dementia care

Update: 35% of worldwide dementia cases could be prevented by modifying these 9 modifiable risk factors

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Time for Sharp­Brains’ July e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing fas­ci­nat­ing sci­en­tif­ic find­ings, emerg­ing brain health prac­tices and insights…and some fun teasers.

New research

Let’s start with the key take-aways from a new and very insight­ful evi­dence review which found nine mod­i­fi­able risk fac­tors for demen­tia — account­ing for 35% of all cases:
— Edu­ca­tion by age 15 (dur­ing ear­ly life)
— Hyper­ten­sion; Obe­si­ty; Hear­ing loss (in mid-life)
— Depres­sion; Dia­betes; Phys­i­cal inac­tiv­i­ty; Smok­ing; Low social con­tact (in lat­er life)

New thinking

Upcoming events

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Final­ly, you may want to Test your Brain and Mind with these 9 Clas­sic Opti­cal Illu­sions 🙂

 

Have a great August!

The Sharp­Brains Team

Report: 35% of worldwide dementia cases could be prevented by modifying these 9 modifiable risk factors

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The Lancet Com­mis­sion: One Third of Demen­tia May Be Pre­ventable (Lancet report release):

“Today’s find­ings are extreme­ly hope­ful,” said Maria Car­ril­lo, PhD, chief sci­ence offi­cer at the Alzheimer’s Asso­ci­a­tion. “At an indi­vid­ual lev­el, many peo­ple have the poten­tial to reduce their risk of cog­ni­tive decline, and per­haps demen­tia, through sim­ple, health­ful behav­ior changes. At a pub­lic health lev­el, inter­ven­tions based on this evi­dence could be extreme­ly pow­er­ful in man­ag­ing the glob­al human and eco­nom­ic costs of Alzheimer’s dis­ease and oth­er demen­tias.” [Read more…] about Report: 35% of world­wide demen­tia cas­es could be pre­vent­ed by mod­i­fy­ing these 9 mod­i­fi­able risk factors

Time is over for “one size fits all” dementia treatments. Next: How to best integrate non-pharmacologic and pharmacologic approaches

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Dementia_Alzheimer's

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Time to ‘just say no’ to behav­ior-calm­ing drugs for Alzheimer patients? Experts say yes (Med­ical Xpress):

“Doc­tors write mil­lions of pre­scrip­tions a year for drugs to calm the behav­ior of peo­ple with Alzheimer’s dis­ease and oth­er types of demen­tia. But non-drug approach­es actu­al­ly work bet­ter, and car­ry far few­er risks, experts con­clude in a new report.

In fact, non-drug approach­es should be the first choice for treat­ing demen­tia patients’ com­mon symp­toms such as [Read more…] about Time is over for “one size fits all” demen­tia treat­ments. Next: How to best inte­grate non-phar­ma­co­log­ic and phar­ma­co­log­ic approaches

Ellen Somers: Staying sharp by continually learning and teaching about brain health

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Ellen Somers
Ellen Somers, MA, LMHC

What is your name, job title and orga­ni­za­tion, and what excites you the most about work­ing there?
As Coor­di­na­tor of  Cog­ni­tive Health Ser­vices at St. Camil­lus Cen­ters, I am always look­ing for new ways to devel­op our pro­grams and ser­vices as the field of brain health evolves.

Please tell us about your inter­est in applied brain sci­ence. What areas are you most inter­est­ed in? What moti­vat­ed you to pur­sue work in your field?
Over the years, my focus on demen­tia care has expand­ed into an inter­est in pre­ven­tion and brain health main­te­nance. [Read more…] about Ellen Somers: Stay­ing sharp by con­tin­u­al­ly learn­ing and teach­ing about brain health

Dementia costs more than heart disease, and cancer. And it will balloon.

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Human brainDemen­tia Care Cost Is Pro­ject­ed to Dou­ble by 2040 (The New York Times):

“The most rig­or­ous study to date of how much it costs to care for Amer­i­cans with demen­tia found that the finan­cial bur­den is at least as high as that of heart dis­ease or can­cer, and is prob­a­bly high­er. And both the costs and the num­ber of peo­ple with demen­tia will more than dou­ble with­in 30 years, sky­rock­et­ing at a rate that rarely occurs with a chron­ic disease…The RAND results show that near­ly 15 per­cent of peo­ple aged 71 or old­er, about 3.8 mil­lion peo­ple, have demen­tia. By 2040, the authors said, that num­ber will bal­loon [Read more…] about Demen­tia costs more than heart dis­ease, and can­cer. And it will balloon.

Let’s Define Brain Fitness and Physical Fitness

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Bev­er­ly San­born, Vice Pres­i­dent of Pro­gram Devel­op­ment at Bel­mont Senior Liv­ing and sched­uled 2011 Sharp­Brains Sum­mit Speak­er, could not final­ly speak at the Sum­mit (she was very well replaced by col­league Jeff DeBevec), but for­tu­nate­ly we can share her thought­ful answers to the fol­low­ing four crit­i­cal questions.

1. How would you define “brain fit­ness” vs. “phys­i­cal fitness”?
Brain fit­ness and phys­i­cal fit­ness are inter­linked. Each enhances the oth­er and both are essen­tial com­po­nents of suc­cess­ful aging. As we age, the abil­i­ty to cope with inex­orable chal­lenge to social-emo­tion­al-eco­nom­ic well-being is root­ed in hav­ing a high lev­el of men­tal alert­ness and a phys­i­cal body that func­tions effi­cient­ly. But fit­ness is not just a hap­py con­se­quence of a hardy gene pool. Fit­ness for both brain and brawn requires a com­mit­ted effort, a lot of stretch and sweat, and the con­stant push to reach beyond the com­fort zone. [Read more…] about Let’s Define Brain Fit­ness and Phys­i­cal Fitness