Dementia
Dementia is our most-feared illness, more than heart disease or cancer - David Perlmutter
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Four unhelpful myths about dementia: ‘Our bleak view is often unjustified’
Afear of dementia looms large in the minds of many, and understandably so. It is a condition with potentially devastating effects – incurable, progressive and which threatens to rob us of the essence of who we are. It is also a condition surrounded by unhelpful myths, however, and our bleak view is often unjustified. Prevention or delay are possible, and much can be done to help even if dementia develops.
The first myth is that memory loss is an inevitable part of dementia. This is not the case and may lead to under-recognition of the condition. Memory loss is the archetypal symptom of dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease – the most common cause of dementia – but dementia can be due…
Resources
The dementia that can be cured
There are more than 200 subtypes of dementia. And researchers have found that in one, confusion and memory loss can be treated. But the trick is to spot it…
What Types of Exercise Reduce Dementia Risk?
Several large studies have confirmed that vigorous exercise, walking and even doing household chores can greatly benefit the brain.
SAGE: A Simple Window on Cognitive Function
Self-administered online tests are a dime a dozen. But one of the simplest has shown itself an effective tool for showing you something about what's going on with your most complex organ.
The latest recommendations for preventing dementia are good advice for everyone
What the WHO has to say about staying cognitively fit.
'Dementia Reimagined' Asks: Can There Be Happiness For Those With Memory Loss?
While caring for her mother, who had dementia, bioethicist Tia Powell began imagining a different way to approach the disease. Her new book looks at long-term care options and end-of-life decisions.
Dementia Care Guide: Memory Loss Care Solutions
Dementia care offers catered memory care services, attention and medication mangement, often in a secure assisted living or nursing home setting. Often in later stages of dementia, it's too difficult for a family to take care of their loved ones as they need more specialized, expert care from trained professionals.
Have You Lost Your Mind?
Of the seventy-nine million boomers, fourteen million are expected to develop Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia. (Alzheimer’s is the most common, followed by stroke, and the festively named dementia with Lewy bodies. Parkinson’s comes next.) That’s about eighteen per cent, and the only reason the number isn’t higher is that many people suffering from dementia die of something else first.
Is It Really Dementia?
Maybe it’s something else. That’s what you tell yourself, isn’t it, when an older person begins to lose her memory, repeat herself, see things that aren’t there, lose her way on streets she’s traveled for decades? Maybe it’s not dementia.
Many People with Dementia May Go Unscreened, Untreated
People with dementia may have any of a host of brain conditions that cause long-term difficulties in thinking and reasoning that are severe enough to affect daily life. The most common form is Alzheimer's disease. Most forms of dementia have no cure, and treatment is limited. Nevertheless, screening for dementia at its earliest stages might help doctors slow the progression or better equip family members and the patient to deal with the disease, Kotagal said.
My Dementia
Telling who I am before I forget.
My Father's Dementia Makes Me Laugh
I suppose I must start out with a hat tip to honesty and confess that while the title to this piece is about how my father's dementia makes me laugh, I do have moments where I secretly want to cry about it. If he had a choice between drifting into dementia or avoiding that storm all together, I'd help him steer around it.
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly And A Proposal
So here's some good news: the risk of dementia has actually been decreasing. A 2017 study using 2012 data found that, based on a study of a representative sample, among individuals aged 65 - 74 years old, 14% had signs of cognitive impairment that was not severe enough to be labeled dementia (CIND, or Cognitive Impairment - No Dementia), and 3.2% met the full definition of dementia.
The Sense of an Ending
An Arizona nursing home offers new ways to care for people with dementia.
The Slow Descent
This post originally appeared at The Writer Revived. It is part of a series I am sharing here concerning my family's journey with dementia. My father passed away March 10, 2014.
What It's Like to Suffer from Dementia at 20
Because of his childhood dementia, Johannes Müller is slowly forgetting the world.
As humanity ages the numbers of people with dementia will surge
The world is ill-prepared for the frightening human, economic and social implications.
SAGE: A Test to Detect Signs of Alzheimer's and Dementia
Catch memory problems early, take the SAGE test.
