"Part of planning for a marathon is making sure you know the terrain."
Welcome to the Dementia Marathon Community
And thank you to readers who replied, commented and offered further information. And to all those who invited friends and family to join, a very big Thank You. We appreciate your efforts. We know it’s not always easy!
In one poll, more than 10% of those who responded said that they wouldn't be willing to communicate with someone who they knew had dementia. We realise that it's responses like this that continue to make life difficult for those diagnosed and their family and friends. So we recognise that you have chosen differently and thank you for your efforts to start a conversation.
Technology gives a helping hand
A particular thanks to the reader who pointed us to this article in The Senior Newsletter:
Technology has changed the way we live. Here's a good example of an app you can download, designed to make life easier for dementia patients and their carers:
https://programs.perxhealth.com/ndsp
“a new mobile app (funded by the Department of Health and supported by project partner Dementia Australia)" designed to help "patients living with Dementia to streamline the management of their condition.”
This week’s question
“What is the difference between Dementia and Alzheimers?”
Disclaimer. We are neither of us qualifed medical people. We rely on what we’ve read and studied and on our own personal experience. We offer educational information and an opportunity to talk about dementia and its implications for us as individuals and more widely, within society.
Please see your doctor or trusted medical practitioner for individual and specific advice on your unique situation.
Back to the question - “What IS the difference between Dementia and Alzheimers ?”
The short answer is that Dementia is a general term that refers to a wide variety of symptoms, including impaired mental functioning. It’s often referred to as a syndrome, meaning a collection of symptoms shared by people with a common diagnosis.
Alzheimers is one form that dementia can take. It is also the most common form of dementia and accounts for about 60% to 70% of all dementia.
Other diseases that fall under the dementia umbrella, either because they are recognised as forms of dementia, or because they also lead dementia, include Huntington’s, Parkinsons, Lewy Body Dementia, Fronto-temporal Dementia (FTD), Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (CJD) and Vascular Dementia.
Alzheimers, itself, comes in variations. If you were able to watch the Terry Pratchett video in the last newsletter, you will recall that his diagnosis was ‘a rare form of Alzheimer’s’.
What are the signs to look out for?
Dementia is not just about simple memory mishaps like forgetting someone’s name or where you parked your car. Memory loss is not the typical first symptom. It might be communication, or reason and judgement, focus and concentration, or just problems with detecting movement. Depending on the person, a variety of things can start to go out of whack.
In Alzheimer’s, memory loss is evident at the beginning although it may be mild. Gradually, it becomes more difficult to carry on a conversation or to do everyday tasks.
Because many of the first signs are changes in the behaviour of the person, the GP may not know the person well enough to see these signs. They rely on family members to notice and it is a very common story for family to miss the signs because they associate the changes with ageing or bereavement. Sometimes it can be a reluctance to think something is going on because they love the person and don’t want to think there is a problem.
Diagnosis
This is one of the places where the discussion can get a bit tricky.
Dementia can be hard to diagnose.
One of the reasons we think it makes sense to refer to it as a marathon is that it can start quite early in life - in one’s 30s, 40s, 50s - with no specific symptoms.
By the time the person or the people around them notice anything is wrong, the disease can already be quite well established.
Because there can be such variety of changes in a person’s behaviour, and these changes can have a variety of causes, when you do notice changes, it can pay to investigate, so that you can rule out some causes; for example, a vitamin deficiency.
Dale Bredeson likens the many causes of dementia to having many holes in the roof of one’s house. Some are large; some are small; some are easily fixed; others may take a long time to mend.
Just as when planning for a marathon, it pays to explore the terrain first, so when planning to treat dementia, it pays to decide where the ‘holes’ are and how they might be fixed. Some holes may be easier to fix than others. We still have much to learn!
Spread the Word!
This week, please will you forward this newsletter to one other person and ask them to click on the link www.dementiamarathon.ck.page .
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