This email is sent to the news letter from the Dementia improvement support Association of Japan.
We distribute the new letter on the 4th of each month to all
the subscribers for delivering valuable information, aiming to achieve zero dementia patients in the world.
Contents
〇 Japanese government’s dementia policy
〇 Early onset dementia
〇 Dong-a Ilbo’s article on July 25th about the mechanism of dementia onset
〇 Japanese government’s dementia policy
Wide repercussions were caused by the Outline to Promote Measures against Dementia (the Outline) published by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in June 2019.
In 2012, an estimated 4.62 million people had dementia while 4 million had mild cognitive dysfunction,
namely one out of every four Japanese who are 65 or older had dementia or was likely to have dementia.
The number of the patients were estimated to exceed 5 million in 2018,
and now one out of every seven 65 or older people already have developed dementia.
The Outline was issued in this context by the Ministry as a following initiative to the Comprehensive Strategy
to Promote Measure against Dementia (New Orange Plan) formulated in January 2015.
The basic idea of the Outline is to promote prevention and coexistence as two wheels of an axle,
delaying the onset on one side and building communities where people can live without losing hope after the onset on the other side,
with sufficient focus on views of the people living with dementia and their families.
The Outline received a great response because it had introduced a preventive point of view including specific numerical goals.
Coexistence is a consistent basic concept from former initiatives,
which means people with dementia can live without losing dignity and hope in the same communities together with others.
As to the preventive side, the government stresses “prevention” means delaying the onset
or slowing the progression of the disease, not eliminating the total risk.
They would focus on preparing for dementia including“prevention”,
aiming to achieve the tangible goal to delay the onset of those who are in their 70’s for one year within a decade.
Specific measures are as follows:
1. Public awareness and support to broadcasting
Training for dementia supporters, publicizing consultation services and encouraging broadcasting by the people with dementia.
2. Prevention
Promoting activities potentially effective for preventing dementia (encouraging physical exercises, preventing lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes or high blood pressure, avoiding social isolation and securing social roles through community engagement etc.) and promoting collection of evidence relevant to the prevention.
3. Support to medical treatment, caregiving, nursing care services and caretakers
Early detection and rapid cure, building medical systems, fostering dementia-coping abilities of medical professionals etc., developing and disseminating medical and caregiving methods, building infrastructure for caregiving services, securing caregiving personnel, fostering dementia-coping abilities of nursing care professionals and reducing caregivers’ burdens.
4. Promotion of dementia barrier-free, support to those living with early onset dementia, encouragement of social engagement
Facilitating to develop barrier-free communities, securing transportations, establishing certification or commendation systems to entities exercising dementia-related programs, encouraging the use of adult guardianship, promoting various private insurances covering dementia.
5. R&D, industry promotion and international development
Analyzing mechanisms of onset and progression of dementia, promoting various types of R&D for different clinical conditions and stages including prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation caregiving models etc., verifying techniques, services or devices on prevention or caregiving, establishing evaluation index etc.
Measures by the Minister (Japanese)
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/0000076236_00002.html
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/12300000/000547176.pdf
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/12300000/000547179.pdf
〇 Early onset dementia
Annual Report on the Aging Society by the Cabinet Office, 2017 (summary, Japanese)
https://www8.cao.go.jp/kourei/whitepaper/w-2017/html/gaiyou/s1_2_3.html
According to surveys conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare from 2006 to 2008,
there were 37.8 thousand people living with early onset dementia,
whose male-to-female ratio was approximately 1.6:1. The average age of onset was 51.3.
Because of the age, the patients tend to assume they are just tired or unwell at first,
as well as others never suspecting such a disease, and consequently suffer delayed detection. In addition,
they are often misdiagnosed with depression or menopausal syndrome,
so it is difficult to comprehend the reality of the disease.
Although it is named and defined separately based on the age of onset,
this type of dementia has the same symptoms as the elderly’s.
However, developing at the early stage of life means it potentially has typical risks as follows:
1. Huge shock to the person or people around him
They are young both physically and mentally, still working or raising kids,
with their own parents still alive. Some can’t accept to have such early onsets and become depressed.
In other cases, family members can be distressed as they don’t know how to tell the truth to the person.
2. Serious financial risk
So far, it is difficult for the patients to keep working and almost 70% of them says
they suffer significant drop in income and serious financial damage after the onset.
