According to a recent study published in the acclaimed Journal of the American Medical Association, nearly 50 million people worldwide have dementia. By 2050, that number is anticipated to have increased threefold, reaching over 140 million.

To better understand dementia and learn how to recognize its signs in ourselves and our loved ones, we’ll look at the disease’s phases, causes, and symptoms in this blog post.

What is dementia?

Dementia is a broad term that describes a decline in cognitive ability that is severe enough to interfere with a person’s daily activities. It is caused by physical changes in the brain and is a progressive, degenerative condition that affects memory, thinking, language, judgment, and behavior.

Alzheimer’s disease is a particular type of brain disease, but dementia is a broad phrase. It is characterized by dementia symptoms that progressively worsen over time. Early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease frequently involve problems in memory, thinking, and reasoning abilities since the disease first affects the area of the brain connected to learning.

The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, which is responsible for 60-80% of all cases. Other types of dementia include vascular dementia, which is caused by a series of small strokes, and Lewy body dementia, which is associated with the abnormal buildup of protein deposits in the brain.  Next, we will take a look at the signs and symptoms of dementia.