By Sam Bennison

To Your Health

CNC researchers investigate issues facing those who have dementia in Northern B.C.

Sep 24, 2024 | 5:00 PM

PRINCE GEORGE—Dementia is a serious age related illness and in Northern B.C. faces extra challenges. Researchers at CNC studied those specific challenges that small and remote communities face and the first is the lack of education.

“People did have some awareness about what dementia was and what was going on,” says Dr. Dinesh Ramoo, a CNC Psychology Instructor and the research lead. “But they still had some ideas that dementia could be cured, and some people had ideas about how dementia developed, which was incorrect.”

Dr. Ramoo explains that when people think there is a cure it focuses efforts away from preventing dementia in the first place.

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“What we can do is prevent the onset of dementia. So, you might have genetic factors that might increase your risk of dementia, but you could modify your lifestyle to reduce the risk. For example, daily physical exercise,” adds Dr. Ramoo

However, prevention comes with it’s own set of challenges in the north. For example, healthy eating can reduce your risk of developing dementia but fresh fruit and vegetables are difficult to gain access to in our climate.

Another issue is the lack of care homes in smaller communities meaning those with dementia have a harder time staying in their homes.

In response to their research CNC held workshops in the communities to improve dementia awareness.

“Dementia is not an individual problem. It’s a problem that affects our families our brothers our sisters, parents, grandparents,” says Dr. Ramoo. “So, it’s a community issue. Even if you do everything right, you can still get diagnosed with dementia as you age. And therefore the community has to be ready to take care of people who develop dementia.”

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Email: sam.bennison@pattisonmedia.com