When talking about Dementia we are not just talking about being a bit forgetful as some people become as they get older. Dementia is classified as a decline in cognitive function that is severe enough to interfere with daily life as it effects memory, thinking and the ability to perform daily activities. It is not so much a specific disease but rather a condition characterised by a group of symptoms effecting memory, thinking, and social abilities.
Dementia is the result of damage to brain cells which effects the ability to communicate with others. This damage can interfere with lots of brain functions leading to changes in memory, behaviour and the ability to perform daily tasks. It effects mainly older people but does not affect everybody and once diagnosed it gets worse over time.
Known factors that increase the risk of Dementia are:
- Being 65 years and older
- Overweight and Obesity
- Diabetes
- Hypertension (High Blood Pressure)
- Smoking
- Alcohol consumption
- Depression
- Physical inactivity
- Social isolation
- Head injuries
- Hearing impairment
- Environmental pollution
- Poor education
Looking at the above it is obvious that our lifestyle has an impact on every point and will directly impact on the way we age.
A recent published study confirms this as it showed that intensive lifestyle intervention has major impacts on dementia.
“A randomized, controlled clinical trial study directed by lifestyle medicine pioneer Dean Ornish, MD, FACLM, founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, demonstrated for the first time that an intensive lifestyle intervention, without drugs, significantly improved cognition and function in many patients with early dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.”
https://lifestylemedicine.org/articles/ornish-research
There are different types of Dementia:
Alzheimer Disease – the most common one with memory loss, confusion, difficulties with language, disorientation, mood and behaviour change as well as impaired judgement.
Vascular Dementia – characterised by the blockage or reduction of blood flow to the brain which depletes the brain cells of oxygen. Memory issues as well as slower thought process, attention and concentration issues plus problems with organising and planning are common symptoms.
Lewy Body Dementia – characterised by abnormal protein (Lewy bodies) in the brain which causes movement disorders like Parkinson’s, visual hallucinations, fluctuation in cognitive ability and sleep disturbance.
Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) – characterised by degeneration of the temporal and frontal lobes of the brain resulting in behaviour and personality changes, loss of empathy, compulsive behaviour and language difficulties.
Mixed Dementia – characterised by the combination of two or more types of dementia often vascular dementia and Alzheimer.
Other Types – Parkison’s Disease Dementia, Huntington’s Disease and Creutzfeldt-Jacobs Disease.
The different stages of Dementia:
Early Stage or mild Dementia – Social withdrawal and changes in mood, mild forgetfulness, difficulty finding the right words, losing track of time.
Middle Stage or moderate Dementia – Behaviour changes like wandering and aggression, needing help with daily activities, increasing difficulty with language and communication, forgetting personal history and increasing memory loss.
Late Stage or severe Dementia – Complete dependency on others with personal care, difficulty swallowing and mobility loss, confusion and severe memory loss, inability to recognise people and places.
Dementia History
The 20th century saw a profound worldwide increase in the epidemic of Alzheimer’s Disease. In 1911, Psychiatrists Alois Alzheimer and Emil Kraepelin published their observations suggesting dementia had become the second major mental disorder with a clear pathological basis and presented a brief paper describing the case of a 51 year old woman with progressive dementia which, despite her young age, was identical to senile dementia, a disease of the elderly, but at the time it was not regarded by the medical community as a leading functional impairment and cause of death in the elderly.
It was Kraepelin who created the category of Alzheimer’s disease to distinguish early onset cases from senile dementia in the elderly. Only towards the end of the 20th century did doctors acknowledge what Alzheimer had predicted as the world faced a profound and growing epidemic of this disease with people living into their 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.
Alzheimer Disease International states that there are ten warning signs when it comes to Dementia:
- Memory loss
- Difficulty performing familiar tasks
- Problems with language
- Disorientation to time and place
- Poor or decreased judgement
- Problems keeping track of things
- Misplacing things
- Changes in mood and behaviour
- Challenges understanding visual and spatial information
- Withdrawal from work or social activities
Dementia is one of the fastest growing diseases with someone in the world developing dementia every 3 seconds. The lowest rates of dementia are in Africa, India, and South Asia, and the highest rates are in Western Europe and especially North America.
Currently more than 55 million people have dementia worldwide, over 60% of whom live in low-and middle-income countries. It is predicted that this number will almost double every 20 years, reaching 82 million in 2030 and 152 million in 2050. The most increase will be in developing countries. Already 60% of people with dementia live in low and middle income countries, but by 2050 this will rise to 71%. These figures are estimates based on the best currently available evidence. So far, every year, there are nearly 10 million new cases.
Dementia Prevention and Treatment
Scientifically until recently there was no cure for Dementia or Alzheimer. There are some drugs that temporally reduce symptoms and there are management strategies mainly for the ones who are supporting patients and family members with this disease. In other words, there is no quick fix or magic pill that our advanced medical science can offer. What we have though is common sense and a growing body of evidence that the way we are living is not working in general, and Dementia and Alzheimer is just one of the many chronic diseases that are increasing in epidemic numbers in our world. So, it’s time to try a different approach.
Looking at the risk factors for Dementia and the study mentioned above it becomes clear that our Lifestyle is something we should focus on. If intensive lifestyle interventions have demonstrated for the first time (without drugs) a significant improvement in cognition and function in many patients with early Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, then this is something we should maximise and incorporate into our daily living and not only when we get a medical diagnosis.
More on Dementia and Brain Health:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6732875
https://lifestylemedicine.org/articles/ornish-research
https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13195-024-01482-z
