One of the unfortunate side-effects of dementia is the dulling of reaction time. This may not seem that serious of a problem at the face of it but can actually lead to some serious issues and injuries if a patients care takers and family aren’t aware of it.
Reaction times differ from person to person, depending on a lot of different factors. They can be trained over time through regular exercises and practice, or they can slow down due to inaction. Reactions are, by their nature, the body responding to external stimuli. The classic example many of us will likely think of is the ability to catch, block or dodge something flying towards our face. When your eyes see something flying towards you, if your brain is able to respond quick enough, it will tell your body to either catch, block or dodge the object. If you’re unlucky you might try to do all three and end up looking quite foolish. Regardless, this would be your brain reacting to what is happening around your body.
The same is true for our pain response. When something causes us pain, what’s happening is the receptors in our body send the pain signal to our brain, which then has to decide what to do about it. If your brain knew the pain was coming, for example because you’re about to have blood drawn so you’re expecting the needle, your brain will react by holding your body still. If you’re not expecting the pain though because you accidentally stood on the thorn, your brain will react by pulling your foot away from where the pain came from. Naturally a faster reaction time here means you pull your foot away before you do too much damage.
But when dementia starts to affect the brain, these reactions start to slow down significantly. A patient doesn’t realise something is uncomfortable or causing pain until quite some time has passed. This can lead to some pretty severe injuries from seemingly mundane tasks or events. A patient can scald themselves in the shower long before they realise the water is too hot, or be out in cold weather in inappropriate clothing for far too long. To avoid this happening, here are a few tips to consider implementing if your loved one is starting to display these slower reactions.
- Set the thermostat on your geyser lower. Simply doing this will prevent the water from ever reaching scalding temperatures. Sure you may have to open the warm tap all the way to enjoy a proper hot shower, but at least you know no one will be getting rushed to the burn unit.
- Be careful with hot food and drink. Everyone knows what it’s like to burn your tongue when taking a sip of coffee that probably should have had another moment. Imagine the damage you could do if you took a full sip and swallowed long before you realised how hot it was. Just double check the temperature before you serve
- Check a patients clothing choice when the weather becomes more severe. This can become especially important in the summer heat; even the best of us don’t always realise how much sun we’re taking until we check our waistbands.
But the final and very important tip is where possible you should avoid taking the patients independence away. The three tips above are things you can do to be more aware, not things for you to control. Patients should still be allowed to dress and feed themselves as long as they are able; all you have to do is keep an eye on things. You can assist by suggesting a pair of shoes you know will be appropriate for the day’s activities for example, but unless it’s going to cause legitimate problems they should still make the decision themselves. In the end, you just need to help make sure they’re safe to still enjoy each day to the fullest.
