In Beating the Dementia Monster, we emphasized the importance of maintaining social connectivity in confronting Alzheimer's disease. Somehow, social activity provides a preventative and healing function for AD. It's likely beneficial for other causes of dementia as well.
There is now a six-year longitudinal study of victims of the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami. The results were reported in Alzheimer's and Dementia: the journal of the Alzheimer's Association.
The study found a correlation between loss of housing and development of "cognitive disability," which looks to me like development of dementia. This continued after six years.
My first assumption when I saw the headline was the people who lost their homes also lost family, friends, and other sources of social support. This promotes the advance of AD. The authors of the study came to a similar conclusion. The authors also proposed that promoting civic participation may improve cognitive resilience.
In my book, "Beating the Dementia Monster," I describe what has occurred since 2015 when I first knew I had memory problems. (You can find it on Amazon.com.) I have experienced remarkable improvement, and I’m certain that I can share valuable information with many others. In this second edition I continue my story to 2020 and provide greater understanding of how Alzheimer's advances and why what I did worked.
No comments:
Post a Comment