Dementia is a general term for a decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life. Memory loss is an example. Alzheimer's is the most common type of dementia.

Dementia is not a specific disease. It's an overall term that describes a wide range of symptoms associated with a decline in memory or other thinking skills severe enough to reduce a person's ability to perform everyday activities. Alzheimer's disease accounts for 60 to 80 percent of cases. Vascular dementia, which occurs after a stroke, is the second most common dementia type. But there are many other conditions that can cause symptoms of dementia, including some that are reversible, such as thyroid problems and vitamin deficiencies.

Dementia is often incorrectly referred to as "senility" or "senile dementia," which reflects the formerly widespread but incorrect belief that serious mental decline is a normal part of aging.

Memory loss and other symptoms of dementia

	Many people have memory loss issues — this does not mean they have Alzheimer's or another dementia There are many different causes of memory problems. If you or a loved one is experiencing troubling symptoms, visit a doctor to learn the reason. Some causes of dementia-like symptoms can be reversed. Learn more: Visiting Your Doctor

While symptoms of dementia can vary greatly, at least two of the following core mental functions must be significantly impaired to be considered dementia:

Memory
Communication and language
Ability to focus and pay attention
Reasoning and judgment
Visual perception

People with dementia may have problems with short-term memory, keeping track of a purse or wallet, paying bills, planning and preparing meals, remembering appointments or traveling out of the neighborhood.

Many dementias are progressive, meaning symptoms start out slowly and gradually get worse. If you or a loved one is experiencing memory difficulties or other changes in thinking skills, don't ignore them. See a doctor soon to determine the cause. Professional evaluation may detect a treatable condition. And even if symptoms suggest dementia, early diagnosis allows a person to get the maximum benefit from available treatments and provides an opportunity to volunteer for clinical trials or studies. It also provides time to plan for the future.

10 warning signs of Alzheimer's:

	Memory loss that disrupts daily life
	One of the most common signs of Alzheimer's is memory loss, especially forgetting recently learned information. Others include forgetting important dates or events; asking for the same information over and over; increasingly needing to rely on memory aids (e.g., reminder notes or electronic devices) or family members for things they used to handle on their own. What's a typical age-related change? Sometimes forgetting names or appointments, but remembering them later.

	Challenges in planning or solving problems
	Some people may experience changes in their ability to develop and follow a plan or work with numbers. They may have trouble following a familiar recipe or keeping track of monthly bills. They may have difficulty concentrating and take much longer to do things than they did before. What's a typical age-related change? Making occasional errors when balancing a checkbook.

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	Difficulty completing familiar tasks at home, at work or at leisure
	People with Alzheimer's often find it hard to complete daily tasks. Sometimes, people may have trouble driving to a familiar location, managing a budget at work or remembering the rules of a favorite game. What's a typical age-related change? Occasionally needing help to use the settings on a microwave or to record a television show.

	Confusion with time or place
	People with Alzheimer's can lose track of dates, seasons and the passage of time. They may have trouble understanding something if it is not happening immediately. Sometimes they may forget where they are or how they got there. *What's a typical age-related change?* Getting confused about the day of the week but figuring it out later.

	Trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships
	For some people, having vision problems is a sign of Alzheimer's. They may have difficulty reading, judging distance and determining color or contrast, which may cause problems with driving. What's a typical age-related change? Vision changes related to cataracts.

	New problems with words in speaking or writing
	People with Alzheimer's may have trouble following or joining a conversation. They may stop in the middle of a conversation and have no idea how to continue or they may repeat themselves. They may struggle with vocabulary, have problems finding the right word or call things by the wrong name (e.g., calling a "watch" a "hand-clock"). What's a typical age-related change? Sometimes having trouble finding the right word.

	Misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps
	A person with Alzheimer's disease may put things in unusual places. They may lose things and be unable to go back over their steps to find them again. Sometimes, they may accuse others of stealing. This may occur more frequently over time. What's a typical age-related change? Misplacing things from time to time and retracing steps to find them.

	Decreased or poor judgment
	People with Alzheimer's may experience changes in judgment or decision-making. For example, they may use poor judgment when dealing with money, giving large amounts to telemarketers. They may pay less attention to grooming or keeping themselves clean. What's a typical age-related change? Making a bad decision once in a while.

	Withdrawal from work or social activities
	A person with Alzheimer's may start to remove themselves from hobbies, social activities, work projects or sports. They may have trouble keeping up with a favorite sports team or remembering how to complete a favorite hobby. They may also avoid being social because of the changes they have experienced. What's a typical age-related change? Sometimes feeling weary of work, family and social obligations.

	Changes in mood and personality
	The mood and personalities of people with Alzheimer's can change. They can become confused, suspicious, depressed, fearful or anxious. They may be easily upset at home, at work, with friends or in places where they are out of their comfort zone. What's a typical age-related change? Developing very specific ways of doing things and becoming irritable when a routine is disrupted.

