Dr. Dean Johnston, MD, MHSc, FRCPC, Neurologist, discusses concussion and the various symptoms of concussion.
Rheumatologist and Registered Dietician, talk about the health benefits of Eggplant in relation to arthritis.
Endocrinologist,and a Registered Dietician, and a Kinesiologist, talk about the health benefits of tomatoes in relation to diabetes management.
A local neurologist is a physician who has studied disorders that affect the brain, as well as the spinal cord and nerves. Diabetes can cause complications such as diabetic neuropathy and diabetic retinopathy. Diabetic neuropathy is a type of nerve damage that can cause everything from foot numbness to kidney problems. Other conditions a local neurologist may treat include headache disorders, Alzheimer's disease, headache disorders and stroke.
A local neurologist can be a valuable asset to your diabetes health care team, which may also include a local pharmacist, endocrinologist, nutritionist, registered dietitian, family physician and personal trainer. Overall, proper blood glucose control is essential to prevening diabetes-related complications such as glaucoma and diabetic neuropathy.
Your local neurologist and endocrinologist can help you understand how to manage your foot health, manage your medications, eat a low glycemic index diet, lose weight and get regular health screenings. If you’d like more info on how a local neurologist can help you manage your diabetes, start by talking to your local family physician and/or endocrinologist.
One of the best things we’ve learned in the last five years about dementia treatment is that something so simple as walking, regular exercise, is extraordinarily helpful for slowing the rate of dementia, and also for preventing dementia.
Just walking 45 minutes, three times a week, at a brisk pace, you don’t have to be running fast and building up a sweat, just a regular, brisk walk is good for the brain, and is probably worth about five times as much as doing crossword puzzles or those other games that people do to keep their brain strong.
There are a number of different types of exercises that can be helpful. They have to be aerobic, so it could involve things like swimming, or it could involve the stationary bicycle, anything that gets your heart rate up a little bit is actually a good form of activity. If you’re really not certain what exercise to do, or how you should get started, then going to your local community centre or a referral to a recreational therapist may also generate some ideas about what might work with your own particular body and interests.
We encourage all of our patients to get in touch with the Alzheimer’s Society, not just for Alzheimer’s disease, but for other types of dementias. They can refer you to community supports. There are other health professionals that can be quite useful, especially if there are behaviour problems.
So factors which contribute to overall brain health could be physical health as well as mental health.
But physical health can possibly have a specific focus on exercise, nutrition and good sleep habits. There's also in popular, in popular experience right now there is a sense of benefit to cognitive exercise.
And this has a wide spectrum of relevance to overall brain health. But one way to consider the possible benefits to an area such as cognitive exercise is likely built on what we know about cognitive reserve.
Brain health is an important area of a person's overall health care since the brain itself is responsible for most of what makes us who we are and all of our function. If a person's interested in brain health they can speak with their doctor about addressing these areas of their health in order to promote a healthy brain.