To ask a question about dementia?

[Amethyst24]

Sorry, not sure where to post this. Sir Terry Pratchett's sad death today reminded me that I've recently been wondering about this. Obviously dementia is a truly awful disease and tragic for people who have it and for their families. But what is it that actually kills a person who's body is otherwise healthy?

I'm very sorry if this offends anyone; that isn't my intention at all.

to my limited understanding in extreme circumstances it can as the brain deteriorates to the point it forgets to tell your lungs yo breath or your heart to beat.

however a lot of the time I think other things are the ultimate cause

In the later stages of dementia peoples ability to fight off illnesses and diseases starts to weaken. It is something like 2/3rds of people with dementia actually die from pneumonia.

As dementia progresses, the body of the person won't remain healthy unfortunately. As the brain is such a control centre of everything we do, a person living with dementia will gradually lose muscle control, reflexes like swallowing etc.

If a person living with dementia doesn't die of other causes eg stroke, pneumonia, then they'll eventually die of their body not being able to work properly as the bits in their brain that enable it to do so aren't there/working any more.

That's the simplest way I can explain it. There's huge variation in terms of how long people with dementia live for, though.

And I put who's instead of whose. The shame!

Yes, death for someone living with dementia is often multi-factorial. Eg they have a fall, so are less mobile, so more vulnerable to picking up pneumonia, less able to fight it off etc.

Thank you everyone.

Dementia is more than ageing/ short term memory loss. Alzheimer's is a degenerative brain disease and will affect cognition, speech, executive function, ability to feed and dress oneself and walk and eventually breathing..a person with end stage dementia will become bed bound and unable to swallow food etc and then die.

It's such a horrible horrible disease. People who have early onset dementia tend to go downhill faster, but because they generally have a more healthy body they live longer with the disease. Awful awful thing to go through

Thats true gin. I knew someone who was diagnosed two years ago with early onset Alzheimer's. In those two years they have gone from forgetful and a bit 'repetitive' to the end-of-life, could pass any moment stage. And by early, I mean they weren't even 50 when diagnosed. It seems to be a respiratory factor causing it as well. If it happens to me, I will not allow myself to get to that stage, it's an evil disease .

the type terry pratchett has affects the brain in such a way that although his eyes work his brain degradation meant he lost his sight, he'd have lost his sense of direction and place in time.

Usually people succumb to an infection and die due to poor nutrition meaning their body can't fight it

Not always true, sorry. I think the general health of the person is also a factor though, being a lifelong smoker never does any good.

And yes as others mentioned the brain would ultimately shut down organs it 'forgets' how to run automatically

Assuming a fall or infection doesn't set in first

Horrible cruel vile illness

Yes I agree. You'll still be susceptible to the same illnesses as you would have been for your health level if you didn't have dementia

Gosh OH's hero. Very sad and it took him so quickly.

My mums still here and going strong and it's been 10 years.

Other posters have explained many causes. Two of my friends lost parents from choking incidents - one is suing a care home as dementia patients are prone to this.

My Mum hardly eats or drinks so is prone to dizziness, UTIs and infections.

My granny died of Altzheimers a few years ago.

With her she got to the point where she became really distressed and aggressive. Whilst the nursing homes (this is in Australia by the way) don't like to drug patients or restrain them, she wasn't "happy" sitting in an enclosed chair thing during the day (sort of like an armchair with a tray in front of it) like my great Aunt who died of the same thing was (she would just sit there all day giggling away to herself apparently) and she was starting to assault members of staff and other patients. She was like a tortured soul with it, re-living all the bad stuff that happened during her life like bereavement etc. The decision was made to give her some stronger sedative medication, which ended up putting her into a comatose like state due to the way her brain was working (or not). Because she had signed a thing saying she didn't want to be kept alive artificially (like through tube feeding etc) they basically put her on something like the Liverpool pathway thing where they withdrew foods and liquids (they did offer her drinks but she couldn't really take them) and she finally died of starvation/dehydration about 10 days later.

Real uplifting story that one! Sorry

My mums dementia became apparent around the time TP was diagnosed.

Her form affected her temporal lobes first, knocking out her speech and language.

If she doesn't die from her other problems, or a fall, I think her brain will just stop remembering to breathe. She has frequent episodes where her brain just shuts off now and shes catatonic, breathing very very slowly.

How awful for your granny tatty.

Although, from what you described she felt like she was being tortured being trapped in an 'enclosed chair' as well as from her internal experiences.