An AARP survey reveals that many people wrongly assume dementia is inevitable. The truth about dementia is that small lifestyle improvements related to sleep, diet, and exercise can help reduce your risk. Even just socializing with friends can help. Also, understand that while dementia isn’t inevitable, other brain changes are common with age. These include difficulty multitasking and struggles recalling certain words. If you do have dementia, an early diagnosis is highly beneficial for treating it. Finally, recognize that there are other conditions with symptoms that resemble dementia. These include thyroid disease and sleep apnea.

Key Takeaways:

• The risk of dementia can be substantially reduced with lifestyle changes related to sleep, exercise, and diet.
• Slower processing speed and difficulty multitasking are issues that naturally occur when we age.
• Other conditions, such as thyroid disease or sleep apnea, can cause symptoms that resemble dementia.

“Loss of independence fuels the fear of a dementia diagnosis, the survey found — so does the thought of becoming a burden to others.”

Read more: https://www.aarp.org/health/dementia/info-2021/ending-stigma-dementia.html