Day 1 - Remember Dementia In November

#RememberDementiaInNovember

#RememberDementiaInNovember Welcome everyone, I am so happy to start off this challenge along with the great honor of having amazing co-hosts and generous sponsors for this important awareness yoga challenge!

Day 1 (11/3) – #Thoppukaranam or #SuperBrainYoga

Take a block and place it lengthwise between your calves; make sure your knees go over the middle of your feet when you squat back. Take your left hand to the right ear lobe and right hand to the left ear lobe. Thumbs should touch the ear lobe and index finger the back of the lobe. When you engage your body, keep your back straight as you bend your knees; bending at your hip crease. Lift your elbows up while inhaling through your nose. Upon standing up, exhale through your mouth as you straighten your knees and bring your elbows back to the starting position. The block helps if you have hip or knee issues, if you don’t have one try it without one, just maintain your stance.

Traditionally, this is done 108 times…but start out doing a few rounds. Even doing just 18 rounds daily has shown improvement, it's too easy NOT to try!

My sponsor related items I am wearing are the Alzheimer’s Association purple t-shirt and silicone awareness bracelet & heart bracelet on my right wrist (all part of my prize package); also on my right wrist is a beautifully crafted #hematite and #lapislazuli bracelet from @malas_by_  on my left wrist there is a lovely bracelet from @dazzle.dream. In the background, I have some other items from our fabulous list of sponsors.

! This helps to improve mood; balances both hemispheres of the brain; stimulates the mind; and improves memory and mental focus. I saw this on @yoga_international it was presented by Beth Spindler.

#DementiaAwareness – Intro to Dementia (Click on link in my bio)       

See @cavesyoga (Pip) for Day 2’s (Friday, 11/4) pose tomorrow night.

AWARENESS

Day 1 – Intro to Dementia

“Dementia is a general term for a decline in mental ability (including impaired memory, language, reasoning, judgement, visuospatial skills, and orientation) severe enough to interfere with daily life” (American Geriatrics Society, 2016, p. 8).  It is estimated that there are “50 different types of dementia.  Depending on which study you believe, 3 to 15 percent of all dementias are potentially reversible.  However, Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is an irreversible progressive type of dementia” (American Geriatrics Society, 2016, p. 62).

In Germany, Dr. Alois Alzheimer made the discovery of this terrible disease in 1906.  Physicians wouldn’t actually be diagnosing or familiar with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) until the late 1970s and then more so in the 1980s (American Geriatrics Society, 2016, p.112). Today dementia is growing exponentially in new cases, a staggering 7.7 million a year according to the World Health Organization (WHO) with an estimated total number of people impacted at “75.6 million in 2030 and almost triple by 2050 to 135.5 million” (World Health Organization, 2016).

To help see the incredible scope of dementia, the following information is presented from the Mayo Clinic; below is a list of dementias that are progressive and irreversible are:

• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Vascular Dementia
• Lewy Body Dementia
• Frontotemporal Dementia
• Mixed Dementia (includes AD, Vascular Dementia and Lewy Body Dementia)

Other conditions associated with dementia:

• Huntington’s Disease
• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
• Parkinson's disease

Reversible conditions that are “Dementia-Like”:

• Infections and Immune Disorders

• Metabolic problems with endocrine abnormalities
• Nutritional deficiencies
• Reactions to medications
• Subdural hematomas
• Poisoning
• Brain tumors
• Anoxia/Hypoxia
• Normal-pressure hydrocephalus (Mayo Staff, n.d.).

This information should give you an idea of how complex and involved dementia and its related conditions are.

References

American Geriatrics Society (AGS). (2016). Alzheimer's & dementia for dummies. Hoboken, NJ:

           John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (Published simultaneously in Canada)

Mayo Staff. (n.d.). “Dementia”. Mayo Clinic. Retrieved November 2, 2016 from

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dementia/symptoms-causes/dxc-20198504

World Health Organization (WHO). (April 2016). Dementia: Fact Sheet. Retrieved November 2,          2016  from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs362/en/