What is early onset dementia ?
How would you feel if one day you wake up and forget your whole identity? Dementia is often seen as an inevitability of the old age.
But what if it become a constant companion in your youth as well? Dementia is considered to be early onset if it’s signs develop anytime before 65 years of age. Many people have now started showing signs of early dementia in their 40s and 50s and this is of growing concern!
We lead such busy lives with multitude of things done routinely without us consciously putting an effort for it, just running on autopilot at the back of our minds. But what if, one fine day you find your slate wiped out clean? Think of being stranded on an island with no one and nothing but white sand all around. How calm/ serene/ lonely/ frustrated/ disoriented and helpless would you feel? That’s what most people living with dementia go through day in and day out. It’s a very unpleasant state to be in for both the individual and their near and dear ones.
Early onset dementia signs
1. Forgetful of recent events- forgetting to attend the seminar that you were preparing for all these days, forget to attend an all important work call/meeting, missing events and family functions and realising it much later.
2. Not remembering where you keep your keys, your phone, your remote and bag. But more importantly not able to trace back the steps to find out where you have left it in the first place.
3. Unable to carry out simple tasks- forgetting how to make tea/coffee or your favourite recipe, unable to remember your shopping list.
4. Disoriented about time, place and person- mixing up the date and the year, forgetting the season, forgetting which place you were headed to
5. Problems with money- overspending or unable to follow through with a budget, poor financial management, forgetful about paying bills on time
6. Increasingly preferring to be left alone, not contributing to conversations with others, unable to join conversations, losing the train of thought midway.
7. Trouble speaking- getting the right words, forgetting names, popular events, and person suddenly facing difficulty in forming meaningful sentences.
8. Changes in mood- getting increasingly frustrated, angry and irritated over minor issues.
9. Difficulty in understanding images, gauging depth and colour contrast. Such individuals might have trouble driving vehicles, have trouble swimming and feel frustrated when asked to travel long distances.
10. Disturbance in hand eye coordination- so activities like brushing, combing hair, eating may suddenly seem difficult.
Do you have these risk factors of dementia?
1. Are you a couch potato? we think of carrying out physical activity for our body and physique. Working out our brains is equally important if not more. Nowadays mindless hours are spent watching Insta reels and YouTube shorts in social media. Occasional indulgence like this is completely fine but doing it daily for long periods of time will surely fatigue your brain. Studies have shown that watching moderate to high television during midlife is associated with almost a 24percent higher risk of developing memory loss at an earlier age! That’s a staggering fact and should make us jump out of our couches!
2. Are you a smoker?Now smoking is an independent risk factor for many non-communicable disease like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and stroke. But did you know that every time you light up that cigarette you are 30 percent more likely to develop early onset dementia? Why because smoke releases a chemical called homocysteine in the blood which is very toxic for your brain and it’s blood vessels. Smoking also leads to higher oxidative stress causing inflammation and death of valuable brain tissue. Now if you are not a smoker but are around someone who smokes in your presence, you are also 25 percent more likely to develop early onset dementia. Second hand smoking is just as dangerous!
3. Are you employed in these occupations? Numerous studies have shown that certain occupations like those involving hard physical labour like construction workers, grocery shelf stockers and cashiers have a higher chance of developing fronto-temporal dementia.While every job has its pros and cons the part of the brain which is actively involved in teaching and maintaining social interactions may be comparatively lesser engaged in these occupations leading to disuse atrophy of brain. On the contrary jobs that involve extensive peer- interactions, mentoring and teaching, decision making are best for protecting your brain health. Say three cheers for teachers, lawyers, administrators and social workers!
4. Do you have these midlife crisis? if you have developed diabetes, hypertension or obesity during your mid 30s and 40s there is an imbalance in the insulin mechanism and greater inflammations causing higher cognitive brain damage. Keep these lifestyle diseases at bay by actively screening for them, incorporating healthy lifestyle choices in your physical activity and diet and take medications to keep them under control.
5. Do you have any mental health problems? Are you facing issues related to sleeping soundly at night and in a relatively low mood during day time? Depression can cause further social isolation and lesser interactions with your friends and family. It is a known risk factor to develop early onset dementia and must be treated appropriately at the right time.
What can you do now to save you from early onset dementia ?
