Lets talk Dementia/Alzheimer's

 

Age

Age is the greatest of these three risk factors. As noted in the Prevalence section, the percentage of people with Alzheimer's dementia increases dramatically with age: 3% of people age 65-74, 17% of people age 75-84 and 32% of people age 85 or older have Alzheimer's dementia.62 It is important to note that Alzheimer's dementia is not a normal part of aging,69 and older age alone is not sufficient to cause Alzheimer's dementia.

https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/alz.12068.

Also

Statistics are grim. 10 percent of 65-year-olds, 25 percent of 75-year-olds, and 50 percent of 85-year-olds will develop dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. And the fastest growing segment of our population is the 85-year-olds. Researchers predict Alzheimer’s will affect 106 million people by 2050. It’s now the seventh leading cause of death.

https://thewomensalzheimersmovement.org/8-steps-to-reverse-memory-loss/

Why am I bringing this up? The reason we have bought the house we have, done the work and will continue with the work is because...

We didn't want one of us to have to sell the home if one (most likely me since I wasn't suppose to walk to begin with) ends up in a wheelchair like Daddy did and Hubby's grandpa did and they had to sell their homes.  

Appraiser brought up that if we had a studio apt or a something along that line of a bedroom/sitting area we could have a live in helper when we got elderly (he said 80s is what is elderly to him when I asked because my Amish neighbor's brother said something about elderly/old and I asked what age that was... E from the back seat answered YOUR AGE...which immediately his brother denied but then said 60s ... then was worried as he was sitting next to me when I told him we were 60s.It's okay, his parents nailed him when E tattled as they are OUR AGE LOL). We could stay in our home with Dementia. Appraiser's great grandma had to sell her home and move in with a child when his great grandpa went in to assistant living home. There was no way to change the home to stay there with out incurring more debt than the assistant living was nor was there a way for someone to stay with them and help take care of them.

In this area

Assistant living home cost $10,000/ month $120,000 a year.

Nursing home cost $15,000/ month or $180,000 a year.

Memory care home cost $24,000/ month or $480,000 a year.

Medicare does NOT pay for this. Medicaid will some but you have to have meet low assets etc. and the waiting list at the limited homes is very long. 

We sat down... the home is so we can stay even in wheelchair. There are some things that would need to be changed out but that money is already sat aside in an account for when needed. We would save 3-5 yrs of assistant living/nursing home cost with the home finished as planned. We would need a better bedroom set up for someone other than our children to live with us.

Mentally ... is a different store but since Daddy had Dementia for a decade before he went into Alzheimer's at 92 and Hubby's dad just got diagonized at age 84 with Alzheimer's.  We decided to look at what we are doing to slow that and what more can we do.

In a study that tracked 639 adults for nearly 12 years, Johns Hopkins expert Frank Lin, M.D., Ph.D, and his colleagues found that mild hearing loss doubled dementia risk. Moderate loss tripled risk, and people with a severe hearing impairment were five times more likely to develop dementia.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-hidden-risks-of-hearing-loss

ALSO

Dementia is a general term for loss of memory and other mental abilities severe enough to interfere with daily life. It is caused by physical changes in the brain. Alzheimer's is the most common type of dementia, but there are many kinds.

https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/what-is-dementia/types-of-dementia

Hubby is hard of hearing at a certain pitch. So after we close (waiting for title office to schedule that and our mortgage is pushing for this week) we will be going to get our hearing checked.... we will also get hearing aids if needed. No excuses allowed. We both know our dads refused to wear hearing aids. Hubby's dad just started when the doctor informed him of the connection.

What else is there to do?

Be physically active.

Eat healthy.

Don't smoke.

Limit alcohol.

Exercise your mind 

A new study is warning that people over 50 shouldn't watch too much TV. Researchers at University College London say excessive viewing could lead to memory loss and contribute to the development of dementia. They have discovered that people over 50 who watch more than 3.5 hours of TV a day are more at risk of losing their memory.

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/dacorum/about-us/news/articles/2019/watching-tv-and-dementia/

Take control of your health.

We focused on the positive first...

We can schedule appt for hearing after closing and get hearing aids if needed.  Hubby agreed since he refused hearing aids when working (always had ear protection on at work) and only would have wore them 3 -4 hrs a day.

I found this and he thought it helped him with looking at the costs.

Here’s another way to think about the price of hearing aids. If your hearing aids cost $6,200, and they have a lifespan of eight years, they will cost you approximately $775 per year, $64 per month or $2.15 per day. In other words, while the total amount is high, the ongoing usage price is more reasonable. Monthly, it is about what you would pay to get satellite or cable television. When you consider the communication, relationship, and health benefits you get from wearing hearing aids, most people agree that it is well worth it.

https://www.healthyhearing.com/help/hearing-aids/prices

Be physically active. Hubby started doing more trimming with the trimmer than the push mower as it also meant movement with his arms since he sits 2 days a week in the truck over 8 hrs. He is also walking the gardens just to be walking.  I average 10,000 to 15,000 steps a day. I will try to increase this to closer to 15,000 to 20, 000 (usual summer amount but will have to work at it in the winter.  We both carry weight or dig in the gardens etc. Drag dogs into the vet's office. ;)

https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/about-dementia/risk-factors-and-prevention/how-reduce-your-risk-dementia

Eat healthy... I checked out Blue Zone diet/lifestyle. It's something a friend had suggested and then my brother who as mild dementia shared he was trying to do more like it. We need to add more leafy greens and beans. We do eat more meat than that but we don't eat as much as the US normal is.

I quit smoking March 6th 1979 when I found out I was pregnant for Daughter 2 (Daughter 1 is late husband's daughter we raised). Hubby has chewed tobacco off and on and quit when we got together ( I think my comment of YUCK was that factor LOL).

Neither of us are much drinkers, don't even do what the amts.  they suggest. THOUGH we might pick up the dry red wine since it helps with Dementia and other stuff with the heart.

Use it or lose it... exercise your mind. Daddy used to say if you don't learn something every day you are going backwards.  We both do Sudoku. Hubby does crosswords. We sometimes watch Jeopardy. I read a lot. Maybe a couple books a week ( I can read a 300 some book in a day On a Sunday). We should work harder of understanding/speaking Pennsylvania Dutch aka Amish Swiss German. The local Amish language. 

Take control of our health... this is from changing to things that have been proven to help lower the risk of Dementia and taking care of ourselves with doctor appointments for care.