 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
.
.
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
also has significant physical consequences (most people with dementia stop taking care of themselves, for example, and “go downhill”, some much more rapidly than others), and dementia also has immense consequences on personality and mood.
..... There are several forms of dementia, some of which are even reversible. Thus, brain infections can lead to dementia, which disappears when the infection is controlled. Drug reactions can produce dementia, and anyone on new medication who begins to exhibit signs of dementia (especially the elderly who are more prone to drug reactions and dementia to begin with) should have their drug regimes thoroughly re-assessed.
..... Other possible causes of reversible dementia include metabolic reactions, toxins, severe depression, and this relatively new one. A recent study described 13 people who developed dementia as a result of undiagnosed celiac disease, an allergy to wheat, rye, barley, and (maybe) oats. This is clearly a rare cause of reversible dementia, but it’s such a simple treatment (and I say that as a celiac myself for over 30 years), that if there’s any suspicion at all of this possibility, it should be looked |
.....Maybe it’s just me (“Of course, it is just you,” my wife said immediately when I started reading her this article, even though she had no idea what else I was going to add, but then “husband” is just another word for “always being wrong”), but it seems to me that every disease and even many “conditions” that fall short of being “diseases” now get their own day, week, or month during which we’re admonished to become more aware of that disease or condition. One can only imagine, by the way, the intense competition in Ottawa (in both official languages, bien sur) for a position in the department where their only job is to decide whether December should be National Hemorrhoid Awareness month or National Wart Awareness month. .....Anyway, January is Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) Awareness Month, and although people confronted with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers (perhaps especially caregivers) are painfully “aware” of AD every minute of every day, for the rest of us, I think it’s a good thing that we set aside one month during which we focus attention on an increasingly common disorder that exacts such a huge toll.
.....So, this month’s column is about Alzheimer’s disease, and for the first ime since I started covering AD (15 |
t years ago; I was just a boy), I believe we’re finally making real progress that may – lead to significant advances in prevention and perhaps even treatment.
 ..... Before discussing some of that, though, let’s first discuss dementias in general, which are generally taken to be conditions in which there’s a significant loss of cognitive and communicative abilities, skills such as memory, ability to express oneself, judgment, attention span, abstract thinking, and others.
.....But clearly, that’s .not all that happens in dementia because dementia
|
|
|
WHERE PEOPLE COME
FIRST
