Dementia refers to the loss of cognitive functioning that includes reasoning, remembering, and thinking to the extent that it affects one’s daily activities and life.
Some individuals with dementia can’t be able to control their emotions, plus their personalities might change. It may range in severity from mild to severe stage.
According to some reports, it affects millions of individuals and is more popular among aging people. This is why most aging people take the best supplements for memory and other cognitive abilities.
Types of Dementia
It can be categorized into three main groups: reversible dementia-like symptoms caused by other causes/illnesses, secondary dementia caused by another condition/disease, and primary dementia. In addition, primary dementia is categorized into several types, including:
- Vascular dementia
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Mixed dementia
- FTD (frontotemporal dementia)
- LBD (Lewy body dementia)
Symptoms and Signs
Since dementia is an umbrella term, its symptoms may vary greatly from one individual to another. People with these conditions have problems with reasoning, memory, visual perception, judgment, problem-solving, and attention.
Apart from symptoms, people with dementia may also experience signs. Some of these signs are getting lost in the familiar neighborhood, forgetting old memories, and using odd words to refer to a familiar object.
Causes
The damage in the brain cells often causes dementia. This damage often interferes with the capability of the brain cells to communicate with one another. When your brain’s cells cannot communicate normally, feelings, behavior, and thinking will be affected.
Your brain has many different regions responsible for various functions, like movement, judgment, and memory. When the cells in a certain region get damaged, that same region won’t be able to perform its functions as it is supposed to.
Different kinds of dementia are linked with certain types of brain cell damage in various regions. For instance, in Alzheimer’s illness, a high level of certain proteins in and outside the brain cells makes it more difficult for your brain cells to be healthy and communicate with one another.
Although many changes in your brain which cause dementia can worsen over time, memory and thinking problems that the following conditions cause may improve when dementia is addressed or treated:
- Vitamin deficiencies
- Thyroid problems
- Using alcohol in excess
- Medication side effects
- Depression
Diagnosis
Everyone with regular issues with thinking or memory needs to be examined by a professional healthcare expert. If those issues are associated with dementia, an early diagnosis will help. It will help to know the reason for your symptoms, and your doctor will advise the right treatment.
Treatments
For your doctor to treat dementia, they must treat whatever is causing the disease. Around 20% of dementia can be reversed. But if the causes are irreversible, your treatment will concentrate on managing symptoms, especially agitation and other emotional concerns.
Key Points
Dementia is just an umbrella term describing symptoms that affect behavior, thinking, and memory. It is part of Alzheimer’s disease and may occur with movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease. Its symptoms often worsen over time, and currently, there is no cure. Some drugs can actually help to manage your symptoms, but an individual might eventually require full-time support.