The best way to treat disease is to prevent it in the first place and more evidence is emerging that dementia - which affects more than 70,000 Kiwis - can be prevented in some cases.
Aucklander Angela Caughey, 92, has seen close-up how devastating it can be when she looked after her husband with Lewy body dementia for 12 years.
She has written books about how caregivers can cope and now she is working to share the science about preventing dementia in the first place in her latest book; A Better Brain for Life: Preventing Dementia and Other Chronic Diseases.
Angela Caughey - author of How to Communicate with someone who has dementia Photo: supplied
Caughey tells Jesse Mulligan that she and her husband were devastated by the diagnosis, but the signs were there a few years prior.
"It starts years before you notice. We had a time on holiday when he thought he played a golf ball over a stream onto a green and asked me where his ball was, but he dropped an imaginary ball, he had hallucinations.
"That was probably two or three years before he was actually diagnosed, originally with Parkinson's because Lewy body dementia has Parkinsonian symptoms.
"I thought he was going off me, he had this deadpan face, his eyes didn't twinkle at me, he was not helping in the house as usually did and he was doing all sorts of scrambled things, putting the cutlery in the wrong place.
"But then I got over the feeling he was off me and he himself knew that something was up, so we went off and sought help and advice."
She believes Greg's early life as a rugby player played a big role too.
"He told me [about] the times that he would come off the field and he couldn't remember the last 15 minutes because he'd been concussed, and he would just play automatically."
Some research has also indicated even headers in soccer can be dangerous, she says.
But it is important people realise they hold part of the key to preventing chronic conditions that can lead to more serious diseases, Caughey says.
"I was talking to my daughter yesterday about the book, because she is now in her 60s, and I said it's a bit alarming when your friends start getting mortal diseases.
"She said it's not now, think of Greg, he died in his 40s, think of John, he died in his early 50s, she said people can go anytime if they've had unfortunate experiences in their early lives.
"This was the extraordinary thing that my research proved that things happen not only when you're growing up but, in your childhood, and even in the womb.
"The research is showing that pregnant mothers do have to be careful. The foetal alcohol syndrome, that is a shining example about how a new person can be damaged for life if their mother drinks too much while they're pregnant."
She believes about 40 percent of dementia cases in New Zealand can be prevented.
"You have to keep learning; you've got to keep doing new things. You can't go on playing bridge or golf, or studying your favourite study all the time, you've got to move on and do different things. It's certainly stimulating and it's good for your brain and good for your body."
There's also research that shows gut health impacts on brain health too, she says.
"I had never known how important our gut was. I did discover that the brain is controlled by billions of neurons but the astonishing thing is that the gut, much lower down in our body, contains billions of microbes and that also is terribly important in keeping us healthy, keeping our brains going and altogether working with the body and brain to keep the whole unit efficient."
Things that can help include sticking to a savoury diet rich in nutrients and high-fibre, fermented foods, spending time in the countryside, and avoiding processed foods.
"If you're an adult looking after a family, you can put them on the right diet. Get them eating plain food, savour food, not sweet food," Caughey says.
"I learnt a few years ago to eat a Mediterranean style diet, and I'm not on a diet, I've just changed my eating habits.
"They tell me that when you shop in the supermarket, you should shop around the outside and completely ignore the middle aisles which are full of processed foods."
She loves the value in purple foods - such as purple carrots, purple onions, blueberries - as well as chia seeds, and dark green foods like broccoli, spinach, and kale.
"I've made wonderful cracker biscuits out of chia seeds and chia seeds are the best little thing you can possibly eat."
There is no great indication that genetics plays a part in dementia, she says, apart from one gene apolipoprotein E (APOE), which slightly increases the chance depending on your lifestyle, and if both parents have it then that is slightly more indicative.
"Well that's what the science says but I've seen several families where they do tend to get dementia in their later years, but I think that's probably because they all had a similar upbringing."
Avoiding stress in your personal and work life and learning self-control can also help lessen your chances, Caughey says.
"If you find you're a highly-strung person and you're always getting upset by things people do to you, just step back and think ... 'why do I have to react like this when other people don't? Other people just seem so calm compared with me'.
"Take yourself in hand and go to anger management or something like that, it'll make you live longer, you won't get these diseases and you may avoid dementia because of that. But that's just one of the tiny little things [you can do]."
