May 2, 2024 • 44 mins
Join us as Mary Jordan, director and founder of Adapt Dementia Ltd, delves into her latest groundbreaking research in "Dodging Dementia."
With over 20 years of dedicated experience in dementia care, including her role at the Alzheimer's Society, Mary has pioneered techniques that illuminate not only the risks associated with dementia but also the proactive measures that can be taken to mitigate them. In this episode, Mary will share insights from her latest book, which promises to equip listeners with essential knowledge on understanding and managing their own or their loved ones' dementia risks. As an inspirational leader and a seasoned expert in Cognitive Stimulation Therapy, Mary brings a wealth of first-hand experience and practical advice for both families and caregivers.
This conversation will not only enhance your understanding of dementia but also empower you with strategies to improve cognitive health and quality of life.
With over 20 years of dedicated experience in dementia care, including her role at the Alzheimer's Society, Mary has pioneered techniques that illuminate not only the risks associated with dementia but also the proactive measures that can be taken to mitigate them. In this episode, Mary will share insights from her latest book, which promises to equip listeners with essential knowledge on understanding and managing their own or their loved ones' dementia risks. As an inspirational leader and a seasoned expert in Cognitive Stimulation Therapy, Mary brings a wealth of first-hand experience and practical advice for both families and caregivers.
This conversation will not only enhance your understanding of dementia but also empower you with strategies to improve cognitive health and quality of life.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Thank you for joining us, andwelcome to another edition of Answers Network.
I'm your host Alan Cardoza. Nowtoday we're going to be talking about Dodging
Dementia. It's a book that isbased on the author's professional and personal experience
of working with people with dementia andtheir families. It is written in a
clear and accessible style, with casestudies and examples to illustrate the points.
(00:31):
A book that is for anyone whowants to learn more about dementia and how
to manage or better yet avoid it. Now joining us from the UK is
Mary Jordan, a director and founderof Adapt Dementia Limited and through her books
trainings. In this interview, Maryshares crucial revelations about dementia. First and
(00:55):
foremost to me is that it's notinevitable now with new groundbreaking research, Dodging
Dementia guides us through how to accessour personal risk or the risk of a
loved one. Mary's ability to useher first hand experience to illuminate points in
the training makes her an inspirational andmotivational trainer. Her specialist area is delivering
(01:22):
cognitive stimulation therapy to those in earlystage dementia. Mary Welcome to Answers Network.
Good to be here. Thank youvery much for asking me. Well,
it is my pleasure. It isan area that I'm very interested in,
and I've gotten much more interested inprobably over the last five or six
(01:42):
years. Now. I know thatyou have a personal experience in this area,
so I think to start, whydon't you share your experience and how
it affected your choices to get soinvolved in this area. Yeah, said
ok. I had some personal experiencebecause my mother in law developed dementia.
(02:04):
That was my first experience really ofany of it. And following that I
just became more interested. I wrotemy original book, which is called The
Essential Care as Guide. Then Ihad the opportunity to join a UK charity,
(02:25):
which is Alzheimer's Society, and I'llalways be grateful to them for the
vast amount of training and experience theygave me. And through them, I
just met so many people with dementia, so many cares, so many families.
I then wanted to just really spreadmy experience. Well, it seems
(02:49):
as though it is something that haschanged over the years, So share with
us a little bit about what dowe know about dementia now and how has
it changed either over the years thatyou've been looking at it, or even
before that as you were studying itand learning where it started then and how
we've gotten to the point we arenow. Yes, this is quite interesting
(03:15):
because in some ways we don't knowanymore about dementia than we knew years and
years ago. We still don't knowwhat cause is it which, and dodging
dementia is just talking about reducing yourrisk factors. We do know now far
more about the risk factors, thefactors that influence whether you will get dementia,
(03:38):
but we can't pinpoint a cause.It's thought now that the causes are
multi factorial, that you know anumber of things in your life make you
more at risk and then more likelyto get dementia. We still don't really
know. Well, we have aquestion that came in and I want to
(03:59):
take this time to thank those peoplethat take the time. I know that
we have many teachers, we havemany people that listen to or watch the
show, and they watch it lateron so they're unable to either call in
or to send in a message duringthe show. So they receive our press
release and we'll send in questions andask that we can ask the question on
(04:21):
the air and then they'll listen lateron. But this one, I think
goes right to what you were justtalking about. This one reads my mother
passed away from a long bout withdementia. I've heard many medical influencers say
that dementia is genetic. Others pointto lifestyle. What is your belief on
(04:41):
causation and if much of it islifestyle, what are the key lifestyle changes
or interventions that can reduce the riskof developing dementia and how can they be
implemented in our daily life? Andthis is from Helen and Omaha, Nebraska.
One hell of a question, isn'tit? Firstly, to deal with
(05:05):
the genetic side. There is agenetic element to dementia. You can inherit
certain genes that raise your risk ofgetting dementia, and depending on the variations
of the genes you inherit can raiseyour risk up to fifty percent. But
having said that, it's still notinevitable that you will get dementia. So
(05:30):
we're just talking again about a raisedrisk. So it's a good question because
if you've got several relatives who've developeddementia, then it's worth thinking about that.
Side of it, if it's justone, if it's just your mum,
just your dad, a bit different. Well, how about as how
(05:54):
much of lifestyle or diet gets weighedinto this, and not even just from
us. But let's say that we'relooking at a relative that you know that
did have dementia, but their theirdiet was that of many of us through
the seventies eighty, you know,and you know I know that from my
(06:18):
standpoint. I mean, my momthought it was perfectly reasonable, you know,
to give us the whatever sugary cerealwe wanted from the cereal aisle,
you know, or anyway things likethat. I know that my my stepdad
passed away from this, and buthe went through a period of time that
(06:41):
I remember that he he loved icedtea, but he had the sweet tea,
so there was a ton of sugarin that. So so do we
look at the the the risk factorsthat they had, uh, and does
that change anything as we're weighing.In my case, it wouldn't be genetic
because he was a stepfather. Butfor those that are, how do we
(07:04):
weigh that with what their diet was? And then how do we reduce that
by focusing on our diet or ourlifestyle. Interesting way of putting it,
I wouldn't necessarily look at what thelifestyle was of the people who had dementia
(07:27):
in comparison to now. I wouldlook at the research that shows whether we
can make changes to our diet nowthat would influence the possibility of getting dementia.
I don't think it's probably rather difficultto compare your diet with diets in
the past, because that just relieson hearsay, so on the whole,
(07:50):
I can see your point. Whatyou're trying to say is if you look
at the lifestyle of the people who'vehad dementia, who are your relatives,
can we sort of make it justin that way? And yes, we
can to to like two lifestyle points. Yes we can, And that's that's
generally covered. Yes, yeah,okay, well let's I think let's let's
(08:13):
talk more about let's talk about someof the myths and the misconceptions about dementia.
And and I know in your bookyou you you debunk some of them.
Share sure some of these and andwhy you were able to debunk them,
Well, very common one is peoplesaying use it or lose it,
(08:37):
And and there's truth in that.There's truth in that, but but it's
this the idea that in fact,I'll give you an example. One husband
of one of my clients some timeago said to me, well, I
don't think there can be much wrongwith her because she can still beat me
at saduko and she was still ableto do saduco for a long long time,
(09:01):
quite happily. But that just meansthat her brain had practiced doing saduco
so much that she was really goodat saduco. It didn't mean that she
was developing her brain and exercising herbrain. So I think one of them
is is this idea that if youdo lots of crosswords you're never going to
(09:22):
get dementia. I think that's oneof the ideas I might have debunked.
