Although age and family history are risk factors that cannot be changed, other risk factors can be avoided. For example, smoking, excessive drinking, unhealthy eating, and recreational drug use might increase your chances of developing dementia.

There are certain activities and lifestyle changes that will help prevent progressive dementia. For example, exercise, healthy eating, staying socially connected, and learning new things all help keep your mind healthy.

Examples of progressive dementia are Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal degeneration, vascular dementia, and Lewy body dementia.

This is the most common form of dementia. In this type of dementia, different parts of the brain deteriorate causing a progressive decline in memory and mental abilities. Almost half of people over the age of 85 suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, but only about 5% between the ages of 65 and 75. People with Alzheimer’s tend to have memory loss, they may forget conversations or forget people’s names; they may become disoriented easily; lose their judgment; have problems with abstract thinking; have difficulty performing tasks that were familiar to them; and/or have changes in mood/personality.

No one knows what causes Alzheimer’s, but we do know that there are two types of cell damage common in Alzheimer’s.  Persons with Alzheimer’s typically have either plaques or tangles, which form in their brain tissue. Two different forms of proteins that normally help the brain cause plaques and tangles, but when they accumulate at abnormal levels, problems occur and Alzheimer’s disease is the result.

Luckily, there is great research being done in this field. There are two types of drugs that have been shown to help patients with mild to servere Alzheimer’s: cholinesterase inhibitors, such as Aricept or Exelon, and Memantine (Nemenda).  While these drugs do not work of all people, they have been shown to slow down the progression of memory loss.

You can find more information at www.alz.org.

Frontotemporal degeneration, which is also known as fronto-temporal dementia, affects the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain that contain personality, behavior and language. These portions of the brain shrink, or atrophy, as the disease progresses. The symptoms of FTD vary from person to person but typically a person suffering with FTD loses the ability to regulate socially appropriate behavior, is impulsive, is emotionally blunted/apathetic, has a loss of hygiene, exhibits repetitive compulsive behavior, and has a complete lack of awareness of their changes in thinking and behaviors. For some, the ability to use or understand language is lost. Due to the fact that patients with this disease are relatively unaware of their changes, this disease tends to be the harder on families than on the person experiencing the disease.

FTD occurs in a younger population than other forms of dementia.  Typically it is seen in patients between the ages of 40 and 70.  Due to the different nature of these symptoms, FTD may be misdiagnosed as a psychiatric disorder.

Several genes have been linked to FTD, but over half the people diagnosed with FTD have no previous family history of dementia.

Currently there is no treatment for FTD.  Patients with FTD may be put on antidepressants or antipsychotics to increase their affect and decrease some repetitive behaviors, but there are no other treatments.  Many of the treatments for other forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s, actually make FTD worse. There is a great need for more research on this disease.

You can find more information at www.theaftd.org.

This form of dementia results from minor strokes or decreased blood flow to different areas of the brain. It is important to know that not all strokes will result in vascular dementia, but that persons who have experienced a stroke are more at risk for developing vascular dementia. With few treatments, the main goal is to prevent the occurrence of this disease by lowering blood pressure, not smoking, controlling or preventing diabetes, and decreasing cholesterol.

Vascular dementia is different from other types of dementia in that its onset it typically sudden and worsens in a stepwise fashion as a person develops several mini-strokes. Decreasing the risk factors listed above can decrease the progression of VD.

Many doctors believe that vascular dementia commonly occurs with Alzheimer’s disease but not always, so it is commonly mistaken for Alzheimer’s when it does occur.  Vascular dementia is seen in 1-4% of all people over the age of 65.

This form of progressive dementia shares characteristics of both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Like Alzheimer’s, it causes confusion, but it also causes the muscle rigidity, slow movements, and tremors seen in Parkinson’s disease. The biggest difference that sets Lewy body dementia apart from these two disorders is the fact that people with this disease tend to have hallucinations. Often these hallucinations are the first signs of Lewy body dementia.

Pathologically, Lewy body dementia is caused by the accumulation of structures called Lewy bodies in cognitive and movement related areas of the brain.  This disease is seen in less than 1% of people over the age of 65.

Lewy Body dementia is treated with some of the same drugs as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. In addition, antipsychotics have been shown to help with the hallucinations these patients experience.