Dementia

Dementia is a condition in which various brain functions become progressively impaired. Common features include memory loss, confusion, and impaired judgment. People can experience depression, anxiety, agitation, paranoia, hallucinations, difficulty finding words, difficulty with familiar tasks (such as operating a stove or turning on a computer), and an inability to plan or solve problems. They commonly get lost walking or driving to familiar places, repeat questions or stories, use unusual words, and have difficulty managing money, grooming themselves, and eventually, even eating or using the toilet. Dementia can also lead to falls, difficulty walking, and poor coordination.

Alzheimer's disease commands the lion's share of public and medical attention because it accounts for 60% to 80% of cases of dementia. But there are others, including vascular ("multi-infarct") dementia, Lewy body dementia, and frontotemporal dementia. Some cases of Parkinson's disease will end up with dementia as well.

At Prestige Wellness Institute, you can take advantage of the same two-pronged approach that has proven successful with so many other diseases: Identify and address the underlying causes while reversing the damage that has already taken place. For decades, scientists believed that neurons could not be repaired or replaced. Now it is being done. This could not happen too soon. By 2050, experts expect the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s disease to at least double, reaching 14 million people. From a business standpoint, this might be welcome news for the nursing home industry, which will have to double its capacity. But our society cannot survive this kind of strain, even if our only concern was cost, ignoring the toll it takes on families.

Fortunately, you now have access to treatments that may keep you or a loved one with dementia at home instead of spending the rest of life staring blankly at the four walls of a nursing home, at a cost of $4,000-6,000 a month. Increasing numbers of people are reversing their dementias.

As groundbreaking as recent developments are, prevention is far better than treatment or even cure. Because dementia often begins up to fifty years (no, that's not a typo) before you forget where you put your keys, why not find out now if you have those changes taking place in your brain? Even better, find out if you have one or more triggers that cause those changes. Doctors routinely check cholesterol as if it was the cause of heart disease and stroke, but few check any of the known causes of dementia. Even fewer know what to do with the results of those tests. This is because we are not taught much in medical school about how to fix things that don’t require drugs. So doctors do the best they can, waiting for and hoping that the next miracle drug on the market will be the magic bullet.

If you want to see if you or a loved one with dementia might just be able to get some brain function back; if you want to find out if nerve cells are dying so you can do something about it before you start asking yourself why you entered a room; or if you want to uncover hidden risks that are causing inflammation in your brain, there is no better time than now to discuss your concerns and options at Prestige Wellness Institute. Modern science has discovered and developed an ever-increasing number of tools that can change your future for the better. There is no need to fear ending up like your mother Carol or your Uncle Bob when there is so much you can do to prevent it.