Early onset dementia

[Magical Realist]

My sister has early onset dementia. I don't know what kind. She's only in her late 60's and as of my recent visit with her in January she is so far gone she doesn't recognize me and speaks about unrelated things. Like waving her hand and mentioning water as she stares out her window. Her mood is overall good though. She does not seem angry or depressed. But it is a tragic thing to watch and her loving and devoted husband visits her every single day at the memory care center. Here's an article about being diagnosed with this devastating malady:

https://alzheimersdisease.net/living/int...cebook.com

[C C]

Steven: There is life after a diagnosis. Quality of life is still very important. Don't put your life on hold. I hit the fast-forward button. The best time to do something for me is NOW. Get busy living or get busy dying. Still do what you love to do. Maybe make some changes, but still enjoy what you love to do. It's just a change of life, not the end of life. Don't stop, just adjust.

That actually sounds a bit like one my uncles, and maybe why I can hope your sister gets better without that sounding wholly unrealistic even to me.

He suffered rather early on from being intermittently confused and disoriented, with his family saying he had episodes of hallucinations, too.

But he would keep rebounding. We'd visit him at his farm one year, and he might struggle to recognize us. And then visit again a few months later and find him out plowing or working cattle, and talking as if he was alert as ever.

Rather amazing that he didn't suffer a mishap with the machinery over the course of those ups and downs. My cousin always had horror stories to tell about near-misses his dad had with tractor exploits, etc.

It wasn't until the last two years of his life, with a heart-related condition and fluid sporadically building up in his lungs plaguing him, that he stayed more or less permanently locked in a fog.

[Zinjanthropos]

I know of a family where the mother has dementia and is in a home. This woman suffered severe domestic abuse from her husband but wouldn’t leave him because of family. No question in my mind this woman was gaslighting victim all her married life and along the way lost her sense of reality. For example, if she said she liked something he would say she didn’t and would tell her what she was really thinking/experiencing, whatever. Gaslighting 101.

I wonder if having her reality distorted or replaced by such a control freak can bring on dementia? Could there be a correlation between mental abuse and the disease itself? Not sure if anyone takes this into consideration when studying the problem. It’s only one instance but could it be a common denominator?

[confused2]

A while back they studied nuns for years and when they died they cut the heads open to see what was going on inside.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nun_Study
A story I heard was that one nun stayed much brighter than the rest but when cut open her brain was in the same state as the rest - the suggestion being she had stayed brighter because she was (mentally) more active than the others. I can't find the story again .. so maybe it was made up to encourage people to try ..?

[stryder]

It should be considered that there are sometimes other factors for causing Dementia which if dealt with can reduce or reverse the effects, Such as hormone deficiency being treated with the right steroid (or the steriod stopped in some cases).

Toxoplasmosis can also be a factor, as it's possible for people to lapse into not getting cleaned up as much as they should from not remembering to. (Could be a habit attributed to the homeostasis of the Toxoplasmas not wanting to undermine its ideal living conditions.) There is also some questions as to EM effects on Toxoplasms as it might cause irritation in animals with toxoplasma build up (like making dogs violent for no reason)

The point I'm trying to make is that Dementia sometimes has a trigger that can be identified.