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Every three seconds someone is diagnosed with dementia. An incurable disease of the brain which eventually causes an overall decline and usually starts with memory loss.

When I鈥檝e treated patients with dementia I鈥檝e found that there are many layers to memory. There are factual memories and there are also emotional memories. Families of those affected are often most distressed by the loss of memory when it comes to being recognised by their loved ones. But as they start to understand that their relative still has emotional memories of them, they are then quickly able to find a way to continue to connect.

Our memories are essential to every aspect of our lives. They have an impact on and inform everything from our self-image to our relationships and even future planning. We invest in creating new memories every single day.

The Vedas describe that our spirit or soul identity can be experienced as something called witness consciousness - the observer in us that watches our thoughts, feelings and actions.

The Bhakti tradition of Hinduism and particularly the teachings of Rupa Goswami elaborate further on spiritual consciousness by saying that we can also feel, think, experience and have personality as our spiritual self and that we have memories of this.

Rupa Goswami also explains that prayer, meditation, reading sacred texts and engaging in the service of others serves to awaken spiritual memories which give us insight and shed light on our spiritual persona. I imagine this would be similar to how nostalgia therapy serves to awaken memory in those with dementia.

He goes on to say that the spiritual sense of identity or spiritual persona can continue to be experienced even once the body and mind deteriorate if cultivated to an adequate level. He does warn however that this is not an easy task and that it requires the practitioner to transcend the social aspects of religion and spirituality such as cultural sectarianism and over attachment to rituals.

On this programme yesterday one of the guests suggested that we should look after our bodies throughout our lives so that we can have a healthy old age. With the ever increasing likelihood of us living beyond our 80th birthday, one in 5 of us will be faced with dementia and although good physical and mental health can reduce that risk, I think that having a good quality of life in our later years can be made even more likely if we spend more time now, investing in our spiritual memories as well as our day to day one鈥檚.

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