Internet Use May Reduce Cognitive Decline
Turns out, your smartphone isn’t so bad for you after all. In fact, it may help protect your brain against age-related cognitive decline.
Losing her mind and watching it go: the slow suffering of Lewy body disease
It is the second most common form of dementia and yet little is known about the disease that led to the death of Robin Williams.
Stalked by the Fear That Dementia Is Stalking You
Testing for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia is hardly foolproof, and could even backfire.
What Science Tells Us About Preventing Dementia
There are no instant, miracle cures. But recent studies suggest we have more control over our cognitive health than we might think. It just takes some effort.
Dementia on the Retreat in the U.S. and Europe
Rates of dementia have steadily fallen over the past 25 years, a new study finds. But the disease is increasingly common in some parts of the world.
Here's What to Know About Lewy Body Dementia
In addition to cognitive changes, other hallmark features are visual hallucinations and changes in movement that might resemble Parkinson’s disease, Taylor says. “Over time, people with LBD will lose freeness of movement; their muscle movements become more rigid, they may have a change in their gait,” she says. Facial expressions also reduce over the course of the disease.
Robin Williams’ Son Talks Late Father’s Lewy Body Dementia: “I Wanted to Be There for Him”
Zak Williams, the son of the late actor Robin Williams, is shedding more light on his father’s Lewy body dementia, and how the loss of the comedian-actor affected his eldest son.
The deviousness of dementia
When memory disappears, something more than memory gets lost. This is how a world begins to unravel – and how caregivers unwittingly become part of the chaos.
The identification of another form of dementia shows just how complicated the condition can be
They call it LATE, or limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy. LATE can often be confused for Alzheimer’s disease. It also causes memory loss, but its symptoms tend to progress slower than Alzheimer’s, and it only shows up in adults over 80 years old. The pathology that causes LATE is completely different than what causes other forms of dementia, though. Rather than buildups of misshapen amyloid plaques and clumps of tau (proteins that appear normally in brains), as is characteristic with Alzheimer’s disease, LATE results in misshapen proteins called TDP-43 in three regions of the brain: the amygdala, hippocampus, and middle frontal gyrus. I
Four unhelpful myths about dementia: ‘Our bleak view is often unjustified’
Enduring myths lead to an undue anguish and reluctance to seek help for dementia. If you’re aware of them, prevention and delay are possible
These 9 behaviors could cut your dementia risk by 35 percent
Quitting smoking, being social, and exercising more can boost your brain health.
D4Dementia
I'm a campaigner and consultant, writer and blogger. My dad had vascular dementia for approximately the last 19 years of his life. I aim to provide support and advice to those faced with similar situations, inform and educate care professionals and the wider population, promote debate and create improvements in dementia care.
Dealing with Dementia
A family caregiver's journey to deliver loving care with grace and humor.
Dementia Action Alliance
The Dementia Action Alliance is a movement with one simple aim: to bring about a society-wide response to dementia. It encourages and supports communities and organisations across England to take practical actions to enable people to live well with dementia and reduce the risk of costly crisis intervention.
Dementia Alliance International
Dementia Alliance International is a non-profit group of people with dementia from the USA, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany and other countries that seek to represent, support, and educate others living with the disease, and an organization that will provide a unified voice of strength, advocacy and support in the fight for individual autonomy and improved quality of life.
Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders
As a unique forum devoted exclusively to the study of cognitive dysfunction, 'Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders' concentrates on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s chorea and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Dementia Australia
Dementia Australia is the national peak body for people of all ages living with all forms of dementia, their families & carers. We provide advocacy, support services, education & information.
Dementia Today.net
DementiaToday Daily news and views on Alzheimer's Disease and other Dementias.
Dementia.org
Dementia.org is not just another medical information website. We provide practical, actionable information and “real world” reviews of research to help anyone impacted by dementia in any of its forms. For instance for someone who has been just diagnosed with Alzheimer's, Dementia.org warns that they may have been misdiagnosed...
DementiaUK
Family carers and people with dementia are at the heart of everything that we do. We provide Admiral Nurses, specialist dementia nurses who give practical and emotional support to families affected by dementia.
