30 Ways to Prevent Alzheimer and Dementia for Elderly

There is no proven research that claims certain or specific preventions for Alzheimer and dementia, but some things related with your lifestyle can be put into account. The health of your brain must be maintained with a healthy lifestyle that keeps its function. As you are getting older and your lifestyle changes, some problems in the brain happen and they might lead to some diseases such as Alzheimer. So if you want it to be healthy even when you are old, here is some prevention that could be the factors for healthy brain.

1. Try a Mediterranean Diet

This is a healthy diet that includes many nutritious foods such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes. Even the fat used in this type of diet is a healthy fat like olive oil. Mediterranean diet is also rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which is a prominent nutrition for your brain. So this is recommended to do if you want to keep your brain healthy.

2. Reduce Your Cholesterol

It has been said that Alzheimer and cholesterol are connected. The high level of cholesterol in your body can influence the senile plaque existence, which is found in Alzheimer. Try to reduce your cholesterol by eating more healthy foods and limit the fatty ones. Controlling cholesterol is good for your health too, so you will get many benefits as well as preventing Alzheimer and dementia.

3. Lower Diabetes Risk

A journal in 2001 found that there is a close relation between diabetes and dementia. Those with diabetes have higher risk of dementia than those who don’t. Some studies also found that controlling diabetes can lower the risk. So if you are having diabetes, try your best to control it so that other diseases like dementia won’t attack you.

4. Get More Omega-3 fatty Acids

There are some researchers claimed that eating fish can help your brain healthy as it can maintain the volume of grey matter. Fish containing omega-3 fatty acids is the one you should consume since this is needed by your brain. You don’t have to eat fish all the time because once a week is enough. Don’t fry your fish, bake or broil it is much better for preventing you from consuming the trans-fat.

5. Keep Your Heart Healthy

Keeping your brain healthy will reduce the risk of suffering from dementia. It has been said by some studies that people with cardiovascular diseases such as stroke or heart disease are more prone to Alzheimer. This is because healthy heart is connected with brain volume. When the heart is not healthy due to some habits, then the brain volume might be decreasing. Have a healthy lifestyle to support your heart’s condition.

6. Stop Smoking

Since cardiovascular diseases increase the risk of dementia, then you should stop your smoking habit as it is bad for your heart. There is a study that showed the higher risk of cognitive decline to smokers compared to the non-smokers. It doesn’t have to be heavy smokers because even regular smokers can get the risk.

Related: Health Risks of Smoking

7. Treat Metabolic Syndrome

Metabolic syndrome is a condition where you have high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol into one. This is one of the factors because such condition increases your risk of having stroke. In order to treat this syndrome, you must follow a proper diet. Have some exercises, eat healthy foods and lose your weight. Being overweight cause your blood pressure high and cholesterol increase. You need to get all of them in control for preventing many diseases including dementia.

8. Don’t Get Fat

Being fatty leads to obesity and especially for elderly, this condition can increase the risk of dementia. However, a study found that this case happens only for males. More studies need to be conducted to see the connection between obesity and dementia in females. It is also said that underweight can lead to dementia too. So don’t get yourself under either problems of overweight or underweight.

9. Get Your Brain Some Exercises

Just like your body, your brain also needs some exercises. Getting your brain work can prevent it from some problems related with dementia. Make your brain think by not being lazy. Cognitive stimulation is what you need to do. It doesn’t have to be playing games, but doing something in your work that uses your cognition would be excellent for exercising your brain. This will not only maintain the brain’s health, but also make you get more money too. Have your brain active, but don’t make it too active.

10. Supply Your Brain with Vitamin K

If you have long forgotten supplying your brain with this vitamin, now you can start it. This vitamin can be found in vegetables with green leaves, but you can also consume the supplement as the alternative. Vitamin K acts as an anti-aging, so it might work for your brain too.

11. Load Your Body with Berries

The nutrients from fruits, especially from berries are amazing. Berries have anthocyanosides that are able in maintaining your memory, preventing you from Alzheimer. Some factors that reduce the quality of your memory are plaques and free-radicals while berries help your brain fighting them. Include berries in your daily meals as there are hundreds recipes to try. Not only berries, but also some other fruits and vegetables are needed to maintain your brain’s health.

12. Communicate with Your Loved Ones

Talking to your parents or children can increase the communication intensity in your life. Spare your time in the middle of your busy hours to talk to your family can be a great idea. This will not only strengthen the relationship, but also help your brain worked and exercised. You can talk about many things, with a slow pace and simple phrases. Combine your word with some gestures and stare at your loved ones’ eyes while talking. Let them listen to you and give their responses.

13. Get Plenty of Sleep

Sleep well and your brain will remain good. Your body needs rest and it can be done by sleeping. However, in this modern world, getting plenty of sleep is hard as many people are lacking of sleep due to their works. They might just have a few hours of sleep at night and it might influence the amyloid plaques in the brain, which cause dementia. It was said in a research that there is a relationship between good quality sleep with dementia, but more studies are required to prove it.

14. Supply with Folic Acid

Since homocysteine is said to be one of the factors of reduced brain function, you can try cutting its level from your body by eating foods or supplements with folic acids. Surely eating the foods is better as it is healthier, but taking supplements can be the alternative.

Related: Health Benefits of Folic Acids

15. Take Vitamin D

It can be either food or supplement, but consuming vitamin D can help your brain healthy too. It was claimed in a research that lacking of vitamin D affects the function of the brain and stimulate Alzheimer. So ensure that your body is well supplied with vitamin D by eating foods or taking supplements.

Related: Source of Vitamin D Foods

16. Maintain Your Body Weight

Remember that obesity leads to many diseases including diabetes. This disease contributes the existence of dementia, so you need to take care of your body very well to prevent it becoming overweight.

