According to the WHO, dementia is a syndrome in which there is a deterioration in memory, reasoning, behavior and the ability to carry out daily activities. In France, over 1.2 million people are affected by some form of dementia and it is twice as common in women as in men.
The different forms of dementia: Alzheimer’s, frontotemporal dementia…
If the most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease (which would be the cause of 60 to 70% of cases), other rarer forms of dementia – such as fronto-temporal dementia or dementia with Lewy bodies – exist. In these three cases, they are neurodegenerative diseases, in fact, we cannot cure them but only reduce the symptoms.
There are also forms of dementia linked to vascular lesions. They represent 20 to 30% of cases and are favored by arterial hypertension and diabetes.
Dementia: Impact on loved ones
The risk of developing a form of dementia increases with age. Only 24,000 people out of the 1.2 million cases in France are under the age of 65. However, this disease does not only affect the sick person. Indeed, as Public Health France indicates:
“Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias represent a major cause of dependency, institutionalization and hospitalization. They have a significant impact on the quality of life of those affected as well as that of their relatives and caregivers they can be particularly trying.”
Ways to protect yourself
Despite the fact that more than 60% of forms of dementia are linked to neurodegenerative processes and that the symptoms can only progress, there are many ways to protect yourself against all forms of dementia.
Indeed, a commission formed by the very serious American scientific journal The Lancet has identified several risk factors for dementia. Among these, 40% are factors on which it is possible to act on a daily basis in order to guard against it.
Discover the advice of neurologists Judith Heidenbrink and Henry Paulson on this subject: