Dementia

Dementia is not a specific disease. It is a descriptive term for a collection of symptoms that can be caused by a number of disorders that affect the brain. People with dementia have significantly impaired intellectual functioning that interferes with normal activities and relationships.

What Causes Dementia?

Dementia occurs due to loss of brain function that occurs with certain diseases. It can affect several brain functions such as memory, thinking, language, planning, behavior and judgement. Dementias are usually progressive and worsen with time. They usually are degenerative and non reversible.

What is Dementia?

Differences Between Alzheimer's and Dementia

Dementia Diagnosis

Dementia Prevention

Dementia Symptoms

Dementia Treatment

Dementia with Lewy Bodies

Bright Light Therapy and Dementia

Aromatherapy for Dementia

Coconut Oil and Dementia

What is Mixed Dementia?

See more featured articles »

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation for Dementia

Childhood Dementia Causes

Mixed Dementia Prevention and Treatment

Mixed Dementia Symptoms and Diagnosis

Childhood Dementia Signs and Symptoms

Parkinson's Compared to Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB)

Antidepressants and Dementia: Is There a Link?

Does Depression and Anxiety Increase the Risk of Dementia?

Migraines and Dementia

Latest Dementia News and Research

Taxi and ambulance drivers show lower Alzheimer’s risk

Study reveals that taxi and ambulance drivers, whose jobs demand frequent spatial and navigational processing, have lower Alzheimer's disease-related mortality compared to other professions. These findings suggest a potential link between occupational cognitive demands and AD risk.

1 Jan 2025

Study reveals how societal inequities influence brain aging and dementia

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin have collaborated with international partners to explore if societal inequality affects our brain.

27 Dec 2024

New Alzheimer's guidelines provide comprehensive framework for diagnosis

We have entered a new era of improved and emerging biologically-based diagnostic biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and AD-related neurodegenerative disorders (ADRD) that are rapidly impacting evaluation and care paradigms in every clinical setting: primary care, specialty care and dementia subspecialty care.

23 Dec 2024

Study unveils NAD's link to aging and disease development

UiB researchers are behind a new discovery that tells us how associated neurodegenerative diseases might develop.

23 Dec 2024

Spatial aging clocks reveal how T cells and neural stem cells shape brain aging

Researchers developed spatial aging clocks to map brain cell aging, revealing how T cells accelerate aging and NSCs rejuvenate neighboring cells, offering new insights into brain health and interventions.

22 Dec 2024

Healthy lifestyles linked to younger brains

Using an AI tool, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have analyzed brain images from 70-year-olds and estimated their brains' biological age.

20 Dec 2024

Drinking more coffee linked to reduced cognitive decline in people with atrial fibrillation

Drinking multiple cups of coffee a day may help prevent cognitive decline in people with atrial fibrillation (AFib or AF), according to new research published on Dec. 14, 2024 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.

19 Dec 2024

Vanderbilt researchers achieve milestone in Alzheimer's drug development

Researchers at the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery, a clinical stage biotech within the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences, have detailed the successful drug discovery of a phase I single ascending dose clinical trial of VU319, a drug for memory loss in people with Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.

19 Dec 2024

Chronic gut infection may play role in Alzheimer’s disease progression

Arizona State University and Banner Alzheimer's Institute researchers, along with their collaborators, have discovered a surprising link between a chronic gut infection caused by a common virus and the development of Alzheimer's disease in a subset of people.

19 Dec 2024

New blood test could help identify patients at risk for cognitive impairment

To identify and follow blood vessel-related changes in the brain that contribute to cognitive impairment and dementia, researchers and clinicians typically rely on MRI to evaluate "downstream" biological markers – those at the end of a cascade of events.

19 Dec 2024

Self-reported walking speed can predict metabolic disease risk

Walking speed can provide insights into health, extending beyond mere mobility, so much so that it is considered to be the "sixth vital sign."

19 Dec 2024

Study shows chatbots’ cognitive limitations using dementia screening

Almost all leading large language models or "chatbots" show signs of mild cognitive impairment in tests widely used to spot early signs of dementia, finds a study in the Christmas issue of The BMJ.

19 Dec 2024

Social and mentally stimulating activities benefit cognitive function

It’s that time of the year when most of us get the chance to sit back and enjoy some well-deserved down time. But whether you reach for the TV controller, or a favourite book, your choice could have implications for your long-term brain health, say researchers at the University of South Australia.

19 Dec 2024

Sleep disruptions may increase brain volume in the hippocampus

People with breathing problems during sleep may have a larger hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for memory and thinking, according to a study published in the December 18, 2024, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

18 Dec 2024

Study finds no link between antibiotic use and cognitive decline in older adults

For healthy older adults, using antibiotics is not associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment or dementia, according to a study published in the December 18, 2024, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

18 Dec 2024

Structural sexism may accelerate memory decline in women

Women born in the most sexist U.S. states experience faster memory decline in later years compared to women born in the least sexist states, a new study by researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons has found.

18 Dec 2024

Taxi and ambulance drivers show reduced Alzheimer’s mortality

Taxi drivers and ambulance drivers, whose jobs require frequent spatial and navigational processing, have the lowest levels of death due to Alzheimer's disease compared with other occupations, finds a study in the Christmas issue of The BMJ.

18 Dec 2024

Heat waves pose unique threats to people with Parkinson's and dementia

As 2024 is set to end as Earth's hottest year on record – breaking the previous record set in 2023– a UCLA Health researcher says people living with neurodegenerative diseases will be uniquely vulnerable to worsening heat waves because of a higher risk of heat-related complications.

17 Dec 2024

Researchers receive NIH grant to study dementia caused by cerebral small vessel disease

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have been awarded $7.5 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate a form of dementia caused by cerebral small vessel disease, the second-leading cause of dementia after Alzheimer's disease.

17 Dec 2024

A comprehensive review of atrial fibrillation

In the U.S., atrial fibrillation (AF), a heart condition that causes an irregular heartbeat in the upper chambers of the heart, affects up to one in three people in their lifetime.

17 Dec 2024