Causes of Dementia
The easiest definition of dementia is, the deterioration of cognitive functioning abilities and the loss to properly remember or process data in the mind.
When cells in the cerebral cortex (The section of our brain that holds our memories and thoughts, our personality, and the ability to perform our daily tasks) are damaged, the common symptoms of dementia are visible.
I did find the breakdown of the word dementia to be fascinating as it derives from the Latin words: “de” meaning “apart” and “mens” when loosely translated means “the mind”.
For a person to be diagnosed as having Dementia and detecting the causes of Dementia, we first have to know what it means to have Dementia. It is really quite simple and only has a need for two symptoms: (1) memory loss of some sort, usually an impairment of the brain that no longer allows a patient to learn or retain new information and, (2) there will be one (or more) cognitive functions affected, such as:
- Apraxia (inability to walk even though they physically can – they have forgotten how)
- Agnosia (inability to recognize familiar faces or objects)
- Aphasia (affects the part of the brain associated with language and speech)
There are some causes of dementia that are treatable or even curable, if diagnosed at an early enough stage. It could be something as simple as getting the proper dosage of Vitamins B12 and B6 into your system or some other nutrient deficiency that the body desperately needs to function properly. An underactive thyroid (known as Hypothyroidism) or a low sugar count in your blood (knows as Hypoglycemia) can lead to Dementia if not diagnosed early and correctly treated. Tumors on the brain that are operable and removed will stop dementia symptoms. Another possible cause of dementia could be due to a long time abuse of drugs and/or alcohol.
A sport, like boxing, where there are constant blows to the head, or even if you incur many small injuries to the brain over a period of time, are two instances alone that will likely lead to Dementia. The same holds true for any head trauma, whether it was in an instant such as a severe car accident or slowly over a period of time as previously mentioned.
If your body has been desperately fighting an infection (such as Lyme disease, encephalitis or meningitis) and you have been running a high fever for a long period of time, it is also quite possible that symptoms of dementia may surface.
Did you know that non-brain illnesses can also lead to Dementia? If the lungs, liver or kidneys are diseased; this can also cause a person to have to deal with Dementia-like symptoms such as memory loss.
Anoxia happens when your vital organs are not getting enough oxygen (carbon monoxide poisoning or severe asthma are some examples). During the recovery period, symptoms of Dementia can become apparent, if the oxygen loss has caused enough damage to the brain cells that affect your memory.
Stroke victims will most likely develop a type of dementia called Vascular Dementia. To avoid this, it is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Irreversible Diseases that cause dementia:
- Alzheimer’s Disease is the number one cause of dementia as the brain cells in the victim die slowly and prematurely
- Stroke
- Dementia with Lewy bodies / Parkinson’s disease
- Frontotemporal dementia / Pick’s disease
- Others such as HIV, Korsakoff’s syndrome, Binswanger’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis and Motor Neurone disease
Sadly, most disorders or diseases that are associated with dementia are degenerative and progressive. Vascular dementia is considered to be the second leading cause of all dementia types. It is estimated that 10 to 30% of people suffer from this type of dementia. The other causes of dementia (trauma to the head or the diseases, previously mentioned) that can possibly trigger the symptoms of dementia account for less than 20% of all dementia cases.
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