Dementia – the Term that Describes Symptoms of Brain Disorders Part I

Dementia is not a specific disease but really an umbrella term that describes several types of symptoms that can be caused by a number of disorders that affect the brain. Significantly impaired intellectual functioning that interferes with normal activities and relationships describes dementia. Dementia patients also lose their ability to problem solve and maintain emotional control and they often experience major personality changes and behavior problems, such as agitation, delusions and hallucinations

Memory loss is a common symptom of dementia but memory loss doesn't necessarily mean a person has dementia. Dementia is diagnosed by doctors only if two or more brain functions, like memory, language skills, perception or cognitive skills including reasoning and judgment are significantly impaired without a loss of consciousness. Some types of dementia may be halted or reversed with appropriate treatment and other types mainly to a progressive loss of mental functions. Alzheimer's disease is just one type of dementia.

Alzheimer's disease is the leading cause of dementia for people 65 and older. There our up to 4 million people in the United States living with this disease; one in 10 people over the age of 65 1/2 of those over age 85. There our some early–onset forms of this disease usually link to a specific gene defect which may appear as early as age 30. Typically Alzheimer's disease usually causes a gradual decline in cognitive abilities over a span of 7 to 10 years. Nearly all brain functions are eventually affected, which include memory, movement, language, judgment, behavior, and abstract thinking. This are a heartbreaking diseases.

Vascular dementia, which makes up 20%, is the second leading cause of dementia and is caused by brain damage from cerebral vascular or cardiovascular problems, usually strokes. It may result from genetic diseases, endocarditis (infection of a heart valve), or amyloid amyopathy. This type of dementia may coexist with Alzheimer's. The symptoms of vascular dementia often begin suddenly, frequently after a stroke. Patients usually have a history of high blood pressure, vascular disease, or previous strokes or heart attacks. It may or may not get worse over time depending on where the damage in the brain resides. People with vascular dementia frequently wander at night and often have other problems commonly found in people who had a stroke, including depression and incontinence.

Binswanger disease is another type of vascular dementia which is rare and is characterized by damage to small blood vessels in the white matter of the brain. It may lead to brain lesions, loss of memory, disordered cognition and mood changes. It has several other difficult affects but sometimes includes episodes of partial and recovery.

Lewey body (sometimes spelled Louie Body Dementia), is another form of dementia where you will see wide variations in attention and alertness. These patients will have vivid dreams, act out, yell out in their sleep and have tremors. They won't remember any of this in the morning. Louis bodies contain a protein that is been linked to Parkinson's disease. The symptoms of fluid body overlap with Alzheimer's disease in many ways and include memory impairment, poor judgment confusion along with the symptoms already mentioned. There is no cure for this dementia the patient's do sometimes respond fairly well to drugs that treat Parkinson's disease which reduce the psychiatric symptoms..

Frontotemporal lobe dementia (FTD) also called Picke disease begins early in life and progress is very rapidly. These types of dementia are characterized by degeneration of nerve cells especially in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. Experts believe these dementias account for 2 to 10% of all cases typically appearing between the ages of 40 and 65. Quite often there is a family history of dementia suggesting a genetic factor in this disease. Some patients decline very rapidly over 2 to 3 years and others show only minimal change for many years. The average lifespan for someone diagnosed with FTD is 5 to 10 years after diagnosis.

The types of dementia described above are the more common the dementias found in the cortical dementia category, as there are too many types of dementia to include in one hub. The dementias in the subcortical brain occur primarily in patients who have other disorders that affect movement or other functions. The relationships between the disorders are not always clear. As we've already mentioned Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's or Lewy body dementia may be found in one individual. It is also possible to have a mixed dementia which means it goes along with heart disease and Alzheimer's, for instance, and causes mild cognitive impairment but doesn't necessarily cause full-blown Alzheimer's disease. There are half 1 million people from age 30 to 50 that have two categories of these genes.

There are few things you can do to minimize the possibility of getting this disease as the more you stimulate your brain the more connections your brain makes which is better. Such things as learning a foreign language, drawing crossword puzzles, and anything that is mentally challenging is a plus. Research has shown that learning a foreign language can offset Alzheimer's for up to four years. Changing your routine can be helpful such as driving to work or a familiar place by a different route, getting out and doing something different with a friend, eat healthy and exercise regularly can all be helpful.

There are many aspects of these diseases that I didn't include in this very long hub. For example, treatments, the progression of the diseases, and the role of the caregiver which could be a whole hub unto itself. Dementia is a very tragic disease which is hard on the patient and particularly the family that love them. I certainly hope there will be a cure in the not too distant future or at least better treatments that will lessen the symptoms.

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