Yeah, and actually that was oneof the things that I remembered reading because
it was one of the things thatI've heard. I've heard that for as
long as i can remember, youknow. And you know, I've got
a brother in law that does thesuduku and he's like, well, I'm
just making sure that I'm exercising thebrain as well as the body. Yeah,
(09:45):
I mean, it's a good thing. It's not. I'm not suggesting
it's a bad thing to do thosethings. But if you do lots of
crosswords, it will just make youbetter at doing crosswords. What you really
need to do is new things justto stretch your mind, stretch your brain.
So it's a bit different. Okay, well that but that's a great
(10:05):
point. So what I hear yousaying is is that you know, do
different things. You know. Iread somewhere where someone had said, you
know, if you never learned howto play a musical instrument, learn how
to play a musical instrument, becauseit's an area that you haven't exercised in
your brain. And that kind ofmade sense to me. Would you a
(10:28):
brain? Yeah, I think that'sa really good example. Actually, we
can't all learn to play a musicalinstrument, but right, it's a very
good example because you learning to playan instrument means that you use a different
area of the brain. As hesays, that this has been lying neglected.
Really, but you can also dosomething you like learn another language.
(10:52):
You can make the effort to readbooks you wouldn't normally choose to read,
to watch progress as you wouldn't normallychoose to watch your films, to go
to places you wouldn't choose to go, just just stretching your mind. I
use the word stretching because the termis brain plasticity, literally expanding and stretching
(11:18):
your mind. And I think wecan all do things like that, and
it's hard to do as you getolder. You don't want to do new
things. You want to go tothe same grocery store, You want to
stop at the same filling station.You don't. You don't, you don't
choose to do new things. SoI think that's a really worthwhile thing to
think about. Now. One ofthe things you talk about that I really
(11:41):
liked in the book was confidence.Talk a little bit about how the book
equips readers with sort of a newfoundconfidence in assessing theirs or their loved ones
risks, and talk about with someof the positive impacts that you have seen
from people, either through you know, through you working with them, or
(12:03):
just through them reading the book.This is an interesting another very interesting question
because one of the things I findis that you can give people all the
advice in China, you can tellthem everything in the book, and really,
really strangely, fifty percent of peoplewon't do anything, So you're you
(12:26):
know you're right. If you doanything, you're making a difference. But
people need to have the confidence todo something and not just to think,
oh, it won't happen to me. Maybe it won't happen to me.
I don't have to worry too much. I think I think it's making the
effort. Okay, So if you'vegot fifty percent of the people, they're
(12:48):
reading the book, but they're notreally making any changes. What are some
of the changes that are suggested thatpeople are choosing not to do. Is
this more from a diet standpoint alifestyle standpoint? What are you seeing?
One of the very important things Ithink is to check your medications, because
(13:13):
there are medications that affect your cognition, and they are some of them are
very common medications that doctors will justgive out and are given to people.
I can't I'm not going to specifywhich ones because that's in chapter four,
which is written by a doctor who'svery specific. But there are some medications
(13:35):
that are given very commonly to olderpeople that can affect your cognition, and
I advise people have a look atthe evidence, go back to your doctor
and talk about whether this is agood medicine for you to be taking.
Nobody ever, does I think they'refrightened to ask their doctor. Well,
(13:56):
if I can interject in that area, I believe I'm just the opposite because
I I had a health problem.Now it's been six eight months ago,
and they put me on four medicationsand I felt great. Right after the
(14:16):
operation. I felt wonderful and Iwas ready to go home. I said,
I feel wonderful, Let's do this, and they said, no,
you got to say another night,and we have to give you these prescriptions.
So they gave me the prescriptions.After about a week of taking them,
I felt terrible, terrible, andI so I went to my cardiologist
and said, this isn't working forme, and I did some of my
(14:41):
own research. I'm a detective atheart, so you know, I did
my research and I listed I gavehim a list of more natural products that
would do the same thing as thepharmaceuticals that he gave me. And he
told me to quit asking questions,stay off the internet, that he's been
(15:01):
doing this for fifty years, andjust do what I tell you. So
that was the last time he wasmy doctor. I then went to the
doctor that actually did the procedure,who was about thirty years younger, and
(15:22):
went down and I showed him everythingmy research and he said, give me
about a week to check all ofthis out. You've got a lot here,
he says, let me check itout and then I'll get back to
you. But in the meantime,stay on what the other doctor puts you
on. He went through all ofit, came back to me and said,
you're fine to make every change thatyou had. So there was a
(15:46):
there was a natural replacement for eachone of those pharmaceuticals. I changed all
of them and I went back tofeeling myself again. So I love the
fact that you're touching on that,are there some air is that you have
found where where there's a more naturalreplacement for a particular pharmaceutical drug that that
(16:11):
they're giving people. Well, I'mvery interested in herbal medicine myself, so
I've often looked things up. Butagain, I wouldn't like to commit to
an individual, you know, likefor like thing. But I think what
you've to done it's a wonderful storybecause what you've said is you did your
(16:32):
research, you presented it to theexpert and you said what about this?
And he said, go away asa just great story, isn't it?
And then you went and then youwent to another expert, more open minded,
ready to actually listen and look andlearn. And the result is you're
(16:53):
here. Look at you. Youlook wonderful. Well I forgot where I
was going to go after. Iwonder a little bit if this is a
particular UK phenomenon just because of ourhealth service that people don't like to question
(17:17):
the doctor. I don't. Idon't know that you might find that is
a problem here in the States aswell. So I'm hoping that it can
shift. But yes, there's stilla lot of people that just don't want
to question them, which we couldprobably go in a whole nother direction and
say, you know, that's whywe had a bunch of people taking shots
(17:40):
that you know, without a wholelot of research or anything. Oh yes,
let's not go there. But yeah, I know, I'm with you
on it. What I'm saying.You know, the US was as bad
or worse than any other country withjust accepting and taking it so well,
actually, what I think and youdo. I'm going to take a break.
(18:00):
But when we come back, Iknow in the book, you give
some examples, which I think isgreat. I think every book should because
I think it allows us the readerto be able to put ourselves in that
position and understand it so much better. So when we come back, I
wonder if you could give us acouple of examples of the growth that people
(18:23):
have gained by making changes, eitherin their diet or in their lifestyle,
whatever it is. But let's talkabout some of those examples that you give.
Yeah, interesting, because our dieto follow on from where we were
just before the break. Please knowthat when we were talking about medications,
(18:44):
because right at the beginning of chapterfour, Jerry Thompson, who's the doctor
who wrote that chapter, gives awonderful example of a chap who was on
multiple medications and was really suffering fromdementia symptom effectively, and when he came
off these particular medications, he wasback to normal. So there's a classic
(19:07):
example there that's about medication. Andas I say, that wasn't my example.
From my point of view, Ithink the biggest examples I have is
when people start to people who inthe early stages of dementia often withdraw from
society. They stopped going to alltheir clubs, and they stop meeting people
(19:32):
because they don't feel they can keepup. They're worried that they're going to
look stupid in conversation and things likethat. And I have found that once
I encourage them to get back intosociety, and one of the ways we
do that is with the cognitive stimulationtherapy. I've found some striking differences in
(19:52):
people in their confidence once they realizethat, you know, they're not going
to be laughed at and they're notgoing to look stud and then they don't
because they get their confidence back andthey're able to take part in society again.
So I think that's quite an interestingexample. Yeah, now explain a
little bit about what you do inthe cognitive stimulation therapy that helps them and
(20:19):
that gives them more confidence in socialstudies. Yeah, this is a therapy
that was still developed a few yearsago. I was trained in it by
a clinical psychologist. It's not acure. We know there's no cure.
