Dementia MINDS MUSCLES MEALS
Dementia MINDS MUSCLES MEALS
Dr. Dean Foti, MD, FRCPC, Behavioural Neurologist, Vancouver, BC How Is Dementia Diagnosed?
Benefits of Exercise for Dementia
Physical benefits of exercise
Routinely engaging in exercise and movement can help your body in lots of different ways.
- Improving the health of your heart and blood vessels. This can reduce the risk of high blood pressure and heart disease.
- Maintaining coordination and balance. Exercises that involve moving different parts of your body in different directions help with this.
- Improving blood supply and nutrients to the brain. This can help thinking skills and memory.
- Reducing the risk of stroke, type 2 diabetes and some types of cancer.
- Improving your physical fitness. Maintaining strong muscles and flexible joints can help you do things for yourself. This includes dressing, cleaning and cooking.
- Improving hand-eye coordination. This is the way that your hands and eyesight work together for some tasks. Such as when eating, tying laces or hitting a ball while playing tennis.
- Helping to keep bones strong and reducing the risk of osteoporosis. This is a disease that makes bones weaker and more likely to break.
- Improving sleep quality and energy levels.
- For some people, reducing the risk of falls by improving strength and balance.
Psychological benefits of exercise
Exercise might also have a positive impact on your mental health.
- Improving mental abilities. Some studies have shown that exercise might improve focus and attention.
- Giving you more confidence and higher self-esteem.
- Providing opportunities to meet and talk with others. This can help you maintain your sense of identity and prevent you from feeling isolated.
- Improving your mood and symptoms of depression.
Postive thinking and Dementia's Impact on the Mind
Dementia profoundly affects health, causing symptoms such as depression, anxiety, delusions, and hallucinations as brain damage progresses.These psychological and behavioral changes, known as Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD), often stem from the difficulty individuals have communicating unmet needs or making sense of their environment. Managing dementia involves addressing underlying medical issues, providing appropriate medication for psychiatric symptoms, implementing lifestyle changes like exercise and healthy eating, and offering strong social support to both the person with dementia and their caregivers
Symptoms of Dementia's Impact on Mental Health
- Anxiety: Feelings of restlessness, worry, and fear are common.
Agitation and Aggression: These can be triggered by confusion, frustration, or unmet needs.
- Delusions and Hallucinations: These involve false beliefs (delusions) or seeing or hearing things that aren’t there (hallucinations).
- Disorientation: People may become confused about their location or the time.
Dr. Dean Foti, MD, FRCPC, Behavioural Neurologist, BC What are The Symptoms of Dementia
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Dementia NOW Types of Dementia
Featuring Dr. Dean Foti, MD, FRCPC, Behavioural Neurologist, Vancouver, BC
Dr. Dean Foti, MD, FRCPC, Behavioural Neurologist, Vancouver, BC
Dr. Dean Foti, MD, FRCPC, Behavioural Neurologist, Vancouver, BC
Featured Behavioural Neurologist, Vancouver
Dr. Dean Foti, MD, FRCPC, Behavioural Neurologist, Vancouver BC What is Dementia?
Postive thining in regards to Dementia?
Dementia profoundly affects mental health , causing symptoms such as depression, anxiety, agitation, delusions, and hallucinations as brain damage progresses. These psychological and behavioral changes, known as Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD), often stem from the difficulty individuals have communicating unmet needs or making sense of their environment. Managing dementia involves addressing underlying medical issues, providing appropriate medication for psychiatric symptoms, implementing lifestyle changes like exercise and healthy eating, and offering strong social support to both the person with dementia and their caregivers.
Dementia NOW MINDS MUSCLE MEALS
Andy De Santis, Registered Dietician
- Cut down on refined sugars. Often found in processed foods, refined sugars contain calories but lack vitamins, minerals and fiber. You can tame a sweet tooth with healthier options like fruit or juice-sweetened baked goods. But note that in the later-stages of Alzheimer’s, if appetite loss is a problem, adding sugar to foods may encourage eating.
Featuring Andy De Santis, RD, MPH, Registered Dietician
- Limit foods with high sodium and use less salt. Most people in Canada consume too much sodium, which affects blood pressure. As an alternative, use spices or herbs to season food.
As the disease progresses, loss of appetite and weight loss may become concerns. In such cases, the doctor may suggest supplements between meals to add calories.
The basic nutrition tips below can help boost the person with dementia’s health and your health as a caregiver, too.
- Provide a balanced diet with a variety of foods. Offer vegetables, fruits, whole grains, low-fat dairy products and lean protein foods.
- Limit foods with high saturated fat and cholesterol. Some fat is essential for health — but not all fats are equal. Go light on fats that are bad for heart health, such as butter, solid shortening, lard and fatty cuts of meats.