10 Warning Signs You Already Have Dementia

Hello Health Champions. Today I want  to talk about the signs of dementia   and why it is so critically important that we  recognize the signs early because even though   the body has an amazing ability to recover and  regenerate dementia is one of those conditions   that once we are beyond the initial early stages  it is just not reversible dementia in general   is about mental decline it's a reduction  of the ability to perform mental processes   so it's associated with memory disorders with  personality changes with impaired reasoning and   because of that it is one of the most devastating  conditions that anyone could ever get because   even though the person is technically still alive  that the body is still there the person that we   once knew is not there anymore dementia is like an  umbrella term and encompasses many different types   of dementia so the most common form of dementia  is alzheimer's and that's a form that's associated   with specific findings with amyloid plaques and  with something called tau protein tangles but none   of that's really important there's other types  with lewy body dementia where they have protein   clumps and then there is vascular dementia that is  a result of multiple silent infarcts and this is   often with people who have strokes and the  reason i say it's not all that important is   that no matter what the type there's still not a  whole lot they can do about it it's more like an   academic exercise of classification so we want  to understand the very early signs as well as   the mechanisms that bring them about so that we  can do early detection but even better that we   can do some prevention i watched some videos  about this and it was a little discouraging that   most of the advice about diagnosis is just about  classification just about labeling it as dementia   versus normal age-related decline or forgetfulness  and it's almost like the main purpose of having a   classification having that label of dementia  is just so that we have a better tolerance a   better understanding of what these people  are going through and who they are becoming   it's like a child you can't be too upset with  the child because you know they're not mature   you know they don't have the mental cognition  to deal with things the way we do but the main   thing that i hope to really drive home is about  the process that if we catch things early then   it is still reversible and why is that why is it  so hard to reverse it in the later stages because   we need the brain to fix the brain we need the  function of the brain to be there to prevent   further decline so once we have a certain amount  of brain function then we have the motivation   to do something about it to exercise to take  action to lead an active life to make decisions   about healthier foods and so forth and then that  activation drives the brain function which drives   the motivation and so forth but the opposite is  also true that once we lose some brain function   once the loss of brain function goes beyond a  certain point now we no longer have the motivation   and therefore we lose the activation that further  declines brain function and so on and so forth so   once it's beyond a certain point we just don't  have enough healthy viable brain tissue we don't   have enough energy to change the mechanism to  change the process so i want to walk you through   the seven stages of mental decline and then you  will more understand why these advanced cases   are so tough that once the brain is gone it's  gone stage one for some reason is when you're   still normal so i don't know why they call that  stage one instead of stage zero or prior to stage   one but that's just the way they do it normal is  where you want to be stage number two is very mild   decline and this is where we're still on the green  side of the spectrum it's not really dementia yet   it's where we forget things occasionally  we might not have access to familiar words   right away we might not remember where things  are as quickly as we used to and some of this   is perfectly normal we all have good and bad  days and it could very well just be age related   another thing to understand is when it comes to  brain degeneration that it's an ongoing process   that we all have some of this but the trick is  to have it progress so slowly that we can live   our lives and live out to the end of our lives  with as much of that function left as possible   stage number three is early stage dementia  now you're kind of officially in the process   of developing dementia you're still in the early  stages it's still considered a mild decline but   some of the things that you might start observing  is forgetting names you're in a conversation with   somebody you're being introduced you try to  remember what their name was but a minute   later you have no idea what it was your short term  memory is slipping another way this could manifest   would be if you forget what you just read you  watch a little movie clip or you read a paragraph   and a minute later you don't know what it was  about and in this stage you might see people   learn to compensate they figure out they're  aware that the short-term memory is slipping so   they develop a strategy of marking their trail of  writing down things that they know that they need   to remember but they'll probably forget and we  all do this to a degree because we use lists to   stay organized and so forth but here's where it's  gone a little bit further and these people kind of   mark their trail like with breadcrumbs where they  know they'll find the notes so that they have some   organization in their life and their ability to  organize and get things done also gets worse with   planning when it's complex when it's multiple  steps involved now they really can't handle it   without marking their trail ahead of time and the  thing to understand here is that when people start   to compensate and develop a strategy they still  have enough brain function they still have enough   consciousness they're still aware of the problem  and they have some motivation at this point you   can still turn it around if you understand  how the brain works and what the brain needs   you can develop a strategy to actually reverse  this stage number four is still considered early   stage dementia but you're a little further down  now there's moderate decline and this is where   it's getting tougher and tougher to turn this  around it's almost impossible to reverse but   you can still do things to slow it down an example  now would be that you forget recent event things   that happen beyond just reading a paragraph you  might have done something and you don't remember   it anymore another thing that often happens  here is impaired calculation your ability to do   simple math is not so great anymore so an example  would be subtracting 7s you start with a 100 and   you subtract 7. so 100 minus 7 is 93. 