Keeping busy is the KEY

 

http://bigheartshomecare.ca/ 

Speaker’s Corner – November 14, 2018 

 Fatma Taha from Big Hearts Home Care, talked to us about Alzheimer’s Disease.  She is a Physician with a Master of Public Health degree as well as a Co-Founder and Executive Director of Big Hearts Home Care.

Alzheimer’s was discovered by Dr. Alzheimer in 1905 and is under the broad umbrella of Dimentia. It is the most common disease comprising 2/3s of the cases.  It is fatal and eventually affects all aspects of one’s life.  Alzheimer’s is a neurological brain disaster that affects each person differently and is progressive.  It affects the memory and is not a normal part of aging in that the forgetfulness is not just the forgetting the odd incident but the whole experience.  For instance, going out during the day and not remembering any of it.  Using notes does not help and dealing with money is very difficult. There are 35,000,000  people afflicted with Alzheimers and 546,000 in Canada with that number being 937,000 by 2013.

Risk factors are:

• Age 65+
• Hypertension
• High Cholesterol
• Heart disease
• Diabetes
• Smoking
• Excessive alcohol
• Down Syndrome
• Genetics

Symptoms include confusion, disturbance in short term memory and personality change.  Some of the warning signs are memory loss, hard to find simple things, difficulty with language (some revert to their mother tongue), poor judgment, can’t think abstractly, can’t identify objects, unable to learn, wandering and impaired motor functions.

BAD NEWS – it can’t be prevented and there is no cure. GOOD NEWS- can keep the brain sharp with mental exercise like crosswords, Sudoku and reading.  Eating healthy and physical exercise can help to prolong the diagnosis.