Causes Of Dementia

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The causes of dementia are very complex and not well understood my science even after many years of study. Dementia comes in a variety of forms with of course the most well known form being Alzheimer's disease. Science has found many correlations between various health conditions and dementia but nothing has conclusively been shown to cause dementia. There are of course many strong leads but with the fact that dementia is fast growing in prevalence in our society if is obvious that we need to do more research and determine a cause and a plan for stemming the cause of dementia.

One of the most obvious connections between dementia and it's fantastic growth in the population over the past generation is the fact that life spans are growing every year. Dementia is long understood to be a degenerative disease that typically affects the elderly. As the elderly get older on average it is natural to assume that dementia will grow in prevalence due to the increased numbers of elderly people and the increased age that these elderly people reach.

Another close connection that may hint at a cause of dementia is the ever growing population of obesity. Just as average life expectancy grows year after year so to does the average BMI of the population. Every year the average population BMI is larger than the year prior. This indicates that as the average person is larger and older than in years past that this may indicate a cause of dementia or various forms of dementia.

Some recent studies seem to verify this assumption. There was a recent study that tracked the brains of mice that were fed sugar water as opposed to regular water. This is a stab at our inclination to add sugar to everything in our diets. It also obviously is an illustration of our average liquid consumption choices of sugary drinks such as juices and sodas. So, does soda cause Alzheimer's? In the mice that were fed sugar water there was a large correlation with the buildup of amyloid plaques in their brains which are the hallmark indication of dementia. We can assume that the sugary drinks which cause obesity contribute to the development of dementia which is made more serious due to our average age expansion.

Obesity and age however, is not the only believed causes of dementia. Other findings indicate that some things as innocent as the common vasectomy might be a contributing cause of dementia in men. Men who have had a vasectomy and dementia are much more likely to occur than men dementia in men who have not had a vasectomy. Reasonings behind this stat are unclear but it does indicate that there is a lot about dementia which we don't understand. Surely until a greater understanding of the cause of dementia is formed we can be sure than many strange correlations exist.

Dementia is a scary condition as are most degenerative conditions. At this point the most likely cause of dementia other than advanced age is likely obesity or arterial health. As people are living less healthy yet longer lives plaques are more likely to build up in the brain causing mental difficulties. Until a solid cause of dementia is discovered your best bet to decrease your risks for developing dementia is to maintain a healthy lifestyle, keep your weight in a safe range, and keep your cardiovascular system in peak condition. These actions may or may not work but until science tells us what exactly causes dementia do your best to stay healthy. It's the only thing we can do.

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