Letter to the Editor

The last assignment for a class of mine titled “Enhancing Community Engagement” tasked me with writing and submitting a Letter to the Editor of a local paper. Naturally, I chose the topic of dementia prevention. Here’s that letter:

Reversing dementia is very difficult; preventing it in advance is not. Go for a walk every day and raise your heart rate. Limit your sugar and alcohol intake. Socialize with family, friends, and neighbors about engaging topics.

The Baby Boomer generation—those currently developing dementia at startling rates—didn’t have the cultural knowledge to prioritize these activities early in life. Although the research into dementia and cognitive decline is still young, there’s enough data to safely recommend behaviors that can limit our chances of developing the condition.

Preventing dementia is not that difficult. What is difficult is following the proper behaviors in a society which actively incentivizes the opposite. We’ve laid out our cities in massive, unwalkable fashions, making it impossible for many to walk to school or work. Sugar is added to nearly all foods and every other commercial is somehow related to drinking. Social media and other online distractions pull us inward, creating sterile online communication, void of the cognitive benefits of real-world interaction.

The challenge of our future is not so much avoiding dementia, it is avoiding the ingrained American lifestyle which all but promises cognitive decline.

Grad school is and should be a place of learning and questioning prior beliefs, but I was genuinely not ready for how transformative this class would be toward my thinking. I’ve grown obsessed with the idea of the shape or structure of society, and the various examples around the world that seem to encourage stronger community and social determinants of health—and for my personal interests, cognitive health. (I think of places like the “Blue Zones”, as well as the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries).

Learning of “Dunbar’s Number” a few years ago was my first hunch that our communities and cities have grown too large and, in many ways, artificial. Not to say we have too many people, but that due to many socioeconomical forces (social media has added FOMO to that list) we can’t seem to stop clustering together, and at the same time growing apart.

Dementia (which includes Alzheimer’s disease) is not a condition “that just happens as we age”; it is an outcome of environment, sleep habits, diet/nutrition, physical exercise, and genetics. Higher rates among women, African American, and Hispanic populations tell us it is also a condition of inequality, as is the case with so many other chronic diseases.

I don’t personally see the logic in pursuing a dementia or Alzheimer’s miracle drug—countless pharmaceutical companies are already attempting this feat and more power to them—before we improve the systemic societal forces which lead to the disease itself and the variation of prevalence among demographics. Perhaps the main reason I committed to my Public Health masters program was to learn and, in the future, implement alternatives to the “band-aid” approach to disease treatment, which all but ignores the power of prevention.

Thanks for reading and have a great Tuesday :)

-Kyle