One in three people born in the UK this year will develop dementia in their lifetime. There is no way to prevent all dementia, but there are lots of lifestyle changes you can make to reduce your risk. The best way to stop dementia from taking over your life is to get diagnosed and treated as early as possible. Here are the top six signs of early dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Society.
Dementia is tricky to spot in the early stages as the symptoms are normally relatively mild and discreet.
The early stage of dementia lasts on average about two years, and during this time you will notice a string of symptoms starting to impact the person’s daily life.
At this point, the person should be mostly independent but they may start to need a little bit of assistance.
The Alzheimer’s Society has revealed the most common six symptoms of early dementia.
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Changes in mood or emotion
A person in the early stages of dementia may be more anxious, frightened or sad, and so they are at higher risk of depression.
It is also common to become more irritable – perhaps in frustration at lost abilities – or easily upset.
The Alzheimer’s Society experts said: “A person can often be more withdrawn, lack self-confidence and lose interest in hobbies or people.
“Changes in behaviour are not common in early-stage dementia, other than in FTD. A person with behavioural variant FTD may lose their inhibitions and behave in socially inappropriate ways.
“They may also act impulsively and lose empathy for others.
“Significant physical changes at this stage tend to be limited to DLB, where problems with movement are similar to Parkinson’s disease.
“If someone with vascular or mixed dementia has a stroke, this can lead to weak limbs on one side.”
Poor orientation
People with early dementia might have poor orientation and become confused in unfamiliar environments.
The Alzheimer’s Society site says: “A person may no longer recognise where they are and so get lost, even in a place that is familiar to them.”
Visual-perceptual difficulties
If a person with early Dementia has visual-perceptual difficulties, this can cause problems judging distances, for example when using stairs.
The site notes: “This issue is more common in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease and DLB than in vascular dementia or FTD.
“Visual-perceptual difficulties are different from the visual hallucinations (often of animals or people) that are a feature of early-stage DLB.”