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Dementia puts financial assets of elderly at risk in Japan

18 Comments
By Hideyuki Sano

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The government estimates that number will increase to 7 million to 8 million, or 6 to 7 percent of the total population, by 2030

Do the math people! 7% of the total population have dementia. At present, over 60’s make up around 35% of the population. This means around around 25-30% of the over 60’s are suffering from dementia. That is extremely high by comparison. Dementia is cause by bad sleeping habits when you are young. Japanese teens and infants do not get enough sleep. The teens are because of education and the infants because of uneducated parents. This situation is only going to get worse.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

High sugar intake is one of the leading causes of dementia. 3 mammoth bowls of sticky white rice a day might be a staple of the Japanese diet, but it ain't doing those brains any favours. Cut the carbs people

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

My wife and I have a number of elderly friends, and three times to date, we have been approached by some confused as to how they had spent outragous amounts of money on something they don't need. I've learned that a quick call to the local consumer protection board, who in turn contacts the company in question, is the most efficient and effective way to handle such matters. The board is sufficiently red in tooth and claw that, in each case I've experienced, the money has been returned promptly - and in two of the cases, the companies did not even bother to retrieve the purchases.

Assure your elderly neighbors that you are approachable if they are concerned they've made a mistake. Such mistakes are generally easilly correctable if addressed promptly.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

Fraud will abound!

Where theres weakness, bad humans will exploit it. Protect your family!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

My mother would withdraw amounts of up to GBP2,000 (JPY 300,000), from ATMs, banks and post offices, and would bury it in the garden and other places! When we found out later what she had been doing, we dug it up, at least most of it, and luckily the banks agreed to replace it; as the paper had rotted and only the metal strip inside remained. She'd also deposit silver cutlery and jewelry in the garden and the neighbours' mail boxes in the dawn hours, down the backs of chairs, anywhere she could get to.

She was totally unaware of what she had been doing; but the hardest part for us was taking away her cheque book and credit cards; she screamed, swore and shouted that we were trying to rob her. After that she was given a purse with just a few pounds for necessities, to keep an illusion of independence; however she was never allowed out alone.

When we finally introduced her and my father to a care home, and sold their house; my job was to go around the home and garden with a metal detector, looking for her buried treasure! There was quite a lot.

It would have been great if we could have alerted banks and post offices not to process her transactions, but that was not possible at the time.

One of the many non-medical aspects of managing patients with dementia.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

By adopting a Western diet Japanese have also adopted Western diseases. Okinawans, the older ones, who ate a predominately plant based diet (~85% ) didn't have anything like this. But their progeny do

KFC, chicken and copious amounts of meat are taking its toll.

Interesting Japan doesn't get the obesity but also has the diabetes as well

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

Japan has the science to save itself. http://www.okicent.org/study.html

Okinawa Centenarian Study longest of its kind in the world. Because of verifiable records lasting more than 100 years.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

IMO, the old get targeted for financial abuse, with or without dementia, no matter where they reside.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Countries with high meat consumption associated with Alzheimer's and not plant based consumption. That's just a fact.

https://nutritionfacts.org/?s=alzheimer%27s

69 videos, thousands of studies

Many I might add are from Japanese scientists, but it's a worldwide scientific investigation

Japan has to stop emulating the USA and go back to its more plant based roots

Meat consumption in Japan rose 500% see here in

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-prevent-alzheimers-with-diet/

Great time to be online folks

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

sf2k - By adopting a Western diet Japanese have also adopted Western diseases. Okinawans, the older ones, who ate a predominately plant based diet (~85% ) didn't have anything like this. But their progeny do

This is us absolutely hilarious! You do realize of course, the people who are suffering with dementia now are over 60 years old, right? Japan didn’t start adopting western foods until the mid to late 70’s and even then, it was only a few KFC and McDonalds restaurants. It wasn’t until the late 89’s and 90’s that these devilish western foods you speak of became common among Japanese. This puts your theory of blaming western foods right down the toilet, where it belongs. The people who are ill now grew up on a Japanese diet and culture. You really need to stop trying to blame all of Japan’s problems on foreigners. You just make yourself look foolish.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

The government estimates that number will increase to 7 million to 8 million, or 6 to 7 percent of the total population, by 2030

Do the math people! 7% of the total population have dementia. At present, over 60’s make up around 35% of the population. This means around around 25-30% of the over 60’s are suffering from dementia.

I would love to the formula you used to come up with that, lol. You realize Dementia is not spread evenly across all age groups, right? I imagine you could find the statistics, but I would say conservatively 95% of Dementia cases are concentrated in the over 60 cohort.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Laguna - nice work, thanks for being a good person!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

OnTheTrail, I'm just prepping for my day. It's not entirely alturaristic.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Do the hustleDec. 16  09:50 pm JST

sf2k - By adopting a Western diet Japanese have also adopted Western diseases. Okinawans, the older ones, who ate a predominately plant based diet (~85% ) didn't have anything like this. But their progeny do

This is us absolutely hilarious! You do realize of course, the people who are suffering with dementia now are over 60 years old, right? Japan didn’t start adopting western foods until the mid to late 70’s

try 1960

and even then, it was only a few KFC and McDonalds restaurants. It wasn’t until the late 89’s and 90’s that these devilish western foods you speak of became common among Japanese. This puts your theory of blaming western foods right down the toilet, where it belongs.

But the science though. All the studies and measurable impacts etc

The people who are ill now grew up on a Japanese diet and culture. You really need to stop trying to blame all of Japan’s problems on foreigners. You just make yourself look foolish.

If you could just watch a 4 minute video though, instead of instantly complaining it might do you some good. Citations at bottom of video, if that matters anymore

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

You really need to stop trying to blame all of Japan’s problems on foreigners. You just make yourself look foolish.

It was Science as reported in a peer reviewed journal. Here's one of the study links titled """Trends in diet and Alzheimer's disease during the nutrition transition in Japan and developing countries.""" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24037034

As well the video explains the data as noted already above but here it is again. All of 4 min 27 sec showing how meat consumption in Japan rose 500% and direct correlations with disease incidence. Actual brain artery photos as direct evidence.

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-prevent-alzheimers-with-diet/

I really wish people could read instead of just flying off the handle about pesky foreigners ragging on Japan. That's not the case.

Professional people all over the world are trying to help but can't get through the noise of inspired ignorance or the next social media diatribe

I will now be downvoted for my efforts

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Sf2k

I think there’s elements of truth to what you say, but imo you took it way literally and one dimensionally. Have you seen the links between a high soy diet and Dementia for example? It’s scary when you look into it.

In any case, let’s have moderation and stay healthy.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@thepersoniamnow: That sounded interesting so I looked it up and yep there was an entry. Not always the case but I guess we're lucky today. High soy and dementia was disproven. https://nutritionfacts.org/video/does-tofu-cause-dementia/

"""...If the journalists had bothered to read the study, they would have seen that according to Indonesian departments of health, formaldehyde is often added to tofu (but not tempeh) to preserve its freshness. Formaldehyde, the neurotoxic carcinogen formaldehyde. This is actually what it looks like. Mystery solved."""

Looks like a case of quick judgement to sell clicks.

Tempeh which actually has more soy in it than tofu came out of the study just fine. Also other entries show how tofu is a great cancer fighter. (96 entries!) This is probably why Japan and other parts of Asia have such a disparity in cancers versus Western countries where soy consumption may be limited

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The good news is that since most diseases are diet based, we can learn from various countries and help each other with what works

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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