The 4 early warning signs of dementia you can spot when you WALK
People frequently associate dementia with memory loss as its initial symptom.
This may involve misplacing your wallet, failing to pay payments, skipping appointments, or being disoriented.
However, research shows that a person’s movements might also be early indicators of dementia.
According to one study, alterations in a person’s gait may be a sign of dementia in its early stages.
A decreasing sense of direction and taking “wrong turns” are indicators of Alzheimer’s disease, the most prevalent type of the condition, according to another study.
Scientists have previously proposed that changes in gait, such as pace, may be an early sign of dementia in general.
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Prof. Gill Livingston, a psychiatrist at University College London, told Sun Health, “This is because walking requires lots of thinking.”
It is not enough to simply walk; you must move in a specific path, surrounded by objects you must avoid, while maintaining your equilibrium.
“People who suffer from dementia, even in the early stages, can’t accurately do all these things at once,” she said.
These four early indicators of dementia may appear while you’re walking.
1. Worse sense of direction
Everybody gets lost sometimes; it’s a fact of life, particularly when your phone’s battery dies.
However, losing your sense of direction on a regular basis may indicate Alzheimer’s disease, particularly in its early stages.
Terry Griffiths dies after long battle with dementia
Terry Griffiths, a former world snooker champion, passed away at the age of 77 following a protracted fight with the illness, according to his family.
The Welshman defeated Dennis Taylor 24-16 in the final to win the 1979 World Championship as a qualifier.
Wayne, Terry Griffiths’ son, posted on Facebook: “We are very sorry to inform our friends and snooker fans in general of our passing.
“After a protracted fight with dementia, Terry Griffiths OBE died away quietly on December 1.
“He was in his cherished hometown of South Wales, surrounded by his family.
Terry, a patriotic Welshman who was born in Llanelli, has found peace in the town after bringing pride to it.
“He would not have had it any other way.”
People with the disease overestimated turns and had a worse sense of direction when retracing their travels, according to a study conducted by a team at UCL and published last year.
Prof. Gill claims that this is due to the fact that individuals with the illness not only lose their memory but also their ability to perceive their surroundings.
“People with early-stage Alzheimer’s may have trouble understanding objects, causing them to perceive things as 3D when they’re not, or even 2D when they’re actually 3D,” she added.
It indicates that they perceive things that aren’t there, which may compel them to change their course in an attempt to escape them.
Or it implies that they can topple objects they believe to be flat.
“On top of that, they can’t remember things they’ve seen previously, so getting back to places can be hard.”
2. Slower pace
Each of us walks at a different pace, with some of us falling behind more than others.
However, Prof. Gill told Sun Health that walking more slowly each year might be an early indication of dementia.
“As the cognitive ability declines thinking gets slower,” she stated.
“And this means it takes sufferers longer to think about where they are going how to get round objects and coordination, which slows them down.”
According to a big Australian study that examined the walking speeds of almost 17,000 persons over 65, those whose walking speeds decreased by 5% or more per year had a higher risk of developing dementia than those whose walking speeds remained constant.
3. Smaller strides
Studies have also found that people with dementia are more prone to walk with shorter strides.
Smaller steps and a broader gait—where a person walks with their feet abnormally far apart—were found to be indicators of memory loss in a 2016 US study.
However, the reason why these walking patterns are typical of those who have the condition is still unknown to scientists.
“The guess is that people with dementia are less confident about where they’re going and their ability to get there,” Professor Gill said.
“So they take smaller steps, like someone would on a slippery surface.”
4. A change in arm swing
According to specialists, a person’s arm swings whilst walking may reveal a symptom of dementia.
Reduced arm movement when walking has been shown in multiple investigations as an early indicator of the illness.
Prof. Gill explains that this is because people with dementia “struggle” to maintain their equilibrium when moving about.
She continued: “To try and stay upright and maintain balance sufferers tend to use swing their arms more but keep their arms closer to their body.”
Ways to lower your risk of dementia
You can take certain steps to lower your own risk of dementia, including Alzheimer’s.
Although there is no one behavior that can prevent dementia, there is a wealth of information that suggests altering your lifestyle choices may have an impact on your risk.
According to the Alzheimer’s Society, those who engage in healthy behaviors between the ages of 40 and 65 have the lowest risk of developing dementia.
Here are some simple adjustments you can make:
- Exercise regularly to boost your heart health and circulation and help maintain a healthy weight.
- Drink less alcohol – try to have no more than 14 units of alcohol a week, about one pint of beer or a small glass of wine each day. If you regularly drink much more than this, you are increasing your risk of damage to your brain and other organs, and so increasing your risk of dementia.
- Don’t smoke – it does a lot of harm to the circulation of blood around the body, particularly the blood vessels in the brain, as well as the heart and lungs.
- Engaging in social activities to help to build up your brain s ability to relieve stress and improve your mood – depression and social isolation have both been linked to dementia.
- Manage health conditions, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes, which can increase the risk of getting dementia.
- Protect your eyesight and hearing – vision loss increases a person s risk of developing dementia. The same goes for hearing loss, which can also be an early symptom of dementia.
- Wear a helmet – as traumatic brain injuries can start a process in the brain where the substances that cause Alzheimer s disease build up around the injured area.
Source: The Society for Alzheimer’s
From the NHS
The generic word for losing the capacity to think, recall, or make judgments to the point where it interferes with day-to-day functioning is dementia.
Dementia is the leading cause of death in the UK, where over 900,000 people suffer from it.
And since aging is the main cause of the memory-robbing disease, that figure is expected to rise as individuals live longer.
Due to the complexity of the testing and the ambiguity of the symptoms, the majority of patients receive a late diagnosis.
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Patients who receive a late diagnosis have less time to consider their alternatives for therapy and make critical life decisions.
In the UK, almost two-thirds of dementia cases are caused by Alzheimer’s disease.
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