Saturday, March 3, 2012

Dementia And Your Brain Plasticity

Dementia is a difficult medical condition, which can impact many people as they grow older. There are different types of dementia and their impact varies. This is a difficult worldwide problem. As more people continue to grow older, the number of people affected with dementia is only going to rise in the coming years and create a real issue for individuals as well as for the society as a whole. Let’s discuss some of the causes, symptoms and treatments.

In general dementia plays a significant role in memory loss, deterioration of higher-level cognitive functions, language and emotions.

While there are different types of dementia, most cases are degenerative and there is not known cure. Alzheimer’s is a common type of dementia.

Another common form of dementia is called Lewy body disease. It generally affects older people. The disease causes unusual protein structures to grow and develop in different areas of the brain. These protein structures disrupt normal brain functioning and worsen over time.

Vascular dementia is a form of dementia, which is caused by strokes. There are also several medical conditions which can lead to dementia. This includes Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and brain infections such as AIDs or Lyme disease.

There are some kinds of dementia which can be stopped or reversed if identified in the early stages. Brain tumors, changes in blood sugar, excessively high levels of sodium or calcium in the blood, or low vitamin B12 levels can all contribute to dementia symptoms.

However if identified early enough, the symptoms can be reversed with proper treatment.

Dementia is generally regarded as an older person disease. Most people under sixty years of age are not impacted by this problem. But as they age, the risk of developing dementia increases.

In the early stages of dementia, a person may exhibit some forgetfulness. It can then progress to mild cognitive impairment and eventually impaired judgment, emotions or other cognitive skills.

As indicated earlier, there are no known cures for this problem. However there are many techniques which can be applied to minimize the impact and improve a person’s quality of life. For example there are techniques and exercises which stimulate the brain and enhance its mental functions. Those techniques usually leverage the brain plasticity to recreate some new neuronal pathways or challenge inactive parts of the brain.

Over time this can improve things like memory and other cognitive function. You can find many helpful techniques by visiting some websites which focus on this disease. Some of them are set up as games so they can be engrossing and entertaining. Others should be implemented and gauged by others.

It is also important to help to protect the brain and make certain it receives proper nutrients and minerals. A number of natural compounds have been shown to have great benefit in that regard.

More and more effective techniques are being developed all the time so it is important to check out these advances. In this way the impact of the disease can be slowed significantly and allow its sufferers to continue to live a full and robust life in many cases.

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