or so ago.
Her mum died when she was around 50 year old due to asthma related breathing problems and her dad left when she was very young so have no idea if either had any dementia but she has two brothers, one has dementia and the other parkinsons disease.
Is it due to not keeping her mind active? I think it was quite active, Is it due to her not being healthy? maybe. Is it due to her genes? also maybe.
Is it a bit of a lottery? Who knows, hopefully one day we all will.
 

Dimpsy

Registered User
Sep 2, 2019
1,906
0
I think there is also a problem with attributing cause and effect. There's no point really in saying, 'my PWD was a genius and did puzzles everyday but he still got dementia, so there is no link to intelligence.' There are just too many factors involved - known and unknown - to draw that conclusion.

Analogy: a soldier standing to attention on a sunny day suddenly faints - at the exact moment a magpie flies over his head. Did the magpie cause the soldier to faint? Perhaps he'd just been standing in the sun too long and was overheated. Or maybe dehydrated. Or maybe fumes from the hot tarmac were to blame? Or perhaps the soldier had an underlying medical condition. Or maybe he'd missed breakfast that morning or had a heavy drinking session the night before.

The point is we don't know. The reason could be one, some, all or none of the above. Even careful analysis of the situation afterwards may not provide any 'proof', neither will it tell us how other soldiers can prevent fainting in the future.

My money's on the magpie...

Would he have fainted if two magpies had flown over?
Hhhhhhmm
 

Dimpsy

Registered User
Sep 2, 2019
1,906
0
Did anyone hear on the BBC Vanessa Feltz radio show this morning; she reported on a report (!) that olive oil can stave off dementia and general mental decline.
Pass me the oil bottle for my cornflakes someone!
 

Splashing About

Registered User
Oct 20, 2019
434
0
I’m just staggered that any of you believe anything you read in a newspaper.... :D

Genetics and lifestyle & environment and bad luck contribute to health is my opinion. In that order. I work in the field of health and occasionally see people with healthy lifestyles seriously affected by lifestyle related illness e.g. cardiovascular. More commonly however I see people who’s lifestyle is exactly against advice and they do have have cardiovascular issues even if unaware of them. So I do directly see a link. Having witnessed my mum’s dementia I hope to go with a cardiac event. Cream tea anyone?
 

Dimpsy

Registered User
Sep 2, 2019
1,906
0
I’m just staggered that any of you believe anything you read in a newspaper.... :D

Genetics and lifestyle & environment and bad luck contribute to health is my opinion. In that order. I work in the field of health and occasionally see people with healthy lifestyles seriously affected by lifestyle related illness e.g. cardiovascular. More commonly however I see people who’s lifestyle is exactly against advice and they do have have cardiovascular issues even if unaware of them. So I do directly see a link. Having witnessed my mum’s dementia I hope to go with a cardiac event. Cream tea anyone?

We don't!
 

Palerider

Registered User
Aug 9, 2015
4,159
0
56
North West
I thought people might find the following article a useful read on prevention, published this year in June. I personally don't have an issue if a way forward can be found, but there are significant problems with dementia. A healthy lifestyle, keeping active and a good diet may stem off vascular elements of dementia, but this won't work for all types:

“The global number of people living with dementia is expected to increase to 130 million in 2050. Based on extensive evidence from observational studies, it is estimated that about 30% of dementia cases may be attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors. This suggests that interventions targeting these factors could perhaps delay or prevent the onset of dementia. Since the vast majority of people with dementia live in low- and middle-income countries, such interventions should preferably be easy and affordable to implement across a wide range of health care systems. However, to date, results from dementia prevention trials do not provide convincing evidence that treatment of these risk factors reduces the risk of dementia.”​


Quoted from: EGGINK, E., MOLL VAN CHARANTE, E. P., VAN GOOL, W. A. & RICHARD, E. (2019). A Population Perspective on Prevention of Dementia. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 8 (6), p.834.

