What can you do to prevent dementia?

Age and genes can't be modified, but you can work on other risk factors to delay or prevent dementia, say experts.

- Sumiko Tan Executive Editor

Late last year, I got it into my head that doing jigsaw puzzles could improve my memory and stave off dementia.

I can't remember now (bad sign?) where and what I had read that led me to this conclusion, but I recall ordering a 1,000-piece puzzle from Amazon.

It featured a drawing of a park with a tree in the middle and hundreds of people and dogs playing around it.

The last time I did a jigsaw puzzle was as a child. I struggled with this one and took a whole weekend and many more nights to complete it.

I'm not sure how it helped my brain. I suppose different parts of it were engaged when I processed shapes and colours and figured out how to put them together.

What I definitely achieved, though, was worse eyesight. Letters on a page that I could read before I embarked on the puzzle were now blurry, and remain so today. My sight had deteriorated after the hours spent peering at the tiny pieces.

Safe to say I'm staying off jigsaw puzzles in my quest to keep dementia at bay.

It used to be that cancer was my biggest fear. In recent years, it has been joined by dementia.

Dementia is a hot topic, and deservedly so.

Longer lifespans coinciding with the ageing of the sizeable baby boomer generation means we are seeing more people with dementia.

Governments, healthcare systems and families are grappling with the financial and social burdens this brings.

The slow and painful decline of one's cognitive functions - for both the patient and their loved ones - has become a common theme in books, movies and TV shows.

About one in 10 people over the age of 60 in Singapore has dementia and we all know - or know of - someone who has it.

The risk rises as you age, especially after 65. As someone heading there, and with an old parent who could still succumb to dementia, I'm willing to try anything that can prevent it.

DEMENTIA FACTS