The Healthy Brain

The back story, setting the scene

 

Firstly Alzheimer’s sucks, it sucks majorly and big time. It appears to be so random and sudden in its onset. It appears to come from nowhere. it is an insidious disease that infiltrates your life and that of your loved ones. Wreaking havoc and destroying happiness, it creeps in slowly and sets in before you know it. It is a disease that is becoming so common, in fact the statistics below show how prevalent it is in Australia.

• Dementia is the second leading cause of death of all Australians¹ and provisional data is showing that dementia will likely soon be the leading cause of death.²
• Dementia is the leading cause of death for women.³
• In 2023, it is estimated there are more than 400,000 Australians living with dementia. Without a medical breakthrough, the number of people with dementia is expected to increase to more than 800,000 by 2058.4
• In 2023, it is estimated there are more than 28,650 people with younger onset dementia, expected to rise to more than 42,400 people by 2058. This can include people in their 30s, 40s and 50s.³
• In 2023, it is estimated that more than 1.5 million people in Australia are involved in the care of someone living with dementia.⁵
• 2 in 3 people with dementia are thought to be living in the community.⁶
• More than two-thirds (68.1%) of aged care residents have moderate to severe cognitive impairment.⁷
• This goes up to 3 in 10 Australians over 85 years.

Statistics from Dementia Australia website

https://www.dementia.org.au/statistics

Is it that most of us are missing the signs or maybe even ignoring them a little?

There are many reasons you miss the warning signs, it could be that the symptoms are so mild at first you can contribute them to other factors like getting older, peri-menopause, emotional trauma, depression, hormones, just being a bit scattered because you are getting older, oh the irony.

But to be honest there is a stigma around Alzheimer’s and dementia and that stigma is a major road block to action. By the time you make the decision to go and get it diagnosed it can be quite advanced. You may be at the point that you go to the doctor because you feel like you are literally losing your mind. The catalyst may for example be you have lost your car too many times. Forgetting a recipe of a meal you have made your whole life or forgetting birthdays of loved ones.

The reason I say it sucks is its personal, it’s happened to my mother who by all accounts is a great person. Anyone that meets her or that knew her would tell you this. She is kind, generous to a fault. Would share her food, her money, whatever it’s just what she does. She is special. She grew up with dyslexia but it was undiagnosed. She couldn’t really read or write very well and always believed she wasn’t smart enough, she had an almost photographic memory.  Being a sole business owner for 15 years required her to use what she had and her memory helped her with everything. She loved her work and still sometime talks of it fondly, her work was was labor-intensive, mum was nearing her 70th birthday and the family were urging her to hang it up. We wanted her to  start spending some time enjoying herself. We would say to mum take a break… Stay at home do the things that you have always wanted to do, because you’ve worked hard since you were 19 you deserve some time for you.

It didn’t quite go to plan. She looked after my dad until he passed. Then it all settles down a little. Nothing to do no job. No place, which for my mum was hard. Its ironic isn’t it?

That’s when the journey began for her and for us.

I would get a phone call every now and again, my mum would call and say things like

“I went to to get my shopping and I don’t remember where i put my car”.

Oh mum, that’s strange i would say, maybe ask security to give you a hand looking for it.

I only got one or two of those calls, but later I found out that it happened many many times.

Next was the trip to the hospital. We booked her in for some physio. The plan was for her to go shopping and then she was going to go to the hospital for physio.

Mum was very late to her appointment with the hospital physio, the staff were ringing around looking for her. The family was called, everyone was frantic, by the time mum got to the hospital and we were informed of what had happened the doctor had pretty much decided that my mother was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.

It turns out she lost her car again and had hitched a ride with some lovely strangers.

The doctor informed the RMS and my mother lost her license and her independence just like that.

I remember the call and I look back and realize how very naïve we all were. I remember thinking oh okay this we can handle, I mean its not terminal (it is ) it slow its whatever…. We will band together as a family and get through it just like we did when my father was sick. I don’t know if it would of been better to know what was to come or if ignorance was best
but, I can tell you there is nothing or was nothing easy, slow or dignified about it.

We need to find a way to cure it to stop it and to eliminate it.

Its mean and its ugly and it can be soft but its mostly hard, its mostly exhausting and draining and terrible. I want to make a difference for her, to help her, but it is so big  and I didn’t know how.

So here I am writing and researching and trying.

I hope to be able to help people with similar situations to my own to bring some comfort, some hope and some understanding.

Please follow along and lets help each other make a difference.

I will be posting recipes for food you can make that will help your brain stay healthy. Tips,  I have learnt along the way on how to help your loved ones and yourself stay healthy and brain disease free.