docondemand-blog

[docondemand-blog]

So Diabetes. Its all down to sugar... right?

Not quite - try looking at your pancreas.

Your pancrea-whaaaaat?

Your pancreas. It’s a very important little organ that sits by your digestive tract and churns out the hormone Insulin. The real star of the show when it comes to Diabetes.

You might not realise it but Insulin is a veryyyy important hormone, so important that you’d die without it. Along with having many other jazzy functions, it’s headline act is to take the sugar (a.k.a. glucose) that you get from your diet and move it into your body’s cells so that it can be used as energy. For example, if your body was a furnace, insulin is the name of the guy who’s shoveling in the coal... So lets say the shovel guy is feeling a bit under the weather, or maybe he just stopped turning up to work because he’s mysteriously disappeared. No more shoveling. No more Insulin. No more glucose being pumped into your cells. 

Boom.

That’s Diabetes.

I know what you’re thinking. Where did the shovel guy go? Well to explain this, I’m going to give you a reminder about what an auto-antibody is.  An antibody is part of your immune system and acts as a beacon that normally sticks to bad things that get into your body like viruses and bacteria. It sends out its message saying ‘hey body, there’s something nasty over here, come an kill it please!’ Now an auto-antibody is an antibody that gets confused and sticks to your own organs instead of the enemy. Yeah. Dumb idea. Now  the defense systems just do as they’re told to and blindly attack what the auto-antibody is stuck onto. Your own organs, like your pancreas. Ouch. The pancreas is being attacked and stops producing Insulin.  That’s type 1 Diabetes.

Ahhhhh that’s where the shoveller went! So how about if he’s still around just not feeling so hot. Well, we’ve all got our limits and your pancreas is no different. Have you ever thought of Insulin when you’ve put on a bit of weight? NO?! So insensitive. Poor Insulin now has so many cells that are demanding sugar that the pancreas can’t make enough of him! Or maybe his shovel breaks and even though hes turned up to work he’s now got to shovel with his bare hands and he can’t keep up and the cells are so demanding and he’s just trying his best and.... Now you’ve got type 2 diabetes.  Yeahhh. Good news is though that if you can lose just a bit of weight, sometimes Insulin can recover and life can resume as normal. If not, this is when the Health Care Professionals get involved and you start getting drugs that stimulate the pancreas to produce more Insulin or insulin himself gets a performance enhancer. 

So now you know.

Yes, sugar is involved but remember that your pancreas and our mate Insulin are the real players behind diabetes - don’t forget about them!

[docondemand-blog]

What do you mean by dementia?

Dementia is one of those words that you may hear quite a lot. Whether its a friend, a relative or even you yourself, there’s a lot of misconceptions about the condition. Hopefully this will clear some of those up!

Having dementia doesn’t mean you’re crazy. 

Or, as believed in the middle ages, that you’re possessed by evil spirits. 

Definitely not. 

Dementia can basically be described as a natural process that happens as your brain gets older. Just like any other organ can start to fail with time, so can your brain. In fact, if we lived long enough we’d all get Dementia as the brain’s functioning declines. 

There’s also lots of different types of dementia but here are the most common;

1. Alzheimer’s

This is by far the most common form of the condition and gets it’s name from the Doctor who first described the symptoms, Alois Alzheimer.

With this type of dementia individuals get a build up of proteins in the brain that just shouldn’t be there - known as ‘plaques’ and ‘tangles’. These bad depositions interfere with the normal functioning of the brain and can lead to a number of problems, especially memory loss. 

People with the condition tend to see a slow decline in their memory over a number of years and at the beginning people can often carry on quite normally with a bit of help from their friends. 

For a full list of the symptoms and what to look out for have a look here.

There are also some treatments available, Donepezil being one of the most frequently used, which works to slow down it’s progression.

Unfortunately there is no cure yet but there has been a surge in funding over the last few years to get plenty of research on the go. 

2. Vascular Dementia

This time is not unwanted deposits that are the problem but a lack of oxygen.

To survive and function normally your brain needs a nice steady flow of the good stuff, brought in by the many blood vessels feeding it. However, if there’s a blockage in one of these vessels problems start to happen. Without the necessary oxygen and nutrients to feed them your brain cells die off  and consequently effect the brain’s overall functioning.

Practically this means that instead of the steady decline in symptoms you get with Alzheimer’s, you often see sudden declines followed by plateaus as the blockages come and go.

So what causes these blockages?

Things like strokes and plaques on the inside of blood vessels can stop the blood supply to a certain part of the brain, leading to the nasty problems described above.

However, these kind of blockages are things that we can predict to a certain extent. Strokes and blood vessel plaques have the same kind of risk factors as heart disease does. 

So that means that if you don’t want to quit smoking, cut down on the cheeseburgers or start some exercise for your heart, do it for your head instead.

3. Demenita with Lewy Bodies

So who is Lewy and what’s he doing in your brain?

Well, the ‘Lewy body’ part of this dementia refers to tiny little protein deposits that appear in the brain’s nerve cells. 

Deposits - Isn’t that Alzheimer’s again? 

No, not quite - it’s a different type of protein deposit that causes the problems this time. We know a bit less about this kind of dementia and still aren’t sure why these Lewy bodies appear in the first place but we’ve got people working on it.

The hallmark of this kind of dementia is usually the visual symptoms that go with it. By visual symptoms I’m talking about hallucinations and misperceptions (like mistaking a shadow for a person). Another common symptom is delusions; very strong beliefs that people may hold about something. Sadly they are often sinister. Many people with this type of dementia may believe that someone is ‘coming for them’ or that their partner is having an affair. 

As a family member these can be very upsetting but it’s important to remember that this is just the dementia talking and not your loved one. Reassurance is the best way to go and make sure you seek professional help early, especially if the person affected is getting aggressive amid their confusion. 

