The Moment You First Notice Something Isn’t Quite Right.
- Suzee Tylee
- Mar 17
- 7 min read
A story about dementia.
For my mum, it started with a holiday.
A trip had been booked to the Channel Islands to visit her best friend. As a well-travelled woman who had been to China and taken multiple trips to far-flung places around the world, we assumed this would be familiar territory. Easy. Routine.
But in the weeks leading up to the trip, something shifted.
She became restless. She hadn’t slept properly for two weeks. She lost a stone in weight. She seemed confused about whether it was day or night, and she was consumed by crippling anxiety.
This wasn’t ordinary worry.
This was the kind of anxiety that paralyses you in fight-flight-freeze mode. The kind that locks your nervous system into survival and leaves you completely immobilised.
After several difficult conversations, we cancelled the trip. She was too afraid to even pack a bag, let alone travel to the airport alone.
Looking back, that was the moment the tide turned.
We knew we were dealing with something much bigger than a fear of flying.
And so began the long, exhausting battle to work out what was wrong.
A Lifetime of “Nerves”
My mother had never been an easy woman to connect with.
She was often described as someone with “nerves” — a phrase that, for decades, quietly masked deeper emotional suffering.
Over the years she had been prescribed a cocktail of medications:antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and later amitriptyline.
In hindsight, we now understand that many of these drugs can significantly affect brain chemistry and may contribute to cognitive decline.
She was also deeply lonely following the breakdown of her second marriage.
She tended to see the glass as half empty rather than half full.
And when you combine that emotional landscape with the profound isolation and fear many people experienced during the pandemic, it feels almost inevitable that something in her brain chemistry shifted.
Something took root.
Four Years Searching for Answers
What followed were four long years of suffering.
Scans. Medication changes. Endless appointments.
And still no clear answers.
Finally, in 2025, my mum received a diagnosis: Lewy Body Dementia (LBD).
By that time, the disease had already progressed rapidly.
Understanding Lewy Body Dementia
Lewy Body Dementia is a complex neurological condition that sits somewhere between Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
It shares characteristics of both.
Amyloid plaque deposits (Lewy Bodies) in the brain contribute to memory loss and cognitive decline, while movement problems and neurological changes resemble Parkinson’s.
But LBD has some uniquely distressing features.
People often develop repetitive behaviours such as:
Exit seeking (trying to leave the house repeatedly)
Searching behaviours (looking for objects or people obsessively)
Capgras syndrome — believing loved ones are imposters
And then there are the hallucinations.
Wild. Vivid. Often terrifying.
My mum’s hallucinations frequently involved historical scenes — Roman battles unfolding in the garden, or strange creatures speaking to her through the window.
One of the most heartbreaking descriptions she ever gave was this:
She said she felt like she was trapped inside a glass box, shouting for help while nobody could hear her.
The Moment Home Was No Longer Safe
Once the diagnosis arrived, the decline accelerated.
She began leaving the house at night, wandering the streets and knocking on neighbours’ doors.
It became impossible to keep her safe at home — even with carers visiting three times a day.
Eventually we made the devastating decision to move her into residential care.
My mum had always been somewhat distant.
A little emotionally cold.
But after the disease took hold, she felt even further away.
As though the person we once knew was slowly drifting beyond reach.
Why Am I Sharing This With You?
I’m sharing this because dementia is no longer a distant possibility for families.
It is happening in living rooms, kitchens and care homes across the world.
And increasingly, research is showing that many of the drivers of dementia are linked to lifestyle, environment and metabolic health.
In other words — there are things we can do to protect our brains.
The Factors I Believe Contributed to My Mum’s Illness
When I reflect on my mum’s life, several patterns stand out.
She:
• Used large amounts of synthetic salt and refined sugar• Lived in a constant state of high stress and anxiety• Was deeply pessimistic, often expecting the worst in people and situations• Took multiple long-term medications that altered brain chemistry• Was not physically affectionate and rarely experienced comforting touch• Lived with profound loneliness and struggled to find her people• Carried significant trauma without the support needed to heal.
These factors don’t guarantee dementia.
But they create the kind of biological environment where brain resilience slowly erodes.
The Question We Should All Be Asking
So I’ll say something that might sound provocative.
Dementia is not always inevitable.
And if we want to future-proof our brain health, we need to start paying attention — long before the first symptoms appear.
Because the research is becoming clearer every year.
There are powerful things we can do to protect the brain.
And that’s what I want to share with you next.
.
So What Can We Do to Protect Our Brains?
If you’ve ever watched someone you love slowly disappear into dementia, you will understand this in your bones:
You would give anything to go back in time and change the things that might have mattered.
To turn down the stress.To nourish the body differently.To protect sleep.To help them find connection.
But we can’t go backwards.
What we can do is learn.
And the science is becoming clearer every year: many of the drivers of dementia are modifiable. According to the 2024 Lancet Commission, up to 45% of dementia cases worldwide may be linked to potentially modifiable risk factors across the lifespan.
That doesn’t mean every case can be prevented.
But it does mean there is far more power in our daily choices than we once believed.
Here are 12 ways the research says we can actively protect our brain health.
