Hi everyone
Thanks for reading my blog. Hope you had a great weekend.
September 21st was World Alzheimer’s Day. Therefore, we’ll be looking at Dementia this week. You are WELCOME
Dementia is taken from two words de( without) and mentis( mind).
It literally means ‘ without the mind’.
It is a disease that causes severe decline in mental functions that is enough to impair everyday functions.
There are many types of Dementia.
The commonest types are Alzheimer’s Dementia and Vascular Dementia.
Risk factors of Dementia
These are factors that make one person more likely to have Dementia than another.
The commonest risk factors are as follows:
- Age. Dementia is a disease of the aging brain. It is therefore commoner in persons who are more than 75 years.
- Low level of Education. Alzheimer’s has been associated with persons who are not well educated.
- Females. Dementia is noted to be commoner in women.
- Non communicable Diseases. The second type of Dementia called vascular Dementia is seen in persons with non communicable Diseases like Hypertension, Diabetes, High Cholesterol and others. These are persons who also come down with Stroke. The stroke may be noticeable or non noticeable. The non noticeable types of Stroke arise from affectation of very small blood vessels. The deficit in the brain is negligible but numerous of such minor, negligible deficits add up and form noticeable deficits in speech, intellect, judgement ETC leading to Dementia.
- Excessive Alcohol intake is another risk. This is because Alcohol destroys different parts of the brain. It is also a risk factor for Stroke.
- Head injury. Some types of Dementia may arise from injuries to the head from road traffic accidents, assaults ETC
- Other brain diseases like brain tumour, chronic infections of the brain ETC
- Some may be genetic
There are few other risk factors. We’ll talk the symptoms tomorrow.
Have a great day
