Chuseok Parents' Dementia Check Himchan Hospital "We need to see if they repeat their unusual behavior"
Sep 12, 2024
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Dementia, a typical senile disease, damages the quality of life of patients and causes financial and mental pain to families. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare's announcement 'Status of Dementia in Korea 2023', the estimated number of dementia patients in 2024 is about 1 million. As the number of elderly people increases, the number of dementia patients is expected to increase to about 2.26 million in 2040 and about 30.39 million in 2060.
Park Jung-hoon, director of the Department of Neurology at Incheon Himchan General Hospital, said, `Dementia is not well recognized by family members or people around them because there is no significant difference in forgetfulness and symptoms in the early stages, and because of negative perceptions, they or their families tend to turn a blind eye to symptoms and avoid them, and then develop the disease. As the whole family gathers in one place, efforts should be made to prevent it, such as carefully examining the risk factors of dementia not only by parents but also their families and checking them through self-diagnosis.'
◇You have to check if you repeat your behavior differently than usual
Dementia is a disease in which cognitive functions in various areas, such as language, memory, learning, and judgment, are reduced due to brain damage and cannot perform daily life properly. Representatively, there are Alzheimer's dementia and vascular dementia, and in the case of younger age groups, super-rotic dementia may occur after suffering head trauma due to traffic accidents.
Since the most common symptom of dementia is memory loss, it can be regarded as a natural phenomenon due to aging. However, in addition to memory, dementia can degrade language, judgment, calculation, and cognitive function, and affect mood, personality, and behavior. In particular, elderly dementia patients are more likely to be exposed to risks such as falls due to their decreased motor function, and their disappearance accidents are increasing year by year. In addition, early-stage dementia, which is experienced at a relatively young age, appears in the age group performing production activities, so if daily life becomes difficult due to dementia, dependents are likely to face economic difficulties. In addition, because the social safety net is insufficient compared to dementia in old age, the stress experienced by patients themselves or their families may be greater.
It is best to prevent dementia because there is no drug yet that can improve or cure symptoms. It is not easy to recognize because the initial symptoms are insignificant, but it can be confirmed to some extent if family members or people around them are interested and take a closer look at their daily lives. Basically, we look at whether memory and calculation ability, which are representative symptoms of dementia, have significantly decreased. In addition, if the taste of the food made by the mother suddenly changes, dementia may cause the sense of smell and taste to fall, making it difficult to season the food properly. If you are not good at housework or have more naps, you may suspect early dementia when you become impatient, angry, unwilling to listen to others, and suspicious.
If you suspect dementia, you should take a screening test for dementia at a nearby hospital or dementia safety center. As there is no cure for dementia itself, it is important to receive treatment at the stage of mild cognitive impairment, which is the pre-dementia stage. If it is judged to be mild cognitive impairment or dementia, active communication and support between families are also essential, apart from individual treatment of patients.
◇Getting together with the whole family to play games also helps improve cognitive function
To prevent dementia, risk factors should be avoided or eliminated. According to the Central Dementia Center, brain damage is the highest at 2.4 times, followed by drinking 2.2 times, lack of exercise 1.8 times, smoking 1.6 times, and obesity 1.6 times. Therefore, regular exercise and healthy eating habits are basic, and blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels are frequently checked after the 40s, and cerebrovascular conditions are regularly checked if there are risk factors. It is also recommended to self-diagnose with your family using the Central Dementia Center's 'Dementia Check' app.
You can improve cognitive function and prevent dementia by playing games together with the whole family for the holiday. Card matching, finding hidden pictures, and word connection quizzes help improve memory. Board games, puzzle-solving, and block-building can improve concentration, and word-matching games or story-making games using given topics or words can help improve language skills. In addition, sharing physical activities such as walking or walking with your family also helps build family ties and prevent dementia.
Park Sung-hoon, director of the Department of Neurology at Himchan General Hospital in Incheon, emphasized "In the case of dementia patients, they tend to deny or try to solve the symptoms of dementia alone, and they tend to avoid other social relationships" In this case, it is important not to hide it, but to overcome it with family and people around you while receiving help from experts because they can miss the opportunity to treat it and become more difficult due to social isolation.'
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