1. Move Your Body Like Your Brain Depends On It
Because it does.
Movement increases blood flow to the brain, supports insulin sensitivity, reduces inflammation and helps maintain healthy blood vessels — the very highways that supply your brain with oxygen and nutrients.
The Lancet Commission identifies physical inactivity as one of the key modifiable dementia risk factors.
You don’t need to run marathons.
Walking. Strength training. Gardening. Dancing in your kitchen.
Your brain simply needs you to move regularly.
2. Take Blood Pressure Seriously
High blood pressure quietly damages the delicate blood vessels that supply the brain.
The SPRINT-MIND trial showed that tighter blood-pressure control significantly reduced the risk of mild cognitive impairment and dementia-related outcomes.
So know your numbers.
Your heart and your brain are in the same conversation.
3. Stabilise Your Blood Sugar
Insulin resistance and diabetes significantly increase dementia risk and are recognised modifiable factors in the Lancet Commission report.
When blood sugar swings wildly all day long, the brain pays a price.
Think steady fuel:
• protein• fibre• healthy fats• real food
Not the ultra-processed chaos that modern diets have normalised.
4. Protect Your Cholesterol Balance
Elevated LDL cholesterol has now been identified as a dementia risk factor in the 2024 Lancet update.
What damages blood vessels in the heart also damages blood vessels in the brain.
The message is simple: vascular health is brain health.
5. Eat in a Way That Nourishes the Brain
Food is information for the brain.
Research supported by the National Institutes of Health shows that adherence to the MIND diet is associated with slower cognitive decline and reduced risk of dementia.
The brain loves:
• leafy greens• berries• nuts• beans• olive oil• fish• minimally processed foods
It struggles with the endless barrage of ultra-processed food our modern world has made so easy.
6. Stop Smoking/vaping
Smoking damages blood vessels, increases inflammation and accelerates ageing across the entire body — including the brain.
It remains one of the clearest modifiable dementia risk factors.
Stopping smoking is one of the most powerful things anyone can do for long-term brain health.
7. Don’t Ignore Hearing Loss
This one surprises many people.
Untreated hearing loss is strongly linked with cognitive decline, likely because the brain becomes socially and cognitively under-stimulated.
The ACHIEVE trial showed that hearing interventions slowed cognitive decline in high-risk older adults.
Hearing isn’t vanity.
It’s brain input.
8. Look After Your Vision
Your brain relies on clean sensory signals from the outside world.
The Lancet Commission recently added untreated vision loss to the list of modifiable dementia risk factors.
Eye tests matter.
Updated glasses matter.
Treating cataracts matters.
These things are not trivial.
9. Protect Your Sleep
Sleep is when the brain cleans house.
During deep sleep, the glymphatic system clears metabolic waste products — including the proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
A 2024 meta-analysis found that sleep apnoea and sleep-disordered breathing are associated with higher risk of cognitive decline and dementia.
If someone snores heavily, wakes exhausted, or struggles with broken sleep, it deserves attention.
10. Stay Socially Connected
Loneliness is not just emotionally painful.
It is biologically harmful.
The Lancet Commission identifies social isolation as a key dementia risk factor.
A recent meta-analysis found loneliness significantly increased dementia risk.
Humans are wired for connection.
Your brain thrives on conversation, laughter, belonging and shared experience.
11. Treat Depression and Emotional Trauma
Depression is also recognised as a modifiable dementia risk factor.
This doesn’t mean everyone with depression will develop dementia.
But long-term emotional suffering changes brain chemistry, inflammation pathways and stress hormones.
Mental health is brain health.
Healing matters.
12. Protect Your Brain From Injury and Excess Alcohol
Traumatic brain injury and heavy alcohol use both increase dementia risk.
Protect your head.
Wear helmets.
Take falls seriously.
And be honest about alcohol intake — the “few glasses every night” culture may not be doing our brains any favours.
The Bigger Message
None of this is about fear.
It’s about agency.
Small choices repeated over decades shape our metabolic health, our nervous system resilience, our relationships, our sleep, our stress — and ultimately our brain.
Nearly half of dementia cases may be linked to modifiable factors across life.
That should give us hope.
Because hope means we are not powerless.
Ways to work with me to Futureproof your health.
Book onto my retreat- Futureproof Her.
Book onto my private membership programme- Thrive Collective. Futureproofing Wellness From Cell to Soul.
Key Research References
Livingston G et al. Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2024 report of the Lancet Commission. The Lancet, 2024.
Williamson JD et al. Effect of Intensive vs Standard Blood Pressure Control on Probable Dementia. JAMA, 2019.
Lin FR et al. Hearing intervention versus health education control to reduce cognitive decline in older adults with hearing loss (ACHIEVE trial). The Lancet, 2023.
NIH Research Matters. Healthful diet linked to reduced risk of cognitive decline.
Tian Q et al. Sleep apnoea and risk of cognitive impairment and dementia. 2024 meta-analysis.
Luchetti M et al. Loneliness and risk of dementia: meta-analysis. 2024.
If you want, I can also help you write a powerful closing section for the blog (the kind that really lands emotionally and subtly invites readers toward your functional medicine approach to brain health).
Comments