Vascular Dementia
The Relationship Between Vascular Health and Dementia
How Vascular Health Leads to Cognitive Decline
Maintaining your vascular health is important not just for your heart, but for your brain as well. Our brains are nourished by millions of very small blood vessels.
Our brain comprises less than 2% of our body weight yet consumes over 20% of our oxygen. This means efficient, effective oxygen delivery to the brain is essential to keep the brain healthy and prevent cognitive decline.
Vascular dementia is the second leading type of Dementia after Alzheimer’s. Vascular dementia can lead to difficulty in all aspects of cognitive function – from memory to mood to behaviour and beyond. It depends strongly on the area of the brain that suffers the vascular damage.
Alzheimer's Disease vs Vascular Dementia: What You Should Know
Vascular dementia can progress slowly with gradual progressive vascular damage to the brain that can occur. However it can also occur suddenly such as after a major stroke or other episode of brain trauma. Due to the damage the brain suffers, cognitive function can decline and be affected in several aspects. If memory centres are affected by the stroke or bleed or trauma then memory deficits will be noted by the person. Similarly it can affect attention, personality, mood, language, planning, or other areas of cognition.
Signs of Vascular Dementia: Catching Vascular Dementia before it’s Too Late!
Poor vascular conditions gradually impact the entire body and take a toll on a person’s ability to perform everyday tasks normally. Vascular damage can be highly dangerous as it affects one of the body’s most important organs: the heart. Reduced ability of the heart to properly provide oxygen and nutrients to the body will slowly reduce and limit the function of various body parts including the brain.
A stroke involves reduced blood flow to certain areas of the brain. Strokes can often lead to vascular dementia. Early detection and management of strokes can help prevent vascular dementia. Understanding potential symptoms of a stroke can help prevent vascular dementia and include any of the following that can occur suddenly:
- Sudden sharp headaches
- Difficulty in walking
- Losing balance
- Numbness in certain parts of body or one side of the face
- Confusion
- Slurred speech
- Inability to understand things
- Loss of control
- Disorientation
Battling Vascular Dementia: Identifying the Causes
Though developing vascular dementia often goes silent with no clear symptoms initially, some risk factors can contribute to the cause. Preventing them and making conscious lifestyle changes is a key to preventing vascular dementia from developing.
| Avoiding Cigarette Smoke | Cigarette smoke and related toxins increase the risk of deposits in the arteries and veins leading to increased chances of atherosclerotic disease among other issues. This puts excessive strain on the heart leading to high blood pressure and damage to sensitive blood vessels. This damage to blood vessels is noted to increase the risk of stroke and vascular dementia. |
| Alcohol Consumption | Alcohol consumption is yet another leading factor in all types of dementia, including vascular dementia. Alcohol consumption is thought to lead to high blood pressure and narrowing of blood vessels which can subsequently reduce effective blood flow to the brain. |
| Obesity | Obesity increases risk of dementia indirectly. People who suffer from obesity are significantly more likely to have high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. Both of these factors are leading causes of poor cardiac health and consequently increase the risk of vascular dementia as well. |
| Prior Strokes | People who have had strokes or previous traumatic brain injury (TBI) in life can also develop vascular dementia. Many of these abnormalities can be identified in MRI scans even before the clinical diagnosis of vascular dementia. Although not everyone who has had a stroke will acquire dementia, major strokes do significantly raise the risk for dementia. Depending on the location and severity of your stroke, it may impact your cognition in several different ways as outlined above. |
What is Vascular Dementia: Prevention and Treatment
Just like other types of dementia, preventing vascular dementia is also possible through lifestyle changes. Vascular dementia may be one of the most preventable subtypes of dementia through careful and organized strategies. These changes include steps to improve cardiac health and include:
| Blood Pressure Management | Maintain blood pressure in optimal ranges to prevent damage to the small blood vessels supplying our brain. Since the elderly are more prone to hypertension, damage to these blood vessels is frequently seen in brain imaging of older people. Making changes like good lifestyle habits, food choices, and exercise routines can help control blood pressure thus preventing the onset of vascular dementia. |
| Blood Sugar (Glucose) Management | Having our blood sugar in safe ranges can make a tremendous difference in how our blood vessels function, particularly in areas of the body that rely on very small vessels to function. The kidneys, extremities, eyes, and the brain all rely on very small blood vessels to function optimally. Proper glucose level maintenance through diet and exercise ensures that no blood vessels are damaged due to hyperglycaemia. |
| Obesity | Obesity increases risk of dementia indirectly. People who suffer from obesity are significantly more likely to have high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. Both of these factors are leading causes of poor cardiac health and consequently increase the risk of vascular dementia as well. |
| Lipid Control | Another pillar of good vascular health is having a healthy lipid (cholesterol) profile. This means consuming the right type of fats in the right proportion. Simply cutting out fats from our diet is not the solution – we need healthy fats for our body, our cells, and particularly our brain cells to function the way they need.
Are you at Risk of Vascular Dementia because of any of the above-mentioned health conditions? Get yourself checked for Vascular Dementia Symptoms now! We can work together and help Prevent, Preserve, and Prosper. Sign up below for information and let’s Deter Dementia together! |
Maintaining your vascular health is important not just for your heart, but for your brain as well. Our brains are nourished by millions of very very small blood vessels.
Our brain comprises less than 2% of our body weight but consumes over 20% of our oxygen. This means efficient, effective oxygen delivery to the brain is essential to keep the brain healthy and prevent cognitive decline.
Vascular health is a broad area and covers many key concepts:
- Blood Pressure Management – We need to ensure we have our blood pressure in optimal ranges to help prevent damage to the small blood vessels supplying our brain. Damage to these blood vessels is frequently seen on brain imaging of older adults. The time to prevent this is now. Good lifestyle habits, food choices, and exercise routines can help you get there. All of this is explained in detail with our program and we hope you’ll join and help yourself achieve your maximum potential.
- Blood Sugar (Glucose) Management – Having our blood sugar in safe ranges can make a tremendous difference in how our blood vessels function, particularly in areas of the body that rely on very small vessels to function. The kidneys, extremities, eyes, and the brain all rely on very small blood vessels to function optimally. Without good blood sugar control, we will damage these vessels and have problems in all of these areas as time progresses. But as always, we can prevent these problems in the vast majority of situations with some simple and effective strategies.
- Lipid Control – Another pillar of good vascular health is having a healthy lipid profile. We need to make some efforts to achieve this but the key is to have a clear understanding of the benefits and risks of the decisions we make daily. Simply cutting out fats from our diet is not the solution – we actually need healthy fats for our body, our cells, and particularly our brain cells to function the way they need.
These are just a few of the many pillars that make up our vascular health. We can work together and help Prevent, Preserve, and Prosper. Sign up below for for information and let’s Deter Dementia together!
