In dementia, thinking, memory, and reasoning skills become insufficient to perform day-to-day tasks. Some dementia patients have emotional instability and personality changes. The intensity of dementia varies from the mildest stage, when it is just starting to interfere with a person’s ability to function, to the most severe level, when the person must fully depend on others for fundamental daily activities
How prevalent is dementia?
An estimated 5.0 million persons over the age of 65 had dementia in 2014, and that number is expected to rise to approximately 14 million by the year 2060.
Is dementia a natural aspect of getting older?
No, a lot of senior citizens live completely free of dementia. Normal aging may cause arteries and vessels to tighten, muscles and bones to weaken, and some age-related memory problems that may manifest as:
- Occasionally losing the keys to the car
- Having trouble coming up with a word but afterwards remembering it
- Forgetting an acquaintance’s name
- Losing track of recent events
In a typical situation, language, long-standing memories, and accumulated knowledge and experiences would all be preserved.
What dementia symptoms and indicators are there?
Dementia is a broad term therefore everyone experiences it differently. Dementia sufferers struggle with:
Dementia-related warning signs include:
- Being muddled in a familiar environment
- Using unfamiliar phrases to relate to basic tenets
- Forgetting a close relative or friend’s name
- Suppressing previous memories
- Not being able to do chores on your own
What makes dementia more plausible?
Age
Aging is the biggest known risk factor for dementia, with most instances affecting people over 65.
Family background
A person’s likelihood of getting dementia increases if they have parents or siblings who have the disease.
Race/ethnicity
African Americans are twice as likely as whites to get dementia as they age. White people are 1.5 times more likely than Hispanics to suffer dementia.
Having a bad heart health
If untreated, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking all raise the risk of dementia.
Harm to the brain through trauma
Particularly if they are severe or recur frequently, head traumas can raise the risk of dementia.
What kinds of dementia are there?
Neurodegenerative disorders are the name given to the most prevalent forms of dementia. These conditions cause the brain’s cells to stop functioning or to die. They consist of:
- The most prevalent type of dementia among seniors is Alzheimer’s disease. The brains of those who have Alzheimer’s disease are tangled and plagued. These are aberrant protein accumulations.
- Lewy body dementia, which also results in movement problems. A protein that accumulates abnormally in the brain are known as lewy bodies.
- Diseases of the frontotemporal region, which alter specific areas of the brain.
- Vascular dementia, which affects the blood flow to the brain, frequently results after a stroke or brain atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).
- A combination of two or more different types of dementia is called mixed dementia. For instance, some people have both vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
How is dementia cured?
The underlying cause of dementia affects how it is treated. Although there is no known cure for neurodegenerative dementias like Alzheimer’s, there are drugs that can help preserve the brain or control symptoms like anxiety or cognitive abnormalities. There is continuing research to create more therapeutic alternatives.
A healthy lifestyle, which includes regular exercise, a nutritious diet, and maintaining social connections, lowers the risk of chronic disease development and may lower the number of persons who have dementia.
A word from the doctor
Dementia prevention methods have not been discovered by researchers. Your risk factors for dementia may change if you lead a healthy lifestyle.
Do you want to know more about dementia and how to tackle it? If so, then Contact me right away!
