Anglim Private Health is a private GP surgery in Bury St Edmunds. We provide individualised, high quality care and make it as easy as possible to book face to face appointments. Please call us on 01284 245665 or email doctors@anglimhealth.co.uk for more information.
September is world Alzheimer’s month. Many of us would have experienced a friend or relative who has had Alzheimer’s disease or a different type of dementia and seen how devastating it can be for their health. Today our article highlights dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, how it is diagnosed and what to do if you suspect you or a relative might have dementia.
What is the difference between Alzheimer’s disease and dementia?
Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia. The most common in fact, about 65% of all dementia cases are Alzheimer’s disease. The other common types of dementia include vascular dementia where small clots cause memory or brain problems; Lewey Body dementia, which is associated with Parkinson’s disease and Fronto-temporal dementia (Pick’s disease).
Dementia is often classified as a loss of memory, and while that is often the most obvious sign for others to see, dementia affects the entire brain functioning and not just memory. Dementia for example commonly affects people’s maths skills, spacial awareness, directions and processing ability as well as just memory. In many cases dementia affects the ability for people to notice or see the signs of dementia within themselves. Very severe dementia can often affects people’s abilities to perform routine tasks and even affects the ability to manage thirst, hunger, eating and drinking.
How is dementia diagnosed?
The first step is noticing the signs of dementia, which most commonly is memory difficulty or can be differing parts of brain function. You should then see your private GP who can gather more information from the individual and their family members. Your GP would want to do some physical examinations like checking your heart and blood pressure, some nerve examinations and then a series of quiz type questions for your memory and brain function.
If dementia is suspected some simple tests can be performed like blood tests and an ECG, then a referral to a specialist to consider a diagnosis of dementia. A GP might diagnose dementia if very advanced and attending to a specialist for a diagnosis is not the best way forward.
What does it mean if dementia is diagnosed?
The main piece of information from a diagnosis is that the doctor believes that your memory or brain is not working as well as it has in the past and that we think it will get worse in a continuous and progressive way. That is serious and can be very worrying, but having that information put to you means you can start to take steps to prepare for a difficult situation and take the time to discuss with your closest relatives and private GP how you would like to be looked after.
What are the treatments for dementia?
It depends on the type of dementia, for example with vascular dementia there may be steps to improve your cardiovascular health which should be taken. With Alzheimer’s there are several long standing treatments which have been shown to improve the current symptoms of dementia but not stop or reduce the continuous progression of dementia. There has been some excitement about recent developments in dementia with treatments which actually slow the progression of dementia, but they are not yet fully tested and available. Dementia treatment has a lot of intensive research and the future may hold much better treatments.
I’m worried dementia might be affecting me or a relative, what should I do?
You should book to discuss this with your GP as soon as you are ready. You are welcome to book in to see us at Anglim Private Health, if you would like to sit with a private GP to discuss your concerns. We can offer a face to face appointment almost immediately including appointments over the weekend.
You can find more information about dementia from Dementia UK or the Alzheimers society.