Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Hello, and welcome back to Louis Body and mindful caregiving. I'm Crystal Jakowski, your host. And today I want to talk about myths and facts surrounding different types of dementia. And I always start with self care. So what I do for self care, my grandson is reading a book series called Fablehaven, and I fell a little bit behind. So I read an entire book, and I loved it. I loved losing myself in a book and just knowing that I was connecting with my grandson at the same time. And it was just fabulous. So thank you, Ethan, for that little gift.
[00:00:45] Facts and myths about dementia. There's so many little things out there, and I thought today would be a good day to just address a whole bunch of those. And I've taken these from myself, but also from different websites and just compiled a list of some myths so that you can just be a little bit more educated on dementia in and of itself.
[00:01:20] First off, the first myth I'm going to address is that dementia is a disease.
[00:01:29] People may call it a disease. They may say Lewy body disease or Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease. It's not a disease that you can catch. It's more of a group of symptoms that affect the ability to think, remember things, to reason and deal with everyday activities and living. You can have trouble with language or communication, unexpected changes in mood or behavior. These are all symptoms. It's not a disease per se. So that's the first myth that I want to address. The next myth that I want to touch base on is that all types of dementia are the same, which is absolutely not true.
[00:02:17] There are over 100 different types of dementia that they have been able to really diagnose.
[00:02:26] Some are more common than others, and of those more common ones are Alzheimer's disease. That is the most common and most well known dementia. And it's a progressive disease that slowly changes the chemistry and the structure of the brain that often leads to death of the brain cells, which means that the person becomes confused and forgetful, and they experience very many mood swings, that kind of thing. The next one is Parkinson's dementia. And though Parkinson's disease first affects the part of the brain that's key to movement, you'll see people with Parkinson's that have a lot of the shaking and Whatnot. It eventually spreads and affects mental abilities, too. It is not simply the shake. There is more to Parkinson's than just that Tremor. It will eventually affect memory and your attention Span and your judgment, and it can look a lot like Alzheimer's disease.
[00:03:33] Vascular dementia is another one that a lot of people may know about. It's more common, and this occurs when the oxygen supply to your brain is cut off due to one stroke or a bunch of mini strokes. It can also cause problems with the speed of thinking and concentrating and the ability to complete tasks. And then lewy body. Lewy body dementia gets its name from the protein deposits that develop inside the brain. It's in the nerve cell that causes damage to the brain tissues. And with that, attention, alertness, hallucinations. My mom has parkinsonian. She has lewy body dementia with parkinsonian tendencies, so she has the shakes as well. And then one more frontotemporal dementia. And that one's caused by damage to the front part of the brain. And this one can affect the personality and lead to behavioral changes and then eventually memory problems as well. So that's just five of the most common ones. There are over 100. So it's not just one dementia.
[00:04:54] And they're not all the same. They all present differently, they have different markers, and it's very important to know which one you are dealing with.
[00:05:04] Another myth is that losing your memory and getting confused is a natural part of Aging. This is not true.
[00:05:13] Dementia is common in the aging population, but it's not a normal, natural part of getting old.
[00:05:25] It may be true that as we age, we get less physically and Mentally Agile, which is why it's important to stay active. And it's important to choose FOods and Activities that are Heart Healthy and keep us functioning. But memory loss is not necessarily a normal part of aging. Another myth is that dementia is usually diagnosed shortly after the set of Alzheimer's disease.
[00:05:56] This is not true. Dementia causing disease can be present as much as 20 years before the symptoms of dementia actually occur. And the first signs are often very mild forms of cognitive decline, like learning and memory. And they may be so minor that they just don't cause any concern whatsoever.
[00:06:21] It's not necessarily the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Keep in mind that Alzheimer's disease is a type of dementia, so different things myth someone in my family has dementia, which means I am definitely going to get it too. BS. Not true for the majority of dementias. Family genetics do not play into it. Just because a loved one, a family member has it does not mean that you will also get it. Don't worry about that. Stay healthy, stay active, meet up with new people. Challenge yourself that way.
[00:07:07] They say that smoking is not good does not really help, or drinking that can also cause causing issues. I'll get into that in a minute.
