Does Memory Loss Always Mean Dementia?

Dementia or senility isn’t a specific disease. Instead, it is a broad category of symptoms that affect the brain and causes memory loss. The loss of memory affects social abilities and cognitive skills that are severe enough to interfere with daily life.

The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, which accounts for 60%-80% of all dementia cases. Other common types of dementia include vascular dementia – accounting for 25%, Lewy body dementia – accounting for 15% and frontotemporal dementia. A person can be affected by more than one type of dementia.

Every 3 seconds, someone in the world develops dementia. There were an estimated 46.8 million people worldwide living with dementia in 2015 and this number is believed to be close to 50 million people in 2017. 5.2% of people over the age of 60 are living with dementia globally. The number of people with dementia will almost double every 20 years, reaching 75 million in 2030 and 131.5 million in 2050. Developing countries will see much of theincrease. Currently, around 58% of people with dementia live in low- and middle-income countries, but this will rise to 68% by 2050. The fastest growth in the elderly population is taking place in China, India, and their south Asian and western Pacific neighbors.

There are about 5.7 million people of all ages are affected with Alzheimer’s disease in the USA. Almost two thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s are women.

According to Alzheimer’s Society, UK, an estimated 850,000 people are affected by dementia in the UK, with the number expected to rise to over 1 million by 2025. It is expected that 225,000 people will develop dementia this year that is 1 person every 3 minutes.

Does Memory Loss Mean A Person Has Dementia?

Although loss of memory usually occurs in dementia, loss of memory alone does not mean a person has dementia. People lose some degree of memory as they get older. Naturally occurring memory loss isn’t considered dementia. At least 2 of thefollowing cognitive functions must be significantly damaged to be considered dementia:

1. Loss of memory
2. Problem communicating or understanding language
3. Inability to focus
4. Inability to make decisions or judgments
5. Lack of visual perception

What are the Types of Dementia?

The different types of dementia include:

• Alzheimer’s disease. It is the most common for of dementia, accounting for 60 to 80 percent of all dementia cases. Alzheimer’s causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior.
• Vascular dementia. It is the second most common type of dementia, which occurs after a stroke.
• Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). It is a form of progressive dementia that leads to a decline in thinking, reasoning and independent function due to abnormal microscopic deposits that damage brain cells over time.
• Parkinson’s disease dementia. It is a cognitive impairment that ultimately affects many people with Parkinson's disease.
• Mixed dementia. In this type of dementia, abnormal characteristics of more than one type of dementia occur simultaneously.
• Frontotemporal dementia (FTD). It is a group of disorders caused by progressive nerve cell loss in the brain's frontal lobes (the areas behind the forehead) or its temporal lobes (the regions behind the ears).
• Huntington’s disease. It is a progressive brain disorder caused by a defective gene. This disease causes changes in the central area of the brain, which affect movement, mood and thinking skills.
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). It is the most common human form of a group of rare, fatal brain disorders known as prion diseases.
• Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH). It is a brain disorder in which excess cerebrospinal fluid accumulates in the brain's ventricle, causing thinking and reasoning problems, difficulty walking, and loss of bladder control.
• Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome. It is a chronic memory disorder caused by severe deficiency of thiamine (vitamin B-1). Korsakoff syndrome is most commonly caused by alcohol misuse, but certain other conditions also can cause the syndrome.
• Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA). It is the gradual and progressive degeneration of the outer layer of the brain (the cortex) in the part of the brain located in the back of the head (posterior).

Are there Warning Signs One Should Watch Out For?

What Are the Stages of Dementia?

Dementia may have several stages such as, mild, moderate or severe. A dementia patient may fall into 2 different stages at once. Progression of a patient’s condition cannot be determined by the stages of dementia. A patient may remain in a particular stage for a few months or a several years. Progression of the disease varies in patient to patient.

What Are the Causes of Dementia?

Death of the nerve cells in the brain causes dementia. Dementia may be caused by head injury, stroke or a brain tumor. Since, death of brain cells may occur in different parts of the brain, dementia’s affect on people may vary from person to person.

What Are the Signs and symptoms of Dementia?

Dementia, in its early stage may have signs like forgetting things, difficulty performing tasks that were previously done without effort, losing common items such as keys, glasses etc. Difficulty learning new things is a very common early sign of dementia. Many Alzheimer’s patients or patients with other forms of dementia are unaware about their problems. The behavioral changes become evident with the progression of the disease. Patients fail to perform simple tasks, such as putting on clothes or going to the bathroom. Some patients may forget their phone numbers, addresses or their date of birth. They may be unaware about their surrounding environment. Some patients may forget to take their food, which may lead to marked weight loss. At the late stages of dementia, patients often cannot recognize their friends or family members. They lose their ability to communicate effectively. They become unable to care for themselves and need help of others to perform daily activities. As the disease progresses, patients start to forget how to walk or how to get up from a chair.

Can Dementia Be Reversed?

Doctors may identify the causes of certain dementia, therefore conditions can be reversed with proper treatment.

• When dementia-like conditions occur from fever or other infections such as meningitis, encephalitis, syphilis, Lyme disease. Dementia from immune disorders such as leukemia and multiple sclerosis can also be reversed.
• Dementia from metabolic problems and abnormalities of endocrine.
• When nutritional deficiencies cause dementia.
• When dementia is caused by poisoning.
• Subdural hematomas
• Rarely, brain tumors can cause dementia
• Reactions to medication