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View the changes to our visitor policy » View information for Guest Services ». New to MyHealth? Manage Your Care From Anywhere. Activate Account. Create a New Account. Forgot Username or Password? Alzheimer's disease Huntington's disease Vascular dementia Dementia with Lewy bodies Frontotemporal dementia Normal pressure hydrocephalus Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease prion disease Corticobasal degeneration Mild cognitive impairment.
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Risk Factors. What causes dementia? Dementia is caused by damage to or changes in the brain. Common causes of dementia are: Alzheimer's disease. This is the most common cause of dementia. Mary had vascular cognitive impairment following her stroke. Bill had suffered brain damage due to oxygen deprivation during his drowning. Each was considered to have dementia, yet the differences between them were huge. In each case, however, an injury or disease process was responsible for destruction of brain cells.
Brain damage can be diffuse spread out over a large area or localized, and whether the damage is diffuse or local can affect how it is expressed clinically. Small and precisely located strokes in very specific temporal and parietal regions of the brain , for example, can knock out the ability to form words successfully, or to comprehend what others are saying.
Helmet use and other monitoring advances and safety precautions are important tools for preventing brain injury associated with falls, motor vehicles, and sports. Back to Dementia guide. Dementia is a term used to describe the symptoms that occur when there's a decline in brain function. Dementia is not a single disease. There are different diseases that can cause dementia. Many of these diseases are associated with an abnormal build-up of proteins in the brain.
This build-up causes nerve cells to function less well and ultimately die. As the nerve cells die, different areas of the brain shrink. Alzheimer's disease is thought to be caused by the abnormal build-up of 2 proteins called amyloid and tau.
Deposits of amyloid, called plaques, build up around brain cells. Deposits of tau form "tangles" within brain cells. Researchers do not fully understand how amyloid and tau are involved in the loss of brain cells, but research into this is continuing. As brain cells become affected in Alzheimer's, there's also a decrease in chemical messengers called neurotransmitters involved in sending messages, or signals, between brain cells.
Levels of 1 neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, are particularly low in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. Medicines like donepezil increase levels of acetylcholine, and improve brain function and symptoms. These treatments are not a cure for Alzheimer's disease , but they do help improve symptoms.
The symptoms that people develop depend on the areas of the brain that have been damaged by the disease. The hippocampus is often affected early on in Alzheimer's disease. This area of the brain is responsible for laying down new memories.
That's why memory problems are one of the earliest symptoms in Alzheimer's. Vascular dementia , which occurs because of microscopic bleeding and blood vessel blockage in the brain, is the second most common cause of dementia. Those who experience the brain changes of multiple types of dementia simultaneously have mixed dementia.
There are many other conditions that can cause symptoms of dementia, including some that are reversible, such as thyroid problems and vitamin deficiencies. Dementia is often incorrectly referred to as "senility" or "senile dementia," which reflects the formerly widespread but incorrect belief that serious mental decline is a normal part of aging.
Know the 10 signs Find out how typical age-related memory loss compares to early signs of Alzheimer's and other dementias.
Many conditions are progressive, which means that the signs of dementia start out slowly and gradually get worse. If you or someone you know is experiencing memory difficulties or other changes in thinking skills, don't ignore them.
See a doctor soon to determine the cause. Professional evaluation may detect a treatable condition. And even if symptoms suggest dementia, early diagnosis allows a person to get the maximum benefit from available treatments and provides an opportunity to volunteer for clinical trials or studies. It also provides time to plan for the future. Learn more: 10 Warning Signs , Stages of Alzheimer's.
Dementia is caused by damage to brain cells. This damage interferes with the ability of brain cells to communicate with each other.
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