Types of Dementia

Dementia is a general term for loss of memory and other mental abilities severe enough to interfere with daily life. It is caused by physical changes in the brain.

Learn more about dementia, what it is, symptoms and treatments

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Alzheimer's disease

Most common type of dementia; accounts for an estimated 60 to 80 percent of cases.

Symptoms: Difficulty remembering recent conversations, names or events is often an early clinical symptom; apathy and depression are also often early symptoms. Later symptoms include impaired communication, poor judgment, disorientation, confusion, behavior changes and difficulty speaking, swallowing and walking.

Revised guidelines for diagnosing Alzheimer’s were published in 2011 recommending that Alzheimer’s be considered a slowly progressive brain disease that begins well before symptoms emerge.

Brain changes: Hallmark abnormalities are deposits of the protein fragment beta-amyloid (plaques) and twisted strands of the protein tau (tangles) as well as evidence of nerve cell damage and death in the brain.

Learn more about Alzheimer's disease.

Vascular dementiaback to top

Previously known as multi-infarct or post-stroke dementia, vascular dementia is less common as a sole cause of dementia than Alzheimer’s, accounting for about 10 percent of dementia cases.

Symptoms: Impaired judgment or ability to make decisions, plan or organize is more likely to be the initial symptom, as opposed to the memory loss often associated with the initial symptoms of Alzheimer's. Occurs from blood vessel blockage or damage leading to infarcts (strokes) or bleeding in the brain. The location, number and size of the brain injury determines how the individual's thinking and physical functioning are affected.

Brain changes: Brain imaging can often detect blood vessel problems implicated in vascular dementia. In the past, evidence for vascular dementia was used to exclude a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (and vice versa). That practice is no longer considered consistent with pathologic evidence, which shows that the brain changes of several types of dementia can be present simultaneously. When any two or more types of dementia are present at the same time, the individual is considered to have mixed dementia.

Learn more about vascular dementia.

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB)back to top

Symptoms: People with dementia with Lewy bodies often have memory loss and thinking problems common in Alzheimer's, but are more likely than people with Alzheimer's to have initial or early symptoms such as sleep disturbances, well-formed visual hallucinations, and slowness, gait imbalance or other parkinsonian movement features.

Brain changes: Lewy bodies are abnormal aggregations (or clumps) of the protein alpha-synuclein. When they develop in a part of the brain called the cortex, dementia can result. Alpha-synuclein also aggregates in the brains of people with Parkinson's disease, but the aggregates may appear in a pattern that is different from dementia with Lewy bodies.

The brain changes of dementia with Lewy bodies alone can cause dementia, or they can be present at the same time as the brain changes of Alzheimer's disease and/or vascular dementia, with each abnormality contributing to the development of dementia. When this happens, the individual is said to have mixed dementia.

Learn more about dementia with Lewy bodies.

Mixed dementiaback to top

In mixed dementia abnormalities linked to more than one cause of dementia occur simultaneously in the brain. Recent studies suggest that mixed dementia is more common than previously thought.

Brain changes: Characterized by the hallmark abnormalities of more than one cause of dementia —most commonly, Alzheimer's and vascular dementia, but also other types, such as dementia with Lewy bodies.

Learn more about mixed dementia.

Parkinson's diseaseback to top

As Parkinson's disease progresses, it often results in a progressive dementia similar to dementia with Lewy bodies or Alzheimer's.

Symptoms: Problems with movement are common symptoms of the disease. If dementia develops, symptoms are often similar to dementia with Lewy bodies.

Brain changes: Alpha-synuclein clumps are likely to begin in an area deep in the brain called the substantia nigra. These clumps are thought to cause degeneration of the nerve cells that produce dopamine.

Learn more about Parkinson's disease.

Frontotemporal dementiaback to top

Includes dementias such as behavioral variant FTD (bvFTD), primary progressive aphasia, Pick's disease, corticobasal degeneration and progressive supranuclear palsy.

Symptoms: Typical symptoms include changes in personality and behavior and difficulty with language. Nerve cells in the front and side regions of the brain are especially affected.

Brain changes: No distinguishing microscopic abnormality is linked to all cases. People with FTD generally develop symptoms at a younger age (at about age 60) and survive for fewer years than those with Alzheimer's.

Learn more about frontotemporal dementia.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseaseback to top

CJD is the most common human form of a group of rare, fatal brain disorders affecting people and certain other mammals. Variant CJD (“mad cow disease”) occurs in cattle, and has been transmitted to people under certain circumstances.

Symptoms: Rapidly fatal disorder that impairs memory and coordination and causes behavior changes.

Brain changes: Results from misfolded prion protein that causes a "domino effect" in which prion protein throughout the brain misfolds and thus malfunctions.

