Memory lapses happen to everyone. But when cognitive changes begin interfering with daily life, it may signal something more serious. Dementia affects millions worldwide, yet many people don’t understand this complex condition. At LECC’s Neurology Clinic, Dr. Alagbe specializes in comprehensive dementia care, providing expert diagnosis, personalized treatment, and compassionate support for patients and their families.
What Is Dementia?
Dementia is not a single disease, it’s an umbrella term describing a group of symptoms that affect memory, thinking, and social abilities severely enough to interfere with everyday functioning. It’s not a normal part of aging, though the risk does increase as we get older.
To be classified as dementia, a person must have significant impairment in at least two of these areas:
- Memory
- Communication and language
- Ability to focus and concentrate
- Reasoning and judgment
- Visual perception
Dementia occurs when nerve cells in the brain stop working properly, lose connections with other cells, and eventually die. While everyone loses some brain cells with age, people with dementia experience far greater loss in specific brain regions.
The Different Types of Dementia
Understanding which type of dementia someone has is crucial for proper treatment. Here are the most common forms:
- Alzheimer’s Disease: The most prevalent type, accounting for 60-80% of dementia cases. Alzheimer’s involves the buildup of abnormal protein deposits (plaques and tangles) in the brain, leading to progressive memory loss and cognitive decline. Symptoms typically start with difficulty remembering recent events and gradually worsen over several years.
- Vascular Dementia: The second most common type, caused by conditions that reduce blood flow to the brain—such as strokes or small vessel disease. Symptoms can appear suddenly after a major stroke or develop gradually with accumulating damage. People often experience difficulties with planning, organizing, judgment, and problem-solving alongside memory issues.
- Lewy Body Dementia: Caused by abnormal protein deposits called Lewy bodies in the brain. Distinctive features include visual hallucinations, fluctuating alertness (cognition varies throughout the day), movement symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease, and vivid dreams or acting out dreams during sleep.
- Frontotemporal Dementia: A group of disorders affecting the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, typically occurring in people aged 45-65. Unlike other dementias, early symptoms often involve dramatic personality changes, behavioral problems, and language difficulties rather than memory loss.
- Mixed Dementia: Many people, especially those over 80, have multiple types of dementia occurring simultaneously. The most common combination is Alzheimer’s disease with vascular dementia, which can complicate symptoms and treatment.
Recognizing the Warning Signs
Early symptoms can be subtle and easily dismissed as “just getting older.” However, certain signs warrant professional evaluation:
- Memory Loss Disrupting Daily Life: Forgetting recently learned information, asking the same questions repeatedly, or increasingly relying on memory aids or family members for things previously handled independently.
- Planning and Problem-Solving Difficulties: Trouble following familiar recipes, managing monthly bills, or concentrating on tasks that were once routine.
- Difficulty with Familiar Tasks: Problems driving to well-known locations, managing work responsibilities, or remembering the rules of favorite games.
- Confusion About Time or Place: Losing track of dates, seasons, or the passage of time. Forgetting where they are or how they got there.
- Vision and Spatial Problems: Difficulty reading, judging distance, determining colors, or recognizing faces and common objects.
- Communication Challenges: Struggling to follow or join conversations, stopping mid-sentence without knowing how to continue, or calling things by wrong names.
- Misplacing Items: Putting things in unusual places and being unable to retrace steps to find them. May accuse others of stealing.
- Poor Judgment: Making questionable decisions about money, falling for scams, or neglecting personal grooming and cleanliness.
- Social Withdrawal: Removing themselves from hobbies, social activities, or work projects due to changes they’re experiencing.
- Mood and Personality Changes:Becoming confused, suspicious, depressed, fearful, or anxious, especially outside their comfort zone.
Understanding Your Risk
Some risk factors for dementia cannot be changed, but many can be addressed:
Non-Modifiable Risk Factors:
- Age: The greatest risk factor, affecting about 5% of people aged 65-74 and roughly 40% of those 85 and older
- Family history: Having close relatives with dementia increases risk
- Genetics: Certain genes increase susceptibility
Modifiable Risk Factors
Research suggests that addressing these factors could prevent or delay up to 40% of dementia cases:
- Cardiovascular health: High blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol in midlife
- Physical inactivity: Lack of regular exercise
- Smoking: Accelerates brain aging and damage
- Excessive alcohol consumption: Heavy drinking linked to brain changes
- Social isolation: Limited social engagement
- Hearing loss: Untreated hearing problems in midlife
- Depression: Particularly in later life
- Low educational engagement: Limited cognitive stimulation throughout life
- Poor sleep: Sleep disorders and inadequate sleep quality
- Head injuries: Repeated trauma or significant head injuries
Take the First Step
If cognitive changes are concerning you or affecting someone you love, don’t wait. Early evaluation and intervention make a meaningful difference in outcomes and quality of life.
Contact LECC’s Neurology Clinic today to schedule a consultation with Dr. Alagbe. Whether you need diagnostic evaluation, treatment planning, ongoing management, or caregiver support, we’re here to help every step of the way.
Your brain health matters. Let us be your partner in protecting it.
For appointments at LECC’s Neurology Clinic with Dr Alagbe, contact us today 08173651737
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