Dementia is a general term for a decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life. Dementia is not a specific disease but a descriptive term for a collection of symptoms. These symptoms can be caused by number of disorders that affect the brain. There are many forms of Dementia. The most recognizable is Alzheimer’s Disease. This condition accounts for almost half of all Dementia cases. Some other types are Lewy Body Dementia, Huntington Disease, and even Parkinson Disease.
Dementia affects 4-5 million people in the United States alone. This number will rise as more people reach the 65 and older – the age Dementia starts to affect a person.
While symptoms of dementia can vary greatly, at least two of the following core mental functions must be significantly impaired to be considered dementia:
- Memory
- Communication and language
- Ability to focus and pay attention
- Reasoning and judgment
- Visual perception
People with dementia may have problems with short-term memory, keeping track of a purse or wallet, paying bills, planning and preparing meals, remembering appointments or traveling out of the neighborhood.
Causes
| Dementia is caused by damage to brain cells. This damage interferes with the ability of brain cells to communicate with each other. When brain cells cannot communicate normally, thinking, behavior and feelings can be affected.
The brain has many distinct regions, each of which is responsible for different functions (for example, memory, judgment and movement). When cells in a particular region are damaged, that region cannot carry out its functions normally. |
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Different types of dementia are associated with particular types of brain cell damage in particular regions of the brain. For example, in Alzheimer’s disease, high levels of certain proteins inside and outside brain cells make it hard for brain cells to stay healthy and to communicate with each other. The brain region called the hippocampus is the center of learning and memory in the brain, and the brain cells in this region are often the first to be damaged. That’s why memory loss is often one of the earliest symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
More information can be found at: http://www.alz.org/what-is-dementia.asp