By Dr. Bikkar Singh Lalli
Here is an Aboriginal say:”We are all visitors to this time and place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love, then to return home“. As a visitor, however, I would like to stay healthy, happy and functionally independent as long as possible.
While acting as an emcee in an annual function held at University’s Quance Theatre, I experienced a sudden mental block, and I forgot to make an important announcement. However , deft fully I turned the episode into a joke, and thus avoided an embarrassment. One day, one of my former students who had specialized in neurology, dropped into my office. I casually mention to him my predicament. Don’t worry, he said, “old age is the home of forgetfulness”. His remarks, did not give me any comfort, and I started thinking seriously of avoiding the onset of terrible disease which my friend had alluded to – Alzheimer’s. I felt for a moment as if somebody, may be Shakespeare, had whispered in my ears-‘Sans teeth, sans eyes, sane taste, sans everything’. I started searching for information about this hidden disease, and came to know that Alzheimer’s disease develops slowly and gradually; but is distinctive in that it forces patients to endure many years of steadily lessening contact with others, because of memory loss, difficulty with orientation, loss of language and speaking abilities, judging things and depression amongst numerous other symptoms.
I am, by nature, a very stubborn individual who never gets easily discouraged. and who hve confronted many challenges including two by-pass surgeries. So I decided to make changes in my life style and try my best to keep this dreadful intruder at bay. In 1991, at the invitation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, I was visiting Beijing During evening walks I saw elders playing games,, tai cai and lawn bowling in parks. Since, Alzheimer’s was on my mind, I asked Dr. Yu, my research collaborator, about this problem in China. Because of healthy diet, exercise, fresh air, and opportunities for socialization, this problem is practically non-existent.
I wondered, about Nirad Chaudhri, a Bangali scholar, who was honoured by Oxford University with an honorary DLitt degree in 1990, who finished his book “Three Horsemen of the New Apocalypse” in 1997, and died in 1999 at the age of 101- Sophocles was 89 when he wrote Oedipus at Colonus, one of his dramatic masterpieces -Benjamin Franklin retired from public service when he was 80 -.George Bernard Shaw was working on his last play ” Why She Would Not”, when he was 94. They all kept themselves busy. So, I must make sure that if death comes to visit me, I should be in my garden watering my roses.
.After my talk at Hiroshima University in 1993, we were sitting in a restaurant, when one of the colleagues of my research collaborator Dr. T. Kusano, remarked: “Hara hachi bu” – stop eating when your stomach is 80% full. Wow- that is exactly what my grandfather told me 65 years ago. Dr. Kusano and his friends, then started discussing the diet of people living in Okinawa.. Almost 29% of Okinawan live to be 100, about four times the average in western countries.
Alzheimer’s was a hidden disease with very few victims before the twentieth century, and yet references to senility are strangely ubiquitous throughout recorded history – not just in medical records but also in legal, political, and cultural texts . Earlier chroniclers of senility include Chaucer, Montaigne, Chekhov, Carlyle, Darwin, Dickens, and Tolstoy who alluded to it in “War and Peace”.
Before leaving my office my neurologist student said emphatically: keep your brain healthy and injury free. Human brain is roughly the size of two adult fists, closed and pressed together at the knuckles, Weighing three pounds, 2 percent of body weight but requiring 20 per cent of its energy consumption. It is by far the most complicated system known to exist in nature or civilization, a control center for the coordination of breathing, swallowing, pressure, pain, fear, arousal, sensory perception, muscular movement, abstract thought, identity, and mood. Research shows there are three areas to consider when you plan to maintain and improve the health of your brain: your mind, your body and your spirit, he said.
I moved to BC and settled in my newly built house, in Surrey. Since, the three crucial words: Mind, Body and Spirit were vividly scripted in my memory, I began a search for the chores to do to keep my mind and body engaged. I secure a research grant from Hon. Allan Rock, the then Health Minister, to work on a project: Wellness Model for Indo-Canadian Seniors. We came to know a lot about the health problems Indo-Canadian seniors are facing. On behalf of Surrey/Delta Indo-Canadian Seniors Society, we started making seniors aware of the dangers of those ailments which afflict seniors, ands some of the steps they should take to blunt their impact
In 1999, I joined a group of volunteers, with BC CEAS (Coalition to Eliminate Abuse of Seniors), consisting of lawyers, retired RCMP officers, Bank Managers, and some other retirees. I, with various partners, gave at least 150 presentations to various societies in lower mainland, Nanaimo, Victoria, Kamloops, Abbotsford. My motto is to keep myself busy, both physically and mentally; help as many seniors as I can; keep giving seniors information regarding benefits of physical and mental exercise. As a member of City of Surrey’s committee concerning ” Focus on Seniors”, I take an active part in arranging Seniors Forum in various languages including Punjabi. The recent findings from the Ontario Brain Institute supporting the belief that physical activity can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease or manage the progression of the most common form of dementia is a welcomed news. As our population ages, the number of people affected by Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia is going to increase dramatically. An estimated 500,000 Canadians have Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. In 2013, it is estimated that there are worldly more than 24 million people with Alzheimer’s disease, with 4.6 million new cases each year, which means a new case each 7 seconds. In just 5 years, as much as 50% more Canadians and their families could be facing Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. The US Alzheimer’s Society estimates that about $90 billion is spent annually in medical treatment and nursing home care, lost productivity, and early death due to Alzheimer’s disease.
I tell the seniors to eat food which is rich in antioxidants, and eliminates damaging free radicals-eat, specifically, prunes, raisons, blueberries, blackberries, kale, spinach, raspberries, brusseles, sprouts, plums, alfalfa sprouts, broccoli, beets, oranges, red grapes, red pepper, and Avoid head injuries, avoid fatty foods, avoid high blood pressure. The Okinawans live a healthy long life, because they eat fish and sea food, and they have self -imposed habit of calorie restriction. Thus, it is better to include tuna, salmon, and other foods rich in fatty acids. I learnt from the Chinese seniors that we must do exercise to remain physically fit and to maintain high level of social contact. The recent findings from the Ontario Brain Institute support the belief that physical activity can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Ralph Emerson, who became himself a victim of Alzheimer’s, once commented that “The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet”. We use our brains to build great tools that make our lives safer, longer, easier. But the these same tools also dull our minds. The lesser-used mind does, almost inevitably, become weaker instrument. In our superior modern world, machines practically think for us, and consequently even healthy brains are in something of an insidious decline.
I make sure that I get a 7 hour sound sleep, because with deep sleep the brain repairs itself and the body gets boost in the immune system. I also do some reading and writing, because not doing mental work means not building those internal connections between trillions of neurons. Moreover, brains gets benefited when being used. I have never missed my routine of dong daily exercise because exercise promotes the growth of cells and blood vessels and protects the brain by controlling blood pressure, says UBC researcher Liu-Ambrose. I determined to follow my grand fathers example of living a socially active life, stay on healthy diet, and I always remember what Shakespeare said: “Laughing Faces Do Not Mean That There Is Absence Of Sorrow! But It Means That They Have The Ability To Deal With It”. Keep your mind active keep a positive attitude, read, discuss, debate, play word games, keep high level of social contact, do volunteer work, learn a new language, music, that is what my neurologist told me to do.
Alzheimer’s disease is the second most feared disease for Canadians as they age. It is thus one of the greatest challenges in public health for modern societies, in terms of costs but also in terms of cause, cure and care. So, I urge all Canadians and especially Indo-Canadian seniors to change their eating habits, do exercise, stay on healthy diet and think positively. That is how I am surviving, and anxiously waiting for my 85th birthday. .
