Well…. I was told that, that my Dad has Alzheimer’s and that my Mum has Dementia by the same consultant, what`s the difference.
My wife Shirley has been having problems with her bladder for a lot of years now and it was finally though to try her on Botox injections in her bladder which seems to have worked, but it does require a top up every so often.
Well Shirley’s top-up was a week or so ago. While in the waiting room I noticed a poster of sorts on the waiting room wall. It spoke about Dementia and that there are different types of dementia.
It spoke about the word Dementia being the overall name for a group of brain conditions/illness / diseases of which Alzheimer’s was just the most common.
I went onto the Alzheimers Research uk's website to find out more which you can see some of below. I haven't included all of the information I found on the website but I have included hyperlinks to the relevant pages on the Alzheimers Research uk's website if you want more information on the subject.
According Alzheimers Research uk's website:
Dementia is not a disease in itself. Dementia is a word used to describe a group of symptoms that occur when brain cells stop working properly.
The below are the types of Dementia:
Alzheimer's disease
Vascular dementia
Dementia with Lewy bodies
Frontotemporal dementia
Mild cognitive impairment
Posterior cortical atrophy
Primary progressive aphasia
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer’s often develops slowly over several years. It is not always obvious to begin with and symptoms can be subtle and overlap with other illnesses such as depression.
In the early stages, it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish Alzheimer’s from mild forgetfulness which can be seen in normal ageing.
Everyone with Alzheimer’s will experience symptoms in their own way, but certain changes are characteristic of the disease.
Typical early symptoms of Alzheimer’s may include:
- Regularly forgetting recent events, names and faces.
- Becoming increasingly repetitive, e.g. repeating questions after a very short interval.
- Regularly misplacing items or putting them in odd places.
- Uncertainty about the date or time of day.
- A person becoming unsure of their whereabouts or getting lost, particularly in unusual surroundings.
- Problems finding the right words.
- Becoming low in mood, anxious or irritable, losing self-confidence or showing less interest in what’s happening.
Alzheimer’s gets worse over time, but the speed of change varies from person to person.
As Alzheimer’s progresses:
- People find that their ability to remember, think and make decisions worsens.
- Communication and language become more difficult.
- People may have difficulty recognising household objects or familiar faces.
- Day-to-day tasks become harder, for example using a TV remote control, phone or kitchen appliance. People may also have difficulty locating objects in front of them.
- Changes in sleep patterns often occur.
- Some people become sad, depressed or frustrated about the challenges they face. Anxieties are also common and people may seek extra reassurance or become fearful or suspicious.
- People may experience hallucinations, where they may see things or people that aren’t there.
- People may become increasingly unsteady on their feet and are at greater risk of falling.
- Daily activities like dressing, toileting and eating become more difficult, and people gradually require more help.
This information was updated in May 2016 and is due for review in May 2018. Please contact us if you would like a version with references.
For more "click here" to go to the Alzheimer’s research uk website for more information on Vascular dementia.
Vascular dementia (this is the version my Mum has)
Vascular dementia is the second most common cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease.
What is vascular dementia?
The word dementia is used to describe a group of symptoms. These include memory loss, confusion and mood changes and are severe enough to affect day-to-day life.
Dementia is not a disease in itself, but is caused by different diseases, the most common being Alzheimer’s. Vascular dementia is the second most common form of dementia, causing up to 20 in every 100 cases.
Vascular dementia occurs when blood vessels in the brain are damaged. This reduces blood flow to brain cells, which affects how they work.
Sometimes this blood vessel damage can cause memory and thinking problems that are not severe enough to be considered dementia. This may be called vascular cognitive impairment.
Some people have both vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease; this is called mixed dementia.
The most common types of dementia are:
- Stroke-related dementia. A stroke occurs when blood supply to a part of the brain is suddenly cut off. This may cause problems with movement, coordination, speech or sight depending on the part of the brain affected. If someone has problems with memory and thinking after a stroke, they may be diagnosed with post-stroke dementia. If the problems develop after a number of strokes or mini-strokes (transient ischaemic attacks, or TIAs), it may be described as multi-infarct dementia. Sometimes these mini-strokes are too small for a person to notice.
