Thursday, December 5, 2013

Life Expectancy In Alzheimer's Disease(Ad)And Dementia

By Jack Morgan


Dementia is the medical term used to describe a person's declining mental ability. The decline can be serious enough to affect daily living. Dementia is not a particular illness. It is the overall term to refer to a broad range of symptoms.

The symptoms are classified in stages in order to serve as a guide on dementia life expectancy and how an individual reach to specific stages and symptoms. These stages can overlap and fluctuate especially with the existence of other physical condition.

Age and gender are the main factors that affect AD and dementia life expectancy. There are many factors in the study that determined how long a person could live after being diagnosed with AD or other forms of dementia. These factors included age, gender as well as level of disability. The following are the main findings of the study:

Other than these, it can also be related to infections that target the spinal cord and the brain and head injury. In other cases, dementia is the outcome of lung, kidney and liver diseases. Hydrocephalus or the accumulation of fluid in the brain is also a major factor in this condition.

During the final stage of dementia, the life expectancy of the individual will start diminishing rapidly as he or she will lose his or her ability to respond to the environment. The early onset of dementia may also be due to other syndromes and diseases as it determines the dementia life expectancy in an individual.

At this phase, an individual with dementia is more relaxed and willing to let go and give in. They may begin to look like pre-occupied with the happy times or the past regaining these memories and living in that point and reality. Also, communication may be a bit hard since they may have difficulty in constructing sentences.

At this stage, a person with dementia begins to withdraw further into old memories and become too pre-occupied with these and may totally live to that reality and time. Wandering is also a possibility at this point. When this occurs, it is essential to determine a valid reason like either the individual is searching for something or trying to ease boredom. Also, the language at this time may mainly consist of one syllables like the word yes and no.

Dementia that is generally brought on by brain deprived of nutrients and oxygen as a result of shrinking arteries and strokes. This type of dementia is known as vascular dementia and the average dementia life expectancy for these patients is about five years or less.

The other factors that increases the chances of having dementia includes high blood pressure, multiple strokes and other risks factors as it can shorten the life expectancy of an individual. Thus the dementia life expectancy in a person depends on the causes of the disease and the area of the brain it has affected.




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