liv

joined 1 year ago
[–] liv 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

I looked it up, it's this research here so depending on how it's written up I can definitely see it potentially benefiting a subset of society.

That said, the bar for PhD research is it has to make an original contribution of new material to its field - that's for the universities to gatekeep. PhDs only have to be "of benefit to NZ" above and beyond that if they are getting direct funding from the Government (or other funding body with that requirement).

But either way a PhD is literally a piece of research so anyone undertaking one has to, well, research all the relevant info to the very best of their ability.

I think the issue here is whether their staff are funded to the level to meet these OIAs and if not, their manager should have requested her to apply for funding to cover it. Which is hard to know without knowing what the level of access actually was.

There's a wikipedia article on her and she seems to mainly be a film maker/journalist not an academic, and is now involved in adoption activism around people who weren't allowed to know who their real parents are. So the request about her name kind of makes more sense to me in that context.

[–] liv 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I was kind of mentioning this stuff more because one day your parents will get old.

Statins have benefits that typically outweigh the side effects, and confusingly they seem to protect people from dementia as well as causing issues with memory and cognition. It's nothing to regret, just worth knowing it's a factor.

[–] liv 2 points 4 months ago

It does work. That loop is so strange, I like it!

[–] liv 2 points 4 months ago (7 children)

You actually don't have to, most publishers want to pick the illustrator themselves so they just want you to send them the words part.

[–] liv 3 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Diet can do it too, e.g vitamin D deficiency also causes cognitive decline, and if doctors find out someone is eating 50% butter and puts them on statins (anti cholesterol) that causes reversible cognitive decline as well.

Bizarrely, with elderly people you also have to watch out for "silent" UTIs - they don't hurt so the person might not realise they have one and it causes really marked signs of dementia, eg they say really dementia-ish things. Antibiotics clears it up. I saw this one first hand and it was such a relief to actually figure it out and get the person back to normal.

[–] liv 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I love the light shining through the trees and sky. Is it a river, or a pond?

[–] liv 1 points 4 months ago

Gorgeous! I haven't been there in years, I don't remember it being so flowery!

[–] liv 1 points 4 months ago
[–] liv 2 points 4 months ago (9 children)

You could totally write kids' books.

[–] liv 3 points 4 months ago (5 children)

It's not all natural either. I've recently learned about anticholinergic burden and am annoyed I didn't know sooner because with the health system the way it is now (so many locums, no continuity of care, overworked hospitals) elderly people really need their family looking out for stuff like this.

[–] liv 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Bunch of factors:

  • cognitive decline

  • cognitive issues related to medications eg anticholinergic burden

  • belief that they no longer "understand" the way things work and have to take younger people's word for things

  • fear due to physical vulnerability (give in to scammers to avoid getting hurt physically)

  • loneliness (give in to scammers because they think they are making a human connection)

What we can do to help oldies is to be actively in their lives and looking out for them. Helping them navigate stuff and just letting them know we are there.

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