What is Dementia? What could cause such a disease?
In fact, dementia is not a disease on its own, yet it’s a bunch of symptoms that hit the brain for many reasons, among which comes many other diseases as the main suspect. Where Alzheimer’s disease comes on top of these diseases as the most common cause of it. Accordingly, dementia and Alzheimer’s are the biggest threats facing any older community due to their influence on many aspects of life.
Therefore, we found it suitable to spread out this article to discuss such cases, trying to be specific and illustrative as much as it could. And know how to deal with patients facing such symptoms and get to know its early signs and if there are any steps to follow to avoid it.
In fact, it has a big effect on our communities, making a big need to hire home nursing for the elderly to maintain the patient at home or heading to retiring homes, which couldn’t be the best option. However, to imagine how big the influence it is causing, let’s make talk statistically.
For instance, 55 million dementia patients are living between us nowadays worldwide, from ages exceeding 65 years old. Expected to reach 78 million patients by 2030, numbers could rise to 139 million patients by 2050.
What’s The Difference Between Alzheimer’s & Dementia?
As we mentioned before, dementia is not a disease. It’s more like a symptom or group of symptoms that can be due to Alzheimer’s and many other diseases.
Alzheimer’s causes wouldn’t be that clear. Yet, it’s most probably due to genetic and heritage reasons, which leads to protein plaques and fiber accumulation on brain cells that cause damage and block the connection in between.
Accordingly, you can distinguish how various dementia types are, leading many families to use home nursing for elderly care to contain such cases.
Dementia Types
Its types are categorized according to the disease that leads to it. Therefore, here’re dementia types:
– Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia:
Most common type and the most threatening for the elderly. Normally, Alzheimer’s causes many dangerous complications that would cause many hallucinations that lead the patient to commit many life-threatening acts.
– Vascular Dementia:
It comes in the second position of the most common types. It happens due to damage in blood vessels feeding brain cells, increasing the risk of developing dementia symptoms, which could require asking for home nursing for elderly care.
In parallel influence, this blood vessel damage due to aging is also the main reason for angina and strokes, which could be depicted through some signs, such as losing the ability to make a decision, problem-solving, and a slow thinking process.
– Lewy Body Dementia:
This type develops due to massive protein clumps in the patient’s brain, which shares something with what happens during Parkinson’s disease. This typically leads to many vision hallucinations, unbalanced motion, and shakiness.
– Frontotemporal Dementia:
An assembly of diseases that hit the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, causing huge damage to brain cells and blocking the connection between them. Hence these brain parts are responsible for personality, behavior, language, thinking, judging, and motion. You can understand what signs and symptoms could result.
– Mixed Causes Dementia:
Those who exceed the age of 80 are more likely to have such symptoms due to many of these previous diseases.
Moreover, there’re some other diseases and cases that lead to such symptoms, between which we can mention the following:
– Huntington’s disease
– Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
– Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
– Parkinson’s disease
Dementia Symptoms
Symptoms would vary from one to another according to the disease-causing them originally. Yet, many common symptoms are shared in almost every case, categorized under cognitive and psychological symptoms.
Cognitive Symptoms
The most common cognitive changes that affect patients and would require home nursing for elderly care to contain are as follows:
– Repeated memory loss, and would be remarked by one of the patient’s family or close ones.
– Difficulties are handling a conversation, connecting, and finding the right vocabulary to express.
– Facing many vision and steering difficulties, making driving a car a high risk.
– Low ability for logical thinking and problem-solving.
– Hard to handle any complicated situation.
– Need help to plan and organize.
– Difficulties regarding walking and synchronized motion.
– Always needing clarification and direction.
Clearly, it affects patients’ every life aspect, including their daily activities and normal tasks that would be simple for anyone else. It would be required to have a home nursing for elderly care service to provide them with the appropriate care all over their day and prevent any incidences or complications that could be a consequence.
7keema can provide you with a home nursing for elderly care service, which gives proper care and attention to dementia patients. You can order home nursing for an elderly care provider through 7keema’s application.
Psychological Symptoms
It has an area of influence on many psychological levels, as we can mention the following symptoms:
– Personality changes
– Chronic anxiety
– Inconvenient and bizarre behaviors
– Paranoia
– Agitation
– Hallucinations
Dementia Early Signs
You can play a major role in depicting dementia symptoms that could face one of your family members, friends, or beloved ones from older people. We can guide you through several signs that indicate some problems requiring heading to a doctor.
Accordingly, if you notice one or more of the following signs, it’s better to use a home nursing for elderly care specialized service:
– Notice that the senior lose a lot of memories more frequently, despite you trying to refresh his memory several times.
– Notice that the senior lose attention and focus quickly.
– Notice difficulties in connecting and talking normally.
– Find out if the senior can be lost within his neighborhood or a familiar location.
– Using many unlikely words and vocabulary to describe normal things or feelings.
– Losing names of family members and friends.
– Losing a lot of his old memories.
– Being more dependent.
Dementia Causes & Risk Factors
It is due mainly to damage and dystrophy of brain cells, affecting the ability to communicate, the type of behavior, feelings and emotions instability, and many more aspects of influence.
Hence, these symptoms are basically due to other diseases and disorders. Yet, the risk could increase due to many risk factors, in addition to aging, that’s considered the higher risk factor.
These risk factors are categorized into two sets, according to what factors we can handle and avoid and what we cannot.
