Friday, March 16, 2012

Causes and Signs of Dementia

As well we know that older people are more likely to have a slightly deprivation of memory which doesn’t significant effects to the daily lives. But as you get older, this problem is getting worse and may give negative effects to your daily lives. If you experience this problem, you should begin to ask to yourself whether you have dementia or not! So, what are causes and signs of dementia?

You might also be interested to know more about vascular dementia stages and prognosis, before continuing!

Dementia is a condition when we get the worse of memory loss (or a loss of mental skills) which can affect to our daily lives. Finally, it can influence significantly on how we to use our memory to think or make a plan. The progress of this disease is different from person to person. Some patients can lose their skills quickly, but others can stay the same for over years.

Like mentioned before, the risk of developing dementia is usually equivalent to the age. In other words, as we get older, our likelihood of the disease is higher!

Fortunately, not anyone might get this disease. It is relatively more common in (60-85 or over) of age (after 85 years of age). But this doesn’t mean that the change of acquiring the disease under 60 of age is zero! Read also simple ideas (lifestyle approaches) on how to protect your memory!

Dementia causes

Changes or damage in brain are believed the major cause of dementia. And changes in brain can be caused by:
  1. Certain diseases, like Parkinson’s disease!
  2. Head injuries and tumors.
  3. Alzheimer’s disease, it is the most common dementia cause in this modern living.
  4. After Alzheimer’s disease, stroke is the second common cause of dementia (also often familiar called as vascular dementia).
There are also some cases of dementia that can be caused by treatable causes, such as; poor intake of vitamin B12, depression, thyroid gland (underactive), and buildup of fluid in the brain.

Signs of dementia

The specific affected area in the brain is closely related to the signs of dementia that are present. One of the common noticeable signs and earliest symptoms is memory loss. The following are other major signs of dementia:
  1. People with dementia may be difficult to recall or remember their recent events.
  2. They may be difficult to recognize their familiar places or even their family.
  3. They may have a problem to express a certain object with the right words.
  4. They may also have a problem to perform simple calculations.
  5. They may also not be able to do certain simple tasks that they can do as well before, such as writing, cooking, or else.
  6. Cannot make the right decision for a certain emergency. In other words, they don’t know what they have to do in a certain emergency.
  7. They may also have a problem on controlling their emotional or moods.
  8. Even they may also be unable to do certain basic activities, such as bathing.
Additionally, in people who have ‘Lewy bodies - dementia’, they may have a problem with visual hallucinations. And for the signs that come on suddenly are usually referred to vascular dementia, which usually caused by worsening illness (like stroke - as mentioned before)!

Don’t jump directly to the conclusion after reading this article. It is so recommended to talk with your doctor for clearly diagnosis and more detailed information about causes & signs of dementia!

-- Image credit to ‘Getty Images’