Types Of Dementia And Common Signs

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Dementia is a brain disorder that can affect people in different ways. There are a lot of types of dementia but they all eventually become server. Unfortunately there is no cure.

Vascular dementia

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Vascular dementia is a common type of dementia it is caused by reduced blood flow to the brain. It’s estimated to affect around 150,000 people in the UK. Vascular dementia tends to get worse over time however it can sometimes slow down. The part of the anatomy that is affected is the cardiovascular system.

The symptoms of vascular dementia are slowness of thought which means their responses could be delayed and they could have a lack of motivation. Difficulty with planning could affect their job for instance if they were to plan a meeting for other staff members to attended then they could have issues when it comes to planning it. Trouble with understanding could affect the person when it comes to having a conversation and being able to understand what’s going on and what’s being said. Problems with concentration could affect the person with dementia by causing them to lose concentration when crossing the road and missing the green man. Mood or behavioural changes could mean one minute they are happy and laughing and then they start getting angry and aggressive. Problems with memory and language could cause patients to forget their phone number or address.

Other causes of vascular dementia are narrowing and blockage of the small blood vessels inside the brain. In many cases these problems are linked to underlying conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes and lifestyle factors such as smoking and being overweight.

So far there is no know treatment or cure for vascular dementia and there is no way of reverse any loss of brain cells but there are treatment that is know in some cases to help slow down vascular dementia.

Around 17% of people diagnosed with dementia will have vascular dementia. It is the second most common form of dementia in the over 65 age group. Although you can have vascular dementia under the age of 65, it is comparatively rare.

By making healthy lifestyle changes, such as stopping smoking and exercising regularly, and treating any health conditions you have, you may be able to reduce your chances of getting vascular dementia. This may also help with slowing down or stopping the progression of vascular dementia if you’re diagnosed is at an early stage.

Some things that can increase your risk of vascular dementia are family history for example if the risk of strokes is high in the family. Other increases could be your ethnicity if you have a south Asian African or Caribbean background your risk of vascular dementia is higher as related problems such as diabetes and high blood pressure are more common in these groups.

Dementia with Lewy bodies

Dementia with Lewy bodies is a less common type of dementia. It is closely related to both Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Lewy bodies are tiny clumps of protein that develop inside nerve cells. They prevent the cells from communicating properly by disrupting the important chemical messengers linking them, eventually causing the cells to die.

Dementia with Lewy bodies can affect any part of the brain. The part of the anatomy that is affected is the muscular skeletal.

Common signs and symptoms changes in thinking and reasoning that could affect the person with dementia by having them change their opinion during a conversation.

Confusion and alertness could affect someone with dementia by causing them to not react if the fire alarm was to go off and they could be confused as to what the sound is.

Parkinson’s symptoms such as a hunched posture, balance problems and rigid muscles could affect someone with dementia by causing them trouble getting out of bed. Visual hallucination could affect people with dementia by causing them to see animals and people that are not there for example seeing a family member that is not actually there.

Delusion could affect patients with dementia because they could believe someone is coming to take them. Trouble interpreting visual information could affect people with dementia because they will have trouble telling the difference between two different objects.

Acting out dreams could affect patients with dementia because they could become violent and hurt others. Malfunctions of the nervous system could affect patients with dementia by having numbness in their hands which could cause issues with picking things up.

Memory loss affects patients with dementia by causing them to forget important dates like birthdays.

There is no cure for dementia with Lewy bodies or any treatment that will slow it down however there are medications that can help control and reduce some of the symptoms like hallucinations, confusion, drowsiness, movement problems and disturbed sleep.

How quickly dementia with Lewy bodies’ gets worse varies from person to person. Home-based help will usually be needed, and some patients will eventually need care in a nursing home. The average survival time after diagnosis is similar to that of Alzheimer’s disease – around 6 to 12 years. But this is highly variable and some people live much longer than this.

Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) may account for 10-15 per cent of all cases of dementia. DLB can be diagnosed wrongly and is often mistaken for Alzheimer’s disease. This means roughly 100,000 people in the UK are likely to have this form of dementia.

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