Dementia Awareness Month

September 2021

In the 7 minutes it takes to read this article, around the world, about 140 people will be newly diagnosed with dementia. Every three seconds another person is diagnosed. The number of people grows each day and each year. It’s a huge challenge for humankind and it’s only getting bigger.

If you are someone diagnosed with dementia, or you care for someone on their journey

- You are not alone.

Yet why can it feel so lonely?

Loneliness is a multidimensional factor when it comes to dementia:

The person on their journey with dementia experiences it. Though sometimes surrounded by people, individuals with dementia can still feel so alone.
It appears it is the feeling of loneliness, and not actual social isolation, that can contribute to the development of dementia itself.
The loved ones around them feel it themselves, and they feel for the person they love as they witness loneliness creeping in.
It is one of the most commonly reported concerns that care workers have for the individuals they care for, 24 hours a day, in residential care facilities.
Loneliness and isolation are known to accelerate deterioration of cognition and mood.
International, national, and local restrictions have imposed a layer of protective isolation that is both broadcast and obvious, and hidden and complex.

Photo by eberhard 🖐 grossgasteiger on Unsplash

So, what can we do?

Overcoming loneliness when it comes to dementia takes an innovative and active village or community of others. We need to really ‘think outside the box’ when it comes to how to maintain meaningful and beneficial contact during this uncertain time.

Given this chance to mind-map ideas with you, we figured that, while we are working on doing things differently in this world, why not throw in an inspiring layer of ideas to help you better combat the factors that contribute both to getting worse with dementia and increase the risk of getting dementia in the first place.

Why not? Doing these things right could benefit both the person with a diagnosis of dementia and the future of the whole village.

OK. What can the village try to do differently for dementia?

We can:

Get connected
Brain bend
Walk the walk
Catch some zzz’s
Take it easy
Eat up

Sounds pretty sweet. Let’s go global village!

Get connected

Essentially people need to be together to thrive, we are social beings, our brains are wired to connect and think socially.

How could we better connect with each other, especially with individuals with dementia?

Visit someone with dementia with the intention of really being there for the right amount of time. Stay for a cuppa, everyone is more likely to talk if you do.
Use technology to your advantage, put in the extra effort to set something up if you can’t physically be with the person but someone else can. We can see, talk, and laugh with one another on tablets and computers with big screens these days.
Do social things together. Take the time to organise together how to best include and involve family members with dementia in family events. Often ‘it’d be easier if…’ tends to work out best for those without the challenges.
Keep doing the everyday life things together if you can – banking, shopping, post, chemist, library, or local café. It’s easy to overlook the importance of the relationships your loved one has with the people they visit for these services.
Find out when your loved one goes to activities and ask to go with them and stay – maybe you’ll learn something…like how to crochet, cryptic crossword clues, a bit of home-grown wisdom, and a little history.

Think about your own close social connections. Who they are and how you nurture these relationships just may be the secret to a long and happy life. In what may be the world’s longest study of adult human life conducted by Harvard, over 75 years now, the clearest message is brain functioning declines sooner in people who are isolated and lonely. As researcher, Robert Waldinger, says in his TedX talk about this study - ‘Having good relationships keep us happier and healthier’.

Brain bend

An interesting way to integrate this idea is to try to learn something new together. It could be as creative and beautiful as what artist, Toni Luciani, did on his photographic journey through dementia with his Mum:

What a magnificent memoir can be created while actively loving learning together.

Moderate and high levels of mentally challenging activity in mid-life are neuroprotective – they protect your brain from damage. A high level of activity can reduce your risk of dementia by 46%.

A moderate activity level would be, consistently, for longer than 6 months, doing things like:

reading interesting books
doing – art, crafts, hobbies, playing instruments, gardening
regularly attending the theatre or exhibitions
being a member of a club, and
engaging in spiritually nurturing activity at least once a month

A high level of the same activities would be:

reading with the purpose of in-depth knowledge or research, and writing as well
mastering an art, craft, skill, instrument, gardening project
active level of engagement and participation in the arts
being on the board of the club you’re a member of
engaging in spiritually nurturing activity at least once a week

Do you know where you’re at right now cognitively?

Advances in technology have led to increased accessibility of preventative health assessments that recognise both the significance of family history and the power of making the right changes now to minimise risk in the future.

The amyloid-beta plaques, tau proteins and neurofibrillary tangles that are the hallmarks of the most common form of dementia, with strong links to Family history - Alzheimer’s - can be seen to dramatically change up to 15 years before you see any symptoms. So, if you develop the start of symptoms at 70 years old, the brain changes may have started when you were 55.

Functional neuroimaging, like QEEG, can detect increased slow wave activity – that is often the case with Alzheimer’s Disease. These brain scans can also guide proactive approaches to cognitive health overall.

