Posted by: Uticopa in dementia on
Sep 22, 2009
With around 163,000 new diagnoses every year, dementia has been described as ‘one of the greatest challenges for medicine, nursing and society in the twenty-first century'. We're told that the number of people aged over 65 years is expected to increase by more than 60% in the next 25 years. In fact, while an estimated 700,000 people are currently diagnosed with dementia, 15,000 of them young people, this figure is expected to increase to one million by 2025. This is likely to be a major underestimate by up to three times because of the way the data relies on referrals to services.
The thought of one million people, and more, with dementia is a frightening prospect. Some nurses tell us that they received absolutely no education on dementia at university. Conclusion? They need to provide some! If such a crucial area of health care is being ignored by our univerisities, it gives the impression that it isn't very important, which belittles those with dementia.
Interestingly, two thirds of people with dementia are women.
Posted by: Uticopa in music therapy, memory, dementia on
Jun 17, 2009
In all forms of dementia there is a loss of protein, effectively cutting off the vital connections of the brain. Yet, it can't be as simple as that. Vestiges of old memories seem to lie dormant with sufferers, as if waiting for that essential trigger to spring them back to the forefront of consciousness again.
It was with this in mind that a programme called Music for Life was started in 1993. It was set up to use music to find the person behind the dementia. From this original, small group, a much larger organisation has now been handed over to Wigmore Hall in London. In May, the transition was launched attended by the charity's royal patron, HRH Princess Alexandra.
The latest remit for the charity is for a group of classical musicians, some from the London Philharmonic Orchestra, to take their instruments to nursing homes and provide around eight sessions involving dementia patients and their carers. As soon as the residents arrive, some in wheelchairs, some with sticks or walking-frames, the musicians strike up a pre-improvised melody. Subtle, entrancing and hypnotic, it's composed especially to alter mood through both the rhythm and dynamics.
Posted by: Uticopa in IQ, dementia, children on
Feb 04, 2009
As Gordon Brown unveils his new package of proposals offering special dementia ‘memory clinics' where the man in the street can go to check out his own susceptibility to the disease, it is interesting to note how even our childhood can have an effect. So now, as people are asked to ‘count backwards progressively from 100 by 7 each time' - making them recall their mental arithmetic lesson from school - there may be further links hitherto unrealised.
Scientists have now discovered a link between childhood IQ levels and a type of dementia. The discovery could help scientists better understand what causes the form of the disease which affects more than 100,000 people in Britain.
A study by Edinburgh University has found that lower intelligence levels in childhood increase the risk of developing vascular dementia later in life by as much as 40 per cent.
