AstridGuide – Dementia & Alzheimer Guide

Alzheimer’s Disease: Cause of Dementia

Dementia is a condition that is depicted with a loss of mental functions in some areas including memory, judgment, language, visual and spatial abilities. It is a serious health condition that alters the patient’s way of living. Dementia, essentially, is a set of symptoms that come with certain diseases that affect the human brain.

Dementia mostly affects people of old age. It can also affect young people too but it is a rare occurrence. Symptoms of Dementia can also be noticed with infections, surgery, sleep deprivation, dehydration, irregular food intake, change in personality, and loneliness.

This is a condition known as delirium and is observed in most Dementia patients. Delirium can be treated with proper care, healthy food intake, and improved sleeping habits; however, these treatments will not cause any improvements in the human brain. Brain cells of patients who have severe Dementia gradually die.

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most common conditions that are known to affect a person’s mental abilities, particularly memory and thought processes. Alzheimer’s is also one of the major causes of Dementia, accounting for 50% of known Dementia cases. This disease affects the cortex part of the brain.

It is estimated that about 4.5 million Americans over the age of 65 are affected with this disease. Besides Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and Pick’s diseases also cause Dementia.

Alzheimer’s disease was first described in 1906 by Alois Alzheimer, a German neurologist. Alzheimer’s disease is the result of nerve cell changes and a loss of brain cells. Approximately 12% of people aged 65 and over are victims of Alzheimer’s disease.

This disease is an irreversible, progressive disorder in which the neurons of the human brain deteriorate, resulting in loss of memory and inability to make judgments and reasoning among others.

An Alzheimer’s patient has difficulty with memory, thinking, and decision making. Living a normal life is near on impossible for an Alzheimer’s patient. Advanced stages of Alzheimer’s, memory and other mental functions of the brain are totally lost.

The cause of Alzheimer’s disease is yet to be determined but there are currently some theories about it, which include chemical, genetic, autoimmune, slow virus and blood vessel theories. These theories need further investigations, though.

Since Alzheimer’s disease is irreversible, Dementia caused by this disease cannot be fully cured. Other types of Dementia, however, can be partially or totally cured, depending on the reversibility of the disease that causes it.

Thus, correct diagnosis of the underlying cause of Dementia is necessary to determine any possible treatments and cure for the disorder.