17. Keep Your Blood Pressure Normal

Since high blood pressure puts you in danger with the chance of experiencing stroke, heart disease and other diseases that promote dementia, then keeping it normal is necessary. Watch out with what you eat and fix your lifestyle is the key. Check your blood pressure regularly so you know when it is high or low.

Related: High Blood Pressure Treatments

18. Calm Down

Overthinking something can make your brain work too hard and damaged slowly. Release all the stress and pressure in the brain by not thinking too much. Everyone has problems, so you don’t need to feel like you are the only one. Feeling stress and anxiety increases the risk of developing dementia in the brain according to a study. Learn how to manage your stress might be useful as you can use it to make your brain calm down under difficult situations. You can sit down and take a deep breath when you feel that your emotion is starting to burst out. It is simple and easy. Don’t let the stressful feeling makes your brain’s memory area shrinking and leads to dementia.

19. Don’t Eat Too Much

Surely your body needs foods especially those with high nutrients, but it doesn’t mean that you should stuff it with foods and foods all the time. Eating too much calories a day, particularly to elderly, can increase the risk of dementia, according to a study. Just eat what you need to eat and don’t overstuff your stomach. Leave some space for water and air in it as it is healthier.

20. Recognize The Symptoms

If you know the early symptoms of Alzheimer, then you can easily find out what to do to treat them. There are some simple symptoms that could be the symptoms of Alzheimer such as having difficulty in finishing tasks you used to be able to do. Not remembering the dates’ track is also another symptom. The early symptoms indicate that the disease is just started, so it is better to quickly treat it before it gets worse.

21. Limit Your Sugar

Remember that diabetes influences your brain’s health? Sugar is one of the causes of diabetes, so you must limit your intake if you don’t want this attack your health. Sugary beverages, chocolate, desserts and ice cream are truly wonderful to enjoy, but they can be harmful to your health if you don’t watch out the intake. Limit the sugar in your daily meals can be helpful in reducing the risk of having diabetes.

22. Avoid Alcohol

Don’t drink alcohol. Not even a sip. It makes your brain aging and causes dementia. While it is said to be fine to eat alcohol moderately, the truth is even moderate consumption is harmful for your body. So it is better to not drink it at all. Why should drink alcohol when there are many other healthier options around?

23. Stay Away from Fats

The types of fats you must keep them away are saturated fats and Trans fats, not the healthy fats like omega-3. Those kinds of fats can stimulate the free radical production that can be bad for your brain’s health. don’t eat too much of processed foods, fast foods, packaged foods, fried foods and other foods containing unhealthy fats. Read the label of your packaged foods first before buying as unhealthy fats are commonly labeled partially hydrogenated oils, which you need to avoid staying healthy from dementia. Replace those foods with fruits and vegetables to get more benefits.

24. Do Regular Exercises

Exercises that you do for your body can significantly influence your brain. So to keep your brain healthy, keep your body healthy first. It is even said that regular exercises can reduced Alzheimer around 50 percent. What a great number to count on. If you already had some cognitive problems, doing some exercises can even prevent the worse problems to come. It doesn’t have to be going to the gym, but you can simply walking around your neighborhood, or swimming at home if you have a private swimming pool. The most interesting is the exercises could be anything that rate up your heart. Even with daily cleaning routine such as gardening will be helpful. You just need to move to make your body active. Do this regularly for maximum results. The key is just to have an active lifestyle even if you are older it is never too late to start being active.

Those are some things you can do to keep your brain healthy and reduce the risk of dementia so that you can still live happily and comfortably even at your retirement.

How to Treat Alzheimer

Aside from medications that should be taken for treating Alzheimer, there are also some ways to care your loved ones suffering from this disease. Agitation happens to the people with Alzheimer and this can be stressful for you if you don’t know how to treat them properly. So learn how to care your loved ones with Alzheimer can help them get this through.

25. Bring Peaceful Atmosphere

Don’t make the life of people with Alzheimer more stressful by not giving them a peaceful place to live. Clear out any clutter and make the place clean without too much fuss and don’t fill the place with the noise from radio or TV as it might disturb them.

26. Take Them for Exercises

Since exercising is good for both the brain and body, take your loved ones to get their bodies move even with just walking. It will not only make them healthy physically, but it is also good for eliminating the pressure and stress.

27. Encourage Them for Doing Activities

Encouraging people with Alzheimer is not easy, but if you choose some activities that they love, this can be easier. It can be something that is simple and easy to do so that they will not bored and uninterested in doing it. You can do gardening or cooking together to prevent them from being inactive. They need to get rest when they have enough, so don’t force them to do something that is too hard or tiring.

28. Recognize Agitation Causes

There are some reasons why people with Alzheimer are feeling agitated and you need to know what the causes are to be able addressing the problems. It can be thirst or hunger or it can be anything else, so analyze the reasons when agitation happen will be helpful in determining the causes. Once you know them, you can easily prevent the agitation.

29. Manage Your Feeling

Treating people with Alzheimer, even if there are your loved ones, is not easy. You might feel depressed, frustrated or tired so that you can’t handle your emotions when you talk to them. It is very important to keep calm in every situation. Don’t raise your voice when speaking with them no matter how frustrating it is. With your patience everything will be better. They can be annoying, but you shouldn’t argue with them as you have understood their problems, so keep calm and be patient.

30. Ask Doctor

To know the best way treating people with Alzheimer you need to talk with a doctor. Ask some suggestions of what you need to do to help them feel better. Note all the suggestions and keep on track of what you have to do to get the treatment done properly.

Surely no one in this world wants to experience Alzheimer in their elderly. That is why prevention is always better and you can start it now while you are still healthy. Address all the contributing factors and lower your risk. You can change your lifestyle, treat your existence disease properly and nourish your brain well.