In a recent interview with Sir. Richard Faull, the eminent Neuroscientist gave his views on a number of topics, his ground-breaking work, views on brain ageing, Audiology and clinical best practice. The full interview is available HERE but we’ve republished two key sections below as they highlight key issues around healthy aging and a key philosophy incorporate into all our work:
Healthy Ageing
In regard to neurodegenerative disorders, dementia is a growing challenge due to our large aging population and no current cure. The Lancet commission has recently recognized hearing loss to be the greatest modifiable risk factor for dementia in mid-life, what are your thoughts on this?
Sir. Richard Faull:
“If you can modify a risk factor you should correct it as much as possible. Health of the human body is contingent on the input you get. The best stimulation you can get is communicating with people. You get a euphoria and an excitement about life when you communicate with others. Without this we lose our engagement. If you have a communication difficulty because of hearing loss, it makes the most logical sense in the world to treat it. In every way you’ve got to help your body to age in the most successful way.”
What would be 2-3 key messages you would like to impart to clinicians in terms of helping patients reach better health outcomes?
Sir. Richard Faull:
- The patient is the most important person in the world, you don’t tell them what to do, but you listen.
- Empower patients to live with their ailments, to give them hope, dignity and respect.
- Treat them as an individual, treat them with respect, make them feel better for having talked to you and give them every help through the best treatment and empower them to live successfully with their disease with ongoing support from community organizations.
We certainly recommend reading the whole interview as it includes a number of interesting and empowering ideas.