Dementia: Things To Know About Memory Loss

What is dementia? Dementia is a fated disease that comes with ageing. Dementia is a type of disease affecting the memory, showing cognitive changes as one age, which in turn, distorts the daily functioning of day to day living.

Dementia is a generic term for forms of diseases that are related to loss of memory that can either be progressive or reversed. Thus, memory loss is one of the first symptoms of dementia. However, the symptoms are not limited to cognitive changes but also psychological changes that bring about depression, anxiety, hallucinations and eventually, a personality change. In Nigeria, dementia has risen in the past decade, but research shows that dementia is higher in Nigerian women than men.

There are many types of dementia that are uniquely different depending on the underlying cause of this disease. Alzheimer’s is one of such and is one of the popular types. Alzheimer’s is caused when 3 genes mutate. Vascular dementia is when the blood vessel that transfers blood to the brain is damaged.

Also existing is Lewy body dementia. With this type of dementia, clots of protein are found in the brain frontotemporal dementia.

Besides the age factor, other circumstances can lead to dementia. Recent research that was published in the Nazarbayev University School of Engineering and Digital Sciences suggests that some cooking procedures expose one to dementia. It suggests that the nanoparticles from cooking methods such as roasting and frying make their way into the body and that constant exposure threatens the wellbeing of an individual.

On how dementia could be warded off, other researchers say that with exercises, the risk of dementia could perhaps be reduced by 33%.

Increasingly, the search for preventive methods has been the way to handle this degenerative disease. As a result, science and researchers have zoomed in seeking ways to keep dementia at bay.