Dementia is acquired dementia. The longer the disease progresses, the more severe its manifestations become. But it is important for the patient and his environment to remember one thing: life with dementia exists!
1. According to various estimates, about 1.3 - 1.5 people with dementia live in the Russian Federation. But this is inaccurate information.
Unfortunately, the disease in the early stages is very rare. A strangeness of behavior and other important symptoms, as a rule, are written off on the complexity and characteristics of the character.
2. Every year 150,000 people die from dementia.
This disease is one of the main causes of male and female mortality.
3. The number of patients with dementia is constantly increasing.
Despite the fact that the disease annually takes a large number of lives, funding for its research remains limited. Because of this, scientists still can not find a medicine that can effectively combat dementia.
A sad fact: over the past 10 years, not a single new drug has emerged from dementia.
4. In many patients, dementia has not yet been diagnosed.
We live in a time when forgetfulness and absent-mindedness are considered ordinary things, but dementia does not overtake suddenly. Therefore, people who constantly feel weakness, suffer from forgetfulness and can not concentrate, it is worth a test. It is better to hear from a specialist confirmation of suspicions of chronic fatigue or depression than to live with progressive dementia.
5. Dementia is caused by brain diseases.
That is, it is not a natural component of the aging process. Dementia is manifested as a whole complex of symptoms, among them: memory loss, difficulty of thinking, problems with solving various problems, speech disorders.
6. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer's.
Very often people think that dementia and Alzheimer's are one and the same thing. Or that they are completely different things. The truth is somewhere in the middle. The fact is that Alzheimer's is a disease that destroys the brain and can cause dementia.
7. Dementia affects not only the elderly.
Dementia can also develop in young people, it is simple in the early stages of diagnosis is rarely diagnosed. While the disease reaches a neglected stage, a person has time to grow old ...
8. If your parents had dementia, this does not mean that you are doomed.
In fact, by inheritance, dementia is transmitted extremely rarely - in approximately one case out of a thousand. A much greater danger is represented by cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes.
9. Dementia is very diverse.
Some patients can not tell about the events that occurred a couple of minutes ago, while others perfectly remember all the little things from time immemorial. Dementia can influence the behavior and perception of the person. Many patients can not correctly estimate distances, despite the fact that everything is in order with their eyes. Someone becomes sad or frightened. Someone has to suffer because of the lost self-confidence.
All possible symptoms can be listed indefinitely. But it is already clear that the symptoms of dementia in each organism are manifested in their own way.
10. There are precautions that can prevent dementia.
While there is no medicine for dementia, it must be prevented. Help in this regular exercise, proper nutrition, the rejection of nicotine and alcohol.
11. After the discovery of dementia, life does not end.
Absence of drugs that can cure the disease completely does not mean absolute helplessness. There are many means that can slow the course of the disease. And creating a favorable environment around the patient, his life can be extended for many years. The main thing - to detect dementia on time, while in the brain there have not been critical serious irreparable changes.