Hi dear friends! I hope that wherever you are in this big, beautiful world that you are all staying warm. My heart goes out to all who have endured this brutally cold winter we have been having here on the east coast of the USA and also for any in other parts of the USA or world that have endured terrible natural disasters or weather. You all have my heartfelt prayers. Today and this weekend, I am focusing on Dementia. Just what exactly is dementia? I am going to share some links to websites and excerpts from them to hopefully help all in understanding what dementia actually is. Sending HUGS & Blessings to all!!!! Please feel free to email me at barbgadway@live.com anytime. 

What Is Dementia?

Dementia is the loss of cognitive functioning—thinking, remembering, and reasoning—and behavioral abilities to such an extent that it interferes with a person’s daily life and activities. Dementia ranges in severity from the mildest stage, when it is just beginning to affect a person’s functioning, to the most severe stage, when the person must depend completely on others for basic activities of living

Signs and symptoms of dementia result when once-healthy neurons (nerve cells) in the brain stop working, lose connections with other brain cells, and die. While everyone loses some neurons as they age, people with dementia experience far greater loss.

While dementia is more common as people grow older (up to half of all people age 85 or older may have some form of dementia), it is not a normal part of aging. Many people live into their 90s and beyond without any signs of dementia. One type of dementia, frontotemporal disorders, is more common in middle-aged than older adults.

Memory loss, though common, is not the only sign of dementia. For a person to have dementia, he or she must have:

• Two or more core mental functions that are impaired. These functions include memory, language skills, visual perception, and the ability to focus and pay attention. These also include cognitive skills such as the ability to reason and solve problems.
• A loss of brain function severe enough that a person cannot do normal, everyday tasks

In addition, some people with dementia cannot control their emotions. Their personalities may change. They can have delusions, which are strong beliefs without proof, such as the idea that someone is stealing from them. They also may hallucinate, seeing or otherwise experiencing things that are not real.

https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/what-dementia

{ Please check out the link above to find out even more awesome information } 

Dementia involves damage of nerve cells in the brain, which can occur in several areas of the brain. Dementia affects people differently, depending on the area of the brain affected.

Dementias are often grouped by what they have in common, such as the part of the brain that's affected or whether they worsen over time (progressive dementias). Some dementias, such as those caused by a reaction to medications or vitamin deficiencies, might improve with treatment.

Progressive dementias

Types of dementias that progress and aren't reversible include:

• Alzheimer's disease. In people age 65 and older, Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia.
  Although the cause of Alzheimer's disease isn't known, plaques and tangles are often found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's. Plaques are clumps of a protein called beta-amyloid, and tangles are fibrous tangles made up of tau protein.
  Certain genetic factors might make it more likely that people will develop Alzheimer's.
• Vascular dementia. This second most common type of dementia occurs as a result of damage to the vessels that supply blood to your brain. Blood vessel problems can be caused by stroke or other blood vessel conditions.
• Lewy body dementia. Lewy bodies are abnormal clumps of protein that have been found in the brains of people with Lewy body dementia, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. This is one of the more common types of progressive dementia.
• Frontotemporal dementia. This is a group of diseases characterized by the breakdown (degeneration) of nerve cells in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, the areas generally associated with personality, behavior and language.
  As with other dementias, the cause isn't known.
• Mixed dementia. Autopsy studies of the brains of people 80 and older who had dementia indicate that many had a combination of Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia and Lewy body dementia. Studies are ongoing to determine how having mixed dementia affects symptoms and treatments.

Other disorders linked to dementia

• Huntington's disease. Caused by a genetic mutation, this disease causes certain nerve cells in your brain and spinal cord to waste away. Signs and symptoms, including a severe decline in thinking (cognitive) skills usually appear around age 30 or 40.

• Traumatic brain injury. This condition is caused by repetitive head trauma, such as experienced by boxers, football players or soldiers.
  Depending on the part of the brain that's injured, this condition can cause dementia signs and symptoms, such as depression, explosiveness, memory loss, uncoordinated movement and impaired speech, as well as slow movement, tremors and rigidity (parkinsonism). Symptoms might not appear until years after the trauma.
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. This rare brain disorder usually occurs in people without known risk factors. This condition might be due to an abnormal form of a protein. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease can be inherited or caused by exposure to diseased brain or nervous system tissue.
  Signs and symptoms of this fatal condition usually appear around age 60.
• Parkinson's disease. Many people with Parkinson's disease eventually develop dementia symptoms (Parkinson's disease dementia).
  

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dementia/symptoms-causes/syc-20352013

{ Please check out the link above to find out even more awesome information } 

I hope these two websites help you in understanding more about Dementia. Have a blessed rest of your day/afternoon/evening! HUGS!!!!!!!❤