- Subcortical vascular dementia. This is caused by changes to very small blood vessels in the brain, often referred to as small vessel disease. The person usually does not notice these changes but they can cause memory and thinking to get worse over time, unlike the sudden change that can happen after a stroke.
Information on these pages aims to give an introduction to vascular dementia. We hope you will find it helpful.
This information was updated in January 2018 and is due for review in January 2020. It does not replace any advice that doctors, pharmacists or nurses may give you. Please contact us if you would like a version with references.
For more "click here" to go to the Alzheimer’s research uk website for more information on Vascular dementia.
Dementia with Lewy bodies
Dementia with Lewy bodies is the third most common cause of dementia.
What is dementia with Lewy bodies?
The word dementia is used to describe a group of symptoms – these include memory loss, confusion, mood changes and difficulty with day-to-day tasks. There can be a number of different causes of dementia, with Alzheimer’s disease being the most common cause.
Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is the third most common type of dementia. For every 100 people with dementia, around 10-15 of them will have DLB. This means roughly 100,000 people in the UK are likely to have this form of dementia. Some people can show features of both Alzheimer’s and DLB; this is called mixed dementia.
DLB is caused by small round clumps of protein that build up inside nerve cells in the brain. One of these proteins is called alpha-synuclein and the clumps it forms are called Lewy bodies. The protein clumps damage the way nerve cells work and communicate.
In DLB, the nerve cells that are affected by Lewy bodies are in areas of the brain that control thinking, memory and movement. Lewy bodies are also responsible for the damage that causes movement problems in Parkinson’s disease.
People with DLB can also show some changes in the brain that are typical of Alzheimer’s. This sometimes makes it hard to tell the difference between the two diseases.
This information was updated in January 2018 and is due for review in January 2020. It does not replace any advice that doctors, pharmacists or nurses may give you. Please contact us if you would like a version with references.
For more "click here" to go to the Alzheimer’s research uk website for more information on Dementia with Lewy bodies
Frontotemporal dementia
Frontotemporal dementia or FTD (sometimes called Pick’s disease) is a relatively rare form of dementia.
What is frontotemporal dementia?
The word dementia is used to describe a group of symptoms – these may include changes in personality, behaviour or mood, memory loss, confusion and difficulty with day-to-day tasks.
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a relatively rare form of dementia. It is thought to account for fewer than one in 20 of all dementia cases. It commonly affects people between the ages of 45 and 64. However, FTD can affect people younger and older than this.
Originally called Pick’s disease after the scientist who first observed the symptoms, FTD is now known to be made up of several different conditions. Your doctor may refer to these conditions by their specific names or may describe them all as ‘frontotemporal dementia’, as we will in this booklet.
Frontotemporal dementia includes the following conditions:
- Behavioural variant FTD (bvFTD)
- Semantic dementia (the word semantic means the meaning of language)
- Progressive non-fluent aphasia – aphasia is a language disorder where people have problems speaking and writing
- FTD associated with motor neurone disease
Semantic dementia and progressive non-fluent aphasia are types of primary progressive aphasia. You can find out more about these conditions on the primary progressive aphasia pages.
FTD is caused by damage to cells in areas of the brain called the frontal and temporal lobes. These areas regulate our personality, emotions and behaviour, as well our speech and understanding of language.
In FTD, there is a build-up of specific proteins in these areas of the brain. These proteins can clump together and become toxic to brain cells, causing them to die.
Three major proteins identified in FTD are called tau, TDP-43 and FUS. The reason for their build-up is not yet fully understood and research is ongoing.
This information was updated in January 2018 and is due for review in January 2020. It does not replace any advice that doctors, pharmacists or nurses may give you. Please contact us if you would like a version with references.
For more "click here" to go to the Alzheimer’s research uk website for more information on Frontotemporal dementia
Mild cognitive impairment
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a term used to describe early memory and thinking problems in older people. It is not a disease in itself.
