What causes dementia?

What causes dementia is the question on the minds of many families wondering why their loved ones are not coping with life.

Dementia is not a specific disease, but a range of symptoms associated with declining memory, language, problem solving and attention abilities.

Different types of dementia are associated with certain types of brain cell damage in specific regions of the brain.

In Alzheimer's, for instance, high levels of certain proteins inside and outside brain cells make it hard for the cells to stay healthy allowing them to communicate with each other.

The brain region called the hippocampus is the centre of learning and memory in the brain, and the brain cells in this region are often the first to be damaged.

For this reason, memory loss is often one of the earliest symptoms of Alzheimer's.

Although dementia is much more common among elderly people, it can affect adults of any age. Dementia is often referred to as "senility" or "senile dementia," as it was widely believed that serious mental decline is a normal part of aging.

Changes in lifestyle and general health can keep your brain active and working at optimal levels well into old age.

The decline in mental abilities may be mild to begin with, but in the final stages the person may be so adversely affected, that daily tasks and interactions become impossible to handle.

Cognitive functions can be affected and a sufferer may not:

•Be able to identify love ones

•Have any idea of time or the date, year etc

•Know where they are

•Be able to complete basic tasks

•Be able to control emotions and may become moody. Moods may also be affected by fear and anxiety about what is happening

What Causes Dementia?

•Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimers is by far the most common cause of dementia, accounting for 60 to 80 percent of cases. It is caused by the brain cells dying off prematurely.

•Vascular Problems

Blood vessels can become blocked and, as your brain needs a good supply of oxygen-rich blood; your brain cells could die off causing symptoms of vascular dementia.

Symptoms may appear suddenly as in the case of a major stroke, or gradually as in the case of a series of mini strokes or blockages.

Vascular dementia is the second most common dementia type.

•Dementia with Lewy bodies

Spherical structures develop inside nerve cells. The brain cells are nerve cells, and form part of our nervous system so these spherical structures in the brain damage brain tissue affecting the patient's memory, concentration and ability to speak.

This disease is often confused with Parkinson's disease because the symptoms are similar.

•Fronto-temporal dementia

In this disease, the front part of the brain is damaged. The patient's behaviour and personality are affected at first, but later the memory is affected.

Other diseases are:

•Progressive supranuclear palsy

•Korsakoff's syndrome

•Binswanger's disease

•HIV and AIDS

•Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

•Parkinson's disease

•Huntington's disease

•Motor Neuron disease

•Multiple Sclerosis