Its worth reading this article as it works through recent approaches at prevention and delaying dementia, the link is given below and is a free view article

 
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Jaded'n'faded

Registered User
Jan 23, 2019
5,248
0
High Peak
I thought people might find the following article a useful read on prevention, published this year in June. I personally don't have an issue if a way forward can be found, but there are significant problems with dementia. A healthy lifestyle, keeping active and a good diet may stem off vascular elements of dementia, but this won't work for all types:

“The global number of people living with dementia is expected to increase to 130 million in 2050. Based on extensive evidence from observational studies, it is estimated that about 30% of dementia cases may be attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors. This suggests that interventions targeting these factors could perhaps delay or prevent the onset of dementia. Since the vast majority of people with dementia live in low- and middle-income countries, such interventions should preferably be easy and affordable to implement across a wide range of health care systems. However, to date, results from dementia prevention trials do not provide convincing evidence that treatment of these risk factors reduces the risk of dementia.”​


Quoted from: EGGINK, E., MOLL VAN CHARANTE, E. P., VAN GOOL, W. A. & RICHARD, E. (2019). A Population Perspective on Prevention of Dementia. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 8 (6), p.834.

Its worth reading this article as it works through recent approaches at prevention and delaying dementia, the link is given below and is a free view article

Crikey, that's depressing. The general conclusion seems to be that although various risk factors for dementia have been identified, reducing these risks individually (or jointly) does NOT seem to reduce the incidence of dementia!

Which makes me think, are we missing something? I think this statement is particularly telling:

Age is the most important risk factor for dementia. Starting at the age of 60, the incidence of dementia doubles with every 6.3 years increase in age.


... and equally depressing! But isn't that the same for all bits of our bodies to an extent? None of our other organs work as well after we get to 60/70/80 so why should our brains be any different?

So we can all live our healthy, active lives and live to a ripe old age. But our dementia risk still goes up and up :(

Disclaimer: as well as being Jaded'n'Faded I will hit 60 in a couple of weeks. And my mum died a few weeks ago so I'm feeling particularly aware of my mortality right now.
 

Chrissie B

Registered User
Jan 15, 2019
97
0
North Yorkshire
Palerider, I love it. I had to stop for a while though, because I got to the bit which mentions dementia prevention trials. The thing that comes to my rather befuddled mind here, is how can you set a trial for things that prevent dementia, and I have to laugh about it. I will give you a scenario for this, which is true.

My grandmother believed everything the tabloids said to her, to such an extent, that when we, her grandchildren would look forward to her latest newspaper read, so that we could make fun of it. One example was that she read in a tabloid that if you were stung by stinging nettles it would cure arthritis. We were walking with my grandmother through the Black Forrest wanderweg, and every time my grandmother came across some stinging nettles she would pick some and brush some against her bare arms, and consequently have lots of painful stings on her arms, but she persisted because she had read that the stinging nettles would cure her arthritis.
Just in case anyone wondered if this worked, I need to now disappoint you, her arthritis did not improve.
However, she died in her mid-nineties, without one single symptom of dimentia. When she was ninety she decided to go to evening classes and took English Lessons, and she did actually learn some English, although not to the standard where she was fluent, but she could at least speak some English.

My question now is, would this be classed as a Dementia Prevention Trial, and if it was, would the result of lack of Dementia be due to believing everything you read in a newspaper, or would it be due to stinging yourself purposefully every day for 3 months with stinging nettles.
 

Max68

Registered User
Aug 21, 2018
178
0
Sussex
Mum has vascular dementia and yet as I said earlier played golf most days until about 3 years ago, ate well, did crosswords and puzzles and was an engineer in earlier life and a cracking mathematician so always used her brain. Her vices were a bag of crisps and liked the odd glass of red wine but nothing over the top. She however said that she had always suffered bad circulation and had atrial fibrillation but had been on warfarin, blood pressure meds and statins etc for a while, so was doing everything "correctly".

She was 82 last year when we started to see that things weren't right but at the same time her sister died last year after suffering dementia for 10 years so she was around 72 when she was diagnosed. I'm not sure how mum's sister lived, but I do know she was quite a big drinker. So did mum doing the "right things" delay the inevitable for an extra 10 years, or was dementia brought on by all the pills, blood thinners and drugs, or without those drugs would she have died of a heart attack in her 60's like her mother? I guess we will never know...
 

Chrissie B

Registered User
Jan 15, 2019
97
0
North Yorkshire
Well I sat through all the meetings my mother had when she voluntarily went to get her memory tested, as she suspected she had Alzheimer's. When I sat with her she was asked a series of questions, some she could answer, and some she could not answer. She answered more questions than I knew the answer too, but after following this thread, I am no longer worried that I may have the same problem.
I don't do sports or crosswords or maths, only read sometimes, and work in a minimum wage job, which I enjoy, because it's not too taxing, although I do sometimes phase out sometimes whilst working, and just lately make some completely dumb mistakes when it happens. It's like brain freeze periods. I think if I was super intelligent I would worry about it. Instead, I just have my phone and google home and Echo tell me everyday what the day it, and if i should be at work that day.
It's tough, but perhaps ignorance can be bliss.
 