While many people have a natural decline in memory and thinking as they get older, people with MCI experience difficulties that are greater than expected for their age. However, these difficulties tend not to get in the way of a person’s day-to-day life.
MCI can be caused by a range of underlying conditions and may or may not get worse. One cause of MCI can be the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia. However, other conditions such as depression, low vitamin levels and thyroid problems can also cause similar mild memory difficulties.
Some people with MCI find that their symptoms stay the same or return to normal. MCI does not necessarily lead to dementia.
We do not have a clear picture of how many people have MCI. Research has suggested that one or two in every 10 people over 65 may have MCI or cognitive impairment. However, it is not always easy for a doctor to diagnose MCI, so it’s hard to know exactly how many people are affected.
What’s the difference between MCI and dementia?
The word dementia describes a group of symptoms that can affect a person’s ability to carry out daily activities without help. These include memory problems, confusion and mood changes. A person with dementia will usually experience two or more of these symptoms, such as problems with their memory or getting lost. Someone with MCI may have only one of these symptoms and unlike dementia, it would not normally interfere with their day-to-day life.
Does MCI lead to dementia?
Having MCI raises your risk of developing dementia in future, even if your symptoms get better over time. However, it’s not yet clear how many people with MCI go on to develop dementia.
Some studies estimate that each year, 10-15% of people with a diagnosis of MCI develop dementia. Other studies have put this figure as low as 5-10%. For people who do develop dementia, the time this takes can vary from one person to another.
Factors such as older age, depression, diabetes or high blood pressure may increase the likelihood that someone with MCI will go on to develop a form of dementia like Alzheimer’s disease. People with MCI who have a risk gene called APOE4 have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Having this gene may also increase the risk of developing MCI in the first place.
This information was written in January 2018 and is due to be reviewed in November 2019. Please contact us if you would like a version with references.
For more "click here" to go to the Alzheimer’s research uk website for more information on Mild cognitive impairment
Posterior cortical atrophy
Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a rare form of dementia that usually begins by affecting a person’s vision. It is also known as Benson’s syndrome.
PCA is caused by damage to the brain cells at the back of the brain that make sense of what our eyes are seeing.
Alzheimer’s disease is most often the cause of the brain cell damage in PCA. PCA is sometimes called a visual form of Alzheimer’s. However, the early signs of PCA and typical Alzheimer’s can be very different. Alzheimer’s disease usually affects memory first. In PCA the first signs are often problems with vision and perception.
People often develop PCA at an earlier age than typical Alzheimer’s disease, usually between the ages of 50 and 65. PCA is a less common form of dementia, and at the moment we can’t be sure how many people around the world are affected by it.
This information was written in May 2017 and is due for review in May 2019. Please contact us if you
For more "click here" to go to the Alzheimer’s research uk website for more information on Posterior cortical atrophy
Primary progressive aphasia
Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a condition caused by damage to parts of the brain that control our personality, emotions, language and behaviour. In most cases, this damage is caused by frontotemporal dementia. Most people who develop PPA will be in their 50s and 60s.
PCA is caused by damage to the brain cells at the back of the brain that make sense of what our eyes are seeing.
Alzheimer’s disease is most often the cause of the brain cell damage in PCA. PCA is sometimes called a visual form of Alzheimer’s. However, the early signs of PCA and typical Alzheimer’s can be very different. Alzheimer’s disease usually affects memory first. In PCA the first signs are often problems with vision and perception.
People often develop PCA at an earlier age than typical Alzheimer’s disease, usually between the ages of 50 and 65. PCA is a less common form of dementia, and at the moment we can’t be sure how many people around the world are affected by it.
This information was written in May 2017 and is due for review in May 2019. Please contact us if you would like a version with references.
For more "click here" to go to the Alzheimer’s research uk website for more information on Primary progressive aphasia
The below link is to the Alzheimer’s research uk website that I got the information from and I hope they don`t mind!!!!!