A new article published in JAMA Neurology posed an interesting question: does the state that you are born in influence your likelihood of developing dementia in the future? Kaiser Permanente Northern California worked with researchers while compiling the data.
Interestingly, what was discovered was that individuals born in states with higher than average stroke mortality rates had higher instances of dementia occurring. These states were mostly in the southern portion of the United States in an area that has come to be known as the “Stroke Belt” by researchers because of the fact that so many strokes occur here. The dementia risk in one of these states was about 30 percent, while other states in the U.S. only had a risk level of about 22 percent.
Despite all of these theories and conjectures, researchers still do not know a lot about the causes of Alzheimer’s disease. They know certain things that you can do to lower your risk of this type of dementia, such as exercise, a healthy diet, and staying mentally active, but these are not necessarily going to prevent everyone from getting the disease. While studies like this make for an interesting piece of news, the bottom line is that they really don’t hold much scientific sway.
It’s also worth pointing out that other shortcomings of this study exist. For example, all of those that were studied currently lived in California. No measure of how long they have lived in the at-risk states was taken, only place of birth. Also, the sample size was not representative of the country as a whole. Again, these kinds of headlines make for good news, but they don’t add a lot of helpful knowledge to the care that we give our family members.
When your mom or dad is suffering from Alzheimer’s or another type of dementia, things like this do not matter. What matter is that someone you love and care about is in need, and if you’re reading this, there’s a strong chance that you are one of the people that will be helping them fulfill that need. You will need to find them proper medical care, trustworthy senior care, and ensure that all of their other physical needs are being met. This is a lot of responsibility on your plate.
At Paradise In-Home Care, we do all that we can to make sure that you have the help that you need. We make sure that our staff members are fully trained caregivers and then we match the right caregiver to a specific individual that they will work well with. This might be a tiny bit of help in the grand scheme of your mom or dad’s memory care needs, but a great caregiver can go a long way toward relieving some of the stress you might be experiencing when it comes to their overall care.
If you have more questions about how best to help a family member in need of in-home care, feel free to give us a call today to schedule a free consultation.
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