People with dementia get other signs that their brains are not working well, such as problems thinking or changes in their personality. As dementia gets worse, people can start to behave strangely or very differently. For example, they may get easily upset (agitated) or become aggressive.

The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer's disease. The next most common types are dementia with Lewy bodies and vascular dementia. To read more, see Causes of dementia.

There isn't a cure for Alzheimer's and most other dementias, but there are treatments that can help with memory problems and other symptoms.

If someone close to you has dementia, it can be distressing to watch them gradually get worse. It can also be exhausting to look after them yourself, no matter how much you want to. Make sure you get help, from other family members or from health care professionals.

To understand dementia and how it's treated, it helps to understand how your brain works.

Your brain controls most things that your body does. It allows you to speak, think, move your arms and legs, recognize your family and build memories. Your brain also controls things like your breathing and body temperature.

Your brain is made up of billions of brain cells that share information with each other. Different groups of brain cells have different jobs to do. For example, some groups are involved in thinking, learning, remembering, and planning. Other groups of cells deal with seeing or hearing. And other cells manage the millions of jobs that keep your body working normally.

Your brain cells need to communicate with each other. Messages travel between cells in the form of electrical signals. The electrical signals move from one cell to another with the help of brain chemicals called

 

 

 

 

 

neurotransmitters
Neurotransmitters are chemicals that help to carry messages between nerve cells. Serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline are all neurotransmitters.

 

 

 

 

 

neurotransmitters. Signals travel back and forth across the brain in a fraction of a second. Millions of signals are flashing through your brain right now.

For your brain to work properly, the cells must be healthy and in good working order. They need to keep stores of neurotransmitters. And they also need an energy supply, which comes from chemicals in your blood. Brain cells can last a lifetime, and they normally repair themselves if they get damaged.

Our memories are stored in brain cells. One part of the brain helps us remember what we did a few minutes or a few days ago (short-term memory). Another part of the brain holds our long-term memory. Long-term memories last for months or years. Important, useful or dramatic memories get stored in your long-term memory.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Guyton AC, Hall JE.
The cerebral cortex: intellectual functions of the brain; and learning and memory
In: Textbook of medical physiology. 10th edition. WB Saunders, Philadelphia, U.S.A.; 2000.

 

 

 

 

 

¹

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Heston LL, White JA.
The vanishing mind: a practical guide to Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.
WH Freeman, New York, U.S.A.; 1991.

 

 

 

 

 

²

As well as allowing us to remember what has happened to us, memory is important for everyday tasks. Almost everything we do relies on memory. Activities such as driving, or even catching a ball or turning on a faucet, rely on memory. We've learned to do these things in the past, and we need our memory to do them again.

If you have dementia, this means your brain is not working properly. Dementia causes problems with memory, thinking, behavior, and personality.

Different types of dementia have different effects on the brain, although the symptoms they cause may be similar. Symptoms include short-term and long-term memory loss, difficulties with language, and problems remembering how to do everyday activities.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia. In Alzheimer's, small lumps of protein (called amyloid plaques) form in the brain. In the next most common type, Lewy body dementia, a different type of protein grows inside the brain cells. And in the third most common type, vascular dementia, the brain is damaged by blocked or ruptured blood vessels, in or near the brain.

To read more, see Causes of dementia.

We don't know why some people get dementia and others don't. But we know there are things that make it more likely that some people will get it. These things are called risk factors. For example, getting older is a risk factor. And if someone in your family has Alzheimer's, you're more likely to get it than someone without any relatives who has the disease.

To learn more, see Risk factors for dementia.

Most people who have Alzheimer's get the first symptoms when they are elderly. But about 1 in 10 people with Alzheimer's have early-onset Alzheimer's disease. This form of the illness affects people in their 50s, 40s, or even 30s. It often runs in families.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Whitehouse PJ.
Genesis of Alzheimer's disease.
Neurology. 1997; 48 (supplement 7): S2-S7.

 

 

 

 

 

³

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral (ADEAR) Centre.
Alzheimer's disease genetics fact sheet.
November 2008. National Institute of Aging. Available at http://www.nia.nih.gov/Alzheimers/Publications/geneticsfs.htm (accessed on 24 July 2009).

 

 

 

 

 

⁴

The same is true for dementia with Lewy bodies. Although it usually starts in elderly people, it can also affect younger people.

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