Family members are often forced to leave their jobs to take care of the patients,
and some can’t afford their kids’ education.
3. Fear of decline
The gap between impaired cognitive functions and physical functions or abilities still healthy enough makes a patient or someone around him feel bitter.
For example, a person are forced to give up working
because of declined competence in life caused by memory impairment or disorientation
although he still keeps a high level of skill in his profession, which make him suffer strong disappointment or frustration.
4. Poor service and support
There are little services or support specifically for early onset dementia,
because the patient population is much smaller than that of the ordinary type of the disease.
The patients have no choice but to use services for the elderly or handicapped.
They feel uncomfortable in day care facilities as well as their family members
who can’t share the stories with others in family meetings.
This kind of mismatch between the needs and realities happens everywhere.
The Present State of Understanding and Support on Early Onset Dementia by Yoko Konagaya,
The Dementia Caregiving Research and Training Center of Obu (Japanese)
https://kouseikyoku.mhlw.go.jp/kantoshinetsu/houkatsu/documents/02oubushiryou.pdf
The Handbook for Early Onset Dementia (Japanese)
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/000521132.pdf
The Guidebook for Early Onset Dementia Support (Japanese)
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/000368218.pdf
〇 Dong-a Ilbo’s article on July 25th about the mechanism of dementia onset
Dong-a Ilbo’s July 25, 2019 by a science reporter Yoon Shin-young
A team of South Korean scientists have discovered the mechanism of discharging wastes from the brain that cause dementia.
Cerebral wastes are byproducts generated by the brain’s metabolism.
Accumulated in the brain, they cause degenerative brain diseases.
The team’s research raises the expectation as to whether it will make a breakthrough in developing a new medicine to cure brain diseases.
The team, led by Dr. Koh Gou-young, director of the Center for Vascular Research at the Institute for Basic Science,
found that the major channel through which cerebral wastes are discharged from the brain is the meningeal lymphatic vessels located in the lower part of the brain,
publishing the research results in the international science journal Nature.
The meninges are three membranes that envelop the brain and nerve surfaces.
They keep other materials or pathogens from entering the brain.
Lymphatic vessels are the passages through which immunologically competent cells and body fluids move.
Dr. Koh’s research team injected fluorescent materials into the cerebrospinal fluids of mice to trace the route of their discharges through magnetic resonance imaging.
As a result, the scientists confirmed that metabolites accumulated in the brain are discharged through the meningeal lymphatic vessels located in the lower part of the brain.
The result overturns the previous studies that assumed arachnoid villi in the upper part of the brain as the major exit.
The team also confirmed how and why metabolites fail to be properly discharged with aging.
An analysis of laboratory mice showed that the meninges in the lower part of the brain grew abnormally big with aging.
Attributing the abnormality to the ruining valves, or structures that controls the flow of body fluids,
the team presumed that the disruption blocks the lymphatic vessels, affecting the discharges of into the cerebrospinal fluids.
“If a medicine that improves the discharging functionality of the meningeal lymphatic vessels located in the lower part of the brain is developed, it could cure new degenerative brain diseases,”
Dr. Koh said.
Our association has conducted physiological researches to prove cognitive functions can be recovered, as well as offering a wide range of awareness campaigns.
One particular approach is providing a reishi supplement for continual ingestion to ameliorate dementia’s peripheral symptoms
and stop microcirculation’s decline responsible for dementia and lifestyle-related diseases.
Some customers who had peripheral symptoms as violent behaviors are reported to become gentle and peaceful after taking KOUKA.
Another person, who had been suffering from depression, began to go out and perform farm chores,
and still another recovered well enough to go overseas to meet an old friend.
We also have a very positive feedback from a person whose mother had been suffering from auditory and visual hallucinations,
saying that those symptoms disappeared and now she and her family have peaceful days.
Smiles in families are our joy and drive.
Our hope in 2019 is to see a community achieve zero dementia by recovering cognitive functions.
We believe taking reishi in proper manner is crucial for normalizing microcirculation, which highly contributes to the recovery.
We hope this information reaches as many people as possible to stop tragedies such as caregiver murders or fatal accidents by the elderly.
We deliver further information at the official website, so please check it out.
We distribute valuable information on the 4th of each month to the world for reducing suffer of dementia.
We welcome your feedback.
You can purchase the high quality reishi supplement KOUKA effective for improving cognitive functions at Dis Shop.
