By Jerardin D'Souza

Mangaluru, Sep 9: "Yesterday morning I came to another hall in Balmatta and found no one. I called Fr Theophil, who said the talk was this afternoon. Today at the fixed time Fr Theophil called me and asked where I was. "I am sleeping at home," I told him and when he reminded me of the Alzheimer's talk that I had to deliver, I could not connect, could not follow what, which, where Alzheimer's. That my friends is dementia. The orher day forgetting the hall or the time is forgetfulness but being totally lost and unconnected amounts to Dementia and not forgetfulness." This was how Jerardin D'Souza, founder director-MAA-Mangalore Alzheimer's Association explained the difference between forgetfulness, which is a normal part of ageing and Dementia, a physical disease of the brain. He was addressing a good gathering of senior citizens at a program 'Camp on health and security of seniors' organized by Sahaaya and CSI Mangaluru senior citizens fellowship at Bishop Jathanna Auditorium.

"Vajpayee, George Fernandes, Mohammed Ali, Ronald Reagan are like the Amar Akbar Antony of life, all great achievers, but today what joins them is the sad affliction of Dementia, which has kept them away from public life," said Jerardin.

"Women are twice susceptible to dementia, watching TV for 4 hours or more per day, without physical activity has the worst cognition leading to dementia," he said quoting Dr Prabha Adhikari, geriatrician, KMC, who provided this survey report. "But the redeeming factor is, this can be arrested by a brain fitness program of 12 weeks, which includes brain exercises, physical exercises and healthy diet." This is being done at KMC-Nava Chaitanya, Spoorthi Trust, St Dominic Church, and many such 'Active ageing' centres which Dr Prabha has started.

D'Souza urged Bishop Furtado to start an 'Active ageing' centre at Balmatta for the benefit of the seniors of the community, to which the Bishop readily agreed.

Jerardin also called this Alzheimer's dementia a medico-social case where the involvement of society is more important as there is no cure and doctors role is minimal. He urged the people to join support groups like MAA- Mangalore Alzheimer's Association and also to be computer friendly and like the MAA page on Facebook, where lot of useful information on dementia is posted.

Jerardin clarified the confusion between normal ageing and suffering dementia. "It is wrong to call dementia as 'senility', 'Mudhi Braanthi', 'Aralu Maralu', 'Sai Bair' etc. Dementia is a physical disease of the brain which sadly has no cure unlike normal ageing."

The seniors thoroughly enjoyed the educative talk and there was an interactive session.

The camp was a day long session with Fr Dr Sudarshana Devadhar, resident Bishop, United Methodist Church, USA, conducting the first session on spiritual motivation.

Mr Joe Gonsalves, social worker and a ninety plus senior himself demonstrated physical fitness and mobility.

Peter Oswald Rodrigues, of senior citizens association spoke on welfare schemes and conducted active games for the seniors.

Fr Sandeep Theophil, PRO, Kaces, Sahaaya and Fr Dr Hani Cabral, principal, KTC and Bishop Furtado were instrumental in organizing this beautiful, meaningful program for our elders.