93 minus  7 is 86 and so forth so normally you should be   able to do that even if you can't do it instantly  or as fast as someone else but once you get into   this stage you're just not able to do that at  all and some of the other things you're losing   is maybe the ability to pay bills to manage your  finances even if you concentrate you just can't   figure it out anymore and tasks requiring more  planning and managing they're getting increasingly   difficult so someone else has to start taking  over those tasks now when it comes to these stages   we have to understand that even though we're  focusing mostly on the cognitive portion on   diagnosing mental ability this mental ability is  reflected in physiology that the physical tissue   of neurology it's declining and that this  decline is progressive and before we ever get   to any noticeable decline in cognitive function  there's already been a progression of physical   decline so we're talking about the cellular  machinery that your brain cells as they start ever   so gradually declining in their ability to produce  energy in their ability to produce signals that's   the beginning of this and then as it progresses  we might notice a decline in brain endurance and   we'll take a look at what what that means and then  once we've had these first things then we see the   early degeneration and eventually we see these  early signs that lead to more progressive signs   that lead to dementia so again if we catch it in  the stages of early degeneration we can reverse   this but as we start getting into the early  symptom and into the later symptoms now it's   simply too late so in the very earliest stages  before there's any sign of cognitive impairment   we might see a reduction in brain endurance  so this might be a reduction in attention span   it might be more mental fatigue it could be that  you can't stay focused as long as you used to it   might be that you feel you need caffeine  or some other stimulant to keep you going   or it could be that you notice that in some other  aspect that you feel your brain function just   isn't providing the quality of life that you're  used to you notice that there's a change there   another thing to look for in the very earliest  stages is changes in posture and movement your   cognition is still there but these things indicate  a degeneration of brain function of the physical   capacity of the brain to perform work so if  you're sitting still and you're noticing a   twitching or a tremor that's a sign that the brain  is not able to control that as well as it used to   if you notice that your handwriting is getting  smaller and it's not because you're just a neat   type of person that always wrote like this  but you used to write a certain way and now   you're writing different that is becoming more  compressed called micrographia that's another sign   if you can't smell the food as much smell is a  result of brain function like everything else   absolutely everything so if you can't smell the  food that's very common if your quality of sleep   is declining your brain function determines  the hormone production and the regulation of   sleep cycles and the regulation of stress and so  forth another thing you might notice as your brain   degenerates is a hunched posture so posture is  part of brain health we start our lives as babies   we start as a in a fetal position we're all curled  up and then as the brain develops and progresses   and the brain the frontal lobe learns to inhibit  certain things we get an upright posture and then   as the brain starts weakening we get back we  get more and more curled and hunched over and   we sort of return back to that childhood posture  another sign that the brain isn't working as   well is a loss of arm swing that when you're  walking you might swing one arm more than the   other or both arms may not swing very much at  all so the thing to understand though is that   poor brain function results in these but it works  the other way around that if you pay attention to   your posture and if you pay attention to your arm  swing you're actually reinforcing brain function   so when do we start worrying about it being  dementia and when is it just something that   is normal for age so with dementia it's very  common to have poor judgment but these people have   chronically poor judgment they are unable to  have good judgment what's normal with age is   that you have occasional bad choices but once you  think about it you're able to reason it out with   dementia you're often unable to manage a budget  however i think every one of us has missed paying   a bill at some time and that's different it's  once in a while people with dementia are often   losing track of what time it is what day it is  what month or even season they can start in the   summer and say oh are we going to have snow today  they really have no clue about time or even season   normal would be that you don't know if it's  wednesday or thursday because there's a lot   going on you got distracted but if you sit  down and think about it you can figure it out   and with dementia people lose things but they're  also unable to retrace their steps and figure out   where it is or what happened to it normal is  that we lose things from time to time but we   still have this basic awareness of what happened  or where they might be and with dementia they   also have difficulty being coherent so in a  conversation or trying to explain something   the reasoning is all over the place there is no  structure or direction to it and normal