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  • Dementia
    is a broad term for a range of conditions that involve loss of mental ability and so cause problems with memory, language, behaviour and emotions. Dementia is most common in the elderly. Around five percent of people over the age of 65 are affected to some extent.  According to Alzheimer’s Disease International with increasing life expectancy, this is expected to surge to 75.6 million in 2030. Disease awareness and understanding is a huge challenge  
Submitted by PatientsEngage on 19 September 2015

Different types of Dementia

• Alzheimer’s disease: This is the most common type of dementia and is marked by protein deposits in the brain and nerve cell damage. 

• Vascular (or blood vessel) dementia: This is a type of dementia that is caused by disease or injury to blood vessels in the brain.

• Lewy body dementia (DLB): This is a dementia that has the primary symptoms of visual hallucinations.

• Frontotemporal dementia (FTD): This is a dementia that is characterised by drastic personality changes and language difficulties.

• Mixed dementia: This is a condition where more than one type of dementia occurs simultaneously, usually vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease or Lewy Body dementia.

Complications of Dementia

Dementia brings attendant risks, such as:

• Aggressive behaviour towards others

• Falls, injury and accidents

• Bedsores

• Urinary tract infections 

• Pneumonia

• Myocardial infarction

• Thromboembolism

• Seizures

Condition

Stories

  • Dealing With The Behavioural Challenges Of Alzheimer's
    Nishi Pulugurtha writes about the challenges of being a caregiver to an Alzheimer’s patient, her mother, and the travails that came with it. “Let us go home,” Amma said this often. There was nothing strange about this sentence, all of us would love to be back home at some point of time or other. What makes Amma’s statement important is that when she said this, she was actually at home. I used to tell her that. It made her keep quiet for a while. She would go back to doing something. It was…
  • Getting a Dementia Diagnosis: Clear and Practical Suggestions for Families
    Swapna Kishore, a dementia resource person, talks to Dr. CT Sudhir Kumar on the importance of getting a dementia diagnosis and not treating it as a normal ageing process, how to select the right doctor, how to plan for a doctor consultation, the tests that the doctor may prescribe and how to plan reviews with your doctor.   When someone shows symptoms like memory problems, confusion, unclear speech, inability to plan, or strange behaviour, we may wonder whether this is dementia and…
  • Mausumi, a dark haired woman on the right with her mother, a person with dementia on the left. Mother is wearing specs and  a bindi on her forehead and you can see the blue and white sari draped around her shoulders
    Patience And Innovation Are The Most Important Attributes Of A Caregiver For Persons With Dementia
    Mausumi Ghosh from Mumbai talks about the travails of taking care of her mother, 77 who suffers from dementia in addition to other conditions like osteosporosis. My mother is an osteoporosis patient from 2003 when she underwent hip replacement operation in Mumbai. She recovered from the same very well and was mobile and independent till she met with a ‘fall’ at home in 2010 and broke her ‘femur bone’ (left leg). She got herself operated twice in Kolkata in AMRI hospital and both the times the ‘…
  • Stock pic of a younger person in a white top and black pant supporting and holding hands with a seated silver haired elderly lady in a green top
    How To Support A Grieving Person With Dementia
    Caregivers of persons with dementia are often unsure how to talk about the loss of a family member or friend. Porrselvi A.P., a cognitive and psychosocial interventions specialist shares tips on how to break the news and how to help the person with dementia deal with the news. Supporting a person with dementia who is grieving the death of someone close to them cope with the loss is challenging for many caregivers. Often, in the daily grind of caring for a person with dementia we forget that…
  • Image Description: An elderly person with a walker and supported by a caregiver
    12 Confusing and Overlapping Symptoms in the Elderly
    Symptoms like weight loss, memory loss, weakness, and fatigue should not be mistaken as a sign of the"normal aging" process. Dr. Shital Patel explains 12 common but misleading symptoms in the elderly and why you should seek a doctor's opinion instead of ignoring them.  Symptoms in the elderly can have very different causes than they may have in a young person. Many symptoms in the geriatric population may be masked by concurrent chronic ailments, injuries, age-related physiological…
  • A caregiver in a white dress does an activity with an elderly person with dementia in red and grey
    Memory Stickers for Moderate Middle Stage Dementia
    People with moderate stage dementia can continue to perform their regular daily activities with a little bit of support. Social worker Mangala Joglekar, who runs several programs for the dementia community and has set-up the Memory Clinic in Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, Pune, shares 5 examples of coping strategies for better living. And Advice for Caregivers. Moderate stage dementia could be said to start when cognitive inabilities can no longer be hidden. It is considered as the longest…
  • Image: Stock image of two people communicating with each other but the words in the speech bubbles are jumbled
    Speech and Language Breakdown after Stroke
    After a stroke nearly 20-40 per cent patients develop communication problems or aphasia, the inability to comprehend and formulate language because of damage to specific language areas in the brain. Dr Sujata Gandhi, Speech Therapist, Nanavati Hospital, advises that speech and language therapy is the best way to restore normalcy and quality of life. How does a stroke or ‘brain attack’ affect speech and communication? A stroke causes damage to the Speech and Language areas of the brain. For most…
  • Sangeeta reliving memories with her father with Parkinson's
    It Was Cathartic and Fun To Relive Old Memories
    Talking and writing about health related experiences is still not common in Asia.  This International Women’s Day, we reach out to three dynamic women who share their experience as patient or caregiver to understand their motivations. We kick off the first in a three-part series with Sangeeta Murthi Sahgal.  1)    Your father had Parkinson's Disease. Why did you choose to talk and share about your father's condition? When I took over my father's care-giving, I researched the…
  • Image showing a hand holding a person's hand and guiding the person
    Challenging Behaviours of Dementia: A Brief Outlook
    Ms. Malavika M. Nair and Ms. Aakriti Vig under the guidance of DEMCARES, SCARF India write about the stressors that lead to challenging behaviours of Dementia and how to handle them.   Dementia is recognized as a global health concern. It is estimated that nearly 47.5 million of the global population is diagnosed with dementia (WHO, 2017). It is a neurocognitive disorder, which is primarily prevalent in the elderly population. The symptoms include significant memory loss with…
  • Cooking s a good brain exercise to prevent dementia
    Teach the Brain New Activities to Delay the Onset of Dementia
    Brain exercises are among the most effective non-medical approaches to delay the onset of dementia and can be enjoyable for the patient and more likely to be complied, emphasises Sabah Thaver, senior physical therapist (neurorehabilitation) at Nanavati Hospital. Mark Twain once famously said, “Out of all the things I have lost, I miss my mind the most.” This line at first sounds humorous, but it turns out to be the bitter truth of the lives of those living with conditions like Dementia. People…