Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Day 7 - What IS Dementia?

What IS Dementia?  In order to answer this question, I have cited two sources and quoted what they have to say about dementia.  As I am NOT an expert, this is the best way I know to approach this subject.


             1Dementia is not a specific disease. It's an overall term that describes a wide range of symptoms associated with a decline in memory or other thinking skills severe enough to reduce a person's ability to perform everyday activities.  Dementia is often incorrectly referred to as "senility" or "senile dementia," which reflects the formerly widespread but incorrect belief that serious mental decline is a normal part of aging."

2 “Doctors use the word dementia in a special way.  Dementia does not mean crazy.  It has been chosen by the medical profession as the least offensive and most accurate term to describe this group of illnesses. Dementia describes a group of symptoms and is not the name of a disease or diseases that cause the symptoms.  Neurocognitive disorder is a newer term that some clinicians and researchers use instead of dementia.  It has the same meaning as dementia.”


 So now that I have shared a bit of medical terminology and definitions, just what IS dementia?  In terms that you and I can understand??  As I understand it, dementia is actually the description of the symptoms - not the disease.  Dementia is actually describing those symptoms that cause the disease or diseases.  Maybe I’ve just repeated what was stated above; but this is how I understand the term dementia.  There are several types of dementia which I will explore in a later post; these include Alzheimer’s disease, Multi-farct dementia and Lewy Body dementia, among others.


Check back tomorrow to see what diagnosis we received!


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1 The Alzheimers' Association, www.alz.org/dementia
2 The 36-Hour Day by Nancy L. Mace, MA, and Peter V. Rabins, MD, MPH, Fifth Edition

2 comments:

  1. There are a large number of people suffering from dementia in my country, and it is now one of the social problems. I hope more and more people will be aware of what it is really like, and knowing the definition of the term is a step in the right direction. Thank you for sharing your post.
    (I've come from the '31 days' facebook group.)

    Romi @ Letters from the Land of Cherry Blossoms

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    1. Thank you for your comment. I hope this and other information I share will be helpful to you. I keep reading and searching the Internet for information that I can share in addition to the writing that I have done over the years. I will check out your Letters from the Land of Cherry Blossoms...you said "in your country"...where are you from and are you in US or in your country?! Just curious!

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