But what it does is it justmakes people more confident. It makes them
(20:41):
more relaxed, more able to takepart with other people and to feel that
they're they're still living. People withdemension field. They're losing control of their
lives and they are. They arebecause they can't manage things. This gives
people back a kind of control intheir lives. It's small group therapy.
(21:03):
The groups and no more than tenpeople sometimes feeler and I make sure that
everybody is on a kind of alevel. With dementia. There's difficulties for
everybody, and I let people dothe things they would like to do,
(21:25):
comment on the news, discuss topics, do a bit of reminiscing anything they
want to do. But they're doingit within the group with a couple of
facilitators who are totally totally non judgmental. They're there just to get people to
enjoy what they're doing, and Ihave had really really good feedback. I
(21:48):
very seldom get anybody wanting to leavethe groups. That the problem is.
I build up a waiting list becauseyou know, nobody wants to stop.
And I've had people say that thedeplete their person with dementia is better for
days after attending the group, andthe group's only two hours, so it
(22:10):
shows you the benefit. Wow.I like it, and I know that
when we were talking in the beginning, you mentioned the nonprofit that you've worked
with the charity of organization society,So share a little bit about what kind
of work that you do with them, and are there the same types of
(22:34):
organizations throughout the world. You havean Alzheimer's Society, it's not called Alzheimer's
Society, but you have an Alzheimer'scharity in the in the US. I
don't work directly with Alzheimer's Society now, but I did work for them for
(22:56):
several years in lots of positions.Position was something called a demension navigator,
where I was effectively doing the kindof job i'm doing now, not the
CST, but the other work advisingand giving people information and so on,
and it was brilliant. I willalways be grateful to Alzheimer's Society for the
(23:18):
training and the experience they gave me. Well, I was going to say,
it makes me think of something else, because I know that when I'm
talking to people, if somebody mentionsdementia or they mentioned Alzheimer's, they'll talk
about it like it's two different thingsand share I mean, I believe one
(23:40):
is just a subset of the other, but share a little bit about that
that might clear up that those thoughtsthat people are having. I'd really like
to do that, because you're quiteright. I've actually seen a post on
a social media recently where somebody said, my wife's got Alzheimer's or dementia.
The doctors can't decide, and thatyou know, I want to make this
(24:03):
kar you. You're dead right.Dementia is the name for the symptoms.
So all the symptoms that people get, which is forgetfulness, lost memory,
difficulty in orientation, forgetting how todo things, those are the symptoms and
the name for those symptoms is dementia. Alzheimer's disease is a disease that causes
(24:30):
those symptoms. So dementia is likean umbrella term for the whole lot.
Alzheimer's disease is one type of dementia, and there are they reckon more than
two hundred types of dementia. Yeah, I had no idea. I know,
with my stepfather they said it was. They called it a Luis body.
(24:53):
That's another type of dementia, andit's quite a nasty one actually,
very difficult to manage. Yeah.Yeah, I expect you found that it
particularly affects often the visual visual problems. People often have hallucinations and things like
that. With that particular type ofDIMENSIONA and difficulty moving, it's akin to
(25:17):
Parkinson's. I was just going toask that, I that I'm surprised at
times when people will will talk aboutParkinson's at the same time and so,
but it sounds like it is sortof a cross between, you know,
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, I mean somethinglike that. Yeah, yeah, and
(25:38):
it has it has elements of both. Yes, m So let's let's talk
more about what can we do toto dodger. Let's dodge it. Let's
dodge demon the other Yeah. Okay, So for everybody out there, get
(26:04):
your paper ready. These are someof the things we can do to dige
it. Okay, there are alot of things. What I've tried to
do is explain to people a varietyof things you can do, and then
to allow you to assess really whatyou're prepared to do, because some things
can be quite a big change toyour lifestyle. If you wanted a really
(26:29):
really simple thing to do, it'swhat you touched on earlier. Cut down
on the amount of sugar you eatand drastically cut it. Drastically cut the
amount of sugar you eat and lookat labels, because there is sugar in
the most unbelievable things. You wouldbe really surprised when you start to read
(26:51):
labels on cans and packets. Andakin to that is cutting down on highly
processed food, which is another awhole big another area really of nutrition.
Aside from that, my personal feelingis that you don't want to go down
any weird diet channels. Just you'retalking about keeping a good, very mixed
(27:17):
diet, reduced sugar, reduced processedfood, so fresh food. We can
all do that, but we don'tall want to. Well, can we
add organic in there as well,so that we reduce the intake of pesticides?
And yeah, always always a goodthing because there's quite a lot of
(27:38):
research showing not so much showing pesticideswith dementia, but certainly with that Parkinson's.
That's a very high level of researchis showing there. But I think
it's always good to cut down onthat. So yes, I agree with
you. So that's as regards diet. Second thing, it's just going to
(28:03):
come to that. So we're thinkingalike, exercise. Exercise is really really
important and again we talked about brainexercise earlier, but physical exercise for your
body is more important because physical exercisegood for your health anyway. So if
it's good for your heart, it'sgood for your brain. But also you're
(28:27):
getting more oxygen to your brain.And when you exercise, we can go
back to this, you're trying somethingnew, So you can try a different
form of exercise, or you canrun down a different route than you did
before. You can kill two birdsof one stone if you like. So,
Yeah, exercise and don't stop.Just just keep moving, keep moving,
(28:51):
don't sit around, get up andmove around. I like that.
What about some of the other riskfactors out a whole pollution? Smoking,
Yeah, smoking is one of theones that is now considered really self evident.
I almost didn't have to write aboutit in the book. And pollution
(29:15):
is another area heavily researched, butmore difficult for us to control the risk
because if you live near a busyroad and you're getting polluted air, do
you just move away? I don'tknow, but there's evidence there. I
think you might be interested in aslightly unusual one, and that is uncorrected
(29:37):
hearing loss, very big risk factorfor dementia. Uncorrect hearing lots. Yeah,
and other ones not wearing your hearingaids when you need them. Wow.
Yeah, massive, massive risk factor, and I don't think many people
realize that. Well, there's anotherone now that is is getting more attention,
(30:02):
and I'm wondering if this is alsoa risk factor as we're talking about
dementia, and that is EMFs.Well, it's one of my hobby horses,
and I would I could talk fora long time about that. But
it's another area that I think nobodywants to hear about because nobody wants to
give up their cell phone, nobodywants to switch off their Wi Fi.
(30:26):
And you know, if you livenear a radio mast, how do you
move away. It's an area thatpeople don't want to talk about. But
I'm a strong believer that it makesa huge difference. Well, then let's
talk about it. I agree.I don't care about the people that don't
want to talk about it, youknow, you know, I want to
(30:47):
talk about the things where we canmake a difference. The whole idea is
if we can make a positive differenceby talking about something, then we're going
to do it. We're going todo it. Well, one thing you
can do, everyone can do,switch off the Wi Fi at night,
so simple, totally simple. Ittakes two minutes, switch it off,
switch it on again in the morning, you say electricity as well. There
(31:08):
you go. So that's that's somethingreally simple, isn't it. Yeah?