1. Exercise exercise exercise- it’s not just for your physical health but also a way to keep your brain active. Exercise releases happy hormones and reduces stress hormones like cortisol. Cortisol is known to be detrimental to our mental capacity. So remember to pack in some daily exercises into your routine to remember better later. Walking, running and swimming are all great for the body and mind.
2. Mind games- playing board games was a popular pass time in our childhood but sadly it has been replaced by passive screen viewing. Get back to board games, solve jigsaw puzzles with your children, solve the cross word or sudoku from your daily newspaper. Even a 20minutes brain stimulating activity will help to keep early onset dementia and Alzheimer’s at bay!
3. Eating healthy- incorporating the right micronutrients in our diet will help our brains to work optimally. Most people with Alzheimer’s and dementia have Vitamin B12 deficiency. This deficiency is especially noticed among people who have a predominantly vegetarian diet. So taking the right supplements if you are a vegetarian would help. Foods like green leafy vegetables, fish, berries, nuts should be a regular component in our plates to help boost our memory and brain capacity.
4. Plenty of sun exposure- among the other micronutrients which are helpful to ward off dementia we have vitamin D deficiency. Adequate sun exposure is the easiest way to correct this deficiency. However for those who work a 9-5 job and just juggling busy lives even a 30minute walk in the sun looks like a serious ask. So a weekly supplemental vitamin D consumption available over the counter can help counter this need.
5. Reduced screen time- screen time is proving to be dangerous for all ages. We know how passive screen time are counter productive for children and leads to delayed attainment of developmental milestones. Watching screens can make the child to talk late, walk late and communicate poorly with their care givers. But the ill effects are not restricted to children alone. A lot of us equate screen time with “me time”. Binging on the latest series and movies, reading, learning and entertainment is now all through the screens. ‘Digital dementia’ is the term which is coined for those who develop dementia due to excess tech and screen time. So as an adult limit your screen time to less than 2 hours per day. Screen time can exhaust your limited mental reserve and also cause poor attention and concentration! The result is aggressive behaviour and a totally confused memory!
6. Keeping comorbidities under control- many of us are developing diseases like diabetes, hypertension and high blood cholesterol values at a younger age say early 30s. It’s very important for a younger person to keep these values under control to protect his internal organs from extensive damage. Delaying initiation of therapy and believing that nothing will go wrong is very counterproductive. Poorly controlled diabetic and hypertensive patients can land up in micro strokes in the brain and increased risk of dementia at an early age.
7. Keep on reading- reading a book unlike watching a movie helps engage your brain actively. We tend to imagine the characters and play out those conversations in our brain. Many of us are now rediscovering the childhood joy of reading books. Start with light fiction if you find reading tedious. Read books on your kindle device if you don’t miss the touch and feel of paperbacks. What is your book count this year? Let this be a conversation starter at your next party!
If you are already on your way to develop dementia, what can you do?
1. Start journaling – ‘brain dumping’ is a wonderful way to put down all those chaotic thoughts in your brain onto paper. Somehow jotting your ‘to do lists’ on paper relieves the stress on your brain and conserves precious ‘brain space’ to remember more important things for posterity. It almost feels like resetting the computer to factory settings! You will feel a lot lighter after it. So try doing this at the beginning of every week.
2. Set a routine- maintain a very good daily routine even if you are not heading to work outside and are working from home or a homemaker. Setting a routine makes things much easier and eliminates the need for constantly trying to remember ‘what is the next thing to do’.
3. Automate your life- not everything needs to be remembered. Take stock of the situation and start automating your life. Set up reminders for birthdays and important events in your calendar so that you don’t miss them. Jot down important meetings onto your calendar the instant you get an invite. Automate your bill and loan payments to avoid the agony of late payments and fines. Heck, I have seen people using their Alexa and Siri to remind them to thaw their meat at 9am the next day! Technology is your companion in this fight against dementia so make the best use of it.
4. Cheer up- sometimes not remembering can be a good thing. Isn’t it great when you don’t remember what you fought over the last time you were upset with your spouse? Or the joy of eating freshly cooked cakes and ‘samosas’ when your fridge had perfectly good leftover sandwiches! ‘Forgetting to buy gifts’ on birthdays and blaming it on your goldfish memory!Selective memory loss can be a good thing so fret not!
However, if you are someone like me and would like to have greater control over their thoughts and actions, begin by changing your lifestyle a little by little. Take charge today and start practising these tips above to better remember your yesterday and today, tomorrow!