Very mild cognitive decline/forgetfulness
In the very early stages, the first sign that a person has vascular dementia is forgetfulness, but many people confuse this with general age-related forgetfulness. You may notice yourself or your loved one forgetting where you've placed items in the house.
Vascular dementia is generally caused by conditions that occur most often in older people, such as atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), heart disease, and stroke. The number of people older than 65 years is increasing. People are living longer with chronic diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes.
When it results from a stroke, symptoms are more likely to begin suddenly. About 20% of people who suffer a stroke will develop vascular dementia within six months. Whether or not changes in thinking, memory, or mental ability occur will depend on the area of the brain the stroke affected.
On average, people with vascular dementia live for around five years after symptoms begin, less than the average for Alzheimer's disease. Because vascular dementia shares many of the same risk factors as heart attack and stroke, in many cases, the person's death will be caused by a stroke or heart attack.
As a person's vascular dementia progresses, they may begin to behave in ways that seem out of character. For example, they may become more agitated or aggressive, or have sleep problems. They may also act in ways that others find embarrassing or difficult to understand.
Another clue is impaired coordination or balance. In vascular dementia, problems walking or balancing can happen early. With Alzheimer's, these symptoms usually occur late in the disease.
medicines such as low-dose aspirin or clopidogrel to reduce the risk of blood clots and further strokes. anticoagulant medicines, such as warfarin, which can also reduce the risk of blood clots and further strokes.
Vascular dementia refers to changes to memory, thinking, and behavior resulting from conditions that affect the blood vessels in the brain. Cognition and brain function can be significantly affected by the size, location, and number of vascular changes.
People with VaD may exhibit the following behavior: Problems with thinking, walking and performing everyday activities are the most prominent symptoms. Many people with VaD also suffer from depression, which can result in less motivation to perform their usual activities or a lack of interest in the world around them.
As more strokes occur and dementia progresses, people may have other symptoms due to the strokes. An arm or a leg may become weak or paralyzed.
Introduction: The five-word test (5WT) is a serial verbal memory test with semantic cuing. It is proposed to rapidly evaluate memory of aging people and has previously shown its sensitivity and its specificity in identifying patients with AD.
The Mini-Cog test.
A third test, known as the Mini-Cog, takes 2 to 4 minutes to administer and involves asking patients to recall three words after drawing a picture of a clock. If a patient shows no difficulties recalling the words, it is inferred that he or she does not have dementia.
It is quite common for a person with dementia, especially in the later stages, to spend a lot of their time sleeping – both during the day and night. This can sometimes be distressing for the person's family and friends, as they may worry that something is wrong.
Vitamin B12 and Folic Acid: Being deficient in both Vitamin B12 and folic acid is common in those with dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Taken together, these two supplements can help lower the levels of an amino acid in the blood that is often linked to dementia.
One theory suggests that, since anticoagulants prevent stroke by protecting against large blood clots, they should also prevent dementia by protecting against the small blood clots and microinfarctions that characterize it.
Controlling conditions that affect the underlying health of your heart and blood vessels can sometimes slow the rate at which vascular dementia gets worse, and may also sometimes prevent further decline. Depending on your individual situation, your doctor may prescribe medications to: Lower your blood pressure.
Many people think of dementia as a memory problem, and therefore something that a person can live with indefinitely. In fact dementia is a degenerative disease that eventually stops brain function, just like heart failure or lung disease.
Vascular dementia is caused by reduced blood flow to the brain, which damages and eventually kills brain cells. This can happen as a result of: narrowing and blockage of the small blood vessels inside the brain. a single stroke, where the blood supply to part of the brain is suddenly cut off.
In most cases, vascular dementia itself is not inherited.
Other than in a few, very rare cases, parents cannot pass on vascular dementia to their children. However, a parent may pass certain genes that increase the risk of developing vascular dementia.
You and your family may worry about how long you can look after yourself, particularly if you live alone. Everyone experiences dementia differently and the rate at which symptoms become worse varies from person to person. But with the right support when you need it, many people live independently for several years.
3 'R's: Remember It, Recall It, Retain It. Your bible of exercises to increase your brain power, improve your memory, and train your fluid intelligence.
There is no one test to determine if someone has dementia. Doctors diagnose Alzheimer's and other types of dementia based on a careful medical history, a physical examination, laboratory tests, and the characteristic changes in thinking, day-to-day function and behavior associated with each type.