Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease

Dementiaand Alzheimer’s disease are two such types of diseases which affect a large number of people throughout the world especially when they are aged.

Dementia: To simply define, it is a set of symptoms which occurs due to memory loss. These symptoms may be related to thinking or about solving practical problems. Initially, dementia isn’t severe, though as time progresses, the intensity goes higher, and at some point of time, it affects the daily life of a person.

Alzheimer’s disease: Alzheimer’s disease is one of the main causes of dementia. In case of this disease, some proteins are built up in the brain, which disrupts the flow of signals between nerve cells. It also leads to a shortage of chemical messengers which ultimately hampers the working of the brain.

Diagnosing Tests for Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease:

The diagnosis involves differential diagnosis to exclude other diseases which may show similar symptoms as that of Alzheimer and dementia.

• Physical Evaluation: During the normal check-up, various aspects are checked including blood pressure, pulse etc.
• Neurological Evaluation: After a physical examination, the neurological examination is done to rule out other neurological diseases which may show similar prognosis. The reflexes and muscle coordination are one of the key aspects through which a physician could rule out many diseases and narrow the possible cause. Eye movement and speech are other aspects which should be thoroughly checked up.
• Check for Mental Status: Any disruption in the mental status of a person could lead to an imbalance in the cognitive skills such as reading, writing, and learning. Awareness is also one of the key aspects.
• Brain Scans (MRI & CT): The brain imaging is done to rule out some other diseases/deformities, which may lead to similar symptoms. For e.g. tumour, stroke, or any obstacle in the flow of blood. Foreign fluid accumulation could lead to abnormal brain function, which may appear similar to Alzheimer’s symptoms. Hence, brain imaging can differentiate those and help make the correct diagnosis.

These are a few tests for diagnosing the Alzheimer and dementia diseases. So, the key is to get the problems diagnosed and treated as early as possible.