To think that Dementia/Alzheimers is a woman's disease.

[Elendon]

Two thirds of those who die from the disease are women. This is an awful statistic. I'm shocked.

www.alzheimers.org.uk/statistics

It costs billions of pounds per year to the NHS and the Carer system. Note: my aunt has alzheimers. Why are women so adversely affected? Surely this has to be corrected as a matter of urgency!

Everybody's going to die OP. And seventy year olds with very recent diagnoses of dementia and few symptoms beyond an inability to work the TV remote are quite capable of getting chest infections, or highly treatable cancers.

So you think an inability to work the TV is a sign of dementia/Alzheimers?

Seriously?

Come on elendon, you must see what rita is getting at unless you're being deliberately obtuse. There are mild symptoms of dementia that mean a diagnosis can be made but the person can still live a relatively normal life.

Both my grandfathers have it (mildly at the moment thank goodness!). Both my grandmothers are fine. All in early/mid 80s.

I'm in my 50s and sometimes I can't work the TV remote, does this mean I have dementia?

Perhaps if I constantly walked out the house leaving the door open to walk into town to speak loudly in the town square, half dressed would be a sign?

Or that I had no idea who I was talking to despite the fact, I'd just been told would be a sign?

Or that I left the dinner cooking to such an extent that it burnt black and nearly caused a fire would be a sign?

Or that I refused to speak, to eat, to do my ablutions would be a sign?

Or that I hollered at my dearest daughter, who the feck are you and what are you doing in this house is a sign?

Or that I allowed a cold caller into the house and treated them as a long lost cousin from, where was it you were from? Would that be a sign?

In somebody who previously could? Yes of course it can be a symptom. My point is that clued up people can get diagnosed with dementia very early nowadays.

And using a remote control can become difficult with dementia...
alzheimersshow.co.uk/making-technology-easier-for-a-person-with-dementia/

And that we apply the rule "better a month too soon than a day too late" to pets, but we do not apply the rule "better a decade too early than a year too late" to humans, and it's hugely unrealistic to suggest that we ever would.

By the time my aunt was diagnosed she had done at least three of these things.

Mild dementia? Is that forgetfulness?

Right, I'm off to the doctors then. I sometimes forget how to use the remote control. Do I have dementia and can you cure it.

FFS! Oh wait I also curse online and don't always agree with what people are saying. Would that count also?

Mild dementia? Is that forgetfulness?

Considering you have such strong opinions on this, you do not seem to know a lot about dementia diagnosis.

Do you think people suddenly go from being totally fine one day tl having no idea who their family are the next? It's a progressive illness. People can be diagnosed at the earlier end of the illness and deteriorate over time.

What would be the point of getting a diagnosis of dementia early? It's an incurable disease!

Just because your aunt was diagnosed very late in the process doesn't mean that everyone is diagnosed that late. Do you think Terry Pratchett was wandering into the road half dressed and not recognising loved ones when he was diagnosed?

I have watched my aunt over four years, just four, deteriorate badly. And it did happen quickly. She's in her mid 80s and gets treated with antibiotics regularly.

Actually, inability to work the Tv remote is terribly common with dementia. Some people have their relative phone them many times a day, saying they can't get the Tv to work, and no matter how many times they have it explained, or how simple the remote, they still can't remember. Some people go to their neighbours over and over with the same thing. It can be a real headache.

More than once I found my mother saying her TV remote wouldn't work - she was trying to operate it with the phone.
Prior to dementia she had 3 remotes - TV, VCR and hi-fi system, and used them all the time.

That's an absolutely bizarre point of view.

There are all sorts of reasons for an early diagnosis. Planning for the future, sorting out affairs and making a living will, putting into place home helps, possible moving to more suitable accommodation or nearer to family, medication from the GP etc etc etc.

Terry Pratchett is dead. It took him seven years to die from early onset Alzheimers at the age of 59. My aunt walked down the road after her diagnosis.

Terry Pratchett is dead. It took him seven years to die from early onset Alzheimers at the age of 59. My aunt walked down the road after her diagnosis.

What do you mean here?

Thanks. I'll make an appointment in the morning to see the GP. I do forget things. Hopeless at organising and always get it wrong with the remote. I can use the internet, ipad and a phone but the phone always puzzles me, I can never cut and paste from it - an obvious sign. I wonder what the GP will say?

I do have a will in place and a DNR order.

OP, not sure that it targets women. Its in my family on dad's side. I watched my grandad (dad's dad) suffer from it. It is horrific!

I have been following a very low carb healthy fat way of eating since reading that limiting sugar is beneficial in reducing the risks of getting dementia or Alzheimers (earlier this year).

here is a link to a short video about a recent study which bears out what I have read.

I wish we had known about these beneficial lifestyle changes years ago.

Thanks. I'll make an appointment in the morning to see the GP. I do forget things. Hopeless at organising and always get it wrong with the remote. I can use the internet, ipad and a phone but the phone always puzzles me, I can never cut and paste from it - an obvious sign. I wonder what the GP will say?

Is that sarcastic? If it is it's pretty offensive to those of us who have friends and relatives with dementia. It's not a big joke.

What is your point OP? Terry Pratchett lived for more than seven years after diagnosis - six of them good, one of them not good though his family obviously haven't given details. He wrote several good books from those years and did some extraordinary things. Your principle would have written those years off at the first treatable physical illness, on the basis that he was destined to die, as are we all.

You don't know my life experiences. Just do one!

I work in a specialist dementia care home. We have 3 men and 16 women.

Id say it's higher in women as they tend to live longer, we have had plenty of men here during the time I've worked here, the men tend to have a wife back at home who simply can not care for their husbands

All the women are widows.

And you don't know mine, otherwise I hope you'd have had the basic humanity not to say some of the things you've said. But you started a thread about disease statistics and public health policy, not a thread about your personal tragic experience.