Risk Factors We Can’t Change
– Aging:
Getting older is something we cannot stop no matter what, and according to many studies and statistics, a higher risk of dementia is real when exceeding 65 years old.
– Family History:
As per many studies, having a previous family history of dementia would indicate a higher risk of having it for the next generation. However, it doesn’t mean anyone with a previous family history would develop its symptoms.
– Dawn Syndrome:
It’s possible that it would come along with dawn syndrome. It’s one of the early signs of Alzheimer’s.
Risk Factors We Can Change
– Diet & Lifestyle:
Lack of physical activity and unhealthy nutrition would be one of the risk factors, which obviously we can handle properly. It’s always recommended to avoid saturated fats, fast food, and high calories meals, and follow a healthy diet such as the Mediterranean diet. In addition, have a workout session daily for at least 45 minutes.
– Alcoholic Drinks:
High amounts of alcoholic drinks would lead to brain cell dystrophy, which’s connected to dementia.
– Cardiovascular Risk:
Any disease that affects the heart and causes any dysfunction in its main jobs would a higher risk of dementia, between which we can mention high blood pressure, high cholesterol, build-up of fats in arteries, and obesity.
– Depression:
Until now, we don’t know how they are connected, but many scientists have found a deep relationship between developing depression symptoms and dementia at late ages.
– Diabetes:
Diabetes can have a wide effect on brain cells, leading to such symptoms in one way or another.
– Smoking:
Aside from its influence on human lungs, smoking can lead to many blood vessel problems, which can be a starting point for dementia.
– Air Pollution:
Many studies found a link between air pollution and such symptoms. It’s basically due to vehicle exhaust and burning in general.
– Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI):
The risk gets higher if you get a traumatic head injury, even if it happened at a young age. Moreover, the amount of risk is directly proportional to the injury severity.
– Sleep Disorder:
In fact, people with sleep apnea would be at a higher risk, yet not having enough amounts of sleep would be a risk in itself.
– Lack Of Vitamins:
Not having enough amounts of vitamin D, B-6, B-12, and Folic Acid would have something to do with dementia.
– Medicines Side Effects:
Some drugs used for sleep stimulation and urinary urgency would have long-run side effects causing some damage to brain cells.
Dementia Complications
The main issue facing seniors with these symptoms is the low ability to be independent, which negatively affects their quality of life. Out of this point, we can depict many complications that could worsen the case in many other aspects.
Between these complications, we can mention the following:
– Malnutrition: one of the main problems along with such symptoms due to the low ability to chew and swallow normally.
– Pneumonia: inability to swallow and chew would lead to choking more frequently, which would let many food particles into the lungs, causing pneumonia.
– Disable self-provide: along with dementia symptoms severity, the patient would lose the ability to provide his basic needs by himself, such as hygiene, using the restroom, providing daily meals, going out alone, having a good appearance, and many more basic needs.
– Threat to Patient’s Safety: many normal activities would be more dangerous than ever for patients, such as driving, cooking, and being alone wherever.
– Death: during the late stages of dementia, the patient would go into a comma, probably leading to death.
Dementia Prevention
Nobody can ensure a certified way of prevention, yet many cautious instructions could help lower its risk in one way or another. Mainly, these instructions are general and related to general health, but they’re related to dementia as well.
– Ensure constant mental activity:
Many activities can help your mind be busy and active, such as reading, playing puzzles, sharing mental and thinking games with family and friends, crossword games, and doing memory training frequently.
– Ensure physical activity:
Being in an active physical condition would stop symptoms progression, yet it’s related to avoiding obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol levels, including its causes. Having at least 150 minutes weekly dedicated to workouts and sports is highly recommended.
– Ensure social activity:
Socializing and participating in different events would help stimulate mental ability, which could help avoid dementia. Therefore, it’s always recommended to keep in touch with family members and be involved in social activities.
– Quit smoking:
If you smoke, you can work on prevention by quitting, which is vividly something for your general health. Many studies referred to smoking as one of the factors that could higher the risk of dementia.
– Get enough amounts of vitamins:
Many studies pointed to the lack of vitamin D as one of the causes of Alzheimer’s disease causes for seniors. In addition, the lack of vitamins B & C would stand against prevention. You would get those elements, whether through your meals or through pills, under the doctor’s authority.
– Control chronic diseases:
Controlling blood sugar levels, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels would help you lower its risk.
– Healthy diet:
It helps you to be in good shape, avoid obesity, and be healthier and more active, which will help you avoid dementia.
– Get enough amounts of sleep:
Make a doctor’s visit if you suffer from any sleep issues.
– Deal with hearing loss:
People with hearing loss problems would be more likely to have dementia.
How To Deal With A Dementia Patient?
Basically, dementia patients shouldn’t be left alone; you provide them with many primary needs or help them have them. Home nursing for elderly care would be a wise and efficient solution to help the patient have appropriate care and let them keep their life balanced.
However, you can deal with a patient through a few steps:
– Give help, don’t serve.
– Encourage them to practice hobbies and reading.
– Use safe kitchen tools.
– Let them decide on their meals.
– Let them choose between two or three options.
– Use assistive tools while helping them use the restroom.
Accordingly, 7keema provides you with specialized elderly care that can offer convenient daily maintenance, guaranteeing a healthy lifestyle for dementia patients.
You can order such service through our website or using 7keema mobile application.
Reference:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dementia/symptoms-causes/syc-20352013
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/what-is-dementia
