What Are the Differences and Correspondences Between Vascular Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease?

Article by Dick Harkes

The Proportion of Both Diseases in the Total Area of Dementia

While Alzheimer’s Disease itself accounts for about 50 percent of causes of dementia, Vascular Dementia is the second with a share of about 20 percent. The people with a combination of the Vascular variant and Alzheimer’s Disease account for another 20 percent.

The symptoms usually appear with people between the ages of 60 and 75. There is a small higher percentage of men than women.

Vascular Dementia is associated with cerebrovascular disease, problems in the circulation of blood to the brain. Amongst a wide range of other diseases or disorders vascular dementia is the loss of intellectual abilities.While the cause of Alzheimer’s Disease still is unknown, we do know the cause of Vascular type of Dementia.

Correspondence Between Vascular Dementia and Alzheimer’s

A main contribution to the development of Alzheimer’s Disease or affecting its severity are damages to the vascular system. And the body’s vascular system is affected by several common chronic diseases like heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes, mostly seen with older people.So indirectly these affections contribute to declines in cognitive function or increased Alzheimer’s Disease risks.

As we all know, diabetes to a large extent, heart disease and high blood pressure can be improved by diet, exercise, and other lifestyle changes.So it is obvious physicians are intensely investigating whether reducing the risks of cognitive decline through lifestyle changes may also reduce the risks of or controlling these conditions. A way to investigate this is by means of epidemiological studies.

Vascular Dementia Causes

As described before, decreased blood supply to the brain is the cause of Vascular dementia. This most often is caused by a damage of arteries resulting in blockage or narrowing.

Infarcts and mini-infarcts:A stroke (infarct) or a mini stroke is an important cause of developing the vascular type of dementia.That explains the name multi-infarct dementia.The infarct causes parts of the brain to die, leading to dementia. Strokes often show physical symptoms, depending upon what part of the brain is affected. Mini strokes however may happen without apparent external symptoms.Dementia of the Vascular variant is mostly seen when the stroke happens on the left side of the brain or when it attacks the memory center of the brain, the hippocampus.A scan of the brain – CT (Computerized Tomography) or MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) – is advised for diagnostic purposes if a stroke is suspected.Usually within a year after a stroke about one-third of the victims who had no dementia symptoms before that stroke will develop vascular dementia.High blood pressure (hypertension):About half of the cases of vascular are connected to high blood pressure. This kind of dementia is known as subcortical vascular dementia (Binswanger disease), affecting the white matter of the brain.Other causes:There is also a relation noticed between Vascular dementia and other conditions that reduce blood flow to the brain:certain autoimmune diseases (for example lupus eythematosus, temporal arteritis);certain genetic diseases;infections of the heart (endocarditis);brain hemorrhage;severe low blood pressure.

The risk factorsResearchers found a direct connection with the same disease processes that cause heart disease. Therefore, the risk factors associated with heart disease are also associated with the vascular type of dementia.

Smoking;overweight;high blood pressure;diabetes;high cholesterol;family history of heart problems;heart rhythm abnormalities.

About the Author

Dick Harkes was confronted with Alzheimer’s Disease in the spring of 2010 when his father was diagnosed with this awful ailment. From that moment on he collected all kinds of information about Alzheimer’s Disease. In that way he developed himself an expertise on a variety of aspects on the disease.He likes to share this information with as many people as possible.If you want to learn more about this subject, please visit Vascular Dementia and Alzheimer’s.

To get a survey on all collected information, you can start at his homepage: All About Alzheimer’s Disease.