That simple? What about and I'veheard of this, I've not done it,
but that there is some EMF blockingpaints now that you can get,
like for your badgroom or something.Yes, I've got a son who's very,
very interested in this, so he'sresearched all this stuff and there are
(31:32):
these paints. Yes, they're notalways easy to source, and they're not
always proven, and the colors arelimited, but it could well be worth
investigating something like that. Okay,So now let's go into the kind of
(31:56):
the simplest modifiable factors. Let's talkabout sleep and stress reduction. Well,
sleep, it's it's now been verifiedthat seven hours minimum a night is really
essential. There are loads and loadsof ways you can improve your your sleep
(32:19):
experience if you like. One ofthem, going back to what we've just
said, is to switch off yourphone at night m and never, never,
never sleep with it under your pillow. Do you know how people do
that? I have to confess Iwas at the peak of my working time.
(32:40):
I slept with it under the pillow, but like right next to it.
Next year it was it was inthe bed because the business that I
was in and would get calls inthe middle of the night. And then
once I got a little more knowledgeable, I put it further away. And
now I put it in airplane moderather than switch it off because I use
(33:05):
it as an alarm, so Ijust put it in airplane mode. Airplane
mode. That's a very good compromise. Yeah. Yeah, I switched mine
off at nine o'clock at night,and anyone wants to contact me, they
have to use the landline. Forsome of us, we don't have landlines
anymore. No, that's true.We won't have soon, that's true.
Yes, now you've touched on somethingearlier that I loved, but we didn't
(33:30):
really get a chance to stick withit. And that's the social interaction.
You talked about how some of thepeople shut down, and one of the
things that you're making sure that theydo is continue that. Let's talk about
how important that social interaction is.Yes, it's a major factor for raising
your risk of dementia. And thisis a purely some of the book.
(33:55):
You know, my research is whatI call subjective. It is what I
have experienced. I can't prove itby research papers, but there has been
to me massive evidence that the lackof social stimulation during COVID nineteen really really
affected people badly. So people whowere on the edge of dementia developed it.
(34:21):
People who had dementia got worse.And is subjective, but I meet
dozens of people with dementia every dayand that's what I've seen. I think
it was the worst possible thing thatcould have been done to people. So
that's one element. It can behard to get people who've got dementia to
(34:43):
keep socializing because they find it hard. One thing they can't do is initiate
things, initiate meetings and things.So you do have to have a really
good care companion partner, whoever itis, who will help you with that.
When you've got it, when you'vegot someone who helps you, and
when you can, when you cankeep up your social life. It makes
(35:06):
a market difference. And clubs thesedays, things like Rotary. You have
rotary over there, don't you,Those kind of clubs that there's so much
more tolerant these days, and theyand they will accept. If you come
out and say, look, looki've got a memory problem, you know
that people will make adjustments so thatyou can continue to attend meetings and things
(35:30):
like that. I think I thinkyou have to be upfront and ask for
help. Yeah, And I thinkpart of the message here isn't just to
those people that may be starting togo through some of these things, but
let's talk directly to the friends.Yes, if you have a friend that's
(35:52):
starting to do these things and they'restarting to be more forgetful or things like
that, don't let them share youout. Be that aggressive one that goes,
no, you are coming, I'mpicking I'm picking you up. Yeah,
let me let me take you Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. People don't
want to accept help, but youneed to be offering it and making that
(36:15):
effort. You're right, You're right. Yeah, And you know, be
that, be that kind of friendthat you've you know, you've earned the
right to be able to talk tohim like that. Yeah, more more
of a friend than they know.Yes, well, I mean everything that
we've talked about, you know,some of them, you know, like
you said, a lot of people, you know, you can tell them
and they don't do it, Butit doesn't mean that it's you know that
(36:39):
you know that we shouldn't know it. You know, we shouldn't be aware
of it. We can't make it, you know. It's what's what's the
old saying. You know, youcan lead a horse to rock water,
but you can't make it drink.Okay. For all the other ones that
were smart enough to drink your helpthem, they're still alive. Yeah,
So when we went to break,I would ask you a little bit about
(37:00):
the fact that you talk about thefact that you've been a foreign correspondent I
think it was for about fourteen years, and that you were writing while you
were in these countries I think upto like forty countries. So what are
some of the most memorable stories orexperiences that you had in this very interesting
career. I'd love to know,because I think you've muddeled my bio with
(37:23):
someone else's. Oh oh my god, I think somebody said something, oh
WHOA Okay, then, but Ican tell you why I have chosen to
write yes about what I do,which perhaps is the same thing you're asking
(37:46):
effectively. Yeah, this is becauseworking one to one with people in Alzheimer's
society, I realize how sometimes justone little thing you said to people or
made a massive difference. And Isort of I thought, well, you
know, I'm reaching forty or fiftypeople here. That was my client base.
(38:09):
If I write a book, Ican reach megan numbers of people,
and that's really what set me off. So and unfortunately I enjoy writing,
so it's not at all, butby writing, you can reach so many
more people. Well, let's talka little bit. I know that you
(38:35):
have more books than just Dodging Dementia. Share with us a little bit about
the other books, because it seemedlike they sort of led up to this
one. Yeah, I think that'sprobably true. The very first book in
this in this subject, if youlike that I wrote, was The Essential
(38:59):
Cares Guy, which I wrote aftermy experience looking after my mother in law,
and I then wrote I have writtena series of books on various aspects
of dementia, but also on endof life care and of bereavement, because
that's a big factor. You know, we've got to face the fact that
(39:20):
dementia is a terminal disease, soit's all part and parcel of life.
So I've written a number of booksabout carrying a number of books about end
of life and bereavement, and thebook immediately before this was about mild cognitive
impairment, and then this book ishopefully showing how you can avoid all these
(39:45):
things or dodge them, particularly withreference to mild cognitive impairment, because that's
when people are diagnosed with that,that's often when they start to think,
oh, but I don't want thisto progress to dementia, right, So
that's the time when people often startto think about it seriously. Well,
(40:08):
and we've only got a couple ofminutes, but what would be one piece
of advice that you would give toother caregivers? I know you were a
caregiver, so not only have youwritten a book about it, but you
went through that aspect of it aswell. What's that one piece of advice
you would give those who are currentlylooking after someone with dementia or see that
(40:32):
they're going to be doing this verysoon. Yes, you might be surprised
about the piece of advice that I'mgoing to give, but it is accept
help. But none of us wantwe all want to be independent. We
can manage, thank you, wherewe don't need any help. Thank you.
But when you've got dementia, youdo need help, accept help any
(40:53):
help that's offered, and ask forhelp. That would be a key piece
of advice. But what you're sayingis is that even as the caregiver,
So it sounds like what you're sayingis is that there's potentially a problem that
when you become the caregiver and you'renot accepting help, you're just so focused
(41:15):
on your television on them, andyou're probably not doing them as much good
as you could, as well asnot really taking care of yourself. Is
that kind of where I that's reallyyeah, really well put, really well
put to mention puts a huge stresson the caregiver. It's almost impossible for
(41:37):
somebody who hasn't done it to understandthere's level of stress that the caregiver is
under because it's twenty four to seven. And yes, you're right, you're
going to damage yourself. You're notgoing to be able to give the best
care to the person you're caring for, and all you have to do is
accept help. It's a hard thingto do, actually, but the number
(42:00):
of people who when they have doneit, followed some advice I've given and
done that have said I realize nowI should have done this ages ago.
