What Is Dementia?

DementiaAre You Living With This Chronic Disorder?

Do you happen to know someone who is living with dementia? Are you worried about the potential risks that come along with this brain condition? Dementia is a chronic or persistent disorder of the mental processes caused by brain disease or injury and marked by memory disorders, personality disorders and impaired reasoning. This disorder tends to effect 3 million people every year and the US and unfortunately, there is no cure for this disorder. However, treatment may help relieve some of the signs and symptoms of the disease. If you are looking for an in depth analysis of this disorder please visit a medical expert.

Once you’ve been diagnosed with dementia you’ll probably be told that this is chronic or lifelong disease. It is common in many elderly people due to the process of aging. However, there are instances, which is extremely rare, where it can affect younger adults as well. Dementia is be a variety of disorders as well and doesn’t necessarily limit itself to one particular disease. It is often associated with Alzheimer’s disease, which most commonly affects your brain. By continuing to read on you’ll learn the causes and symptoms of this specific disorders.

What Causes Dementia?

According to the Alzheimer’s Society, there are many diseases that result in dementia. The most common types of dementia are below:

  • Alzheimer’s Disease – This is the most common form of dementia. The brain cells are surrounded by an abnormal protein and their internal structure is also damage. Overtime, the chemical connections between brain cells are lost and some cells even die. This affects day to day memory and other symptoms include: finding the right words, solving problems, making decisions, or perceiving things in three dimensions.
  • Vascular Dementia – Oxygen supply is reduced to the brain because of the narrowing or blockage of blood vessels, which brain cells become damaged or even die. The symptoms often occur either suddenly once following a large stroke, or over time through a series of small stroke or damage to small blood vessels deep in the brain.
  • Mixed Dementia – This is one person has more than one type of dementia, and a mixture of their symptoms.
  • Dementia with Lewy bodies – This involves tiny abnormal structures developing inside the brain cells. They often disrupt the brain’s chemistry and lead to the death of brain cells. Early symptoms can include fluctuating alertness, difficulties with judging distances and hallucinations. This disease is said to be closely related to Parkinson’s disease and often shares the same symptoms.
  • Frontotemporal Dementia – This affects the front and side parts of the brain that are damaged overtime when clumps of abnormal proteins from inside nerve cells, causing them to die.

There are other rare causes that can lead to dementia as well. This could include alcohol-related brain damage, corticobasal degeneration, progressive supranuclear palsy, HIV infection, Niemann-Pick disease type C and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

What Are Symptoms Of Dementia?

Although we shortly discussed specific signs and symptoms of certain dementia disorders above, there are early onset signs dementia. If you experience these early signs, please consult a doctor for medical advice.

  1. Subtle Short Term Memory Changes.
  2. Difficulty Finding The Right Words.
  3. Changes In Mood.
  4. Apathy
  5. Difficulty Doing Normal Tasks
  6. Confusion
  7. Difficulty Following Storylines
  8. Failing Sense Of Direction
  9. Being Repetitive
  10. Struggling to Adapt