Dementia is most often associated with the elderly. The reason behind this is that as people grow older, neurons can slowly die off and cause cognitive decline. In fact, a lot of elderly people aged 85 and above have some form of dementia.
Interestingly, there is a form of dementia called young-onset dementia that affects younger people, but this is extremely rare and not the norm.
Damage to brain cells
Another possible cause of dementia is experiencing damage to the brain cells. This can be either the result of a traumatic brain injury, such as a bad fall, or a disease such as cancer.
A person could suffer a traumatic brain injury while they’re young, and start to develop symptoms of dementia as they grow older. This is why it is important to take care of your head, and try to protect it from injury and getting hurt as much as possible.
Depression
Depression can also be a possible cause of dementia. Researchers found that people who were diagnosed with depression are more likely to be diagnosed with dementia when they’re older.
Researchers also believe that dementia and depression have similar risk factors. The theory is that changes in the brain caused by depression can make a person more prone to dementia when they’re older.
It is important for people to never ignore their mental health. This is because problems that affect the brain can also have an effect on a person’s physical health.
Drinking too much alcohol
A lot of people believe that drinking too much alcohol “kills’ brain cells. However, this is not actually the case.
While alcohol doesn’t kill off brain cells outright, it does cause damage to the brain cells. What alcohol does is it damages the ends of the neurons, or dendrites.
Dendrites are the ones responsible for relaying signals from one neuron to the other. This means that damage to the dendrites can impair the ability of neurons to communicate with one another.
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