It was the year 2010 and Dad, then aged 82, had come downstairs early, as he always did and sat in his chair, savouring the quiet morning. Only on this day, something didn’t feel quite right. Meanwhile, two doors down the road, an elderly bed-bound neighbour had accidentally pulled her alarm call button and this had triggered an ambulance response. Dad visited her daily to fetch the coal in for her fire and a chat. He later said she had been his guardian angel that day and had saved his life or prevented permanent disability.

Mum came downstairs and phoned my brother (in a panic) who then phoned 999. Dad couldn’t speak. The call came into the ambulance crew’s radio who were now two doors down. Realising the neighbour had made a call error, they were with my dad within five minutes and he received the magic of the Golden Hour, as far as receiving first-line treatment. Dad had suffered a major stroke.

By the time I managed to get to the James Paget hospital in Gt Yarmouth that evening ( my nursing team said we were too busy for me to get the time off work) I remember him sitting in the chair, his hands behind his head wondering what all the fuss was about. He made a full recovery.

However, it wasn’t long after that his eyesight started to deteriorate, and macular degeneration was diagnosed. Suddenly his life was turned upside down with a severe loss of sight. Woodturning, painting and driving were all gone very quickly. Approximately, 10 years after his stroke, cognitive impairment was diagnosed and this then proceeded to vascular dementia. A cerebral vascular accident is a known risk factor for vascular dementia and can occur within ten years of the incident. Dad fitted this time pattern.

Vascular and Alzheimer’s dementia are two words, along with other forms of dementia which sends a shudder through anybody who knows the living reality of this disease. Not seen as a medical disease but as a social disease, it robs people slowly of everything, slowly, cruelly and bit by bit. Loss of independence, loss of dignity, homes sold to cover care costs, life savings reduced to almost nothing and eventual loss of life.

Dementia is now the biggest killer in the UK from figures in 2022 and there is still no cure. But what is being discovered is how crucial vascular health is to our brain health. Whilst we mustn’t dismiss our fight against cancer and heart disease itself, people are beginning to sit up and take notice that our brain, the powerhouse to everything, deserves a more thorough look at how we care for it and what must do to protect it, to give us any chance of preventing or slowing the risk of dementia.

This last week, I watched on You Tube, The Diary of a CEO and Steve Bartlett who was discussing brain health with an eminent neuroscientist. He held a human brain in his hands. It was one of the whose epiphany moments for me. Steve spoke about how every thought, intelligence, creation, life event, experience, grief, job, hope, relationship is within this soft ball of what feels like tofu. What an incredible thing the brain is and how it contains everything about who we are.

There is still so much we don’t know about this organ. Some people firmly believe that the power of the mind can heal disease. Louise Hay in her book  ‘You Can Heal Your Life’ ( see My Library) refers to her cure of a gynaecological cancer and Mary Morrissey ( another personal development mentor and manifestor ) talks of the power of the mind as she was cured of a potentially fatal kidney disease. I also see on X (Twitter) amazing people who are defying all the odds with stage 4 cancer because of utilising the power of the brain. Whatever you might think, I believe there is something in this to be noted.

In this interview, Dr Wendy Suzuki emphasises that exercise, enough to raise our heartbeat, is key to keeping what she calls a physically healthy big, fat, and fluffy brain. A brain that has the ability to have neuroplasticity—changing and developing new neural connections by challenging it, learning new things, and having strong social connections.

I also believe stress plays a huge part too in the development of Cerebral Vascular Disease. My dad walked a lot and was very fit and active but that didn’t stop him from having a stroke. The stress of caring for my long-term sick mother I feel played a crucial part in this.

From last week’s post looking at sleep, to my post Ikigai- finding your meaning and purpose, there seems to be a cycle that comes around to a full circle of where what we do, how we feel, our habits and actions all influences our brain health.

We have to start asking the question what are we doing today that could harm this incredible piece of tofu-like substance that literally houses everything that has happened to us and shapes who we are?

I would encourage anyone to look at the full interview with Steve Bartlet here, especially the first hour.

Similar to last week’s post on sleep, I can’t say everything here in one attempt and more will follow over subsequent weeks. For now, I leave you to look at two of my early morning walk photo from a local RSPB nature reserve Snettisham as one of my activities to get better sleep ( one factor crucial for brain health) and ask yourself how well do I look after my brain?

Until next time, where we begin a topic that is a focal point of everything- our habits.

Image of brain copyright accessed @microsoft.com October 29th 2024