Many people think that dementia is an old age disorder. That it is a disease that young people can not get.
However, this is not true. Dementia is not age-related. Unfortunately, young people can also get certain forms of dementia. However, it is difficult to treat dementia.
It is often possible to delay the diseases. You can use medication, memory training, etc. There are many more possibilities.
You can read more about dementia on this website. Unfortunately, healing is not possible, but it can slow down and create a more tolerable life.
What information can you find on our website?
Below is an overview of the topics. Chapter 1 starts at the bottom of this table of contents.
- What is dementia
1. meaning dementia
2. is it possible to test dementia?
3. What are the risk factors? - Recognizing dementia
1. starting dementia
2. Is it possible to test starting dementia?
3. Symptoms of dementia
4. Impact family - Dementia test
- Dementia types
- Dementia phases
- Causes Dementia
1. Dementia hereditary? - Dementia care
- Dementia store
1. stimulating living environment
2. types of products
What is dementia?
1. Meaning dementia
Dementia is a name for a combination of symptoms (syndrome), the brain can not process information properly. It is a name for more than fifty diseases. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. In addition, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), Parkinson and Lewy body dementia are common.
The nerve cells in the brain break down in case of dementia. Sometimes not the nerve cells but the connections between the cells break. It is possible that the connections and the cells no longer work. The brains do not function properly due to a decrease of these cells. For some people it takes a long time and for some people the deterioration goes like a fast train. Others can live a normal and fun life for years, but in the end dementia patients become greatly weakened by the effects of dementia.
That kind of person is then very susceptible to a disease or infection and can die of it. Dementia mainly occurs in clinical syndromes, which are caused by various brain diseases. It is very difficult to determine exactly what dementia is. In any case, it is a name that gives meaning to many diseases. However, there is often the confusion among people that dementia itself is a disease, often people think that dementia is a different name for Alzheimer, but the opposite is true. Dementia is therefore just a general name.
2. Is it possible to test dementia?
Unfortunately, there is not a specific test available that can exactly test dementia. This is due to the fact that it is not a disease itself. It is a umbrella name for many diseases. This makes it very difficult to test dementia in its specific form, because it is simply not a separate disease. It is a possible to look at the different types of diseases. On the basis of symptoms one can see what is going on with someone, which type could fit.
So you do not really test someone with a blood test or psychological test. Often there are short conversations, small simple tests, symptoms compared, with which eventually a disease is outlined. On the basis of this they can see which disease type could fit. This can be a tricky way. The real causes of many diseases are not yet known, espacially specific symptoms. Often it helps to look at that person’s past.
What was his lifestyle? Has that person smoked? Did that person drink a lot? Does he have other diseases? Does he have heart problems? These are all questions that can help with the determination of dementia. If someone is suspected, the patient is advised to do a brain scan. With this, the final disease can be better analysed and one can see which brain disease it is. You can have a comprehensive dementia test done at the GP, but this one mainly looks at the symptoms of dementia or if there are dementia symptoms, so that the eventual illness can be determined.
3. What are the risk factors?
The risk of getting dementia is bigger for women than for men. One of three women gets dementia. The older, the bigger chance of gettting a type of dementia. Above the age of 90, almost forty percent of people have a form of dementia. With the envisaged aging population this will only get bigger. This is mainly due to the aging population. There may also be hereditary factors or lifestyle habits that cause this disease. You can read more about this later in the various articles.
In addition, there are still many people who smoke in society. It is well known that smoking gives a major risk of developing dementia. Now we known that smoking is bad, it reduces the number of smokers. However, it used to be very common, so smoking has already created many dementia victims.
Read more about how to recognize dementia -> Recognize dementia
You can do a dementia test on this website using a form with questions for family members and caregivers of suspected dementia patient, to map out any memory problems and cognitive decline in daily functioning. Read more about the test on Dementia test.