A neuroscientist’s guide to caring for someone with dementia

Sabina Brennan, neuroscientist, psychologist and author of Still Me: A neuroscientist’s guide to caring for someone with dementia, joins Karl Henry on this week’s episode of The Real Health podcast.

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How should you respond to a loved one getting a diagnosis of Dementia? Are there ways to cognitively stimulate the person suffering from the disease? And how should you treat yourself as a caregiver?

Sabina Brennan, neuroscientist, psychologist and author of Still Me: A neuroscientist’s guide to caring for someone with dementia, joins Karl Henry on this week’s episode of The Real Health podcast.

Early in the conversation, the caregiver explained that there are many different types of Dementia. The author told me, “There are several kinds of dementia that occur and are associated with later life. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common one, representing 60 to 70% of all cases of dementia. Then you have vascular dementia which is related to the health of your cardiovascular system. Basically, it’s a dementia that can occur as a consequence of stroke or mini-strokes. This is the brain being blocked from getting sufficient oxygen. Then you have Lewy body dementia which is associated with a protein called Lewy Body with specific symptoms like hallucinations.”

I was interested to find out what lifestyle can reduce the likelihood of developing dementia. The psychologist pointed out that, “40% of all cases of Alzheimer’s disease cases are attributable to 12 modifiable risk factors. So there are things you can do to avoid developing dementia. There are 50 million people globally living with dementia, we could reduce those cases by 40% by changing people’s lifestyle factors and stop them developing dementia.”

You can listen to the full episode here or wherever you get your podcasts.

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