All you need to know about Alzheimers & Dementia: SUNDAY MIRROR
Alzheimer? How will it feel if you forget your identity? How would you feel if all your memory vanished piece by piece! How would you feel if you forgot your way to the bathroom? It’s called dementia. There are several types of dementia. And Alzheimer’s is the most common. First, we must know what this disease is and how it affects people. It’s a very very common disease and in the next 30 years, it will be more common than heart disease. Around half of the old people worldwide will suffer from it in the next 30 years.
Now we will know why it occurs. It is a very slow disease. It progresses for years. The disease slowly eats away the brain, bit by bit. First, it starts wasting the temporal lobe. It’s the part of the brain which helps in memory. Then it attacks other areas of the brain. As with other brain diseases, it also has some causes. Increasing age is the first risk factor. Which we can’t stop. However other risk factors can be modified. The unhealthy lifestyle and social inertness are also primary factors.
Now as it is a slow disease, it gives time for us to react and prevent it. If someone is going to have it, then the process starts in the early forty. First, we use the term mild cognitive impairment. It’s just the start of a hazardous disease. And those having this will go to Alzheimer’s in years. And almost always it starts with memory loss of recent events. It’s like those people will misplace their personal belongings and will search. It will occur every day. And then the disease slowly progresses. It’s a blessing that the disease takes years to start. After the disease starts other features like forgetting names, change in personality, change in behavior, and forgetting path will occur.
Then as it’s a very dangerous disease, we must prevent it. And it’s very easy. We have to change our unhealthy lifestyle. We have to be happy. Get treatment for diabetes and high blood pressure. Eat healthy food and learn music. Do daily yoga and exercise. Meditation and yoga prevent dementia. Make a friend circle. Old age people become lonely and bored after retirement. Never sit idle. Make a group and do a picnic, make your brain do work as it was before. Those people who use their brains too much, they don’t get Alzheimer’s. Doctors and teachers always continue their work after retirement, so they rarely get Alzheimer’s. Kick out any depressive thoughts. Mental exercises must be done. Do play crosswords, word making, and Sudoku. Many apps provide these games on smartphones.
Recently scientists found that those people who learned Sanskrit and recited daily, they didn’t have Alzheimer’s. In Neuroscience it’s called the Sanskrit effect. Sanskrit is a complex language. Learning it and remembering it helps in brain exercise and prevents dementia. The old sages could remember Vedas for so long due to memory exercise.
So Alzheimer’s is preventable. It needs awareness. In the next 30 years, half of us will be suffering from it. If you feel misplacing objects daily and have difficulty in doing new learning, then visit a neurologist. There are tests for dementia to show if you have pre-Alzheimer’s. Do brain exercises to save your memory. Many times people think Alzheimer’s people are lunatics and outcasts. Their memory forgot them. Take good care of them. Treat them. Try to make them happy, as they made you happy when you had not formed any memory (childhood). Alzheimer’s is preventable. Let’s pledge to fight Alzheimer’s.
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