A neurologist from Siloam Hospital Yogyakarta, Lothar Matheus M. V. Silalahi, has stressed the need for early detection to prevent dementia or senility.
“Early detection is important to prevent dementia because medical treatment or modern medical treatment cannot guarantee recovery for people with dementia,” he said in a statement issued here on Friday.
However, if dementia has already progressed to a certain stage, treatment needs to be optimized to prevent it from worsening.
“The goal is for sufferers to adapt to their conditions with maximum quality of life,” he added.
The condition is diagnosed based on a neurological and mental examination and a higher function test, followed by a brain scan, CT scan, MRI or PET scan, and other supporting measures, he informed.
Some special therapy also needs to be provided to patients, apart from support from family and the environment.
“Like a house, dementia, and one of the rooms in it is Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s can be interpreted as one of the most common types of dementia,” Silalahi said.
Continuous consultation is the right way to monitor the progress of dementia. Ideal treatments, including adopting a healthy lifestyle, exercising regularly, and taking adequate nutrition while training the brain on a regular basis, are also necessary.
It is also important to treat co-morbidities, such as diabetes, cholesterol, and hypertension, to prevent complaints of other diseases.
Dementia can also occur when the brain experiences a decline due to diseases such as Alzheimer’s, stroke, or head trauma, Silalahi said.
“In detail, dementia is a condition of decreased brain function, such as loss of memory and loss of the ability to judge or think. This interferes with the independence of the patients’ activities,” he informed.
Data shows that out of the many types of dementia, Alzheimer’s is the most common and is associated with genetic and protein changes in the brain.
There are also other types of dementia such as vascular dementia, which is caused by disorders of the blood vessels of the brain.
Risk factors include increasing age, family genetics, unhealthy eating patterns, lack of exercise, smoking, and alcohol addiction.
Risk factors can also be triggered by several conditions such as depression, Down Syndrome, sleep apnea, hypertension, obesity, and diabetes.
The main symptoms experienced by people with dementia are memory loss and changes in thought patterns, which are evident in their behavior and speech, and tend to worsen over time.
Source: Antara News