Alzheimer's Reading Room
What is Alzheimer's?
Alzheimer's disease is a physical illness that causes radical changes in the brain. As healthy brain tissues degenerate persons suffering from Alzheimer's experience a steady decline in memory and the ability to use their brain to perform tasks.Go here to read more about Alzheimer's disease.
What is Dementia?
Dementia is the gradual deterioration of mental functioning, such as concentration, memory, and judgment, which affects a person’s ability to perform normal daily activities.Go here to read more about Dementia.
Dementia and the Eight Types of Dementia
Dementia is a an illness that usually occurs slowly over time, and usually includes a progressive state of deterioration. The earliest signs of dementia are usually memory problems, confusion, and changes in the way a person behaves and communicates.Go here to read more about the Eight Types of Dementia.
Is it really Alzheimer's or something else?
Many people assume that if an older person becomes forgetful and can no longer deal with some of the basic activities of daily living, he or she must have Alzheimer’s disease. This is not always the case.Go here to read more about Is it really Alzheimer's or something else?
Vascular Dementia
Vascular Dementia is considered to be the second-most-common type of dementia.
Impairment is caused by decreased blood flow to parts of the brain, often due to a series of small strokes that block arteries.
Symptoms often overlap with those of Alzheimer’s, although memory may not be as seriously affected.
Dementia with Lewy Bodies
Pattern of decline may be similar to Alzheimer’s, including problems with memory, judgment and behavior changes.
Alertness and severity of cognitive symptoms may fluctuate daily.
Visual hallucinations, muscle rigidity and tremors are common.
Hallmarks include Lewy bodies (abnormal deposits of the protein alphasynuclein) that form inside nerve cells in the brain.
Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus.
Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is caused by the buildup of fluid in the brain. Symptoms include difficulty walking, memory loss and inability to control urine.
NPH can sometimes be corrected with surgical installation of a shunt in the brain to drain excess fluid.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a condition in which a person has problems with memory, language or another essential cognitive function that are severe enough to be noticeable to others and show up on tests, but not severe enough to interfere with daily life.
Some people with mild cognitive impairment go on to develop dementia. For others, the symptoms of mild cognitive impairment do not progress to dementia, and some people who have mild cognitive impairment at one point in time later revert to normal cognitive status.
Frontotemporal Dementia
Involves damage to brain cells, especially in the front and side regions of the brain.
Typical symptoms include changes in personality and behavior and difficulty
with language.
No distinguishing microscopic abnormality is linked to all cases.
Pick’s disease, characterized by “Pick’s bodies,” is one type of frontotemporal
dementia.
Mixed dementia
Mixed dementia is characterized by the presence of the hallmark abnormalities of Alzheimer’s and another type of dementia, most commonly vascular dementia, but also other types, such as dementia with Lewy bodies, frontotemporal dementia and normal pressure hydrocephalus.
Parkinson’s disease
Many people who have Parkinson’s disease develop dementia in the later stages of the disease.
The hallmark abnormality is Lewy bodies (abnormal deposits of the protein alpha-synuclein) that form inside nerve cells in the brain.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
Rapidly fatal disorder that impairs memory and coordination and causes behavior changes.
“Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease” is believed to be caused by consumption of
products from cattle affected by “mad cow disease.”
Caused by the misfolding of prion protein throughout the brain.
More About the Alzheimer's Reading Room
- 60 Good Reasons to Subscribe to the Alzheimer's Reading Room
- Alzheimer's CareGiving -- Insight and Advice
- Test Your Memory for Alzheimer's (5 Best Self Assessment Tests)
- Communicating in Alzheimer's World
- Worried About Alzheimer's Disease -- You Should Be
 The Alzheimer's Action Plan |  300 Tips for Making Life Easier |
Original content Bob DeMarco, the Alzheimer's Reading Room
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