Keep busy, stay healthy
New research highlights the benefits of being physically and mentally active to ward off dementia
Many of us will have or had a relative who suffered from dementia. It’s a common condition and one that debilitates not only the person affected but also their family and friends. You may have seen our previous commentary on the subject, where we cited statistics showing that around half the UK population fears the risk of developing dementia is their key health fear.
Here at StackCare we were interested to see new research, which has been carried out over 11 years. It shows that keeping mentally and physically active can significantly reduce the chances of developing dementia in your later years. The study, published in medical journal Neurology suggests that just doing mundane chores around the home, light exercise and visiting family and friends may help reduce the risk of dementia.
To be precise, people who undertook frequent exercises had a 35% lower risk of developing dementia. For those carrying out household chores the figure was 21% and people who visited family and friends daily had a 15% lower risk.
“She would perk up in seconds when we arrived”
The findings will sound familiar to anyone who has elderly friends or relatives. Seeing someone with nothing to do, bored and inactive, you can see the vacancy in their eyes. Staring out of the window or ‘miles away’, only for them to come alive again once someone engages them in conversation.
For many lonely older people those conversations are all too rare and long days can go by with no-one to talk to, with maybe only the TV for company. You can see how the brain becomes slower and, with less to do, starts to shut down, and according to the research, become vulnerable to conditions like dementia.
For elderly people living independently loneliness can be a real factor in mental deterioration. Staying independent is great, but older people living alone need to keep their minds and bodies active, maybe through being involved in community activities and groups, a course with U3A or even just getting out of the house to the shops. Little acts and routines do a lot to keep someone mentally and physically engaged.
Intelligent remote monitoring – an extra help for concerned families
For families with an elderly parent living alone it can be tricky to check that they’re up and about and keeping active. You can’t be there all the time and older people value their independence and not being spied on – so that’s where behavioral remote monitoring comes in.
It can provide a great solution to making sure a friend or relative is up and about. Motion monitors for elderly people are a key part of solutions like StackCare. There are no cameras, so no-one’s being watched, there are just small, discrete monitors that pick up on movement. Through the wonders of Artificial Intelligence (where computers learn as they go along), routines are remembered and alerts are sent to family members’ mobile phones if, for example, the relative is stationary for longer than usual.
Prevention first and foremost
As ever in life, prevention is better than cure. Having discreet smart home monitoring for elderly relatives is a good way of just keeping up to date on their movements. It’s not intrusive, it just quietly ticks over, reassuring you that all is ok, and letting you know if it isn’t. If you feel they’re not active enough or worried that their activity levels are falling you can have a sympathetic chat and see how their lifestyle could subtly change to get them doing more.
If someone is already suffering with dementia or showing early on-set signs remote monitoring solutions such as StackCare have huge value in helping them maintain their independence for as long as possible.
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If you’d like to know more about dementia and what support there is for sufferers and their families we recommend having a look at Dementia UK’s website. If you’d like to talk to us about how how StackCare could help you do get in touch.
