Parents with dementia, how dealing with that has gone.

[Gem99ultra]

You can't be a smoker, or ingest any nicotine product and imagine it doesn't harm you.

So very true! I've smoked for 70+ years and I am very sure it'll kill me in the end.

(On the offensive side however, at 84 I'm still very active maintaining 15 acres of pine trees, 2 acres of 'lawn', and all home & vehicle maintenance tasks.) Most likely if I did avoid smoking and nicotine, I'd live to 100. Life's a crap-shoot any way you look at it.

 

[ning]

My dad passed from dementia two years ago. My mom's sister has it bad right now, but she is the first person on mom's side of the family to get it.
My mom seems to be acting like my dad did in his early stage of getting it. I think that she has it, but her doctors haven't confirmed it.

My doctor said that there is no evidence that it's hereditary. She suggested that if I'm worried, to do puzzles, exercise and lose weight. The healthier that I am, the better the odds that I don't get it.

More and more evidence points to high blood pressure directly increasing dementia.
If you're the slightest bit high bp these days they will medicate you down and it's very likely worth it!

 

[ArlyA]

If you have experience of dealing with dementia, please post. I hope this thread will be of help to the folks who are now, of will be in the future.

 

[Gem99ultra]

More and more evidence points to high blood pressure directly increasing dementia.
If you're the slightest bit high bp these days they will medicate you down and it's very likely worth it!

Adding to the high blood pressure issue, the latest i.e. most prevalent cause of dementia is bad teeth. Data shows that eldery persons with less than 20 good teeth remaining at age 70 are 1.4X likely to experience dementia.

 

[kenmbz]

Adding to the high blood pressure issue, the latest i.e. most prevalent cause of dementia is bad teeth. Data shows that eldery persons with less than 20 good teeth remaining at age 70 are 1.4X likely to experience dementia.

Cause or effect?

 

[Tinhack]

Adding to the high blood pressure issue, the latest i.e. most prevalent cause of dementia is bad teeth. Data shows that eldery persons with less than 20 good teeth remaining at age 70 are 1.4X likely to experience dementia.

Well, then I should not be relying on family or facility for care. I'll be 75 in October and I still have most of my own teeth. I broke one last year chewing on a Lifesaver. They (teeth) must be getting weaker. I used to chew ice all the time when I was "younger".

If I can just get the upper hand on my RA, I could be very active. It's hard for me to grip the turning ball much less hold a steering wheel. It takes me a half-hour to limber up to griping a cup of coffee in the morning.

 

[Tinhack]

Cause or effect?

It seems to be an effect rather than a cause.

 

[lman]

Cause or effect?

I'll be there in 3 years and still have all my teeth. Hopefully my horse won't kick any of them out in the near future.

 

[Snobdds]

My dad passed from dementia two years ago. My mom's sister has it bad right now, but she is the first person on mom's side of the family to get it.
My mom seems to be acting like my dad did in his early stage of getting it. I think that she has it, but her doctors haven't confirmed it.

My doctor said that there is no evidence that it's hereditary. She suggested that if I'm worried, to do puzzles, exercise and lose weight. The healthier that I am, the better the odds that I don't get it.

I had my data guy run the prevalence of dementia running in families today...

It came back with a 88% confidence interval for a given z score. That correlates to around a 94% chance. Not zero, but still significant. See below.

"While both maternal and paternal family history can influence the risk of dementia, research suggests that inheriting Alzheimer's disease (a type of dementia) may be more strongly associated with the mother's side of the family. Specifically, studies have shown that a maternal family history of Alzheimer's may be linked to higher levels of amyloid plaques in the brain, a key indicator of the disease.

 

[Tinhack]

If I can just get the upper hand on my RA, I could be very active. It's hard for me to grip the turning ball much less hold a steering wheel. It takes me a half-hour to limber up to griping a cup of coffee in the morning.

On a side note, I start a new drug infusion regiment August 25th. It's called Rituxan. It's given in two separate infusions a few weeks apart. Then again in six months. It's given with Methotrexate which never did anything for me. The infusions take six hours!!! I'm taking a lunch with me and maybe some snacks.

If I don't die from liver failure or PML, this stuff is supposed to help.