[00:07:19] We have a cure for dementia. That is a myth. There is no cure for the major types of dementia. However, there are medications that can address the symptoms of dementia. You can treat the symptoms, but the disease will still be going on behind the scenes and be progressing.
[00:07:48] Dementia can be prevented. There is no effective treatment that prevents dementia or stops its progression. Now, that being said, there are several things that you can do. And I started going down this list, and now I'm going to go down the list again. Being physically active, getting your body moving and functioning is great because your brain is working as you're moving and being active, being socially active really helps because you are challenging yourself to be out there and meet new people or have those conversations and whatnot. Challenge your brain. Be playing some of those games. Learning a new game.
[00:08:34] Challenge your brain. Learn something new, educational wise. Eat healthy.
[00:08:40] Make conscious and safe choices. Managing your stress. People say stress, stress, stress, stress. You need to reduce stress. You need to reduce stress. Your doctors will say, you need to reduce stress. The challenge is that, do you even know what your stress is? And you may say, it's not a big deal. I can handle stress, but stress kills because stress can lead to heart attacks and a myriad of other health problems. So manage your stress, understand what is stressful to you, and work through it. Stop putting it off.
[00:09:15] They say that less education can be something that contributes. I think that that's more because you haven't been challenging your brain as much, and I don't necessarily agree with that. I think that you don't have to go to school to challenge your brain and learn things. So they're just talking about that challenging and making yourself do more. Stretch. Expand hearing impairment. When you're struggling to hear people, smoking is something that is a risk factor. Obesity. Depression is a risk factor. Physical inactivity. So the more sedentary you are, the more likely it is. Diabetes. If you have diabetes, then the blood sugars are changing, which changes the realm of your brain.
[00:10:10] Low levels of social contact.
[00:10:12] And this goes back to the other one of just being socially active. The less you are working with people, the less you're reminding yourself how it is to be and how you can have these conversations. And you're also experiencing emotional changes, stress changes and whatnot when you're doing social things. And so challenging yourself mentally, physically, emotionally, by that social contact is a really beautiful thing. Brain injuries. Depending on what the brain injury is and how it is sometimes down the road, it can lead to symptoms of depression. With the memory loss and the confusion and the emotional mood swings, and whatnot. Another myth, certain vitamins, supplements, and memory boosters can prevent and treat dementia.
[00:11:04] Telling you again, it is not preventable.
[00:11:10] And you can treat the symptoms, but you cannot treat the disease. You cannot change it. They will not stop or reverse the cognitive decline that happens with dementia.
[00:11:25] Another myth is, if I'm diagnosed with dementia, it means my life is over. And that's not true. You can live with dementia for a very long time. And I say dementia with the umbrella. There are people that have lived 20 plus years with some form of dementia. And if you continue being healthy, if you continue with that physical activity and social activity and putting yourself out there and challenging your brain to learn and do more, then it's possible that you can live a pretty dang good life for a longer time because you are exercising your body and mind.
[00:12:09] One other myth that I would like to address is that aluminum pans can cause dementia. There is no proof that aluminum cooking pans cause dementia. They actually did studies with rats, and there is no proof whatsoever that aluminum pans cause or increase the amount of dementia. So those are just some common myths about dementia in particular, not necessarily Lewy body specific, but dementia as the umbrella term that is there.
[00:12:49] It's good to educate yourself. It's good to stop, step back and check in. If you hear something and somebody makes a comment, do your research. Don't necessarily accept their word as gospel truth. Take it at face value. Go do your research. And not only that, I really want to remind you that you know your loved one, you know more about their symptoms and what they're going through. And so what applies to one person may not apply to somebody else. While several dementias follow a typical path or journey for all of the people that have that, like Lewy body, for example, is erratic and completely different. You do not know what the next upset or challenge will be, what the next cognitive decline will be. So educate yourself.
[00:13:49] You be the advocate. Take those myths and research them so that you can know whether or not it's true. And yeah, do a little self care.
[00:14:02] Go love on your loved one. Maybe take them out to dinner or something.
[00:14:07] And I'll see you again here next week for the next episode of Louie Body and mindful caregiving. Until then, take care.
