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I Have Copd (10 Years) And Was Recently Diagnosed With
Question: Brief Answer:
There are a number of things.
Detailed Answer:
And the number one is stop smoking and start exercising. This is the most effective thing we have for slowing the progression of both. Indeed, the pattern is pretty similar of both. You've got a complex structure that parts of it are breaking down (lung or brain). Even if it grows back, the structure probably would NOT come back and it wouldn't work. So, lowering the damage to the structure is the main thing and maybe some parts grow and restructure very slowly over years.
With lung, we know that a couple shot glasses of lung grow back per year for two years after stopping cigarettes, then the lungs lose about that much per year just like a non-smoker.
We strongly suspect there is some improvement in brain with quitting cigarettes, doing exercise and maybe the medications you are taking and also maybe statins (ok, DEFINITELY STATINS if strokes causes some of the brain problems).
Then, the experimental part of brain rehabilitation with dementia is rather easy to recommend. Maybe brain exercises might help grow more brain structure BUT, the key points of the ones which are the only that MIGHT work.... are the fun ones:
activities with relatives and friends,
social activities
new interesting and varied tasks
good music.
The repetative brain busy work hasn't worked out as working.(the not fun stuff).
now the other good news. For a process (growth of money in savings, loss of the XXXXXXX your illnesses), the expectation of how bad it gets and how fast is pretty predictable by drawing a line on how bad you feel it was at points in the past. So, if 10 years ago you didn't have any problem and then suddenly this year it got all much much worse then you should look into something bad having happened and the progression might be really bad. If it is slightly worse each year of the last 5 and you were 100% at 68 and you lost 5% a year for the last 10...then the progression is quite slow and you're 78 and able to ask questions on the internet! I suspect the extent and progression of the dementia is not all that bad and it will continue to progress at the same (SLOW) rate.
There are a number of things.
Detailed Answer:
And the number one is stop smoking and start exercising. This is the most effective thing we have for slowing the progression of both. Indeed, the pattern is pretty similar of both. You've got a complex structure that parts of it are breaking down (lung or brain). Even if it grows back, the structure probably would NOT come back and it wouldn't work. So, lowering the damage to the structure is the main thing and maybe some parts grow and restructure very slowly over years.
With lung, we know that a couple shot glasses of lung grow back per year for two years after stopping cigarettes, then the lungs lose about that much per year just like a non-smoker.
We strongly suspect there is some improvement in brain with quitting cigarettes, doing exercise and maybe the medications you are taking and also maybe statins (ok, DEFINITELY STATINS if strokes causes some of the brain problems).
Then, the experimental part of brain rehabilitation with dementia is rather easy to recommend. Maybe brain exercises might help grow more brain structure BUT, the key points of the ones which are the only that MIGHT work.... are the fun ones:
activities with relatives and friends,
social activities
new interesting and varied tasks
good music.
The repetative brain busy work hasn't worked out as working.(the not fun stuff).
now the other good news. For a process (growth of money in savings, loss of the XXXXXXX your illnesses), the expectation of how bad it gets and how fast is pretty predictable by drawing a line on how bad you feel it was at points in the past. So, if 10 years ago you didn't have any problem and then suddenly this year it got all much much worse then you should look into something bad having happened and the progression might be really bad. If it is slightly worse each year of the last 5 and you were 100% at 68 and you lost 5% a year for the last 10...then the progression is quite slow and you're 78 and able to ask questions on the internet! I suspect the extent and progression of the dementia is not all that bad and it will continue to progress at the same (SLOW) rate.
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