Memories Part 4

 

Dementia is a progressive loss of cognitive functions. It is often accompanied by disturbances of mood, behavior and personality and leads to significant impairment in the ability to perform normal activities of daily living. Dementia is not a specific disease but is a term for a group of symptoms caused by numerous different disorders that affect the brain.

Dementias are becoming more common and are currently found in 14% of Americans age 71 and older which means that age is the biggest risk factor. In fact, the risk doubles every five years after age 65.  Lifestyle factors and genetics also affect the risk of developing dementia.

Symptoms of dementia are severe, numerous and very among individuals. Symptoms include the following: 1.Being dependent on others for daily living 2. Complaints of memory loss .Unable to give details 3. Family member concern about memory. With Covid -19, reduced family awareness 4. Recent memory for events, conversations noticeably impaired 5. Difficulty in conversations in finding words 6. Pauses in speech and word substitutions 7. Being lost walking or driving; may take hours to get home 8. Cannot operate appliances; and new learning impaired 9. Loss of interest in social activities and socially inappropriate 10. Mental status impaired for age, education and culture. 11. Impulsive purchases, running up debt, bill payment irregularities, lower credit ratings, more errors at work and other financial mistakes.

The following are” Good News “and are called Secondary Reversible Dementias because the cause can be treated and the dementia reversed. They are as follows: 1. Excessive alcohol use and tobacco smoking 2. Brain inflammation and periodontal disease 3. Anxiety and depression. Yes, psychotherapy and regular exercise has been shown to reverse the damage 4. Drug effects and interactions that include antidepressants, sleeping pills, anxiety medications, painkillers, anticholinergic medications and antihistamines 5. Respiratory problems 6. Metabolic diseases 7. Normal pressure with Hydrocephalus 8. Sleep problems and disorders 9. Chronic stress 10. Dietary deficiencies-with aging. The rate of nutrient absorption slows and makes it difficult to get adequate levels of vitamins and other nutrients 11. Hospitalizations -individuals that had prior hospitalizations for acute-care critical illness were more likely to have developed dementia in the preceding six years in one study 12. Delirium 13. Other reversible dementias can be caused by chronic illicit drug use-operable brain tumors, subdural and epidural hematomas, hypothyroidism and hypoglycemia.

Now for the bad news. The following are primary neurodegenerative irreversible dementias: 1. Alzheimer’s disease affects 6 million Americans; is the seventh leading cause of death; and killed more than 33,000 last year 2. Parkinson’s 3. Lewy Body 4. Vascular and stroke 5. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy 6. Frontotemporal (Picks disease) 7. Progressive Supranuclear Palsy 8. Huntington’s disease 9. Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease.

There are many character lifestyle ways to damage ones precious brain irrespective of age. Examples include : Drinking while driving; not wearing a seatbelt; motorcycle ; equestrian; joining the military-high prevalence of explosive device brain injury; and playing sports.1.6 to 3.8 million sports related brain injuries occur in the US every year. One out of 10 of these require hospitalization. Children under 15 have twice as many Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) from sports than from auto accidents.

Dementia is also caused by TBI. If severe enough, a blunt force trauma to the head can speed up the process. Statistically, this is a major public health problem for young Americans. It is a major cause of death and disability in persons under 25 years of age and those 15 to 24 are at the highest risk.

Football players are at high risk for TB I. 20% of high school football players and 40% of college football players are examples. Current football helmets do not prevent concussions from the kind of violent collisions seen in football.

Symptoms of TBI are acute and vary from person to person. Typically there are major problems in attention, concentration, memory, problem-solving, judgment, lack of empathy, impulse control, emotional control, social interactions and psychiatric conditions of depression and anxiety.

All in all, it should be clear by now, with this brief bit of information, that brain health is precious.  Death, aging and illness are givens. It’s a matter of fact that an individual’s character and lifestyle choices have a negative effect on aging and brain health. Too many members in our country are affected by memory deficits, other cognitive components with obviously asocial and negative financial interactions. “By their fruits shall ye know them?” Lifestyle of one’s character can be associated with a faulty orientation and devotion to self-defeating, harmful, masochistic and destructive behaviors. We all have our devotions. As a consequence, we have an obvious dumbing down in our country that’s exhibited by memory loss. Memory is who we are. World and American history are not abstruse as people continually repeat stupid and cruelty over and over again.

References

New York Times, “Financial Mistakes May Indicate Dementia”, May 2, 2021.

Understanding Dementia .INR.