Blog: The Brain Dialogues, filtered by tag: Community

MONICA CATIONS By now it is well established that poor cardiovascular and cognitive health in early life can increase the risk of dementia in old age.  But did you know that it could also bring forward the age of dementia onset to midlife?  Evidence is emerging to suggest that fitness as early as the teenage years could be associated with younger onset dementia (YOD). Younger onset dementia is any dementia with onset before the age of 65 years.  It is much less common than dementia in old age, but there are currently around 20 000 people with YOD living in Australia.  Dementia in midlife… Read More

HEIDI DOUGLASS | h.douglass@unsw.edu.au CHeBA Champion Warren King has a gruelling training regime for the 2015 Asia Pacific Ironman, an event at which he hopes to raise public awareness and money for dementia research. Since becoming a CHeBA Champion in 2013, Warren has fundraised for dementia research at a number of events, but the Asia Pacific Ironman on March 22 will be his biggest challenge yet. Warren began triathlon training in 2012, at which point he says he was “a terrible swimmer, hadn’t ridden a bike in years and was an occasional runner”. A family history of Alzheimer’s disease… Read More

PROFESSOR HENRY BRODATY and PROFESSOR PERMINDER SACHDEV In historical times, the elderly were highly revered.  Wisdom and knowledge were respected and ageing was seen as a positive experience.  Over the decades, our opinion of ageing has shifted and certainly in parts of the first-world ageing has become a loaded term.  ‘Being old’ is sometimes associated – particularly by many of the younger generation - with health issues and decline.  From the perspective of everyone at the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), it’s time to stop that trend and re-think the meaning of ageing.  Positive… Read More

STEPHANIE CAMPBELL, CHeBA CHAMPION A few months ago something happened to me that would change my life forever. It was Sunday morning, March 16 and I was about to complete my 57th solo skydive. Gazing out onto the vista 14,000ft below, my fingers felt stiff and numb on the cool metalwork of the plane door as I steadied myself in preparation for my next move. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, filling my lungs with the icy, fast-moving air, and then leapt out into the void. I didn't know it then, but in five minutes' time I would be fighting for my life on the ground. In a horrifying… Read More