What's wrong with your mom's food?333 practice is important to prevent dementia at Himchan Hospital
Feb 21, 2025
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According to the National Medical Center's Central Dementia Center, the number of dementia patients in Korea is estimated to have exceeded 1 million. In particular, one in 10 people over the age of 65 suffer from dementia. Dementia called 's saddest disease' because if the symptoms get worse, you lose the memory of yourself and your surroundings. In order to prevent symptoms and prevent their condition from getting worse, the brain needs to be trained through exercise, just like other body parts.
Park Jung-hoon, director of the Department of Neurology at Incheon Himchan General Hospital, said, `It is natural that memory declines with age, but dementia can degrade language, judgment, calculation, and cognitive function in addition to memory, and affect mood, personality, and behavior.'"Since there is no cure for dementia yet, it is important to slow down the onset and progression as much as possible through preventive activities that strengthen the cognitive function of the brain.'
◇ Be careful not to recognize or avoid the disease in the early stages
Dementia is a condition in which the cognitive function of the brain gradually degenerates due to multiple degeneration, making it difficult to perform daily life, and affects in various areas such as language, memory, learning, and judgment. Representatively, there are Alzheimer's dementia and vascular dementia, and senile diseases are mainly Alzheimer's disease, accounting for about 70% of the total.
According to data from the International Alzheimer's Association, the number of Alzheimer's patients worldwide is estimated to be 55 million, with 152 million in 2050.
Alzheimer's disease is characterized by the accumulation of amyloid proteins in the brain, which gradually damages nerve cells. It is a degenerative disease that begins with memory loss in the early stages and later deteriorates the overall cognitive function of the brain, which seriously affects daily life.
Vascular dementia is caused by cerebrovascular diseases such as cerebral hemorrhage and cerebral infarction, and symptoms appear suddenly, deteriorate or improve repeatedly, and then gradually deteriorate cognitive function.
Dementia is similar to forgetfulness symptoms in the early stages, so not only you but also your family members and people around you may not be able to recognize it well. Even if you are suspicious, you may develop the disease by denying and avoiding it due to negative perceptions. In particular, as the main symptom of dementia is poor memory, there is a high tendency to regard it as a natural phenomenon caused by aging. However, if the condition worsens, motor function deteriorates, making it easy to be exposed to risks such as falls, and it is dangerous because it often leads to death in case of missing accidents caused by wandering.
Therefore, if you show signs of dementia, you need to get tested. Typical precursor symptoms that can be seen in daily life are cases in which a person who was good at cooking makes a mistake in the ingredients or amount of food, resulting in a significant change in the taste of food, or poor household chores. In addition, even if people around you respond that 'people have changed from before' for no other reason, you should be suspicious.
◇ It can be delayed with dementia prevention activities and family help
If dementia is suspected, it is necessary to undergo a screening test at a nearby hospital or a local dementia safety center. There is dementia that can be treated according to the patient's condition and type through detailed examination, and in this case, it can be treated with drugs. In fact, it has been confirmed that the drug treatment of Alzheimer's disease has a delay effect of up to 60% in cognitive decline.
According to the Central Dementia Center, people who are highly likely to develop dementia are also considered to be effective in preventing dementia by delaying the onset of dementia by an average of two years. In order to prevent dementia, it is necessary to enjoy three things, endure three things, and remember and practice three books, three golds, and three lines.
The third book is to walk more than three times a week and exercise steadily, eat fish and vegetables evenly without skipping meals, and read books or newspapers and write whenever you have time. You should refrain from drinking alcohol, smoking cessation, and watch out for brain damage. In line 3, it is recommended to constantly check blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol through a medical examination, contact and communicate frequently with family members and people around you, and to have an early examination of dementia through a public health center every year.
If there is a dementia patient in the family, it is necessary to simplify the house, install handrails if there are stairs, use non-slip lugs, etc. to block the risk of falling out, and remove other risk factors. It also enables patients to continue their favorite activities such as housework, cooking, exercise, musical instruments, and gardening, and helps them to eat at a certain time and maintain a familiar daily life.
"It is important to slow down the progress of dementia as much as possible and maintain a healthy condition for a long time so that the quality of life of not only oneself but also family members and people around them does not deteriorate," said Park Jung-hoon, head of the center. "If it is judged to be mild cognitive impairment or early dementia, it is necessary to encourage people to get help from experts through active communication and support from their families and people around them."
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