Lewy Body Dementia Association
The Lewy Body Dementia Association (LBDA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the Lewy body dementias (LBD), supporting people with LBD, their families and caregivers and promoting scientific advances. The Association's purposes are charitable, educational, and scientific.
Living well with Lewy Body Dementia
I was diagnosed as having Early Onset Lewy Body Dementia, and I am now learning to live a new life doing things to help others with the illness.
My Demented Mom
5 million Americans suffer from Dementia. My mom is one of them. A site for young adult caregivers struggling and coping with "the long goodbye."
The Dementia Queen
Exploring the evidence, the anecdotes, & the hunches, a rehabilitatiion perspective.
YoungDementia UK
The Young Dementia Network is a movement of people committed to improving the lives of those affected by young onset dementia.
A Dementia Voice
Dedicated to giving people diagnosed with dementia a friendly space to express themselves freely, make new contacts, and tell their own story. It will be based around the blogs - or diaries - of people with dementia.
Alzheimer's & Dementia
The mission of Alzheimer's & Dementia: Journal of the Alzheimer's Association is to bridge the knowledge gaps across a wide range of bench-to-bedside investigation
AskSARA
AskSARA is an award-winning online self-help guide providing expert advice and information on products and equipment for older and disabled people. AskSARA is easy to use. Simply:
Dating Dementia
Nancy Wurtzel blogs at Dating Dementia about midlife, empty nest, baby boomer, single, dating, death with dignity, end of life choices, caregiver and aging parent with Alzheimer’s disease dementia.
Dementia Diaries: A Journey With Dementia
My mission with this blog is simple. I want to help others. I want to help raise awareness about dementia, particularly the forms that are lesser known (particularly frontotemporal lobe dementia). I want to help people to understand and gain empathy for those who suffer from this illness, and not only the sufferers but for the caregivers of these people as well.
Dementia: Living with it Graciously :: Support for Dementia Caregivers
This blog is written to provide information and support to persons who are providing care for someone with dementia. A first indicator of dementia is when someone has trouble doing a task once familiar and easy for them. If you have begun to be concerned about someone's memory or cognitive processing, help the person receive a physical exam, to include lab work, and an appointment with a neuropsychologist for an evaluation of memory and cognitive processing.
FTD/Dementia Support Blog
This is a support blog for people that have been diagnosed with early stage FTD/dementia. This blog is dedicated to helping people help themselves as well as increase awareness for caregivers, friends, and the medical community. It will include finding groups, medical care, public assistance, having fun again, making new friends, dealing with old friends, family, depression, and isolation. Dementia is a lifestyle change. You can live a happy, productive life with dementia.
Inside the Dementia Epidemic
Welcome to my blog about dementia caregiving as a "long hello," not a "long good-bye" —how we can become "care partners" with our family members or friends who are living with dementia, and how we can care for ourselves.
Living with a Thief named Lewy Body Dementia
This is dementia, it's not just a memory problem. My husband was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia in Oct 2007. This is our story. The ups and downs, the sorrows and joys. A non clinical view of living the Lewy life. Our story ended Feb 11, 2014. Lewy Body dementia hasn't been cured yet so until it is, this blog will be timeless in it's approach to caregiving, love and faith. It's a daily approach to those things.
The Dementia Diary
This is a story about my mother's dementia. This is a story about me, her daughter and how I am holding her hand in this end stage of life.
CDC
Dementia is not a specific disease but is rather a general term for the impaired ability to remember, think, or make decisions that interferes with doing everyday activities. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia. Though dementia mostly affects older adults, it is not a part of normal aging.
Porkchops and Pianos: A Dementia Blog
This blog is not meant to demean my mother or anyone else who suffers from dementia. Instead, I just wanted to share with you and others some ups and downs of dementia and my daily life with Mom. I hope that while reading this you might be able see the lighter side of dementia and realize that it's a choice: you either laugh or you cry.
ScienceDaily
Featured Research from universities, journals, and other organizations.
WHO
Dementia is a syndrome that affects memory, thinking, behaviour and ability to perform everyday activities. The number of people living with dementia worldwide is currently estimated at 35.6 million.
NHS
Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), also known as Lewy body dementia, is one of the most common types of dementia.
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