Chapter 8
Considering Non-Medical Treatment
In This Chapter
Considering the positive effects of herbs and vitamins
Improving wellbeing with aromatherapy
Looking at therapies to boost people’s sense of reality
Many treatments are touted for dementia that aren’t dished out on a green prescription pad by the doctor. Known variously as complementary or alternative therapies (see the nearby sidebar), some are more valid and useful than others! Unfortunately, a lot of nonsense is out there. Tap ‘alternative medicine + dementia’ into a search engine and you’ll be introduced to potential treatment cocktails that seem more like something dreamed up by JK Rowling for a potions class than medicines to treat a neurodegenerative brain disorder.
I regularly meet patients, however, who swear that this or that herbal tincture or dietary supplement has had a genuinely positive effect on the cognitive functions of someone they know. And I’m a liberal enough doctor not to heavy-handedly dissuade anyone from trying a treatment that may work for her, even if the evidence for its efficacy is less than flimsy (unless the treatment is obviously known to be downright dangerous).
In this chapter I provide ...
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