Muscular Dementia Essay

Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly, accounting for 65–70% of all cases (Jellinger, Janetzky, Attems, & Kienzl, 2008). The other dementias are of the Parkinson 's group, the fronto-temporal group and the vascular group. The total worldwide yearly costs for the treatment and care of patients suffering from dementia are estimated to be around 250 billion US dollars. The lifetime risk for AD between the ages of 65 and 100 is 33% for men and 45% for women with an annual increase of 1–2% in the seventh decade to almost 60% in the 10th decade with doubling every 5 years (Jellinger et al., 2008). AD is incurable, and thus represents a major public health problem. AD represents a challenge to humanity due to its relatively recent discovery, progressive nature of the illness, and complex diagnosis.

Many people aren’t aware of vascular dementia, and some of those who are aware of it misunderstand the disease. It’s very important to be educated on how the disease could affect you or someone you care about, and how you maybe able to deal with it.

Vascular dementia is the first form of dementia, which is caused by damage to the brain through deprivation of oxygenated blood. If areas of the brain are not getting oxygen then part of it will die causing the vascular dementia.

The symptoms of Alzheimer’s are extremely detrimental to the individual whom it affects, as the disease attacks the brain cells and their connections. As the illness progresses, many

Alzheimer’s Disease is a disease of the future. With the growing aged population, this disease, which affects primarily the elderly, will become of increasing relevance to the medical profession. Also, the high frequency of Alzheimer’s, and the high cost in labor, money, and material of caring for its victims shall put considerable burden on the society as a whole. Here, however, these issues are not going to be debated. Instead the pathology of Alzheimer’s will be reviewed to the extent it is known today.

Dementia is a group of symptoms affecting memory, thinking and social abilities enough to interfere with daily functioning. Dementia can also make changes in memory. Delirium is a serious disturbance in mental abilities that results in confused thinking and reduced awareness of your environment. Delirium usually starts rapidly with abrupt confusion, emerging over days or weeks and represents a sudden change from the person’s previous course of Dementia.

Dementia can be defined as a decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life (alz.org). More than often, individuals affected by dementia are over the age of 65. In the United States, there are more than three million cases of dementia each year. According to World Health Organization, the number of people living with dementia is currently estimated at 47.5 million worldwide and is expected to increase to 75.6 million by 2030 (World Health Organization 2015). Dementia is caused by physical modifications in the brain and is known for loss of memory and mental abilities. It’s a progressive disease which means it gets worse over time. If diagnosed early on, the quality of life for people with dementia as well as their family members can be significantly improved. There are many different types of dementias although some are far more reciprocal than others. One of the most common types of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease. Other few types of dementias are “Vascular dementia, Mixed dementia, Parkinson 's disease and Frontotemporal dementia (Krishnan, D. S)”. All of the various forms of dementia tend to have similar symptoms which consequently makes it hard to determine the type of dementia a patient may be suffering from.

There are many diseases that result in dementia. The most common types of dementia are Alzheimer’s disease; vascular dementia; Pick’s disease; dementia with Lewy bodies (Fronto-Temporal); Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD); Huntington’s disease.

4. Vascular Dementia – This form of dementia results from many strokes. When a patient has a stroke, the blood flow is interrupted to the brain and the result is brain tissue damage (Types of Dementia, 2011). These patients normally lose their cognitive ability before their memory.

Scientists have been struggling with the cause, treatment of, and cure for Muscular dystrophy since its discovery in 1886, by Dr. Guillaume Duchenne. Muscular dystrophy is a hereditary disease, affecting thousands of people every year, two-thirds being children between the age of birth through adolescents. Muscular dystrophy can also occur with no family history of the disease.

     Dementia, memory loss, and cognitive breakdown are some of the major signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The disease damages brain cells, which in turn, impairs the memory and leads to loss of memory and the ability to perform tasks. The slow elimination of cells weakens the brain’s ability to remember things, perform normal

A topic I learned more of this semester in regards to the older population was dementia. Some loss in memory function is an inevitable consequence of aging, and as one ages, it takes more time to process information and retrieve memories. However, "Dementia is a general term that refers to progressive, degenerative brain dysfunction, including deterioration in memory, concentration, language skills, visuospatial skills, and reasoning, that interferes with a person's daily functioning" (Mauk, 2014, p. 377). This loss of mental skills affects the ability to function over time, causing problems with memory and how one thinks, impacting these individual's overall quality of life.

Dementia is characterized as a condition where the mental processes of cognition and memory start to deteriorate. It is described as a syndrome that hinders the daily lives of those who have it and is characterized by memory and thinking impairment. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s Disease and the second most common is vascular dementia. Dementia is a syndrome occurring usually, but not limited, to people over the age of 40 and is due to brain damage caused by natural deteriorating, stroke or can be brought on by factors such as excessive drinking or drug abuse. Dementia is best cared for in its early stages and, therefore, an early diagnosis is essential. Recognizing the symptoms by both the dementia patient and the

Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) (2014) defined vascular dementia as an illness where an individual’s arteries in the brain are blocked and the brain is starved of oxygen. This leads to a blockage resulting in mini or major strokes. Nazarko (2013) suggested that dementia is a progressive loss of mental ability which can cause sufferers to experience visual hallucinations and experience difficulty in making decisions. Furthermore, Nazarko (2015) maintained that communicating with dementia sufferers can be difficult due to age related problems such as hearing and visual impairment. She also mentioned that the physical change in dementia sufferers affects the way they perceive and interpret the world.

VD is the second most common type of dementia; consisting of 10 to 30 percent and it is due to dead nerve cells in infected vessels. This is often caused by transient ischemic attacks (Miller, 2009). The two widely known forms of vascular dementia is Multi-infarct dementia (MD) and Binswanger’s disease (BD) also known as sub cortical vascular dementia. MD is a result of Transient Ischaemic Attacks (TIA) that harms the cortex of the brain which is involved with memory. BD is related to stroke and high blood pressure and affects the “white matter” in the brain causing movement difficulties and emotional imbalances (Alzheimer’s Association, 2011). Late adulthood, diabetes mellitus, recurrent strokes and low education are common risk factors of VD however there are preventive measures like smoking, diabetes and sedentary lifestyle (Miller, 2009).