There are ways to reduce your risk of dementia
I am taking a break from the anxiety being created by this legislative session and Governor Reynolds. Every day local control is being usurped in our schools, libraries, and the courts. In my opinion, every child should be equally loved, and parents have the responsibility and right to determine health care choices for their children.
This anxiety and the stress are creating forgetfulness……. or is it DEMENTIA approaching?
Senility runs in my family and causes me concern. Am I likely to succumb to “Being off in the upper story”? My great aunt Dolly Groves would pick up my great-great grandfather Robert as he walked along the road at evening time. He always told her he was walking home. She would engage him in conversation for a short time and then offer to take him home. Actually, back to where he just had been. My family referred to it as Sundowners disease. In later years persons expected if they lived long enough, they would become SENILE. My father was a bottom-line person, and he would express, “so and so is becoming crazier than a pet coon.”
Some of my similarly aged friends declare they are still experiencing COVID FOG.
I determined to decrease my anxiety and maybe yours, with some general information.
Dementia is a general term for a decline in mental ability (cognitive changes) severe enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer’s is the most common type of dementia. About 5-8 percent of persons over age 65 have some form of dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S.
Early symptoms of dementia include forgetting recent events, repeating comments, or asking the same question in a short period of time, misplacing commonly used items, and having difficulty coming up with the right words. I was pleased to learn from Dr. Quinlisk that my genetic risk could be turned to “no genetic risk” with implementation of a modified lifestyle.
Signs that dementia is worsening are an individual’s ability to recall and to make decisions. Daily tasks such as paying bills and balancing the check book become more challenging and finally impossible. I was pleased to learn science suggests that individuals with mild cognitive decline may be able to reverse this decline and return to normal mental functioning.
Patricia Quinlisk, M.D., M.P.H. and former Medical Director and State of Iowa epidemiologist, created and taught a course, Prevention of Dementia. I was fortunate to be in the second class which was virtual due to the pandemic. It is now entitled, Unlocking Brain Fitness, and is being taught in person, right here in Greene County, by registered nurses Becky Wolfe and Deb Hoskins at the Greene County Community Center.
The second class began Feb. 28 and will last for 10 weeks. The sessions are two hours in length. There are only 15 participants. The next class will begin June 6, but only one opening remains. Scholarships are available as the program managers want this course to be accessible to everyone.
Greene County public health expects to complete 3-4 classes per year. You may ask why they don’t expand the class size? This class is structured to be a lifechanging. Inspiration and ongoing behavior changes are garnered within the group during the 10-week session. There are 1 to 1 consultations with a dietitian, a pharmacist, an audiologist, a wellness, and a fitness coach. For example, the fitness coach will discuss an individual’s physical activities, along with the wellness coach to suggest ways to reduce stress, and even provide suggestions to improve sleep patterns.
In a phone interview with Dr. Quinlisk, medical director for Unlocking Brain Fitness, she shared that by improving common risks an individual may lower the potential of a dementia diagnosis by up to 70 percent. Those risks are identified as the 10 KEYS.
1. Eat well 2. Get moving 3. Be social 4. Hear well 5. Stay sharp 6. Sleep enough 7. Control chronic diseases, 8. Build stress resilience, 9. Use the right medications, 10. Promote general good health.
Dr. Quinlisk recognizes course participants will not alter their genetics, but states they may definitely modify their risk for dementia with behavior changes.
Mary Kelly, program director for Unlocking Brain Fitness, reports more than 600 Iowans have now completed this 10-week course. Twenty-four counties have access, 15 of them being considered rural counties, including opportunities in our neighboring state of Nebraska.
The “dementia quiz “is currently unavailable because of the merger of the Iowa Department of Public Health and the Department of Human Services. When the quiz returns, it will determine if you are doing, or not doing enough to decrease your risk of dementia. It should not be considered a diagnostic quiz to assess dementia. I am providing the web site as Dr. Quinlisk states it will be returning. Look for www.unlockingbrainfitness.org., Save your Brain.
Check it out, change your lifestyle behaviors to healthy ones. Decrease your dementia prognosis.
~Mary Weaver, fourth generation Greene Countian, and former public health nurse
