The dementia timebomb  Scan of a brain of an Alzheimer's patient
which shows significant signs of shrinking compared to a normal
brain. The brain of an Alzheimer's patient (left) shows
significant signs of shrinking compared to a normal brain.
Dementia is a gradual decline of how the brain functions. It is
incurable, and slowly interferes with a person's ability to
carry out the normal tasks of daily living.  What is dementia?
Dementia is an umbrella term used to refer to a collection of
symptoms that can result from a number of different diseases of
the brain. There are many different types of dementia, but all
tend to cause problems with memory, language skills, information
processing, mental agility, understanding and judgement.
Dementia can also trigger other mental health problems such as
personality changes, anxiety, mood swings and depression. In
more advanced dementia, the person may lose the ability to get
up and move, or the interest to eat or drink.  How common is
dementia?    • There are about