People with dementia have significantly impaired intellectual functioning that interferes with everyday activities and relationships. They will lose their ability to solve problems and maintain emotional control. They may experience personality changes and behavioral issues such as agitation, delusions, and hallucinations. While memory loss is a common symptom of dementia, memory loss by itself does not mean that a person has dementia. Doctors diagnose dementia only if two or more brain functions, such as memory, language skills, perception, or cognitive skills, including reasoning and judgment, are significantly impaired. Dementia is slippery. The afflicted may say one thing and, a moment later, say something different without understanding the contradiction. Sometimes, they can connect the dots; other times, they are not even on the same line. The sheer lack of predictability can be daunting.

With any type of dementia, there are both structural and chemical changes in the brain. Dementias are chronic and progressive, and each form has its own pattern.  One of my most respected teachers, Teepa Snow, explains dementia in these simple terms: 

• Two parts of the brain are actively dying
• It can’t be fixed or stopped
• It’s constantly changing
• It’s terminal
  

Many different diseases can cause dementia, including heart attack and stroke. Drugs are available to treat some of these diseases, and while at this time, these drugs cannot cure dementia or repair brain damage, they may improve symptoms or slow the progression of the disease.

Some causes of dementia may be stopped or reversed if they are discovered soon enough, including:

• Brain tumors
• Changes in blood sugar, sodium, and calcium levels
• Low levels of vitamin B-12
• Normal pressure hydrocephalus (the build-up of fluid inside the skull, leading to brain swelling)
• Use of certain medications, including cimetidine (brand name Tagamet) and some cholesterol-lowering medications
• Chronic alcohol abuse
  
• Let’s take a look at the most common symptoms to watch for when considering some form of dementia is present or developing.

Traits that, alone or combined, may suggest the possibility of dementia include:

• Forgetting things more often, including appointments or social engagements
• Losing train of thought or the thread of conversations, books, or movies
• Feeling increasingly overwhelmed by making decisions, planning steps to accomplish a task, or interpreting instructions
• Beginning to have trouble navigating around familiar environments
  Becoming more impulsive or showing increasingly poor judgment
• Experiencing depression, irritability, aggression, anxiety, and apathy are common
  

Families often explain these away as conditions of aging or stress. They are not.

If you have concerns, the best step is to see your primary physician and ask for a thorough examination and a battery of lab tests to rule out another underlying condition. The doctor may perform a Mini-Mental test. This consists of a series of questions, having the patient draw a clock and set the hands at specified times, word recall, and more. Regardless of the outcome, request an MRI, the best way to see the brain tissue. Also, don’t take a diagnosis of dementia as the answer; it is not; that is the umbrella term; you need to know exactly what type of dementia your loved one is developing. The next step is to add a neurologist to your medical team.

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