This is a good article from the BBC Health blog, focusing on policy options to address dementia in the UK. It’s well worth a read. Check it out!
via BBC News – Dementia diagnosis rates: ‘Shockingly low’.
Personally, as I read the article carefully, I was once again convinced that David Cameron’s Government did not have a clear policy and action plan. The article cites David Cameron empathizing with the problem and stressing that it should consume the UK’s brightest minds.
Once again, the Government does not have a clear vision, strategy and implementation plan. All options require bottom-up costing and independent risk-assessment.
I have a good friend with dementia and have watched him deteriorate over the last five years. I seriously struggle to see how the policy options mentioned in this article would have made a significant difference to my friend. Perhaps, you have first-hand experience of dementia?
I accept the point that good diet can help delay the symptoms of dementia. This week we have seen evidence linking dementia to obesity.
English: David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and leader of the Conservative Party (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Surely, the healthy diet debate is a massive healthcare challenge of its own? In my mind, the Government is not doing enough to promote healthy diet and excercise.
Any thoughts on any of these points?
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Dementia does not need as David Cameron says, “to consume the brightest minds” but it does need concerted action to apply the knowledge we already have to deal with the problem which is about a lot more than diet and exercise.
Part of the problem is Bisphenol A and other toxic material in food, clothing via manufacturing processes, washing powder, fertilisers used to grow food and microwave radiation from mobile phone masts.
Another is antimony from aircraft fuel, drinking alchohol on an empty stomach, the use of aluminium in cooking utensils, cooking foil, deodorant and saucepans, living a lonely life and not using your brain(use it or lose it).
The Alimentarius Commission which started during the Austro Hungarian Empire and was taken over by chemical and seed firms like Monsanto has a lot to answer for in these areas. The UK Government attends meetings with the commission each year and could beneficially influence its proceedings. What the UK Government does instead is to pursue policies which allow all these things to happen and even encourage the notion of the EC Supplements Directive, the purpose of which is to deny health food stores the ability to sell certain supplements which, if taken regularly would prolong life expectancy,improve health and improve life quality.
The lack of medical diagnosis is reflective of public ignorance about these matters and an NHS and medical profession which is not fit for purpose when compared with other healthcare systems.
The NHS still does not regard food as integral to health which is why the quality of hospital food is so poor along with the fact that Treasury bean counters see only the cost of the food not the costs to the NHS of malnourished patients.
My own late father suffered dementia as a result of a stroke he suffered whilst grieving over the loss of my late mother and in the course of his treatment I saw for myself the decision trees that the NHS uses by being able to read upside down.
They make for grim reading and their application seems to be a deniable policy of euthenasia by stealth with treatments withheld to reduce cost and a means of reducing the pensions bill by reducing life expectancy as evidenced by longer lifespans in Europe and recent unfavourable comparisons of the NHS with better systems in Europe such as Gemany’s, France’s and even Italy’s.
John,
Many thanks for sharing your views here.
I have had personal experience of emergency hospital treatment in both Paris & Rome, albeit some years ago, and on both occasions the standards were outstanding, far in excess of anything that I have ever experienced on the UK NHS. I have no personal experiences of the German healthcare system but would expect it to be one of the finest in Europe.
I tend to agree with most of your argument on dementia; the politicians and the healthcare industry are in denial without a clear strategy & action plan; if UK healthcare policy embraced food and diet effectively, the country could probably save millions and millions of pounds.