Dementia is a medical condition in which some group of diseases affects one’s memory, mood, behavior, personality or reasoning. Research says that most people who suffer from this disease are eighty five years and above.
When someone suffers from dementia, there are a few conditions or symptoms that can help someone indicate that. A few symptoms are confusion or disorientation, unable to achieve complex tasks, communication problems, memory loss or reasoning problems.
Dementia has its types as well. Everyone with dementia has a particular type that they have or suffer from.
Alzheimer's disease is a type of dementia which is considered as the most common type. People with this kind of dementia have tangles in their brains which results to memory loss. These clumps are what damages the brain cells and results to memory loss.
Another one is known as the vascular dementia. When there is any damage that has happened to the vessels that supplies blood to the brain, it results to stroke and other ailments. This type of dementia deals with loss of focus, slow thinking and being unable to solve complex problems.
Lewy body dementia is another type. This is another common type of dementia. Hallucinations, focus and attention problem is common here as well. Lastly, there is frontotemporal dementia. This happens when there is a breakdown of nerve cells and the brain. This is one that affects the behavior, movement and thinking.
Anyone can be at the risk of dementia but some people are at higher risk of suffering from dementia. People with Down syndrome, older people of about sixty five and above or family history. People who suffer from dementia must have gotten it due to a family trait. Those are natural risk factors but there are other factors that can be changed like drinking too much alcohol, hearing loss, sleep conditions or head trauma.
To diagnose dementia, there are steps the doctor needs to take even before running some tests. The doctor will ask about your symptoms, family history and medical history as well. Then, laboratory tests will be done to diagnose dementia, the cause such as infection, inflammations and others. Another imaging teat like MRI can be done. Then, a neurocognitive testing and a psychological test to diagnose dementia and its cause.
Well, dementia cannot go away. It doesn’t ever go as there is no cause for it but it can be managed. There are some medications that can manage dementia which are memantine, galantamine, donepezil or rivastigmine. These medications wouldn’t work to treat or cure dementia but can help to reduce or monitor the growth of the disease. With the medications, dementia reduces drastically.
There are also times when some people take medications and their conditions worsens not because the medications are not good for them but because dementia never really goes away but can only be managed.
For anyone who is living with dementia, it is usually advisable to get support from caregivers or any healthcare team. Also, adjusting their lifestyle will help them manage challenges and symptoms.
REFERENCES SOURCES
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9170-dementia
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dementia/symptoms-causes/syc-20352013
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/dementia/symptoms-and-diagnosis/diagnosis/
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/about-dementia/treatments