Search results
People also ask
What are the symptoms of vascular dementia?
How does vascular dementia affect a person?
What are the symptoms of subcortical vascular dementia?
Early signs of vascular dementia can include mild: slowness of thought. difficulty with planning. trouble with understanding. problems with concentration. changes to your mood or behaviour. problems with memory and language (but these are not as common as they are in people with Alzheimer's disease)
- Causes
Some people with vascular dementia also have brain damage...
- Alzheimer's Disease
Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia in...
- Treatment
Alzheimer's disease medicines, such as donepezil (Aricept),...
- Vascular Dementia
Symptoms include: slowness of thought. difficulty with...
- Causes
Symptoms of vascular dementia are similar to Alzheimer's disease, although memory loss may not be as obvious in the early stages. Symptoms can sometimes develop suddenly and quickly get worse, but they can also develop gradually over many months or years.
3 days ago · Vascular dementia can start suddenly or begin slowly over time. Symptoms include: slowness of thought. difficulty with planning and understanding. problems with concentration. changes to your mood, personality or behaviour. feeling disoriented and confused. difficulty walking and keeping balance.
- Symptoms
- Causes
- Risk factors
- Prevention
- News from Mayo Clinic
- Associated Procedures
- Products & Services
- Advertisement
Vascular dementia symptoms vary, depending on the part of your brain where blood flow is impaired. Symptoms often overlap with those of other types of dementia, especially Alzheimer's disease dementia. But unlike Alzheimer's disease, the most significant symptoms of vascular dementia tend to involve speed of thinking and problem-solving rather than memory loss.
Vascular dementia signs and symptoms include:
•Confusion
•Trouble paying attention and concentrating
•Reduced ability to organize thoughts or actions
•Decline in ability to analyze a situation, develop an effective plan and communicate that plan to others
Vascular dementia results from conditions that damage your brain's blood vessels, reducing their ability to supply your brain with the amounts of nutrition and oxygen it needs to perform thought processes effectively.
Common conditions that may lead to vascular dementia include:
•Stroke (infarction) blocking a brain artery. Strokes that block a brain artery usually cause a range of symptoms that may include vascular dementia. But some strokes don't cause any noticeable symptoms. These silent strokes still increase dementia risk.
With both silent and apparent strokes, the risk of vascular dementia increases with the number of strokes that occur over time. One type of vascular dementia involving many strokes is called multi-infarct dementia.
•Brain hemorrhage. Often caused by high blood pressure weakening a blood vessel leading to bleeding into the brain causing damage or from buildup of protein in small blood vessels occurring with aging weakening them over time (cerebral amyloid angiopathy)
•Narrowed or chronically damaged brain blood vessels. Conditions that narrow or inflict long-term damage on your brain blood vessels also can lead to vascular dementia. These conditions include the wear and tear associated with aging, high blood pressure, abnormal aging of blood vessels (atherosclerosis), diabetes
In general, the risk factors for vascular dementia are the same as those for heart disease and stroke. Risk factors for vascular dementia include:
•Increasing age. Your risk of vascular dementia rises as you grow older. The disorder is rare before age 65, and the risk rises substantially by your 90s.
•History of heart attacks, strokes or ministrokes. If you've had a heart attack, you may be at increased risk of having blood vessel problems in your brain. The brain damage that occurs with a stroke or a ministroke (transient ischemic attack) may increase your risk of developing dementia.
•Abnormal aging of blood vessels (atherosclerosis). This condition occurs when deposits of cholesterol and other substances (plaques) build up in your arteries and narrow your blood vessels. Atherosclerosis can increase your risk of vascular dementia by reducing the flow of blood that nourishes your brain.
•High cholesterol. Elevated levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the "bad" cholesterol, are associated with an increased risk of vascular dementia.
•High blood pressure. When your blood pressure's too high, it puts extra stress on blood vessels everywhere in your body, including your brain. This increases the risk of vascular problems in the brain.
The health of your brain's blood vessels is closely linked to your overall heart health. Taking these steps to keep your heart healthy may also help reduce your risk of vascular dementia:
•Maintain a healthy blood pressure. Keeping your blood pressure in the normal range may help prevent both vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
•Prevent or control diabetes. Avoiding the onset of type 2 diabetes, with diet and exercise, is another possible way to decrease your risk of dementia. If you already have diabetes, controlling your glucose levels may help protect your brain blood vessels from damage.
•Quit smoking. Smoking tobacco damages blood vessels everywhere in your body.
•Get physical exercise. Regular physical activity should be a key part of everyone's wellness plan. In addition to all of its other benefits, exercise may help you avoid vascular dementia.
•Keep your cholesterol in check. A healthy, low-fat diet and cholesterol-lowering medications if you need them may reduce your risk of strokes and heart attacks that could lead to vascular dementia, probably by reducing the amount of plaque deposits building up inside your brain's arteries.
•Mayo Clinic Minute: What is vascular dementia?
•A Book: Day to Day: Living With Dementia
•A Book: Mayo Clinic on Alzheimer's Disease
Mayo Clinic does not endorse companies or products. Advertising revenue supports our not-for-profit mission.Advertising & Sponsorship
What are the symptoms of vascular dementia? People with vascular dementia may experience: Difficulty performing tasks that used to be easy, such as paying bills. Trouble following instructions or learning new information and routines. Forgetting current or past events. Misplacing items. Getting lost on familiar routes.
alzheimers.org.uk. What is vascular dementia? Vascular dementia is the second most common type of dementia (after Alzheimer’s disease), affecting around 150,000 people in the UK. The word dementia describes a set of symptoms that can include memory loss and dificulties with thinking, problem-solving or language.