Walk the walk

Get out and about together. Try these tips:

If you’re doing something else, like shopping or playing with the grandies, it doesn’t really feel like exercise.
Social dancing is great fun, sparks memories, and is also the perfect harmony of movement and challenge for the brain. Research into leisure activities suggests frequent dancing can reduce dementia risk by 76%.
If your loved one with dementia can’t walk too far, just do what you can together more often, it is never too late to start.
If they are wheelchair bound, get outside, change perspective in the fresh air and just hand dance in the breeze to their favourite music.

While you’re moving out in the sunshine turn the light on how much you are really exercising. It is remarkably motivating to know that in a Swedish study, with follow-up over 44 years, a high level of physical fitness in women in middle age was associated with an 88% reduction in risk of developing dementia. Even those in the study who did develop dementia after having a high level of physical fitness, they developed it on average 11 years later than women who were moderately fit.

Catch some zzz’s

Sleep can be the 33.33% of our lives we think its ok to put off, sacrifice or ‘get over’ when it’s not good. We can’t though. Terrible sleep is bad for us in so many ways, and it is known to be both a contributing factor in the development of dementia and the worsening of symptoms.

How can we work on why our sleep is bad and make it better?

Overnight sleep studies can help to identify sleep apnoea and other sleep problems. Using your PAP device properly, if recommended, significantly reduces your risk of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease.
It takes the right brain waves at the right time to drift off into deep sleep. If your brain is producing too much fast activity, like it can with anxiety, it can be hard to wind down and produce the slow and very slow brain waves associated with sleep. You can find out more about what your brain waves are up to through QEEG brain scans.
Check in with an informative sleep monitoring app. We don’t want to sleep too little or too much. Midlife insomnia increases dementia risk and older adults that are sleeping for longer than 9 hours also have an increased risk.
Sleep hygiene is important at any age and in any environment. It can be particularly hard sleeping in shared rooms with nightly disturbances. What practical habits or bedroom changes could you try to better get to sleep and stay asleep?

Take it easy

Give yourself permission to chill out, you need to, you could live longer with a healthier brain if you do.

Try some simple relaxation tips together:

Play personal uplifting music that is highly familiar to the person with dementia. Sing, hum, and sway along. Music can be the magic that helps you see how alive we are inside.
If you and your loved one are close and are comfortable sitting side by side, try synchronised breathing. This is where you slow down your own breathing with long inhales and exhales. Humans innately mirror the other people they are with. Even as dementia advances this ability to tune in and reflect each other remains.
Look each other in the eye and smile. Bring a joke book, watch a funny movie, clown-around, have a laugh. It’s a sweet remedy.
Get out in the sunshine and spend time somewhere green. It’s as simple as watching the grass grow or the breeze blow. Where green environments and dementia care are combined quality of life improves.
If you have a pet with the right disposition a snuggle and a pat can provide comfort, while reducing feelings of loneliness and depression. A cat’s purr is known to work wonders. Even fish tanks in aged care have been known to improve nutrition.

Eat up

There are three ‘diets’ that are particularly good for bodies and brains, these are: the Med; MIND and DASH diets. The basic elements of these diets have significant overlap. Importantly there are benefits of connecting through food.

Eating together is a key component of the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle, a part that shouldn’t be ignored. Dining together may help boost self-esteem and lower our risk of depression. We tend to make better choices and bond over the pleasure of food which is good for our mood.

How can you eat more of these foods and help someone you care for with dementia eat more of them too?

When you make your favourite foods can you challenge yourself to get as many vegetables into the dish as you can, as if it’s a competition – maximum veg wins?
Then can you start to experiment with replacing meat proteins with plant proteins?
Replace some red meat meals for seafood meals each week.
Could you choose to snack on berries and nuts, instead of bikkies and chips?
Individuals living in Residential Aged Care are encouraged to attend the Resident Meetings or have conversations about food with the Management Team. The facility will have a consultant nutritionist and it is useful for them to have feedback from many voices.

We are in this together, we have to be, and there is a lot we can do in innovative and different ways. We can be less lonely and manage the risk factors for dementia all in one. Almost everything on these lists, we can do with others, they are everyday ways of connecting and combating loneliness too.

This month for dementia awareness, Alzheimer’s WA has a list of local events and practical ways that the village can get involved. ‘Together we can ensure no one faces dementia alone’.

Should these ideas have you thinking more about the brain health of your multigenerational Family, The Perth Brain Centre is available to help. You can watch, read, call or email, to find out more today.

About the author - Ms. Emily Goss (Occupational Therapist, Senior Clinician, The Perth Brain Centre).

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