Dementia For Dummies – UK. Atkins Simon

       Dementia For Dummies®

      Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, www.wiley.com

      This edition first published 2015

      © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex.

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      ISBN 978-1-118-92469-3 (hardback/paperback) ISBN 978-1-118-92471-6 (ebk)

      ISBN 978-1-118-92470-9 (ebk)

      Printed in Great Britain by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall

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      Introduction

      Pick up a newspaper or turn on the television or radio, and it won’t be long before you come across a reference to dementia. Either there’s been a breakthrough in research, or someone famous has been diagnosed with it, or an expert has decided that some food or other, which we’ve previously enjoyed without a second thought, is now believed to double our risk of developing the condition.

      But its media popularity isn’t really that much of a shock, because dementia is on the rise. In fact, it’s reckoned that every four seconds someone somewhere in the world is diagnosed with dementia, so the number of cases is rising pretty fast.

      At the moment, the World Health Organization estimates that 35.6 million people have dementia across the globe, with 7.7 million cases being added every 12 months. And closer to home, the number of people in the UK with dementia is thought to be 820,000, which, according to Alzheimer’s Research UK, means that 23 million of us will know a close friend or family member who has been diagnosed with it.

      Sadly, those figures mean that a lot of people are, or will be, directly affected by dementia.

      The scope of this book is extremely wide ranging, covering the basics of how each of the four diseases that cause dementia develop, along with an explanation of the changes that happen in the brain to cause the disease’s disabling symptoms. I look at the treatments available, both from mainstream medicine and complementary therapies, and review what works and what doesn’t. Then sections give tips to carers about how to handle difficult symptoms as the condition progresses, advice on when and how to make a will, and details of how to choose the right care home. Plus much more.

      This book isn’t necessarily designed to be read from the front cover to the final page in order – although if you want to do that, it will take you on a logical journey from finding the diagnosis to dealing sensitively with end-of-life care. Instead, each chapter is designed to stand alone. You can read the chapters just as easily in a completely random order, according to your area of interest, as in numerical order by chapter.

      The main information about each topic is contained in the main text of each chapter, but you will also notice shaded boxes of text in each chapter, called sidebars. These boxes offer interesting asides, designed to complement the rest of the chapter, rather than essential information. So if a sidebar doesn’t interest you, just skip it; you’ll still be able to understand everything else without it.

      Within this book, you may note that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and want to visit one of these web pages, simply key in the address exactly as it’s noted in the text, pretending that the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an e-book, you’ve got it easy: just click the web address to be taken directly to the page.

      I’ve written this book with everyone who has dementia or who may one day be affected by dementia in mind. It’s for those who are just generally worried about dementia and want to find out more about the condition and how it develops, as well as for those currently experiencing symptoms that they think may mean they already have dementia and who want to know what they should do next. It’s also for people who’ve already been given the diagnosis and who need advice about how to get the best care available, and for those looking after people with dementia who want to know how to be the best carers they can be.

      But despite the wealth of information, I’ve designed this book so that you don’t need to