Dementia

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• QHow can caregivers communicate with people with dementia?

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  A St Francis Medical Center answered

  Caregivers need to learn how to communicate with people with dementia because their language function, their understanding of language, their overall understanding of the environment changes when dementia progresses. Caregivers need to use simple sentences and they need to look the person in the eyes when they are talking. Caregivers have to make sure that they control their tone because when people start having difficulty understanding, they go by understanding the tone of the person who's speaking to them.

  Trinity Health is a Catholic health care organization that acts in accordance with the Catholic tradition and does not condone or support all practices covered in this site. In case of emergency call 911. This site is educational and not a substitute for professional medical advice, always seek the advice of a qualified health care provider.

• QWhat is pseudodementia?

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  A Memorial Hospital of Tampa answered

  Pseudodementia is a term for memory complaints that don't signify true dementia. 

• QIs dementia a normal part of aging?

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  A HealthyWomen answered

  Dementia should be seen as a modifiable health condition and, if it occurs, should be followed as a medical condition, not a normal part of aging. In other words, if you or your loved one becomes forgetful, it could be related to medication, nutrition or modifiable medical issues. Don't assume Alzheimer's.

  Just consider that when doctors examined the brain of a 115-year-old woman who, when she died, was the world's oldest woman, they found essentially normal brain tissue, with no evidence of Alzheimer's or other dementia-causing conditions. Testing in the years before she died showed no loss in brain function.

  Not only is dementia not inevitable with age, but you actually have some control over whether or not you develop it.

  Doctors are only now starting to understand the linkages between health in your 40s, 50s and 60s and cognitive function later in life. Studies find that many of the same risk factors that contribute to heart disease—high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity—may also contribute to Alzheimer's and other dementias.

  For instance, studies on the brains of elderly people with and without dementia find significant blood vessel damage in those with hypertension. Such damage shrinks the amount of healthy brain tissue you have in reserve, reducing the amount available if a disease like Alzheimer's hits. That's important because we're starting to understand that the more brain function you have to begin with, the more you can afford to lose before your core functions are affected.

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• QHow does dementia affect the body?

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  A Sigma Nursing answered

  Different forms of dementia affect your body differently, but in one way or another they all affect your brain. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer' disease, which causes degeneration of brain tissue and nerve cells. Frontotemporal dementia also causes damage to nerve cells, but only in the frontal and temporal lobes of your brain. Lewy body dementia is caused by masses of protein in your brain known as Lewy bodies, and vascular dementia affects the arteries that move blood from your heart to your brain. Several other factors that ultimately result in damage to your brain cells or nerves may lead to other forms of dementia as well.

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• QWhat is dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB)?

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  A Abigail Ryan, PhD , Neurology, answered on behalf of Mercy Health

  Dementia with Lewy bodies is the second most common type of dementia. The core features are:

  • progressive cognitive changes (including changes in attention, executive functions such as planning and organization, and visual spatial abilities)
  • significant fluctuations in cognition (e.g., sometimes people seem like their "old self" and other times they are very cognitively impaired)
  • parkinsonian motor symptoms (e.g., rigidity, postural instability, motor slowing)
  • visual hallucinations

  Trinity Health is a Catholic health care organization that acts in accordance with the Catholic tradition and does not condone or support all practices covered in this site. In case of emergency call 911. This site is educational and not a substitute for professional medical advice, always seek the advice of a qualified health care provider.

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• QWhat cognitive functions are affected by dementia?

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  A Univ. of Nev. School of Medicine, Family Medicine answered

  Cognitive functions affected by dementia include memory and communication. Additionally, a person with dementia may have difficulty competing complex tasks or recognizing familiar objects and faces.

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• QCan vascular dementia be prevented?

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  A Dr. Stephen T. Chen, MD , Geriatric Medicine, answered on behalf of UCLA Health

  Vascular dementia can be prevented—more so than the other types of dementia. It starts with controlling your risk factors for stroke. If you have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes, proper management of these conditions should reduce the risk for vascular dementia. Also, an evaluation for heart disease is very important. Certain types of heart disease can increase the risk for developing blood clots. Clots can travel from the heart to the brain and cause a stroke. It’s important to have a doctor check the health of your heart and blood vessels.

• QIs there a cure for vascular dementia?

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  A Dr. Stephen T. Chen, MD , Geriatric Medicine, answered on behalf of UCLA Health

  There is no cure for vascular dementia, and no Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medication to treat it. However, research suggests that certain medicines may improve memory or thinking skills, at least temporarily, in people with vascular dementia. These medicines include:

  • donepezil (Aricept)
  • rivastigmine (Exelon)
  • memantine (Namenda)

  While doctors may not yet be able to cure or effectively treat vascular dementia, it is important to try to treat any psychiatric symptoms that may occur. For example, depression is quite common in vascular dementia. It is typically treated with antidepressants.

• QAre the risk factors for Alzheimer's and vascular dementia the same?

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  A Dr. Stephen T. Chen, MD , Geriatric Medicine, answered on behalf of UCLA Health

  Vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease are different conditions but some of the risk factors are the same.

  Shared risks factors for both these types of dementia include:

  • age (the largest risk factor)
  • high blood pressure
  • diabetes
  • obesity