When Canada effectually legalized euthanasia, I was dismayed. Dementia victims, certain to be targets, can be got to “consent” without any fixed or firm idea what they are doing. With the ageing of the world’s population dementia has become the new leprosy. As Marcus Roberts notes in a recent post on Demography is Destiny, the Read more
Getting dementia tops the list of fears for older people including baby boomers, says a celebrated world authority on ageing and spirituality, Dr Elizabeth MacKinlay. Yet people with dementia can still find meaning in life, she says. MacKinlay is professor of theology at Charles Sturt University in Canberra and an Anglican priest. She has been presenting Read more
Over-diagnosis epidemic – David Le Couteur discusses recent changes in the definition of dementia and their ramifications: The pattern of over-diagnosis is the same for many diseases: we screen healthy people and those with minimal symptoms; we use sophisticated technologies that detect early or minor abnormalities that may not progress; and we treat people with Read more
If you’re on the verge of developing diabetes, you’re “pre-diabetic.” You’ve got “pre-hypertension” if you’re about to be diagnosed with high blood pressure, “pre-anxiety” before getting anxiety, and and “pre-dementia” before dementia. As if actual diseases weren’t frightening enough, we now have what seems like a whole encyclopedia of pre-diseases to fear. What’s with our Read more