There’s lots more detail about the condition here.

4. Fronto-Temporal Dementia

The title of this kind of dementia just describes which part of the brain is attacked - the frontal lobe and temporal lobe (so the front and side of your brain).

These are the parts of the brain that are instrumental in controlling your personality, behavior and speech and are consequently the areas effected in the condition.

Another quirk of the condition is that people often start noticing problems younger than with the other types of dementia but memory is less likely to be effected. 

Again, we’re not quite sure what causes this kind of dementia and it’s also relatively uncommon compared to the other types. Worth a mention though as people with other types of dementia can start showing similar kind of symptoms if the frontal and temporal lobes are effected.

So that’s a run down of the four most common types of dementia done. You could go into an awful lot of detail about each condition but I hope this overview has given you a bit of insight into the condition! Finally, please remember to get help if you’re worried about your friends or family. Equally, if you’re caring for someone with one of these conditions don’t try and do it all on your own. There are support groups and charities out there to help if you ask.

Any questions, let me know!

[docondemand-blog]

Use it or lose it.

Excellent little summary here - brain games really have been shown to be preventative for Alzheimer's.

Headspace is also a great one for stress-busting...

Brain stimulating Apps

A short list of Apps to help engage your brain

“Brain Training”

Peak 

Has daily workouts , with games designed to improve certain areas of your brain - limited to what you can do per day unless you pay for premium 

Lumosity

again this has daily work out , however you are not limited to how many times you can complete each task

Elevate

‘Trains your brain’ effectively through a series of sessions that targets -writing , listening , speaking and maths . Also is very easy to track your progress

Memorado

A collection of ‘brain training’ games , that you collect points in and take ‘workouts’ every time you reach a certain amount of points . It also has a meditation section .

Fit Brains

Has a customized training plan for certain areas of your brain that you wish to focus on

Puzzle/Logic

Logic Pic +

Hanjie puzzles set out in a really nice format , and has many levels

Rubik’s Free

a virtual Rubik’s cube with a ‘solving’ feature if you are not familiar with the method 

Eductaion

Quizlet

A flashcard app , with a load of pre-made info etc

Memrise

Good for learning languages , and also has some good material there for learning things ( such as memorizing a pack of cards )

Other

Headspace

A really nice guided meditation app , with different categories depending what you're after

[docondemand-blog]

5 simple facts you’ll want to know about heart failure.

Getting that first diagnosis can be worrying for both you and your family but hopefully this will shed some light on a few bits and pieces.

1. It's not as scary as it sounds.

Heart or cardiac failure is not always as scary as the language makes it seem. In fact there’s a whole spectrum of heart failure and most people sit at the low end of the severity scale. Doctors tend to use a scoring system from the New York Heart Association to classify the different levels, purely to make communication between health professionals easier.

Just in case you wanted to have a more detailed look at how Doctors classify the condition, here’s a great table from the American Heart Association.

2. You’re not alone

Heart failure is actually extremely common, if you are living with the condition you’re in the company of approximately 41 million other people worldwide. Its also a condition that a lot of people tend to live with without much trouble. People carry on working, play sports, go to the pub (to drink orange juice obviously) and do all manner of other activities. So no need to give up the figure skating just yet.

You will have to make a few lifestyle changes to your diet and exercise schedule but you’ll feel ten times better for doing it and probably be fitter than when you were first diagnosed!

3. The drugs will help.

At the minute you’re probably getting a bit out of breath going up stairs? Can’t walk as far as you used to? Gone up a shoe size due to all the swelling in your feet?

Don’t worry, the medications that your Doctor has given you will make the world of difference. Just take them regularly (no skipping) and see the benefits they can bring. 

The tablets prescribed will be to help with things like offloading excess water, keeping your blood pressure down and lowering cholesterol. The reason you might be on a few different tablets is because they all work on different systems to get your heart working as well it possibly can. 

Think of it like a professional kitchen. You’ve got your meat station, your pastry chef and that sauce guy all working on different things to bring you a top class three course dinner. Good news for you.

I know there’s loads of people out there who don’t like taking tablets but these ones are important and will make you feel loads better. Especially the water tablets. Take my word for it.

4. Your echo appointment is important.

If your Doctor suspects that you may have heart failure you will almost certainly go for an echocardiogram, otherwise known as an echo.  There is absolutely no pain involved, the appointment normally takes about half an hour and you’ll get covered in jelly; great times all around. 

The echo itself is a pretty nifty test where they use ultrasound to look at the different chambers in your heart (four in total). Some fancy maths will then be able to calculate how well your heart can pump blood out to the rest of the body. This calculation is known in the business as the ‘ejection fraction’ and shows the percentage of blood your heart can pump out in each heartbeat. 

The higher the number the better your heart is working. Just for a bit of context, a normal person should have an ejection fraction of about 60% whereas someone with severe heart failure will have an ejection fraction of less than 35%.

Even if you have a low score though, this doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have the symptoms. Seeing as we’re all unique, everyone’s body reacts differently to having a low heart pumping ability. Basically, even if your ejection fraction is low, it doesn’t always mean you’ll have the symptoms to match.

5. The future’s bright, the future’s got robots.

Given that there’s so many people with the condition, there’s a lot of clever people trying to find new and inventive ways to treat heart failure.

At the moment, if your heart failure is really bad you might get something called a Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) to give your heart a hand whilst waiting for a transplant.

However, the latest device in the pipeline will be like a soft sleeve that will contract to mimic the way a healthy heart would pump blood around the body. Clever eh? Read more about it here. It’s still a work a progress but could help a lot of people when its up and running. 

Well, that’s all for now. Please feel free to comment or ask questions and I hope you leave this post feeling a bit more comfortable about whats going on with heart failure!