Vascular dementia
Overview
Vascular dementia is a common type of dementia caused by reduced blood flow to the brain. It's estimated to affect around 180,000 people in the UK.
Symptoms
Vascular dementia can start suddenly or begin slowly over time. Symptoms include: slowness of thoughtdifficulty with planning and understandingproblems with concentrationchanges to your mood, personality or behaviourfeeling disoriented and confuseddifficulty walking and keeping balancesymptoms of Alzheimer's disease, such as problems with memory and language (many people with vascular dementia also have Alzheimer's disease) These problems can make daily activities increasingly difficult and someone with the condition may eventually be unable to look after themselves.
Causes
Vascular dementia is caused by reduced blood flow to the brain, which damages and eventually kills brain cells. This can happen as a result of: narrowing and blockage of the small blood vessels inside the braina singlestroke, where the blood supply to part of the brain is suddenly cut offlots of"mini strokes" (also called transient ischaemic attacks, or TIAs)that cause tiny but widespread damage to the brain In many cases, these problems are linked to underlying conditions, such ashigh blood pressureanddiabetes, and lifestyle factors, such as smoking and being overweight. Tackling these might reduce your risk of vascular dementia in later life, although it's not yet clear exactly how much your risk of dementia can be reduced.
Treatment
There's currently no cure for vascular dementia and there's no way to reverse any loss of brain cells that happened before the condition was diagnosed. But treatment can sometimes help slow down vascular dementia. Treatment aims to tackle the underlying cause, which may reduce the speed at which brain cells are lost. This will often involve: eating a healthy, balanced dietlosing weightif you're overweightstopping smokinggetting fitcutting down on alcoholtaking medicines, such as those used totreat high blood pressure,lower cholesterolor preventblood clots Other treatments, includingphysiotherapy,occupational therapy,dementia activities(such as memory cafes) andpsychological therapies, can help reduce the impact of any existing problems.