The Enid Blyton Society

Chrissie777 wrote:We watched a movie with Julie Christie last year where she had Alzheimer's and her husband finally had to send her to a facility. What I found so extremely cruel was the fact that she was not allowed to see her husband for an entire month in order to get used to living in that facility.
By the time her husband could finally meet her after 4 weeks, she had connected with another man. That must be heart-breaking for the sane spouse...

This story is quite interesting. In fact, in reverse, Sandra Day O'Connor, the retired US Supreme Court Justice (judge) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Day_O'Connor], also had a husband, John Jay O'Connor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay_O%27Connor" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), who had suffered from 20 years with Alzheimer's prior to his death and was living in a facility for such patients. Shortly prior to his death, it was reported that he had fallen in love with a fellow female patient!!!
Stephen I.

Because we tend to forget things at times does not mean Alzheimer's--- that's going a bit too far. We all forget things at times.--In one of the Find Outers books Goon says--- '' me memory's going ''-- he was confused over the disguises Fatty put on to trick him.

Fatty wrote:
Stephen, there aren't any 'prophecies' that aren't coloured by hindsight -- only coincidences. I have such an instance to narrate but I'll post it in the Anecdotage thread.

Many people, including psychotherapists, don't believe in co-incidence and say it's fate or providence and that things happen for a reason.

Psychotherapists are probably the last people to listen to!

Moonraker wrote:Psychotherapists are probably the last people to listen to!

Well, that's your opinion.

It's probably also the opinion of psychiatrists and psychologists, too! (I mean Nigel's)

Dave

like Enid, Winston Churchill had dementia from hardened coronary arteries in his later years. He should have retired from the House of Commons years before he did, but too many people in powerful positions needed his status as an MP to advance their own causes or agendas. So they used him as a meat puppet.

I grew up in 60's and 70's Germany hearing many times what a hero Churchill was.
This is the first time that I found out about his dementia which made me think (considering EB's fate) that this terrible disease was already a horrible threat way back then and not just something that we have to deal with over the past decade or so.
I cannot believe how many of my former classmates and colleagues have/had parents suffering from Alzheimer's. We live in scary times...

Dementia has been around for centuries - it was just called by different names in the past. As it affects mainly older people, it's not surprising that we hear more about it now people are living longer.

I think that is exactly the case Anita. I remember hearing about "Senile Dementia" in the 1940s and '50s. All types of memory loss and mental confusion was classed under the one name. Advances in research has differentiated between various types in the last 30 years or so, in an effort to find a cure which sadly is still many years away, I'm afraid.

Anita Bensoussane wrote:Dementia has been around for centuries - it was just called by different names in the past.

Several of Agatha Christie's books have sentences such as, "Old aunt Hilda has gone gaga...." Thank goodness the censor hasn't discovered that one!

Dementia of some sort seems to have been touched upon in the Malcolm Saville book I've just read. Susan's grandmother lives with the family and is getting very confused about the cricket match (thinking it's football) and forgetting that the reason Susan has made 36 buns is for the party afterwards.

I was watching the news yesterday and today and it mentioned how the number of dementia sufferers is actually going down (I think it's dementia rather than alzheimers). They gave a few 'risk factors' and I found it interesting, as, as far as I know, none of them applied to Enid. They blamed a lack of exercise (Enid played golf, walked, swam, played tennis etc) and also blamed smoking (I'm pretty sure Enid didn't smoke?) and a 'poor education' - which I'm sure also didn't apply to Enid.

I read several times that Alzheimer's/dementia caused by eating too much meat which plugs up the arteries and also by not stimulating your brain enough. So the scientists suggest to take up a new hobby or learn a new language in order to keep your brain cells in good shape. Doing crosswords on a daily basis and eating nuts (they are considered food for the brain) is also recommended.

My mom was most of her life overweight and still is (I inherited it from her and from my grandmother), but she never did any exercise at all. She still meets her friends every week to play bridge. And she still lives in her own house, has a cleaning lady. Groceries get delivered by the super market.
With 86 her memory is better than mine.
She's on top of world politics and reads novels in her native language, Polish.

An older friend told me several years ago that if I wouldn't do weight lifting exercise, I would in a few years be unable to get up from a chair. I talked with my mom about it recently and she told me that even without weight lifting she still gets up from her chair.
Generations of people did well until their mid or late 80's and 90's without any exercise, so why should we waste time with exercising all off a sudden?