Chrissie B

Registered User
Jan 15, 2019
97
0
North Yorkshire
I am one of 500,000 people who are took up an invitation from UK Biobank to take part in medical research. We had an initial appointment where they took a medical history, blood samples and so on. Medical researchers can access our data and, if necessary, ask us to undergo further tests. I spent half a day having MRI scans and doing online tests for a study on dementia and other conditions. I don't get my results but they do contribute to medical knowledge. For further details see: https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/how-is-uk-biobank-tackling-dementia/ (Scroll down the page)
That's really interesting. Had a read. My sister went to get diagnosed from her GP. Failed nearly all the questions asked, but was assured from the nurse outside that she shouldn't worry, since nearly everyone fails the questions.
At the moment I'm battling with Social Services to help with my mother, since I'm not certain what to do about most of this, but have found loads of information from people who have gone through all the stages on this forum, which is kind of my sword. I have to stay away from seeking any kind of diagnosis until I have completed looking after my mother. Once done, I will then decide if I'm going to do anything unless it interferes with working. I know in theory work shouldn't sack me if I came up with a negative result, but then again, Social Services shouldn't legally refuse a needs assessment for my mother based on her savings,but if it comes down to it, no-one is actually going to challenge these laws because there are no consequences if anyone does choose to ignore them.
 

andreasss86

Registered User
Dec 10, 2019
17
0
I thought people might find the following article a useful read on prevention, published this year in June. I personally don't have an issue if a way forward can be found, but there are significant problems with dementia. A healthy lifestyle, keeping active and a good diet may stem off vascular elements of dementia, but this won't work for all types:

“The global number of people living with dementia is expected to increase to 130 million in 2050. Based on extensive evidence from observational studies, it is estimated that about 30% of dementia cases may be attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors. This suggests that interventions targeting these factors could perhaps delay or prevent the onset of dementia. Since the vast majority of people with dementia live in low- and middle-income countries, such interventions should preferably be easy and affordable to implement across a wide range of health care systems. However, to date, results from dementia prevention trials do not provide convincing evidence that treatment of these risk factors reduces the risk of dementia.”​


Quoted from: EGGINK, E., MOLL VAN CHARANTE, E. P., VAN GOOL, W. A. & RICHARD, E. (2019). A Population Perspective on Prevention of Dementia. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 8 (6), p.834.

Its worth reading this article as it works through recent approaches at prevention and delaying dementia, the link is given below and is a free view article

That is so useful!! Thank you.
 

kindred

Registered User
Apr 8, 2018
2,935
0
Palerider, I love it. I had to stop for a while though, because I got to the bit which mentions dementia prevention trials. The thing that comes to my rather befuddled mind here, is how can you set a trial for things that prevent dementia, and I have to laugh about it. I will give you a scenario for this, which is true.

My grandmother believed everything the tabloids said to her, to such an extent, that when we, her grandchildren would look forward to her latest newspaper read, so that we could make fun of it. One example was that she read in a tabloid that if you were stung by stinging nettles it would cure arthritis. We were walking with my grandmother through the Black Forrest wanderweg, and every time my grandmother came across some stinging nettles she would pick some and brush some against her bare arms, and consequently have lots of painful stings on her arms, but she persisted because she had read that the stinging nettles would cure her arthritis.
Just in case anyone wondered if this worked, I need to now disappoint you, her arthritis did not improve.
However, she died in her mid-nineties, without one single symptom of dimentia. When she was ninety she decided to go to evening classes and took English Lessons, and she did actually learn some English, although not to the standard where she was fluent, but she could at least speak some English.

My question now is, would this be classed as a Dementia Prevention Trial, and if it was, would the result of lack of Dementia be due to believing everything you read in a newspaper, or would it be due to stinging yourself purposefully every day for 3 months with stinging nettles.
Ah, now this is interesting. In my other life I am a wildlife expert and undertook a 10 year study of wood ants in the Cotswolds where some of their nests are six feet high. In Victorian times, a cure for arthritis was said to be to thrust your arms into a wood ants nest, whereupon they would fire masses of stings (formic acid) into you. People would queue to do this. I know from one or two stings when I got an ant down my jumper just how painful they can be. BUT apparently people did claim this worked … Not that I can see how to apply this to dementia ...
warmest, Kindred.
 

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