Is DEMENTIA a Bigger Word than Cancer?

For anyone over 50 there is a chance of developing one of the degenerative diseases of the brain, often called Dementia, or Senile Dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type. Dementia is defined as an acquired syndrome of decline in memory and at least one other cognitive domain such as language, visuo-spatial, or executive function sufficient to interfere with social or occupational functioning in an alert person. “Mild cognitive impairment," is a condition not associated with functional impairment but that sometimes progresses to dementia.

Alzheimer's disease and cerebrovascular ischemia (vascular dementia) are the two most common causes of dementia. Between 60 and 70 percent of individuals with dementia have Alzheimer's disease; about 20 to 30 percent have either vascular dementia or a combination of vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Dementia causes a high burden of suffering for patients and their families. For patients, it increases dependency and complicates other medical conditions. For families it can lead to anxiety and depression, and may increase the time needed to care for loved ones. The annual economic cost of dementia in the USA is estimated to be $100 billion.

Age is the strongest risk factor for dementia: 3 to 11 percent of people older than 65, and 25 to 47 percent of those older than 85 have dementia. First degree relatives of patients with Alzheimer's disease have a cumulative lifetime risk of 39 percent, approximately twice the risk of Alzheimer's disease in the general population. Some genetic mutations have been associated with Alzheimer's disease. Cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension are associated with an increased risk of both Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.

Dementia is often associated with loss of memory, however there are different types of dementia and not all show early memory failure. More importantly there are other reasons people start to forget things, such as age, depression, stress, physical ailments and infections.

While dementias are generally difficult to treat, or even to delay or slow up the progress, some dementias respond to treatment quite readily and other problems resulting in dementia type symptoms can be treated. There are at least five sub-types of dementia and some are more treatable than others.

For example, physical exercise, diet and mind exercises are thought to delay on-set for those at risk. Certainly being over-weight, having high blood pressure and smoking are associated with increased risk, while light to moderate alcohol consumption is believed to protect against dementia. Also depression and worry is related to increased risk of dementia. A whole range of treatments exist for risky behaviour and psychological problems like depression and anxiety, including psychotherapy and medication.

While only one in 20 people will develop dementia in the 60s, although by the time they reach their 80s this can become as high as one in five it is a very costly and disturbing process for both sufferers and their families. In Australia there are now some 190,000 people who are sufferers, however in 20 years time this will be over 500,000.