So it's a small thing, smallpiece of advice. Well, if they're
going to ask for advice, isone of the place to look for advice
(42:21):
obviously is in your book. Ifsomebody wants to get in touch with you,
what is the best way? Isthere information on your website or what
is the best way? Yeah,there is information and contact details on my
website. I am not at themoment insure to accept one to one clients
in the States, but if someonein the States wants to help me in
(42:45):
that direction, I'm very happy toextend by my client base. But people
can certainly contact me. Okay,And and but this show we get people
there calling from all over the world, so so we could get people,
you know, we could get peoplein Europe as well, you know that
(43:05):
would be listening that you might wantto get in touch with you. Go
ahead and give us the website.Yeah, it's very very simple. It's
the w W W of course.And then it's adapt dementia all one word
dementia dot com. Adapt dementia dotcom. For those of you that are
driving, don't worry, we'll putthis in the I don't feel like you
(43:30):
have to do anything, so Mary, thank you so much, and again
not just for coming on the show, but for writing a book and for
really making a positive difference in thelives of others. Thank you very much
for having me. I've really enjoyedthis interview. Thank you my pleasure.
(43:51):
Take care. Don't think that that
Thank you for joining us, andwelcome to another edition of Answers Network.
I'm your host Alan Cardoza. Nowtoday we're going to be talking about Dodging
Dementia. It's a book that isbased on the author's professional and personal experience
of working with people with dementia andtheir families. It is written in a
clear and accessible style, with casestudies and examples to illustrate the points.
(00:31):
A book that is for anyone whowants to learn more about dementia and how
to manage or better yet avoid it. Now joining us from the UK is
Mary Jordan, a director and founderof Adapt Dementia Limited and through her books
trainings. In this interview, Maryshares crucial revelations about dementia. First and
(00:55):
foremost to me is that it's notinevitable now with new groundbreaking research, Dodging
Dementia guides us through how to accessour personal risk or the risk of a
loved one. Mary's ability to useher first hand experience to illuminate points in
the training makes her an inspirational andmotivational trainer. Her specialist area is delivering
(01:22):
cognitive stimulation therapy to those in earlystage dementia. Mary Welcome to Answers Network.
Good to be here. Thank youvery much for asking me. Well,
it is my pleasure. It isan area that I'm very interested in,
and I've gotten much more interested inprobably over the last five or six
(01:42):
years. Now. I know thatyou have a personal experience in this area,
so I think to start, whydon't you share your experience and how
it affected your choices to get soinvolved in this area. Yeah, said
ok. I had some personal experiencebecause my mother in law developed dementia.
(02:04):
That was my first experience really ofany of it. And following that I
just became more interested. I wrotemy original book, which is called The
Essential Care as Guide. Then Ihad the opportunity to join a UK charity,
(02:25):
which is Alzheimer's Society, and I'llalways be grateful to them for the
vast amount of training and experience theygave me. And through them, I
just met so many people with dementia, so many cares, so many families.
I then wanted to just really spreadmy experience. Well, it seems
(02:49):
as though it is something that haschanged over the years, So share with
us a little bit about what dowe know about dementia now and how has
it changed either over the years thatyou've been looking at it, or even
before that as you were studying itand learning where it started then and how
we've gotten to the point we arenow. Yes, this is quite interesting
(03:15):
because in some ways we don't knowanymore about dementia than we knew years and
years ago. We still don't knowwhat cause is it which, and dodging
dementia is just talking about reducing yourrisk factors. We do know now far
more about the risk factors, thefactors that influence whether you will get dementia,
(03:38):
but we can't pinpoint a cause.It's thought now that the causes are
multi factorial, that you know anumber of things in your life make you
more at risk and then more likelyto get dementia. We still don't really
know. Well, we have aquestion that came in and I want to
(03:59):
take this time to thank those peoplethat take the time. I know that
we have many teachers, we havemany people that listen to or watch the
show, and they watch it lateron so they're unable to either call in
or to send in a message duringthe show. So they receive our press
release and we'll send in questions andask that we can ask the question on
(04:21):
the air and then they'll listen lateron. But this one, I think
goes right to what you were justtalking about. This one reads my mother
passed away from a long bout withdementia. I've heard many medical influencers say
that dementia is genetic. Others pointto lifestyle. What is your belief on
(04:41):
causation and if much of it islifestyle, what are the key lifestyle changes
or interventions that can reduce the riskof developing dementia and how can they be
implemented in our daily life? Andthis is from Helen and Omaha, Nebraska.
One hell of a question, isn'tit? Firstly, to deal with
(05:05):
the genetic side. There is agenetic element to dementia. You can inherit
certain genes that raise your risk ofgetting dementia, and depending on the variations
of the genes you inherit can raiseyour risk up to fifty percent. But
having said that, it's still notinevitable that you will get dementia. So
(05:30):
we're just talking again about a raisedrisk. So it's a good question because
if you've got several relatives who've developeddementia, then it's worth thinking about that.
Side of it, if it's justone, if it's just your mum,
just your dad, a bit different. Well, how about as how
(05:54):
much of lifestyle or diet gets weighedinto this, and not even just from
us. But let's say that we'relooking at a relative that you know that
did have dementia, but their theirdiet was that of many of us through
the seventies eighty, you know,and you know I know that from my
(06:18):
standpoint. I mean, my momthought it was perfectly reasonable, you know,
to give us the whatever sugary cerealwe wanted from the cereal aisle,
you know, or anyway things likethat. I know that my my stepdad
passed away from this, and buthe went through a period of time that
(06:41):
I remember that he he loved icedtea, but he had the sweet tea,
so there was a ton of sugarin that. So so do we
look at the the the risk factorsthat they had, uh, and does
that change anything as we're weighing.In my case, it wouldn't be genetic
because he was a stepfather. Butfor those that are, how do we
(07:04):
weigh that with what their diet was? And then how do we reduce that
by focusing on our diet or ourlifestyle. Interesting way of putting it,
I wouldn't necessarily look at what thelifestyle was of the people who had dementia
(07:27):
in comparison to now. I wouldlook at the research that shows whether we
can make changes to our diet nowthat would influence the possibility of getting dementia.
I don't think it's probably rather difficultto compare your diet with diets in
the past, because that just relieson hearsay, so on the whole,
(07:50):
I can see your point. Whatyou're trying to say is if you look
at the lifestyle of the people who'vehad dementia, who are your relatives,
can we sort of make it justin that way? And yes, we
can to to like two lifestyle points. Yes we can, And that's that's
generally covered. Yes, yeah,okay, well let's I think let's let's
(08:13):
talk more about let's talk about someof the myths and the misconceptions about dementia.
And and I know in your bookyou you you debunk some of them.
Share sure some of these and andwhy you were able to debunk them,
Well, very common one is peoplesaying use it or lose it,
(08:37):
And and there's truth in that.There's truth in that, but but it's
this the idea that in fact,I'll give you an example. One husband
of one of my clients some timeago said to me, well, I
don't think there can be much wrongwith her because she can still beat me
at saduko and she was still ableto do saduco for a long long time,
(09:01):
quite happily. But that just meansthat her brain had practiced doing saduco
so much that she was really goodat saduco. It didn't mean that she
was developing her brain and exercising herbrain. So I think one of them
is is this idea that if youdo lots of crosswords you're never going to
(09:22):
get dementia. I think that's oneof the ideas I might have debunked.
Yeah, and actually that was oneof the things that I remembered reading because
it was one of the things thatI've heard. I've heard that for as
long as i can remember, youknow. And you know, I've got
a brother in law that does thesuduku and he's like, well, I'm
just making sure that I'm exercising thebrain as well as the body. Yeah,
(09:45):
I mean, it's a good thing. It's not. I'm not suggesting
it's a bad thing to do thosethings. But if you do lots of
crosswords, it will just make youbetter at doing crosswords. What you really
need to do is new things justto stretch your mind, stretch your brain.
