Dementia: The Dangers of Not Exercising Your Brain

4.15pm, warm and sunny, but not too hot to make you sweat. Dark patches of comulonimbus, with halos of Sun shinin thru. Gonna rain 2nite perhaps. Lazy afternoon, everyone's gone home for the long weekend (Monday no class) and Chung's MIA'ed since yesterday. Distant ennnnh! of buzzer coming from 3rd floor as sem9 seniors runnin thru their OSCE examinations. Doin my report, but no mood to go on, just flippin thru other ppl's blogs and waiting for 6.30pm to come so i can shoot to Cheras for band practice 2nite.

My recital group called to perform Mozart's Wind Quintet again next Sunday during the opening ceremony of an exhibiton at Wisma Kebudayaan in KL. Heheh, wonder if we'll make the same mistakes again and no one notices.

This Saturday giving a short 15 minutes preview on this month's Gosho study. Got so many points to share, haha, i think i'll just give the whole Gosho lecture myself!

Yesterday, my group went to the Memory Clinic which is located behind the hospital. Its an old building where the original hospital wards were located during the Japanese Occupation. It caters for elderly patients with dementia of various causes.

For those who dont know what dementia or Alzheimers is, its the slow regression of the brain, brought about by old age, but in an accelerated manner. Myth has it that its due to not using ur brain often eunf when u get old.

Very sad to seee uncles and aunties with Alzheimers. Some couldnt even comprehend simple instructions like asking to them to lifet their hands. You could shed tears just watching them struggle for 10 minutes with trembling hands as they try to write out simple sentences like "I come to clinic today." One pattern that emerges is as they approach the last words, the letters start to become small, and then just disappear all together. On the other spectrum, there were patients who were aggressive and violent. One kept swearing in Hokkien every 5 minutes.

My patient was an old lady with a solid built and lot of makeup and jewellery. She kept scolding her husband, asking him to shut up, and shouting at him everytime he tried to tell the doctor what her condition was like. She dislikes people talking behind her back. She even asked the doctor and staff nurses to shut up. I tried my best to subtly carry out the mini mental state examination without erking her wrath. Halfway thru the consultation, she said she hated to be there, and just left without a word. Poor husband. The caregiver is always the one who suffers the most, and the guy was so patient. He never talked bad about his wife, nor showed any sign of losing patience. I talked to him and tried to encourage him, asking about any hobbies or interest to keep on going in life.

I've always asked mum and dad to not only read alot as they grew old, but also to exercise their brains. I suggest sudoku, or maybe even crosswords, but im sure there's more stuff to do. Reading books and gardening wouldnt be considered exercising the brain, as they mostly involve input, and not much output. I think everyone who's witnessed what a demented person is like has the responsibility to go home and convince ur parents to never stop exercising their brains. Also to take alot of omega-3, found in fishes.

Okie, back to my report, im a professional procrastinator if there ever was such a profession, haha!