Causes And Symptoms Of Dementia

Dementia is a disease that over a couple of a million people are diagnosed with every single year in the United States alone. Stark writes, “Dementia is the loss of cognitive and social abilities to the degree that it interferes with activities of daily living” (1). This very common disease can go as far as causing death to many people per year. In some rare cases it is possible that dementia can be reversible, but it is more likely to be irreversible. Elders are more likely to be diagnosed than younger people because the risk of dementia increases with age. Many studies are going on to find out more information on the causes, symptoms, and treatments on this nerve damaging disease. There are many different causes of dementia that can be …show more content…
Dementia mostly affects people’s activities that they would do in their everyday life. Also, the caretakers of dementia patients are greatly influenced on their patient's behavior. One big example of a consequence of dementia is the amount of sleep that dementia patients lack, and how much sleep caretakers of these dementia patients are lacking too. But the good news is that sleep in dementia patients can be improved if you complete the correct tasks. Confusion, mood swings, and sundowning are associated with getting enough sleep. “Dementia is the progressive destruction of a person’s memory, judgement, abstract thinking, personality, and ability to carry out everyday activities, such as personal grooming and communication” (Patrick 1). Most of these symptoms can be fixed if you listen to your …show more content…
One way to lower the effects of dementia is bright-light therapy. Regina Patrick comments, “They concluded that bright-light therapy may be more effective in improving sleep in someone with vascular dementia than in someone with Alzheimer’s disease” (2). This therapy is an example of something that works with certain types of dementia, but not with others. Another method that can help with the symptoms of dementia is eating the right food and making the best choices for yourself. You have to think of every day as your last so that you do the right things to have a healthy, and long lasting life. Swaminathan says, “If you start early, in your 30s, then you’ve got time to do the right things. In your 60s, there’s less time to invest in your health” (4). So if you start taking care of yourself early in life it could help you greatly in the future. Coffee can also aid you immensely in helping with your symptoms and increasing your life expectancy. “People who drink five or more cups a day are 85 percent less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, which, in addition to its trademark tremors, can also cause dementia” (Swaminathan 3). Aside from these methods of decreasing your symptoms of dementia, there are many other methods that you can