“How do I decrease my chances of getting dementia in 10 years?”

Laurie asked a question a gazillion others have asked before. (I can’t remember the number…) Dementia is terrifying, and our posture toward it varies amongst us. Some of us look straight ahead, assuming that if it shows up like a fallen tree on the road we travel, we’ll encounter it when we arrive there. We ignore thinking about our family medical history and our own risk factors. We don’t change our diets or take medication prophylactically to lower our LDL cholesterol. We shrug. Others try to call ahead and check traffic, so to speak. “Is the highway flow worsening? There might be a road hazard!” These are those of us who are checking in, pulling on mother’s skirt, “How ’bout now? How ’bout now?” It is worrisome.

The truth is that there are many kinds of dementia, and there are many factors that increase or decrease risk. And I’m not a true leader/expert in dementia diseases. It’s not the bulk of my practice.

When Laurie asked me this, I remembered my dad. He, as you know, was an orthopedic surgeon and loved to travel where he was useful around the globe. I had forgotten how he managed till I came across an old article in which my parents, newlyweds, were interviewed for the “DES MOINES SUNDAY REGISTER, July 12, 1964.” My dad is reported to have said that the American University hospital (in Benghazi, Libya, where they had gotten to know each other, and which has long since closed down) was “our best investment in the Middle East. It is by far the best medical institution in the Middle East. …America’s best propaganda in the Middle East, particularly in such a politically strategic and rapidly developing country as Libya.” Lots of big words of “best, best, rapidly developing, best…!”

Dad used to make bolstering statements like this wherever he went whenever he could. Something like the queen’s wave. He dropped these morsels, as if he knew. As if he had the inside scoop of those in AMERICA! (Echo, echo.) Or those in LOMA LINDA UNIVERSITY! (With a sound like lovely waves giving their sloppy embrace to the shore.)

In Malawi, at the Adventist church there, connected to their hospital, I remember he went up to the pulpit of sorts and said something like, “I bring you greetings from Loma Linda! I want you to know they are thinking about you and are proud of the work you are doing here.” At the time, whenever this happened, I’d take it in, thinking, “Dad must have been told by ‘Loma Linda University’ this, or told by ‘America’, and he is delivering the message.” This was in fact partly true for much of his life, as he worked with the General Conference in the department of Missions, but I see now that he did take some creative measures.

So when Laurie asked about her 10-year avoidance plan, I remembered Dad and thought, “I can too. Bring out the wave!”

Laurie and I had been working together for some time now. She was so much improved from her starting point; battling cancer, melancholic depression with its iron shavings all about, insomnia, anxiety, chronic pain, and protracted grief after losing several family members to different disease processes. She was really amazing, and we, both of us, were overcome for a moment thinking about it together, looking back, as we tried to look forward.

Having improved in so much, I rapidly thought, what’s the best bang for her buck!?

This is a marvelous place to find yourself as a provider. Super fun. It’s like the house is clean; now let’s check the fridge! Her meds were balanced. She actually responded to her back surgery without complications and was pain-free. Cancer-free. All that good good stuff. Ubercool Laurie wanted now to get many good years after so many bad ones. She felt like she had fought for it but, like most trauma survivors, felt her frailty. Just one small thing could take her down again. “Oh please no!” I could almost read in her eyes what her mouth wasn’t speaking.

What to say, what to say? I figured that in Laurie’s biopsychosocial paradigm, her biology was pretty tight. She just wasn’t exercising. Ok there was that. But in that biopsychosocial paradigm, where there really are no dividers between one and the other, where was God? She was struggling. Those who carried God’s name to her had taken his name in vain. They had misrepresented Him to her and presented him like he was unfaithful, disinterested, and inconsistent. He was like that once-exciting Xbox game that now is boring and not magical at all.

Dad would be proud of me. Off I went. I put my shoulders back and bravely said,

“Laurie, the best way to decrease your risk of getting dementia in 10 years (drum roll!…!) is to figure out how you can: 1.) Exercise every day. And 2.) Look at Jesus every day. Every day. These two habits are the best you can do for yourself at this point.”

And although I had told her about habits before, and she had already read the wonderful book by Duhigg, “The Power of Habit,” it had never seemed to saturate like it did this time. Her already enormous, gorgeous eyes got even larger.

“Two things, Laurie. Exercise every day. And look at Jesus every day. I can’t tell you how you will do this. You have to figure it out for yourself.”

I couldn’t tell her how to do these things because it would have been through my perceptions and how I saw the world and how it works for me. She needed it in her mind to click for her and be “doable.” We had, of course, gone over these ideas many times and from so many different angles, like turning the prism in light, but this seemed like the 1st time I think she absorbed it.

In fact, there is some related evidence. For example, in one systematic review of 17 studies, The Effect of Religion and Spirituality on Cognitive Function: A Systematic Review, The Gerontologist, 2019, Hosseini S, Chaurasia A, Oremus M, it was found that there was a “possible effect on disease progression: in older US adults with dementia, attending services more often was linked to fewer neuropsychiatric symptoms, better cognition, and fewer sleep problems. This held after adjusting for social interaction, but the sample was small. In people who already have Alzheimer disease, greater religiosity has been linked to slower cognitive decline.”

After telling Laurie this, some weeks ago, I’ve remembered it so many times and it returns me for my own life. Look at Jesus every day. Just look at him.

In our next post, I’m going to continue this post and tell you about where it talks about this in the Bible. Yay.

For today, our self-care tip is, well, you guessed: 1.) Exercise every day. And 2.) Look at Jesus every day. Every day.

Question: Are you thinking about your health in 10 years? What does it look like, and how are you preparing yourself?

Keep on!