Living with Dementia and Comorbidities

The term cerebral means brain and atrophy means loss of cells or shrinkage. When our brains atrophy, the neurons, and their connections waste away and the brain is literally getting smaller.

What Are the Symptoms of Brain Atrophy?

Atrophy in the brain may cause seizures, dementia (including memory loss, executive functioning impairment, and behavior changes) and aphasia (difficulty with expressing language or understanding it. Muscle weakness and hearing loss can also be symptoms of brain atrophy and should be reported to your physician for further investigation.

What Causes Cerebral Atrophy?

Several different medical conditions can cause the brain to atrophy, including Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia, Lewy body dementia, stroke, cerebral palsy, Huntington's disease, and some infections such as AIDS and encephalitis.

What Parts of the Brain Are Typically Affected by Atrophy in Dementia?

In Alzheimer's disease, the hippocampus, which helps form new memories, and the cortex, which helps us think, plan and remember, are two areas that are especially affected by atrophy. However, the whole brain shrinks as well. Reduced brain volume can be seen on imaging studies which compare healthy brains to those with atrophy present.

In frontotemporal dementia, the frontal and temporal lobes generally see the most atrophy. Atrophy of these areas of the brain often initially present as personality and behavior changes, whereas Alzheimer's disease often initially affects memory.

A study sought to identify which areas of the brain are generally more atrophied in Lewy body dementia. Researchers found that the midbrain, hypothalamus and substantia innominata were generally the areas with the most atrophy. Being able to establish a pattern of where the atrophy is concentrated can potentially assist in correctly diagnosing the type of dementia.

In vascular dementia, the amount and location of the atrophy vary depending on whether there is a specific area that is affected by a stroke, for example, or multiple small blockages which are correlated with an overall reduced volume of the brain.

Brain atrophy is also present in Huntington's disease. Interestingly, research has found that locations and degrees of brain atrophy vary in Huntington's.

In Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, atrophy also varies significantly, with some cases showing almost no atrophy at all and others developing some generalized atrophy in the overall brain volume.

What Is 'Age-Related Atrophy'?

As people age, a small amount of brain atrophy is expected. Thus, you might hear the doctor explain your MRI scan as showing "age-related atrophy." One study found that in healthy participants without dementia between the ages of 60-91, some amount of brain atrophy developed in as little as one year's time.

Does Brain Atrophy Mean that Dementia Is Likely to Develop Soon?

It's important to know that while significant brain atrophy is a sign of a problem, research supports the idea that age-related brain atrophy does not necessarily mean that dementia is about to develop. Scientists also concluded that the speed of atrophy is more of a factor than the fact that some atrophy is present. In other words, if brain volume declines more quickly than normal, this may indicate a concern.

Can Brain Atrophy Be Prevented or Reversed?

Some research has shown that physical exercise can reduce the speed of atrophy or even reverse some of the atrophy in certain areas of the brain.

Other research suggests that supplementation with vitamin B (including vitamin B12, folic acid, and vitamin B6) also helps slow brain atrophy.

A correlation between cerebral atrophy and diet has also been found in some research. For example, in one study, greater brain atrophy (shrinkage) was found in participants who least followed the Mediterranean diet.

A Word from Verywell

While some causes of cerebral atrophy are outside of our control, others may be impacted by our life choices. We at Verywell hope that learning about these causes and risk reduction strategies will encourage you on your journey towards good brain health.

I had a scan done in 2008, and it said that there was evidence of Cerebral atrophy and TIA, etc, but nothing was explained, until we asked our family doctor what it all meant.

He said it was brain shrinkage, but was not age related

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Most people these days cope quite well with daily things, and don't struggle to cope with thought processing problems

I guess I did not know anything about this subject, until I was hit by these problems

I guess it all started the day I went to look at an Electrical distribution board, and realised that nothing made sense anymore, I no longer understood what cable was what.

That was just the start of the slippery slope, and since then things have got much worse

But when you no longer understand your job, or your hobby, life becomes very hard.

It's like buying a new gadget, and then finding that you don't understand the instruction manual

Like reading an article in a newspaper and then realising that you did not understand what it meant.

I have struggled with processing information for some time now, and I guess it becomes distressing at times, because my brain is slowing down.

I often sit in meetings and struggle to understand fully what people are saying.

But I always take my wife with me, so that she can explain things to me when needed.

The problem is that if you misunderstood what was being said, and you then answered wrongly, then that is very embarrassing as well as distressing

If I am asked to do a presentation somewhere, I need time to sit down and decide what I want to say, and then take my time writing it out,

I simply cannot turn up and do it on the hoof, as many people do these days .

This in turn is usually done by voice activated software on my computer.

So we just write some notes out, before sitting in front of the computer and talking through the topic, the machine does everything itself

This way I don't have to keep looking at the keyboard, and then back up at the screen to see what's been written

While I was working I was involved in committee meetings, and could just sit and answer questions as they came. These days I need time to think them through

I have no idea what caused this to happen, but I understood from MCI scans in 2009 that the results showed signs of "Ischemia and Cerebral Atrophy" what ever that may be.

This was after my diagnosis of Lewy Body Dementia, so whether I have a mixed form of dementia I don't know

But this thought processing can take its toll on your hobbies etc, as it takes longer to work your way through it all

I have realised recently that unless I have support at home, I cannot cook anymore, apart from microwave food, but even then, it's getting things done in the correct order.

After years of being able to cook, this has hit me very hard.

Even answering emails etc has become a nightmare, because I don't always see the obvious, and my wife has to correct things, which is very distressing at times

Tuesday, 26 February 2019

Cerebral Atrophy

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