Causes
Causes of dementia include:
- Alzheimer's disease —the most common cause of dementia
- Brain damage after multiple small strokes (so-called vascular dementia)
- Alcoholism
- AIDS
- Multiple sclerosis
- Huntington's disease
- Parkinson's disease
- Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
- Lewy body dementia
- Pick's disease (fronto-temporal dementia)
- Normal pressure hydrocephalus
- Untreated syphilis
- Toxic levels of metals, such as aluminum (can sometimes occur in dialysis patients)
- Vitamin B12 deficiency
- Thiamine deficiency
Risk Factors
Risk factors for dementia include:
- Advancing age
- Family members with dementia
- Down syndrome
- Apolipoprotein E status (a genetic risk)
- Elevated cholesterol
- Multiple strokes
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- High cholesterol
- Obesity
- Lack of physical activity
- Vitamin deficiency
- Chronic drug use
- Long-term use of hormone replacement therapy
- Repetitive head trauma (eg, may occur with contact sports)
- Overweight or obese
Elderly Male
© 2009 Nucleus Medical Media, Inc.
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