Destiny I have been doing health education for the elderly in the community for almost 7 years. Among the thousands of elderly people I have met, almost all of them thought at first that "cognitive health is to prevent Alzheimer's disease." In fact, if we really break it down, the content of cognitive health education for the elderly is all about practical things that can be used in daily life.
Last time I held a lecture in Kaiyuan Community, Aunt Zhang raised her hand at the beginning and said, "It's normal for me to forget to bring my keys and turn off the ignition when I get old. Why should I learn this?" This is actually the cognitive common sense that we need to clarify first: we need to let the elderly distinguish between normal aging forgetfulness and forgetfulness caused by aging. The difference between pathological cognitive decline is, for example, occasionally you cannot remember the name of an old colleague, or you turn around and forget what you wanted to pick up. If you can remember it when you turn around, there is no need to panic. However, if you forget what you ate just after eating, or you can’t find your way home after walking for more than ten years, you must go to the hospital for screening in time. When it comes to prevention, many elderly people will ask whether to buy brain-building health supplements. We will say this objectively every time. At present, there is no unified conclusion in the academic circles on the effects of supplements such as Omega3 and Ginkgo leaf extract. Some studies believe that they can have auxiliary effects on the elderly who lack relevant nutrients. There are also large sample surveys showing that there is not much difference with placebo. Instead of spending thousands to buy so-called "miraculous medicines", it is safer to spend money on eating more dark green vegetables every day and eating two meals of deep-sea fish every week.
It is not enough to understand what is normal and what is abnormal. What is more practical is to know how to proactively protect one's cognitive functions. We will talk about proven high-risk factors in parents' stories, such as chronic high blood pressure and high blood sugar that are not well controlled, which will slowly damage the cerebral blood vessels and accelerate cognitive decline. There used to be a 74-year-old uncle Li whose blood pressure had been hovering at 160/100 all year round and refused to take medicine. He always thought that the medicine was poisonous. After listening to the lectures, he went back and followed the doctor's advice to control his blood pressure. Now he is almost 80, and he can play mahjong and count cards faster than his younger generation. Also, living alone and bored at home for a long time, lying down and watching short videos every day without moving either the brain or the legs are all accelerators of cognitive decline. Going to the park to chat with old friends and take care of grandchildren can actually help exercise cognition.
Many elderly people ask whether they need to sign up for a brain fitness class to be useful? Not really. There is no need to do complicated Mathematical Olympiad questions in daily cognitive training. In daily life, you can learn to use your smartphone to post to Moments and take short videos. When cooking at home, you can remember the placement of spices. You can also play chess or learn paper-cutting. These are all very cost-effective training methods. The latest research has shown that learning a new language has the best effect in delaying cognitive decline. However, when we communicated with clinicians, we also had different opinions. Many rural elderly who have never been exposed to Pinyin and have low educational levels are prone to frustration if they insist on learning to read and learn a foreign language. On the contrary, it is better to dance in the square for half an hour every day or chat with others for an hour. Therefore, we never force the elderly to do anything in our missionary education. We just let them choose what they like and stick to it.
If there are really signs of cognitive decline, there is nothing we can do. We will explain this to the elderly and their families at the same time. For example, the elderly should wear a bracelet with contact information when they go out. Do not eat food given by strangers. Family members cannot always accuse the elderly of "Why do you forget things again?" There used to be an Aunt Wang. When her husband was first diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, she quarreled with her husband every day, saying that he was deliberately pretending to be sick and lazy. After attending the class, she went back and changed her communication style. She followed her husband's instructions and even walked with her husband in the park every day. Now after more than half a year of follow-up, her husband's cognitive level has basically not declined.
In fact, after doing missionary education for so long, we are constantly adjusting the content. We previously listed several pages of knowledge points, but later found that the elderly could not remember them. Now we incorporate the content into case studies, and only when they can understand and use it can we really achieve good health education.