So it's a bit different. Okay, well that but that's a great
(10:05):
point. So what I hear yousaying is is that you know, do
different things. You know. Iread somewhere where someone had said, you
know, if you never learned howto play a musical instrument, learn how
to play a musical instrument, becauseit's an area that you haven't exercised in
your brain. And that kind ofmade sense to me. Would you a
(10:28):
brain? Yeah, I think that'sa really good example. Actually, we
can't all learn to play a musicalinstrument, but right, it's a very
good example because you learning to playan instrument means that you use a different
area of the brain. As hesays, that this has been lying neglected.
Really, but you can also dosomething you like learn another language.
(10:52):
You can make the effort to readbooks you wouldn't normally choose to read,
to watch progress as you wouldn't normallychoose to watch your films, to go
to places you wouldn't choose to go, just just stretching your mind. I
use the word stretching because the termis brain plasticity, literally expanding and stretching
(11:18):
your mind. And I think wecan all do things like that, and
it's hard to do as you getolder. You don't want to do new
things. You want to go tothe same grocery store, You want to
stop at the same filling station.You don't. You don't, you don't
choose to do new things. SoI think that's a really worthwhile thing to
think about. Now. One ofthe things you talk about that I really
(11:41):
liked in the book was confidence.Talk a little bit about how the book
equips readers with sort of a newfoundconfidence in assessing theirs or their loved ones
risks, and talk about with someof the positive impacts that you have seen
from people, either through you know, through you working with them, or
(12:03):
just through them reading the book.This is an interesting another very interesting question
because one of the things I findis that you can give people all the
advice in China, you can tellthem everything in the book, and really,
really strangely, fifty percent of peoplewon't do anything, So you're you
(12:26):
know you're right. If you doanything, you're making a difference. But
people need to have the confidence todo something and not just to think,
oh, it won't happen to me. Maybe it won't happen to me.
I don't have to worry too much. I think I think it's making the
effort. Okay, So if you'vegot fifty percent of the people, they're
(12:48):
reading the book, but they're notreally making any changes. What are some
of the changes that are suggested thatpeople are choosing not to do. Is
this more from a diet standpoint alifestyle standpoint? What are you seeing?
One of the very important things Ithink is to check your medications, because
(13:13):
there are medications that affect your cognition, and they are some of them are
very common medications that doctors will justgive out and are given to people.
I can't I'm not going to specifywhich ones because that's in chapter four,
which is written by a doctor who'svery specific. But there are some medications
(13:35):
that are given very commonly to olderpeople that can affect your cognition, and
I advise people have a look atthe evidence, go back to your doctor
and talk about whether this is agood medicine for you to be taking.
Nobody ever, does I think they'refrightened to ask their doctor. Well,
(13:56):
if I can interject in that area, I believe I'm just the opposite because
I I had a health problem.Now it's been six eight months ago,
and they put me on four medicationsand I felt great. Right after the
(14:16):
operation. I felt wonderful and Iwas ready to go home. I said,
I feel wonderful, Let's do this, and they said, no,
you got to say another night,and we have to give you these prescriptions.
So they gave me the prescriptions.After about a week of taking them,
I felt terrible, terrible, andI so I went to my cardiologist
and said, this isn't working forme, and I did some of my
(14:41):
own research. I'm a detective atheart, so you know, I did
my research and I listed I gavehim a list of more natural products that
would do the same thing as thepharmaceuticals that he gave me. And he
told me to quit asking questions,stay off the internet, that he's been
(15:01):
doing this for fifty years, andjust do what I tell you. So
that was the last time he wasmy doctor. I then went to the
doctor that actually did the procedure,who was about thirty years younger, and
(15:22):
went down and I showed him everythingmy research and he said, give me
about a week to check all ofthis out. You've got a lot here,
he says, let me check itout and then I'll get back to
you. But in the meantime,stay on what the other doctor puts you
on. He went through all ofit, came back to me and said,
you're fine to make every change thatyou had. So there was a
(15:46):
there was a natural replacement for eachone of those pharmaceuticals. I changed all
of them and I went back tofeeling myself again. So I love the
fact that you're touching on that,are there some air is that you have
found where where there's a more naturalreplacement for a particular pharmaceutical drug that that
(16:11):
they're giving people. Well, I'mvery interested in herbal medicine myself, so
I've often looked things up. Butagain, I wouldn't like to commit to
an individual, you know, likefor like thing. But I think what
you've to done it's a wonderful storybecause what you've said is you did your
(16:32):
research, you presented it to theexpert and you said what about this?
And he said, go away asa just great story, isn't it?
And then you went and then youwent to another expert, more open minded,
ready to actually listen and look andlearn. And the result is you're
(16:53):
here. Look at you. Youlook wonderful. Well I forgot where I
was going to go after. Iwonder a little bit if this is a
particular UK phenomenon just because of ourhealth service that people don't like to question
(17:17):
the doctor. I don't. Idon't know that you might find that is
a problem here in the States aswell. So I'm hoping that it can
shift. But yes, there's stilla lot of people that just don't want
to question them, which we couldprobably go in a whole nother direction and
say, you know, that's whywe had a bunch of people taking shots
(17:40):
that you know, without a wholelot of research or anything. Oh yes,
let's not go there. But yeah, I know, I'm with you
on it. What I'm saying.You know, the US was as bad
or worse than any other country withjust accepting and taking it so well,
actually, what I think and youdo. I'm going to take a break.
(18:00):
But when we come back, Iknow in the book, you give
some examples, which I think isgreat. I think every book should because
I think it allows us the readerto be able to put ourselves in that
position and understand it so much better. So when we come back, I
wonder if you could give us acouple of examples of the growth that people
(18:23):
have gained by making changes, eitherin their diet or in their lifestyle,
whatever it is. But let's talkabout some of those examples that you give.
Yeah, interesting, because our dieto follow on from where we were
just before the break. Please knowthat when we were talking about medications,
(18:44):
because right at the beginning of chapterfour, Jerry Thompson, who's the doctor
who wrote that chapter, gives awonderful example of a chap who was on
multiple medications and was really suffering fromdementia symptom effectively, and when he came
off these particular medications, he wasback to normal. So there's a classic
(19:07):
example there that's about medication. Andas I say, that wasn't my example.
From my point of view, Ithink the biggest examples I have is
when people start to people who inthe early stages of dementia often withdraw from
society. They stopped going to alltheir clubs, and they stop meeting people
(19:32):
because they don't feel they can keepup. They're worried that they're going to
look stupid in conversation and things likethat. And I have found that once
I encourage them to get back intosociety, and one of the ways we
do that is with the cognitive stimulationtherapy. I've found some striking differences in
(19:52):
people in their confidence once they realizethat, you know, they're not going
to be laughed at and they're notgoing to look stud and then they don't
because they get their confidence back andthey're able to take part in society again.
So I think that's quite an interestingexample. Yeah, now explain a
little bit about what you do inthe cognitive stimulation therapy that helps them and
(20:19):
that gives them more confidence in socialstudies. Yeah, this is a therapy
that was still developed a few yearsago. I was trained in it by
a clinical psychologist. It's not acure. We know there's no cure.
But what it does is it justmakes people more confident. It makes them
(20:41):
more relaxed, more able to takepart with other people and to feel that
they're they're still living. People withdemension field. They're losing control of their
lives and they are. They arebecause they can't manage things. This gives
people back a kind of control intheir lives. It's small group therapy.
(21:03):
The groups and no more than tenpeople sometimes feeler and I make sure that
everybody is on a kind of alevel. With dementia. There's difficulties for
everybody, and I let people dothe things they would like to do,
(21:25):
comment on the news, discuss topics, do a bit of reminiscing anything they
want to do. But they're doingit within the group with a couple of
facilitators who are totally totally non judgmental. They're there just to get people to
enjoy what they're doing, and Ihave had really really good feedback. I
(21:48):
very seldom get anybody wanting to leavethe groups. That the problem is.
