Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
People often get confused about the difference between Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia, accounting for 70% of total dementia cases.
What is dementia?
Dementia is not a single disease. It’s an umbrella term to describe a collection of symptoms experienced when living with diseases or conditions that affect brain health. Diseases grouped under the term dementia are caused by abnormal brain changes. These changes trigger a decline in thinking skills, also known as cognitive functioning, and can affect learning, memory, language, behaviour, feelings and relationships.
The defining feature of the various diseases or conditions under the umbrella term of dementia is that they are progressive and persistent – an individual’s cognitive function gets worse over time.
What is Alzheimer’s disease?
Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease. As it progresses, it damages a person’s neurons. The damage begins in someone’s brain 10 to 20 years before any effects are seen, but will eventually cause the outward symptoms of dementia to emerge – all part of a progressive worsening of cognitive skills.
Like all types of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease affects everyone differently. It usually starts in and around the area of the brain responsible for memory. Other early symptoms can include thinking and reasoning difficulties, language problems, changes to how people see or hear things, mood changes and sometimes depression. For people living with the disease, this can mean navigating daily challenges — from remembering appointments to recognising familiar faces.
To understand more about dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, read our article “Beyond Forgetfulness: Untangling Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease“.