DEMENTIA AND EYE TESTS

As dementia creeps on, drip by drip each day we do some strange and funny things.One day this week when I took the dogs out for a run, when I came home with joyful hound, Julian was horrified to see that I had gone out in my slippers. She laughed when I said that it could happen to anyone and not just we dementia people." Not to a woman." She said. We are too particular about what we look like." I replied that it was a question of vanity and we had a friendly argument. When I thought about it afterwards I realised that if dementia progresses into Alzheimer's both men and women lose much of their memory and each do silly things. On a positive note,it will soon be possible to check if a person has the signs of Alzheimer's from an eye test.This will be quite an important improvement, as when you have dementia you know that it is a symptom of something else and the probabilty of Alzheimer's is very high. The other possibilities could be pretty horrible too, but it would be perhaps useful to know. Another good development this week is that research over several years has confirmed what many of us dementia people already knew from experience, that a positive lifestyle slows down the advance of dementia. The figures show that the improvement is on average 40%. We had a lovely weekend away on an Alpha Christian retreat. I would really recomend this to everyone as I know for a certainty that prayer and meditation also help us. Weather very nice here in Paarl. Cold at night, but hot enough by mid day to have lunch in the garden every day. David Barnato. Paarl. South Africa.