Dos and Don'ts of communicating with a person with Dementia

The most common symptoms of Dementia are: • Memory loss, especially of more recent events  • Hallucinations and delusions • Confusion • Balance problems • Loss of bladder or bowel control • Sleep disturbances, including insomnia and acting out dreams — physically moving limbs, sleep talking, screaming, hitting or even getting up and engaging in daytime activities. • Difficulty finding their way around, especially in new or unfamiliar surroundings  • Problems finding the correct words…

What causes Dementia The most common cause is Alzheimer's disease, which accounts for up to 60% of all cases. Alzheimer's disease is caused by the destruction of certain brain cells leading to the loss of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Vascular dementia, which occurs after a stroke, is the second most common dementia type. But there are many other conditions that can cause symptoms of dementia, such as thyroid problems and vitamin B complex deficiencies. Dementia can also be caused by…

Swapna Kishore was a caregiver for her mother for many years. She has created many online resources for dementia caregivers in India, including an English website, Dementia Care Notes and its Hindi version Dementia Hindi. Here, she answers some questions by PatientsEngage.  Please tell us about your mother's early dementia symptoms and how her condition progressed. My mother's early symptoms included mild disorientation, memory problems, and repeating herself…

Dr. Pettarusp Wadia, Consultant Neurologist and Movement Disorder Specialist, Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre, Mumbai, speaks to Dr Shital Raval about the latest treatments to manage Parkinson’s Disease.  Is Parkinson's a genetic condition? In about 5% of the adult population and 25% of the young-onset Parkinson's disease population, a single gene can be identified. However research is on to identify if certain genes make a person more susceptible to develop…

Mrs. Kalyani talks about her 85-year-old mother and what it took to keep everyone happy. My mother, Vijayalakshmi, is 85 years old and her behaviour can be like that of a young child. She has mobility problems. She needs to be monitored 24x7, mainly to protect her from falling and injuring herself. My mother needs to be taken to the bathroom every 1 ½ hours to 2 hours without fail. Otherwise she would wet the bed or go in the room. While eating she wants the TV on and she will be so engrossed…

The longer we live, the more likely we are to develop dementia. And, it is the one that tends to terrify us most. Evidence suggests that changing your lifestyle can help to reduce your risk of dementia. What does the current evidence really tell us about prevention? 1. Watch your body mass index In general terms, it appears to be healthier to be neither underweight nor obese in middle age. 2. Take regular exercise The study found that regular exercise (30 minutes walking…

Hogewey is an amazing "village" on the outskirts of Amsterdam. It's a step back into the 1950s boasting pretty, manicured streets, a grocery, cafe, coffee shop, restaurant and even a beauty salon and barber shop. There are 152 residents in Hogewey, and all have something in common—dementia. Hogewey is a treatment facility for dementia and Alzheimer's patients. It is set in the 1950s because the dementia patient's long term memory is preserved much more vividly than short…

Mrs Gowri shares her experience as a caregiver of her mother with Dementia   I care for my mother, a soft natured but strong willed woman, who had worked for 35 years. Post retirement, a freak accident while gardening, which we now believe could have been caused by a mild stroke, reduced her mobility and slowly led to the degeneration of the brain cells. Normally very quiet and uncomplaining, she had begun to lose her alacrity. Without any of us being aware of the symptoms, like difficulty…

A review of "Still Alice" by Ekta Hattangady, from India who was 13 when her mother was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer's at 43. Ekta became her Primary Caregiver at the age of 16. My final verdict would be…it’s a great movie. It’s not reality. Not every person with Alzheimer’s would be like this…some may be a lot worse…especially in the case of Early Onset Dementia.  Everything you saw in this movie, multiply it by 10,000 times and then you may be somewhere close to what it is like…

Nytol, Benadryl, Ditropan and Piriton among the medications identified by scientists as raising likelihood of dementia A report published online this week in JAMA Internal Medicine offers compelling evidence of a link between long-term use of anticholinergic medications like Benadryl and dementia. Anticholinergic drugs block the action of acetylcholine. This substance transmits messages in the nervous system. In the brain, acetylcholine is involved in learning and memory. In the…