Learn more about Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Normal pressure hydrocephalusback to top

Symptoms: Symptoms include difficulty walking, memory loss and inability to control urination.

Brain changes: Caused by the buildup of fluid in the brain. Can sometimes be corrected with surgical installation of a shunt in the brain to drain excess fluid.

Learn more about normal pressure hydrocephalus.

Huntington's Diseaseback to top

Huntington’s disease is a progressive brain disorder caused by a single defective gene on chromosome 4.

Symptoms: Include abnormal involuntary movements, a severe decline in thinking and reasoning skills, and irritability, depression and other mood changes.

Brain changes: The gene defect causes abnormalities in a brain protein that, over time, lead to worsening symptoms.

Learn more about Huntington’s disease.

Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndromeback to top

Korsakoff syndrome is a chronic memory disorder caused by severe deficiency of thiamine (vitamin B-1). The most common cause is alcohol misuse.

Symptoms: Memory problems may be strikingly severe while other thinking and social skills seem relatively unaffected.

Brain changes: Thiamine helps brain cells produce energy from sugar. When thiamine levels fall too low, brain cells cannot generate enough energy to function properly.

Learn more about Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.

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From dr. AXE website :

Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia that can rob people of the ability to think clearly, perform everyday tasks and ultimately, remember who they even are. Because the disease is so devastating, and since previous treatments failed to come up with a cure, I’m always on the lookout for Alzheimer’s natural treatment options and Alzheimer’s news, scouring the medical journals for for Alzheimer’s breakthroughs.

There’s so much we still don’t know about the human brain, but thankfully, 2016 marks a year of progress and some pretty significant Alzheimer’s breakthroughs. Let me share some of them with you.

There are several theories including free radical damage, an inability to use glucose properly, vitamin deficiencies or environmental toxins. This illness affects more than half of people over that age of 85 in the U.S.

The good news is that there are Alzheimer’s natural treatment options that can effectively improve this condition. Recently, scientists are also uncovering major Alzheimer’s breakthroughs that could lead us to a cure.

8 Notable Alzheimer’s Breakthroughs of 2016

1. What you eat TOTALLY matters

If you’ve spent any time at all on this website, you know my mantra: Food is medicine. It’s not hocus pocus, either. Hippocrates knew the importance of food in healing the body back in 400 B.C. when he advised people to prevent and treat diseases first and foremost by eating nutrient-packed foods. Modern science is catching up.

Scientists recently found that the Mediterranean diet seems to be protective against Alzheimer’s disease. A UCLA study published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry found that the Mediterranean diet is one of the main lifestyle factors that seems to keep the brain from developing the toxic plaques and tangles associated with the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

Plaque is characterized by deposits of a toxic protein called beta-amyloid in the spaces between nerve cells in the brain. Think of tangles of knotted threads of the tau protein found within brain cells. Both are considered the key indicators of Alzheimer’s.

The new study used PET imaging to study the brain for changes and is the first to demonstrate how lifestyle factors directly influence abnormal proteins in people with subtle memory loss who have not yet been diagnosed with dementia. Healthy lifestyle factors also have been shown to be related to reduced shrinking of the brain and lower rates of atrophy in people with Alzheimer’s. (1)

Food staples of the Mediterranean diet include:

fresh fruits and vegetables (especially leafy greens like spinach and kale and non-starchy veggies like eggplant, cauliflower, artichokes, tomatoes and fennel)
olive oil
nuts and seeds (like almonds and sesame seeds used to make tahini)
legumes and beans (especially lentils and chickpeas used to make hummus)
herbs and spices (like oregano, rosemary and parsley)
whole grains
eating wild-caught fish and seafood at least twice a week
high-quality, pasture-raised poultry, eggs, cheese, goat milk, and probiotic-rich kefir or yogurt consumed in moderation
red meat consumed on special occasions or about once weekly
plenty of fresh water and some coffee or tea
oftentimes a daily glass of red wine

2. Exercise is a potent Alzheimer’s preventer

That same UCLA-led study also produced some robust results surrounding exercise’s brain-protecting properties. Those who were more physically active on a regular basis also had the lowest levels of tangles and plaques on the PET scans, meaning they had a much lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

While any type of exercise is certainly better than sitting around, if you’re time strapped, burst training, also known as high-intensity interval training, or HIIT, is a great option. Here are 3 HIIT workouts to help you get started.

Keep in mind, though, that we need more research on how HIIT impacts the brain. We know that it does melt away fat faster than traditional steady state cardio (and a lower BMI lowers your risk of the tangles and plaques associated with Alzheimer’s, according to the latest UCLA study). However, a previous study did find that steady state cardio creates more brain neurons compared to weight training or HIIT. (2)

More research is needed to see if one form of exercise is best to prevent Alzheimer’s. For now, just focus on any physical activity and getting into a healthy BMI range.

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