VFMF - What Is Dementia

Subject : What Is Dementia

I'm sure you've heard the word "dementia" before. Most people have. But there are a lot of misconceptions as that what it really means. A clear definition is important to differentiate it from other memory-related diseases. It's not Alzheimer's disease, yet there are overlapping symptoms.

In short : people who suffer from dementia are progressively losing memory, their ability to reason, and cognitive functions. Obviously this has a tremendous effect on, what for most people are trivial, daily activities. Driving a car, doing the dishes, or any other every day activity can become difficult to perform.

Sadly, some of the first signs of dementia are too subtle to notice for most people. Wrong diagnosis are given quite often, or no attention is paid to the symptoms. Add to that that symptoms are different from person to person, and you have one of the most hard-to-diagnose illnesses.

Here are some symptoms that are common :

Time and space orientation can become problematic, as the orientation ability becomes less efficient in people who suffer from dementia. Getting lost, even in a familiar area, is a common symptom.

The brain no longer works as smoothly as it once did. Finding the right words for your sentences can be a tiring effort. Not only complex words are hard to retrieve from long term memory, simple words are affected as well. Explaining what you mean becomes much harder. Dementia brings with it damage to your confidence. Because you are no longer certain of your abilities you can become much more easily annoyed by other people, and yourself. Character changes are not uncommon. Family and friends have to deal with your changing personality. Making decisions can be harder because of the uncertainty factor that plagues dementia sufferers.

For the most part, the human brain is still a mystery to medical science. However, studies have shown that people who are intellectually active into high age have less chance of developing dementia than people who become passive. Dementia is a mix of symptoms and it's therefore hard to come up with a cure that helps all people.

Besides exercising the intellect, physical exercise is very important as well. This is some times ignored, a grave mistake for physical exercise causes the release of healthy chemicals that help sustain brain functionality.