ELMIRA, NY (WENY) — Alzheimer’s disease also known as dementia is very common in the U.S. with more than three million cases per year. It is most common in adults over the age of sixty five. Its important to know some of the causes and how the disease develops overtime.
“Typically what happens is that you get the deposition of abnormal proteins in the brain and those proteins sort of crowd out normal brain and overtime affect cognition and thinking depending on the type of dementia can sort of present in a number of ways.” says Cayuga Health neurologist Dr. Christopher King.
The number of cases we are seeing locally are typically high.
“I would say that on a daily basis I see people with some form of dementia and diagnose it regularly throughout the week so the numbers are high and you know there’s a lot of debate about why that is I think the most common reason given is we just have an aging population.”
One of the biggest types of dementia lately has been frontotemporal dementia stemming from news about actor Bruce Willis. Frontotemporal dementia focuses on the front part of the brain.
King explains “It all depends on what area of the brain is involved so In frontotemporal dementia the frontal regions and the temporal regions are the main areas that are involved and those areas of the brain happen to be responsible for behavior and language.”
When it comes to treatment there are certain medications that can work such as Trazodone and Razadyne but with frontotemporal dementia the best thing you can do is keep talking.
Dr. King adds the better you take care of yourself physically, emotionally, and socially the better of you will be with the disease.
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