would   be that we're sometimes searching for a word we  occasionally get lost but given some time we can   get back to our train of thought and this has  received some attention recently in the media   where a lot of people are suggesting that  this is what might be going on with the   leader of the free world you know what do  you want to do with button i want to box i it be so lucky you know i mean but it is the  kinds of things or you know stuff that is coming   out of florida stuff that's coming out of you know  robert e lee but in afghanistan you're the one anyway stage number five is mid-stage so  now you're sort of in the middle or even   past the middle of the spectrum is moderate to  severe decline and brain damage these people   cannot recall their very basics things that  they have encountered and talked about and known   all their lives all of a sudden they don't know  their own address or their own phone number   of course their ability to realize and recall the  time or day or season is getting even worse and   they have trouble selecting proper clothing  so like in this picture they have trouble   matching things up and they're not able to  select appropriate clothing for the season   or for the weather i don't want to go in depth  on the causes but i do want to touch on them very   briefly here so you could get dementia you could  have brain damage from injury or trauma but that's   relatively rare for all the cases of dementia  the vast majority of cases is brain disease   and degeneration it's a gradual decline of the  mental processes due to the physical degeneration   and the first thing to understand in that  context is the principle of use it or lose it   your muscles work the same way if you  break your arm you put your arm in a cast   then that muscle will shrink because you're not  using it that is the most important component   of brain degeneration yes there are  genetic predisposition and all that   but we have to understand the the basic mechanism  here and what does the brain need it needs fuel   which is the stuff we eat and then it needs oxygen  to burn that food that's the fuel that produces   energy but then the second part is what people  miss it's the stimulation and there's a whole lot   of confusion about how to stimulate the brain that  most people think it's playing bridge and doing   crossword puzzles and having an interesting life  but the fact is the vast majority more than 90%   of the stimulation of the signals that keep the  brain alive come from movement and that is why i   always talk about exercise it's not the  best to reverse insulin resistant but it is   the best to keep your brain alive if you  don't stimulate it then you'll see a reduction   in blood flow which is part of this brain  degeneration and if you don't lose it then   that is how the brain ends up with less blood flow  another factor that can speed up this degeneration   is neuro inflammation and this has to do with  metabolic disease this is what i talk a lot about   in my videos and even though most people worry  about their metabolism for weight loss or diabetes   you have to understand that alzheimer's and  dementia is often called type 3 diabetes that   is how strong the link is between the two being  insulin resistant and having metabolic syndrome   metabolic disease is a cause of neuroinflammation  and then some other additional causes will be   toxins that inflame the body and toxins that come  from food and the gi tract so environmental insult   and from food stage six is mid to late stage  dementia now you're getting really close to   the red these people have severe decline and one  example of what's happening is they can't even   recall their spouse's name and this is where  it's becoming so devastating for a couple that   has known each other their entire life and all  of a sudden that person is just gone they're   there in the flesh it's like they should be there  but they're just not and these people have to be   watched constantly they're often kept in an  institution by now because they tend to wander   and get lost and they have very little judgment on  how to take care of themselves so they very easily   get injured as well now they can't even perform  the very basics of taking care of themselves   they need help with dressing and eating and in  addition there's just basically nothing left of   their original personality their major personality  disorders number seven is late stage dementia   now you're almost all the way gone and this is  very severe decline these people have complete   detachment they're just basically not there at all  anymore they're non-responsive you talk to them   you gesture and there's just no recognition of  anything they might produce random words but   there's just no context or no meaning to it they  have no awareness of themselves or their condition   and another thing that often happens at this point  is they can't even swallow any more if you feed   them i hope you can really really see that the  things that we usually associate with dementia   those are stages that are too late to do something  about so when you're at this stage when you have   the ability to compensate when you have some  motivation to develop strategies this is the range   where you want to notice and do something  about it in the very early stages even before   there is any cognitive decline when there's just  a little loss of brain endurance or posture that's   where it's time to do something if you enjoyed  this video you're going to love that one and if   you truly want to master health by understanding  how the body really works make sure you subscribe   hit that bell and turn on all the notifications  so you never miss a life saving video

Channel: Dr. Sten Ekberg

Views: 5,700,493

Keywords: keto, keto diet, ketogenic, keto doctor, doctor keto, keto dr, dr ekberg, dr sten ekberg, wellness for life, real doctor, holistic doctor, weight loss, lose fat, real doctor reacts, doctor explains, low carb foods, real doctor reviews, which is better for your health, which is better, top 10, top 10 ways, signs and symptoms, keto for beginners, here is what happens, your brain

Id: Cd3u0yav_bU

Length: 22min 12sec (1332 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 24 2021