Dementia and our own personal Champions

 

We all have our own champions in life, but I do feel that those with dementia have their own champions whether it is a friend or wife/husband or loved ones, rather than sports champions like most other people.

I say that because everyone has a champion in their lives, but to those with this illness we have an extra special champion, as they look after our personal needs in life. They are out to make our life as easy as possible, by removing a lot of the normal everyday pressure of trying to carry on doing things that are becoming difficult and sometimes stressful.

In my case my dear wife is my own personal champion and ambassador, as she looks after many things that I forget about

But to me the mere name Champion or ambassador is simply not enough, because we all have our own champions in life, but none matches the work and care given 24 hours a day by one person

What is more she does all of this without payment, or grudges.

She is my personal secretary

As she answers e-mails on the bad days, and advises me as to what it all means

My Nurse

As she gets a doctor if I look as if I am getting an infection. Strangely enough she can tell I have an infection by my moods or the change in my attitudes, or if I start to get agitated

My advisor

On all subjects and the font of knowledge when needed

Checks where we are going and makes sure that all of the information is correct

Sorts out all of the finances

Does all of the planning which needs doing in advance

She arranges the trips and books the tickets

Is totally in charge of making arrangements to travel anywhere and anytime

My chemist as she sorts out my medication, something I could not do on my own.

She looks after my medication and prompts me if she thinks I need to see a doctor

My prompt when someone speaks and I have not got a clue who, it is I am talking too.

She helps me out, when someone comes up and talks about an event that I was at months or weeks ago, and I'm stuck because I cannot remember the event

She edits my speeches and talks and advises me what to say

She reads through all of my notes to ensure that I have not repeated myself, and corrects any mistakes

This is important because I sometimes repeat things and that would not be good enough if I was giving a talk.

Driver

My personal driver, especially when I do not feel up to driving.

Housekeeper

Looks after me at home and makes sure that I am turned out looking clean and tidy

Prompter when we need it on bad days

Listens to what I am talking about and comes to my rescue if I get stuck or need help, but she is careful not to jump in too soon or at the wrong time.

Body guard if needed to keep the unwanted people away when needed

Sometimes we feel cornered at events and she steps in now to prevent any stress, when I feel over whelmed

 

The list goes on, but without my beloved wife for support I would be lost. I may look well when I am out but I feel as if I am trying to run just to keep up with other people in life. Like a duck on water, it looks sedate on the surface, but the legs are going flat out to keep up with the current

Learning another language

·          Learning a new language

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Learning another language 'could protect against dementia'

Learning another language 'rewires' the brain and could help delay the onset of dementia by years, research suggests.

Having to grapple with two languages makes the brain work harder, making it more resilient in later life, say academics.

One study found that, among people who did eventually get dementia, those who were bilingual throughout their lives developed the disease three to four years later.

Dr Ellen Bialystok, of York University in Toronto, Canada, and two colleagues examined hospital records of patients diagnosed with a variety of different types of dementia.

They found: "In spite of being equivalent on a variety of cognitive and other factors, the bilinguals experienced onset and symptoms and were diagnosed approximately three to four years later than the monolinguals.

"Specifically, monolingual patients were diagnosed on average at age 75.4 years and bilinguals at age 78.6 years.

While lifelong bilingualism appeared to have the strongest protective effect, any attempt at learning another language was likely to be beneficial, they wrote.

"If bilingualism is protective against some forms of dementia, then middle-aged people will want to know whether it is too late to learn another language, or whether their high-school French will count towards cognitive reserve," they said.

"A related question concerns the age of acquisition of a second language: is earlier better?

"The best answer at present is that early age of acquisition, overall fluency, frequency of use, levels of literacy and grammatical accuracy all contribute to the bilingual advantage, with no single factor being decisive.

"Increasing bilingualism" led to "increasing modification" of the brain, they said.

Brain imaging scans have found that having to switch between two languages helps exercise parts of the brain that carry out taxing intellectual tasks, like multi-tasking and concentrating intensely on a subject for a sustained period of time.

These "executive control" functions tend to be among the first to wane in old age, a process known as "cognitive decline".

Dr Bialystok commented: "Our conclusion is that lifelong experience in managing attention to two languages reorganises specific brain networks, creating a more effective basis for executive control and sustaining better cognitive performance throughout our lifespan."

Dr Marie Janson, of Alzheimer's Research UK, said:"We know there are several lifestyle factors - such as healthy eating, exercise and mental activity - that could help to reduce our risk of dementia.

"This review discusses the evidence that keeping our brains active by switching between different languages could help to resist some of the damage caused by dementia, delaying the onset of symptoms.

"More research is needed to tease apart the most beneficial aspects of bilingualism - whether it is the age we starting learning, how fluent we are or how much we use the language in everyday life.

"With 820,000 people in the UK living with dementia and this number expected to rise, it is vital to invest in research to understand more about how to prevent or delay the onset of this devastating condition."

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