New to this forum and would like to share some positive news
I have been caring for a close relation in his mid 50s with early stage dementia for some time now, I am also worried about the possibility of this being hereditary so I decided to do some research and try some of the suggestions out there, during the first 18 months we tried all the usual suggestions, puzzles, games, drawing, painting, memory tests, gardening, new diet and exercise these were enjoyable but the symptoms continued, we also tried the more challenging suggestions such as learning a new language and playing an instrument, we gave up on the language after a week this seemed to make him more frustrated especially as he had not been taught any languages as a child, learning to play a keyboard certainly created an interest and was a pleasant experience however none of the tunes were learnt all the way through to the end. Almost 6 months ago we were in a long (long then was 4 minutes) conversation about a place of work 30 years earlier, back in the 1980s, he talked rather patchy about a motorcycle he owned at the time a silver Yamaha 1100cc, he went on to chat about seeing the same bike a few years ago at motorcycle show, this got me thinking that it would be a good idea to write all these strong memories down, as this was a great way to stimulate the part of his memory that like many of us we rarely use, at first I bought a blank book and entered the details, but this became confusing and patchy, so then one evening when I was looking for a birthday present for a friend I came across a company in the UK that made personal memory diaries that you could purchase by the year/decade a person was born, when it arrived it also had pages for adding photographs which of course we had many, plus for every decade from the year he was born there were memory joggers to help you remember that moment in time, these were songs, artist, films, news events even prices all from that era, so for just a few minutes every few days we would sit and recollect moments from his past, sometimes just one liners ie day trip, relationship, holiday, new car etc, within a few weeks this was now becoming addictive, and he would be recalling moments from all periods of his life and then searching for photos to place in the book, Today we have filled almost all the diary and have over 30 photographs in it, although he still occasionally muddles words up and forgets were he is some days, overall I feel it has helped him and myself in many ways, he is far more alert, his day to day memory is much improved, he doesn't get depressed as before and now other family members have more to talk about with him, they now actually know more about his past than ever before.
Sites such as Alzheimers.org constantly refer to keeping Journals and writing but sadly this is not something sufferers are usually interested, so by making it fun and enjoyable his quality of life today has vastly improved. hope this helps.