I build up a waiting list becauseyou know, nobody wants to stop.
And I've had people say that thedeplete their person with dementia is better for
days after attending the group, andthe group's only two hours, so it
(22:10):
shows you the benefit. Wow.I like it, and I know that
when we were talking in the beginning, you mentioned the nonprofit that you've worked
with the charity of organization society,So share a little bit about what kind
of work that you do with them, and are there the same types of
(22:34):
organizations throughout the world. You havean Alzheimer's Society, it's not called Alzheimer's
Society, but you have an Alzheimer'scharity in the in the US. I
don't work directly with Alzheimer's Society now, but I did work for them for
(22:56):
several years in lots of positions.Position was something called a demension navigator,
where I was effectively doing the kindof job i'm doing now, not the
CST, but the other work advisingand giving people information and so on,
and it was brilliant. I willalways be grateful to Alzheimer's Society for the
(23:18):
training and the experience they gave me. Well, I was going to say,
it makes me think of something else, because I know that when I'm
talking to people, if somebody mentionsdementia or they mentioned Alzheimer's, they'll talk
about it like it's two different thingsand share I mean, I believe one
(23:40):
is just a subset of the other, but share a little bit about that
that might clear up that those thoughtsthat people are having. I'd really like
to do that, because you're quiteright. I've actually seen a post on
a social media recently where somebody said, my wife's got Alzheimer's or dementia.
The doctors can't decide, and thatyou know, I want to make this
(24:03):
kar you. You're dead right.Dementia is the name for the symptoms.
So all the symptoms that people get, which is forgetfulness, lost memory,
difficulty in orientation, forgetting how todo things, those are the symptoms and
the name for those symptoms is dementia. Alzheimer's disease is a disease that causes
(24:30):
those symptoms. So dementia is likean umbrella term for the whole lot.
Alzheimer's disease is one type of dementia, and there are they reckon more than
two hundred types of dementia. Yeah, I had no idea. I know,
with my stepfather they said it was. They called it a Luis body.
(24:53):
That's another type of dementia, andit's quite a nasty one actually,
very difficult to manage. Yeah.Yeah, I expect you found that it
particularly affects often the visual visual problems. People often have hallucinations and things like
that. With that particular type ofDIMENSIONA and difficulty moving, it's akin to
(25:17):
Parkinson's. I was just going toask that, I that I'm surprised at
times when people will will talk aboutParkinson's at the same time and so,
but it sounds like it is sortof a cross between, you know,
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, I mean somethinglike that. Yeah, yeah, and
(25:38):
it has it has elements of both. Yes, m So let's let's talk
more about what can we do toto dodger. Let's dodge it. Let's
dodge demon the other Yeah. Okay, So for everybody out there, get
(26:04):
your paper ready. These are someof the things we can do to dige
it. Okay, there are alot of things. What I've tried to
do is explain to people a varietyof things you can do, and then
to allow you to assess really whatyou're prepared to do, because some things
can be quite a big change toyour lifestyle. If you wanted a really
(26:29):
really simple thing to do, it'swhat you touched on earlier. Cut down
on the amount of sugar you eatand drastically cut it. Drastically cut the
amount of sugar you eat and lookat labels, because there is sugar in
the most unbelievable things. You wouldbe really surprised when you start to read
(26:51):
labels on cans and packets. Andakin to that is cutting down on highly
processed food, which is another awhole big another area really of nutrition.
Aside from that, my personal feelingis that you don't want to go down
any weird diet channels. Just you'retalking about keeping a good, very mixed
(27:17):
diet, reduced sugar, reduced processedfood, so fresh food. We can
all do that, but we don'tall want to. Well, can we
add organic in there as well,so that we reduce the intake of pesticides?
And yeah, always always a goodthing because there's quite a lot of
(27:38):
research showing not so much showing pesticideswith dementia, but certainly with that Parkinson's.
That's a very high level of researchis showing there. But I think
it's always good to cut down onthat. So yes, I agree with
you. So that's as regards diet. Second thing, it's just going to
(28:03):
come to that. So we're thinkingalike, exercise. Exercise is really really
important and again we talked about brainexercise earlier, but physical exercise for your
body is more important because physical exercisegood for your health anyway. So if
it's good for your heart, it'sgood for your brain. But also you're
(28:27):
getting more oxygen to your brain.And when you exercise, we can go
back to this, you're trying somethingnew, So you can try a different
form of exercise, or you canrun down a different route than you did
before. You can kill two birdsof one stone if you like. So,
Yeah, exercise and don't stop.Just just keep moving, keep moving,
(28:51):
don't sit around, get up andmove around. I like that.
What about some of the other riskfactors out a whole pollution? Smoking,
Yeah, smoking is one of theones that is now considered really self evident.
I almost didn't have to write aboutit in the book. And pollution
(29:15):
is another area heavily researched, butmore difficult for us to control the risk
because if you live near a busyroad and you're getting polluted air, do
you just move away? I don'tknow, but there's evidence there. I
think you might be interested in aslightly unusual one, and that is uncorrected
(29:37):
hearing loss, very big risk factorfor dementia. Uncorrect hearing lots. Yeah,
and other ones not wearing your hearingaids when you need them. Wow.
Yeah, massive, massive risk factor, and I don't think many people
realize that. Well, there's anotherone now that is is getting more attention,
(30:02):
and I'm wondering if this is alsoa risk factor as we're talking about
dementia, and that is EMFs.Well, it's one of my hobby horses,
and I would I could talk fora long time about that. But
it's another area that I think nobodywants to hear about because nobody wants to
give up their cell phone, nobodywants to switch off their Wi Fi.
(30:26):
And you know, if you livenear a radio mast, how do you
move away. It's an area thatpeople don't want to talk about. But
I'm a strong believer that it makesa huge difference. Well, then let's
talk about it. I agree.I don't care about the people that don't
want to talk about it, youknow, you know, I want to
(30:47):
talk about the things where we canmake a difference. The whole idea is
if we can make a positive differenceby talking about something, then we're going
to do it. We're going todo it. Well, one thing you
can do, everyone can do,switch off the Wi Fi at night,
so simple, totally simple. Ittakes two minutes, switch it off,
switch it on again in the morning, you say electricity as well. There
(31:08):
you go. So that's that's somethingreally simple, isn't it. Yeah?
That simple? What about and I'veheard of this, I've not done it,
but that there is some EMF blockingpaints now that you can get,
like for your badgroom or something.Yes, I've got a son who's very,
very interested in this, so he'sresearched all this stuff and there are
(31:32):
these paints. Yes, they're notalways easy to source, and they're not
always proven, and the colors arelimited, but it could well be worth
investigating something like that. Okay,So now let's go into the kind of
(31:56):
the simplest modifiable factors. Let's talkabout sleep and stress reduction. Well,
sleep, it's it's now been verifiedthat seven hours minimum a night is really
essential. There are loads and loadsof ways you can improve your your sleep
(32:19):
experience if you like. One ofthem, going back to what we've just
said, is to switch off yourphone at night m and never, never,
never sleep with it under your pillow. Do you know how people do
that? I have to confess Iwas at the peak of my working time.
(32:40):
I slept with it under the pillow, but like right next to it.
