Dementia tips from a caregiver who’s spent years talking to experts about the disease
On World Alzheimer’s Day, Anthea Rowan shares dementia truths gleaned from caring for her mum and years of research and speaking to experts
Five years ago, I knew very little about dementia. It was a word I might have prefaced with the outdated word “senile”.
I could no longer put my mother’s forgetting, dropped words and confusion about where she was down to “senior moments”. This was serious, and it was clinical.
I have written about how the disease presents in a person, my experience of caring for my mother, the causes, my quest to find a cure or treatment that might slow it, and the lifestyle modifications we can make to protect our brains.
Despite the increasing prevalence of the condition – according to the World Health Organization, more than 55 million people globally have dementia, and that is expected to almost triple by 2050 – the news is hopeful.