Early Signs of Dementia
Posted by DSDC on Feb 22nd 2023
Early Signs of Dementia
Many forms (not all) of dementia are treatable if caught in early stages. I became interested in this topic about 20 years ago when I was in my early 50’s. I could feel my brain shutting down and figured that I had a few years to figure it out. I watched as my paternal grandfather and grandmother slowly declined beginning in their early to mid 60s according to my recollection. Also my brother who was a couple of years younger was having issues as well.
When possible, I like to understand what is coming and try to take steps, especially in health related matters to prevent or at least minimize problems if I benefit of some foresight.
Some people suffer from dementias that have what I call, a hard genetic driver. This type of dementia is truly a disease and could use a medical breakthrough. Fortunately for most people, this type is maybe 5% of the case of Alzheimer's, for example, the rest being mostly lifestyle driven.
The majority of cases are driven by lifestyle issues that aren’t compatible with brain health.To see the list of these issues, I will refer you to another blog post.
UCLA Study, Alzheimer's, Bredesen Protocol
The purpose of this blog post is to help you recognize in yourself and loved ones the early signs. If it is you we are talking about, make a real effort to make some changes for the sake of those around you. If it is a loved one, you may have little or no control. You might be left with knowledge of what is happening without being able to do much about it.
Personality Changes
The first early sign is a personality change. One neuroscience professor was prone to telling crude jokes. He said if he stopped doing that, it would be worrisome as that meant something in the brain had changed.
Another person I knew began accusing family members of stealing household items like a plastic juice container or some other cheap item. This person also became highly critical of family and had to be reminded continuously that we weren’t going to listen to her talk of them in that way.
Some people who are difficult to get along with start to become more agreeable. That might be a nice change but worse symptoms are surely coming.
The point is that the person is not who they used to be and the changes are sometimes very subtle. An aware person might realize that their brain is changing and try to take steps but most likely you will notice the change in another person and not be able to do much about it.
Problems With Executive Function
Our lives are often complicated with many multi-step processes in work, hobbies or home maintenance. Maybe a person is having trouble managing basic financial chores, following a recipe or fixing things around the house when these tasks weren’t a problem a decade ago.
Be on the lookout for these in your own life. The earlier you try to improve brain health, the easier it will be.
Vison Problems
Here you might look for problems judging distance or maybe problems noting differences between contrasts and colors in the visual field. Depth perception and frequent tripping and maybe falling can be signs of brain degeneration.
Word Retrieval
This is one thing that I had noticed in my early 50’s. We all sometimes have trouble finding the word we are looking for but there is a difference between that and not being able to find a simple word that you know you should know.
Social Withdrawal
Social situations can be complex and a person who is beginning to show signs of brain demise might also show signs of social withdrawal. Or a person might still be socially engaged but have trouble being the person they usually were in a social situation, that is they might make others more uncomfortable than usual buy saying to doing things not appropriate for them in that situation.
In our latest encounter with a family member who was showing all these signs did not go well. This person was not aware of their problems and constantly overestimated their ability to manage their affairs. We just did the best we could to be supportive and hope for the damage to be minimal.
In this case, this person really wasn’t themself for about a decade before passing away. I wasn’t until the last six to nine months of life that family was able to step in and manage the household, finances etc.
If a person will listen to you or if that person is actually you, I encourage you to read up on the above referenced blog.For me, going strictly gluten free, and modifying my supplements made a huge difference. Some supplements that I recommend to help with brain health are these:
It is wise to check with a health care provider familiar with these problems. These symptoms can also result from certain medications or even combinations of medications.