Page 43 - Seniors Today - January Issue
P. 43
Health
Dementia –
reducing the risks
Dementia is a lurking fear as one grows older, but you can take steps to lower
its risk starting right now, explains Dr Nandini Saini
Dementia – an umbrella term which difficulty performing simple day-to-day
includes many different symptoms, tasks, even comprehending what they see.
including memory loss, impaired thinking, It has a physical, psychological, social,
difficulty in finding words, impaired and economic impact, not only on people
judgment and the inability to perform with dementia, but also on their families,
everyday activities. careers and society.
Although not a normal part of ageing, The general cause of dementia is anything
dementia mainly affects older people, more that damages the neurons in the brain,
common after the age of 65. Worldwide, leading to dysfunction.
around 50 million people have dementia,
and there are nearly 10 million new cases Are you at risk?
every year. There are some factors which are not in our
There are many types of dementia control:
including AGE. Although age is the strongest
• Alzheimer’s disease (most common, 60 known risk factor for dementia, it is not
-70 %), a natural consequence of ageing. Further,
• Vascular dementia, dementia does not exclusively affect older
• Frontotemporal dementia people – young onset dementia (defined as
• Lewy Body disease. the onset of symptoms before the age of 65
• Dementia associated with Parkinson’s years) accounts for up to 9% of cases.
Dementia is one of the major causes of GENES In rarer types of dementia there
disability and dependency among older may be a strong genetic link, but these are
people worldwide, as affected people have only a tiny proportion of overall cases of
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #19 | JANUARY 2021 43
