Read original – Dementia prevention, intervention, and care – The Lancet

Register and read the original full text on dementia prevention, intervention and care published  by The Lancet. It recommends that acting now on dementia prevention, intervention, and care will vastly improve living and dying for individuals with dementia and their families, and in doing so, will transform the future for society.

Source: Dementia prevention, intervention, and care – The Lancet

Whilst this is a research article, it is highly readable with good summaries and graphics. Try reading the original rather than a sanitized version of the findings in the mainstream media.

The commission of experts have detailed evidence-based approaches to dementia and its symptoms. They recommend that services should be available, scalable, and give value. However, they caution that professionals and services need to use what works, not use what is ineffective, and be aware of the difference.

Optimistically, the conclusion is that there is good potential for prevention and, once someone develops dementia, for care to be high-quality, accessible, and give value to an underserved, growing population. It’s argued that effective dementia prevention, intervention, and care could transform the future for society and vastly improve living and dying for individuals with dementia and their families. They maintain that by acting now on what we already know can make this difference happen.

The article provides ten core thematic messages on dementia:

  1. The number of people with dementia is increasing globally
  2. Be ambitious about prevention
  3. Treat cognitive symptoms
  4. Individualise dementia care
  5. Care for family carers
  6. Plan for the future
  7. Protect people with dementia
  8. Manage neuropsychiatric symptoms
  9. Consider end of life
  10. Technology

Thoughts?

Opinion – Can US win the game of chicken with North Korea? – Editorial – Global Times

Topographic map of North Korea. Created with G...

Topographic map of North Korea. Created with GMT from SRTM data. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Major Crandall's UH-1D helicopter cli...

English: Major Crandall’s UH-1D helicopter climbs skyward after discharging a load of infantrymen on a search and destroy mission. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Highly cited around the world, read this editorial in English published in China’s influential Global Times. It suggests that despite overwhelming strength of the US, Pyongyang can risk everything if there is a showdown between it and Washington. It argues that the US should avoid such a scenario and it needn’t feel disgraced because of it.

Source: Can US win the game of chicken with North Korea? – Global Times

Whilst I agree with the logic of the Global Times article and the conclusions, it glosses over the complexity of the context. I’ve spent a large part of my life working with American corporations and their ‘national psyche‘ is different. Can you imagine an American backing down from a game of chicken, especially when they can throw in the ‘mine’s bigger than yours’ variation? Then toss into the mix, the real ‘elephant in the room‘ – Donald Trump’s ego.

Americans understand poker and as the Global Times highlights Pyongyang can risk everything. America’s record on limited military engagement has been far from perfect, often resulting in unplanned escalation and loss of American military lives. Is Congress ready to send ground troops for a full invasion and what of the responses of China & Russia?

Surely, it’s time to think smart and deploy carot rather than stick? Or is this potentially the beginning of another Vietnam War to mobilize Americans blighted by emerging technology and the embarassing rise in depair deaths?

Thoghts?