Adults in the Boomer generation have likely experienced moments of forgetfulness from time to time, and have wondered if it’s something to be concerned about. Or maybe their children have noticed a cognitive decline in their aging parents and are worried.
Alzheimer’s disease is the first thing that comes to mind, but there’s another recently recognized condition that could be the cause. This condition is known as vascular dementia.
What is vascular dementia?
In excerpts from an article on the AARP website, we learned the following:
There are many causes of dementia. The most well-known is Alzheimer’s disease, in which brain cells are damaged by an accumulation of certain proteins in the brain. Vascular dementia, on the other hand, refers to a decline in thinking and motor skills caused by reduced blood flow to areas of the brain. The brain cells are then damaged by having less oxygen and fewer nutrients.
Damaged, shrunken or blocked blood vessels can all contribute to vascular dementia. Strokes are often a precursor to developing symptoms. Around 18 percent of people will develop dementia within a year of having a stroke, according to an analysis of 44 studies reported in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. High blood pressure is an important risk factor, as it can damage blood vessels in the brain. Essentially, “the things that are risk factors for heart disease and stroke are also the risk factors for vascular dementia,” says Anthony Levinson, M.D., a medical psychiatrist and researcher at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Other risk factors for vascular dementia include smoking, diabetes and high cholesterol. One of the greatest threats against any type of dementia, but especially vascular dementia, is exercise. As long as you continue to stimulate and move, you can continue to learn and to live. To help reduce your risk for vascular dementia, focus on the modifiable risk factors, like eating well, limiting alcohol, exercising regularly, not smoking and managing stress. The aim is to keep your blood pressure and cholesterol within a healthy range and avoid diabetes.
Go to https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/what-is-vascular-dementia/ to learn more about vascular dementia symptoms, how the condition is diagnosed, its stages and how it’s treated.