Next year it was it was inthe bed because the business that I
was in and would get calls inthe middle of the night. And then
once I got a little more knowledgeable, I put it further away. And
now I put it in airplane moderather than switch it off because I use
(33:05):
it as an alarm, so Ijust put it in airplane mode. Airplane
mode. That's a very good compromise. Yeah. Yeah, I switched mine
off at nine o'clock at night,and anyone wants to contact me, they
have to use the landline. Forsome of us, we don't have landlines
anymore. No, that's true.We won't have soon, that's true.
Yes, now you've touched on somethingearlier that I loved, but we didn't
(33:30):
really get a chance to stick withit. And that's the social interaction.
You talked about how some of thepeople shut down, and one of the
things that you're making sure that theydo is continue that. Let's talk about
how important that social interaction is.Yes, it's a major factor for raising
your risk of dementia. And thisis a purely some of the book.
(33:55):
You know, my research is whatI call subjective. It is what I
have experienced. I can't prove itby research papers, but there has been
to me massive evidence that the lackof social stimulation during COVID nineteen really really
affected people badly. So people whowere on the edge of dementia developed it.
(34:21):
People who had dementia got worse.And is subjective, but I meet
dozens of people with dementia every dayand that's what I've seen. I think
it was the worst possible thing thatcould have been done to people. So
that's one element. It can behard to get people who've got dementia to
(34:43):
keep socializing because they find it hard. One thing they can't do is initiate
things, initiate meetings and things.So you do have to have a really
good care companion partner, whoever itis, who will help you with that.
When you've got it, when you'vegot someone who helps you, and
when you can, when you cankeep up your social life. It makes
(35:06):
a market difference. And clubs thesedays, things like Rotary. You have
rotary over there, don't you,Those kind of clubs that there's so much
more tolerant these days, and theyand they will accept. If you come
out and say, look, looki've got a memory problem, you know
that people will make adjustments so thatyou can continue to attend meetings and things
(35:30):
like that. I think I thinkyou have to be upfront and ask for
help. Yeah, And I thinkpart of the message here isn't just to
those people that may be starting togo through some of these things, but
let's talk directly to the friends.Yes, if you have a friend that's
(35:52):
starting to do these things and they'restarting to be more forgetful or things like
that, don't let them share youout. Be that aggressive one that goes,
no, you are coming, I'mpicking I'm picking you up. Yeah,
let me let me take you Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. People don't
want to accept help, but youneed to be offering it and making that
(36:15):
effort. You're right, You're right. Yeah, And you know, be
that, be that kind of friendthat you've you know, you've earned the
right to be able to talk tohim like that. Yeah, more more
of a friend than they know.Yes, well, I mean everything that
we've talked about, you know,some of them, you know, like
you said, a lot of people, you know, you can tell them
and they don't do it, Butit doesn't mean that it's you know that
(36:39):
you know that we shouldn't know it. You know, we shouldn't be aware
of it. We can't make it, you know. It's what's what's the
old saying. You know, youcan lead a horse to rock water,
but you can't make it drink.Okay. For all the other ones that
were smart enough to drink your helpthem, they're still alive. Yeah,
So when we went to break,I would ask you a little bit about
(37:00):
the fact that you talk about thefact that you've been a foreign correspondent I
think it was for about fourteen years, and that you were writing while you
were in these countries I think upto like forty countries. So what are
some of the most memorable stories orexperiences that you had in this very interesting
career. I'd love to know,because I think you've muddeled my bio with
(37:23):
someone else's. Oh oh my god, I think somebody said something, oh
WHOA Okay, then, but Ican tell you why I have chosen to
write yes about what I do,which perhaps is the same thing you're asking
(37:46):
effectively. Yeah, this is becauseworking one to one with people in Alzheimer's
society, I realize how sometimes justone little thing you said to people or
made a massive difference. And Isort of I thought, well, you
know, I'm reaching forty or fiftypeople here. That was my client base.
(38:09):
If I write a book, Ican reach megan numbers of people,
and that's really what set me off. So and unfortunately I enjoy writing,
so it's not at all, butby writing, you can reach so many
more people. Well, let's talka little bit. I know that you
(38:35):
have more books than just Dodging Dementia. Share with us a little bit about
the other books, because it seemedlike they sort of led up to this
one. Yeah, I think that'sprobably true. The very first book in
this in this subject, if youlike that I wrote, was The Essential
(38:59):
Cares Guy, which I wrote aftermy experience looking after my mother in law,
and I then wrote I have writtena series of books on various aspects
of dementia, but also on endof life care and of bereavement, because
that's a big factor. You know, we've got to face the fact that
(39:20):
dementia is a terminal disease, soit's all part and parcel of life.
So I've written a number of booksabout carrying a number of books about end
of life and bereavement, and thebook immediately before this was about mild cognitive
impairment, and then this book ishopefully showing how you can avoid all these
(39:45):
things or dodge them, particularly withreference to mild cognitive impairment, because that's
when people are diagnosed with that,that's often when they start to think,
oh, but I don't want thisto progress to dementia, right, So
that's the time when people often startto think about it seriously. Well,
(40:08):
and we've only got a couple ofminutes, but what would be one piece
of advice that you would give toother caregivers? I know you were a
caregiver, so not only have youwritten a book about it, but you
went through that aspect of it aswell. What's that one piece of advice
you would give those who are currentlylooking after someone with dementia or see that
(40:32):
they're going to be doing this verysoon. Yes, you might be surprised
about the piece of advice that I'mgoing to give, but it is accept
help. But none of us wantwe all want to be independent. We
can manage, thank you, wherewe don't need any help. Thank you.
But when you've got dementia, youdo need help, accept help any
(40:53):
help that's offered, and ask forhelp. That would be a key piece
of advice. But what you're sayingis is that even as the caregiver,
So it sounds like what you're sayingis is that there's potentially a problem that
when you become the caregiver and you'renot accepting help, you're just so focused
(41:15):
on your television on them, andyou're probably not doing them as much good
as you could, as well asnot really taking care of yourself. Is
that kind of where I that's reallyyeah, really well put, really well
put to mention puts a huge stresson the caregiver. It's almost impossible for
(41:37):
somebody who hasn't done it to understandthere's level of stress that the caregiver is
under because it's twenty four to seven. And yes, you're right, you're
going to damage yourself. You're notgoing to be able to give the best
care to the person you're caring for, and all you have to do is
accept help. It's a hard thingto do, actually, but the number
(42:00):
of people who when they have doneit, followed some advice I've given and
done that have said I realize nowI should have done this ages ago.
So it's a small thing, smallpiece of advice. Well, if they're
going to ask for advice, isone of the place to look for advice
(42:21):
obviously is in your book. Ifsomebody wants to get in touch with you,
what is the best way? Isthere information on your website or what
is the best way? Yeah,there is information and contact details on my
website. I am not at themoment insure to accept one to one clients
in the States, but if someonein the States wants to help me in
(42:45):
that direction, I'm very happy toextend by my client base. But people
can certainly contact me. Okay,And and but this show we get people
there calling from all over the world, so so we could get people,
you know, we could get peoplein Europe as well, you know that
(43:05):
would be listening that you might wantto get in touch with you. Go
ahead and give us the website.Yeah, it's very very simple. It's
the w W W of course.And then it's adapt dementia all one word
dementia dot com. Adapt dementia dotcom. For those of you that are
driving, don't worry, we'll putthis in the I don't feel like you
(43:30):
have to do anything, so Mary, thank you so much, and again
not just for coming on the show, but for writing a book and for
really making a positive difference in thelives of others. Thank you very much
for having me. I've really enjoyedthis interview. Thank you my pleasure.
(43:51):
Take care. Don't think that that
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