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Monday, 2 December 2013

The Main Differences Between Alzheimer's And Dementia

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By Jack Morgan


For a lot of people, the words Alzheimer's disease and dementia are being used interchangeably. That is why it is important to know the difference between Alzheimers and dementia to be able to understand them better. Generally, dementia is a term that pertains to a group of physical and mental symptoms that become so severe that it may interfere with the day-to-day activity of a person. The symptoms can be caused by different disorders or diseases.

Dementia is composed of several symptoms that especially affect an individual as they grow old in age. Those symptoms cause the individual to fail to achieve the things he/she used to do before the symptoms. Such things include better judgment, planning, concentration and attention, language and problem solving. These problems are worse enough to change a person's normal life, both professional and social.

Alzheimer's on the other hand is a main cause of dementia and especially in older people; in fact it is the main cause of dementia and therefore the common confusion between the two. Alzheimer's causes brain abnormalities in the affected individual and it is very hard to establish. This is because the abnormalities are microscopic and requires that the doctor carries out a closer examination on the patient's history.

Dementia can have a devastating impact on a person's ability to function independently as dementia progresses. Older people's major cause of disability is often linked with dementia and this puts an emotional as well as financial burden on the caregivers and family members of the patients.

Some of the early signs of dementia include growing confusion and being forgetful. Patients who are suffering from this condition find it hard to remember faces as well as names. They cannot give care to themselves leading them to have inadequate personal hygiene.

When a person has dementia, it means that he is suffering from a significant memory problem, which can become severe and might affect one's daily living. According to the records presented by the Cleveland Clinic, Alzheimer's disease is about 50 to 70 percent of all dementia cases.

Alzheimer's is a kind of progressive brain disease and the exact cause of it is still unknown. There is still no cure for this kind of disease. It has been estimated by the National Institute of Health that there are more than five million people who have Alzheimer's in the United States. Younger people can have it, but the symptoms are often manifested by people starting at the age of 60.

Alzheimer's has no cure and therefore continues to claim lives of many people. This is especially boosted by the fact that it starts brain damage years earlier before the signs of its presence can show. It kills the brain cells making them to shrink and therefore the early death soon after the first signs show.

Dementia on the other hand starts with slight signs of forgetting things including names and faces of people you see regularly. The condition worsens as it progresses and the patient loses track of the most common setting. This can easily lead to depression making the patient fail to even take care of themselves.




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