Our team at A Cognitive Connection can help with many types of dementia, including vascular, by providing cognitive behavioral therapy exercises to reduce your symptoms. While these treatments can’t improve your physical health, they can ensure you retain as much of your brain strength as possible. If you or someone you love is experiencing this condition, reaching out to us is critical to learn how we can help you bounce back and recover much of your skills. Check out our blog to learn more about vascular dementia.
What is Vascular Dementia?
Vascular dementia is a general term that describes a group of problems caused by impaired blood flow to the brain. These include concerns like decreases in your reasoning, planning, memory, judgment, and cognitive intelligence. Some cases may develop slowly, while others happen quickly, depending on the triggers. Symptoms of this condition may include:
- Confusion
- Concentration problems
- Trouble organizing thoughts
- Issues with analyzing situations
- Slower thinking
- Memory problems
- Unsteady gait
- Depression
- Apathy
- Anxiety
- Restlessness
- Agitation
- A sudden need to urinate
These symptoms are very frustrating and can significantly impact your life in multiple ways. For example, you might struggle at work and fall behind in production. You might also experience troubles with your friends and family members that could linger and cause serious long-term emotional issues. Make sure that you know when to reach out to our team of specialists at A Cognitive Connection to learn more about how cognitive behavioral therapy can help you.
Why Do People Get Vascular Dementia?
Most cases of vascular dementia develop in older adults, as they’re at a higher risk. However, that doesn’t mean they’re the only ones who develop this condition. In fact, it can happen to just about anybody when the conditions are right. As a result, it’s essential to understand some of the most common causes of vascular dementia to minimize your danger. While these are some of the biggest triggers for vascular dementia, they’re not the only issues that might cause it:
- Stroke: Strokes are the most likely cause of vascular dementia and occur when an artery in the brain gets blocked. Even a silent stroke (one that doesn’t cause symptoms) can trigger vascular dementia, so make sure you visit your physician regularly.
- Brain Hemorrhage: A brain hemorrhage typically occurs when high blood pressure weakens a blood vessel enough to cause bleeding in the brain. It might also occur due to protein buildup, which can cause lower oxygen flow to the mind’s tissues.
- Narrowed Blood Vessels: Over time, the blood vessels in your brain might naturally constrict, causing decreased blood flow to the brain. This condition is a little insidious because it happens so slowly and may cause long-term problems with cognition.
- Head Injuries: In some rare cases, a head injury or blow can cause constricted blood vessels in the brain. It’s rare because the skull protects the brain from such impact damage. However, a severe concussion could potentially increase your risk.
Factors that may influence your vascular dementia risk include increasing age (people over 65 have the most significant danger), a history of heart attacks/strokes/mini strokes, abnormal blood vessel aging, cholesterol, atherosclerosis, high cholesterol and blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, obesity, and atrial fibrillation. Managing these issues can significantly decrease your risk, though vascular dementia development is often unpredictable and may happen to anybody.
Who Does It Affect?
As mentioned previously, anybody can develop vascular dementia if they experience decreased blood flow to the brain for a significant time. Slower blood movement causes reduced oxygenation in brain cells and can lead to damage or cell death. As a result, even young children can develop vascular dementia, though it’s rare. Most cases by far occur in people over 65, with the risk increasing exponentially by the time someone hits their 80s and 90s.
Treatment is available for this condition, and while dementia is not reversible, therapy can reduce symptoms and improve a person’s quality of life. Even people with advanced cases can benefit from hands-on treatment from our team at A Cognitive Connection. With a proven track record of success and rave reviews from most of our clients, we’re more than capable of helping you regain your cognitive strength. Just make sure to get started ASAP to get on the right path.
How Do Its Symptoms Progress in Older Adults?
Like any condition, vascular dementia changes as it progresses. Advent Health Orlando provided a helpful guide for tracking dementia symptoms through several stages. This simple system can help people like you understand where you’re at in your dementia and make it easier for us to plan your treatment. Let’s break down these different stages in order to help you better grasp what you’re experiencing and minimize potential therapeutic errors:
- Stage One: During the early days of your dementia, you’ll have basically no impairment and a healthy memory. Why is this considered a stage, then? You may have underlying conditions that will worsen your dementia, including stroke-related heart problems.
- Stage Two: At this point, you’ll have some minor impairment and normal forgetfulness. You’ll probably have memory lapses and changes in thinking that only you’ll notice. In fact, you might write them off as a normal part of aging. That’s a common mistake.
- Stage Three: Expect your forgetfulness to intensify a little during this stage. You might notice you have difficulty remembering words or handling day-to-day tasks. Depression may also develop during this time, as well as some minor confusion and agitation.
- Stage Four: By the time you hit this stage, you’ll notice more evident symptoms, such as forgetting recent events and conversations. You should still know your loved ones and yourself but struggle to carry out simple orders and may self-isolate in frustration.
- Stage Five: People will start noticing that you need extra help just to live your day-to-day life. Most people in stage five need help to handle their daily chores and might suffer severe safety issues, such as not sleeping, eating, or cleaning themselves properly daily.
- Stage Six: In Stage Six, you’ll likely be regularly agitated and even hallucinate periodically. Wandering, getting lost, and paranoia might become frequent visitors. Present events will become impossible to track, and you might forget the past, too.
- Stage Seven: Late-stage severe dementia leaves a person unable to talk, walk, or sit. They’ll need round-the-clock support for daily living and care. It’s a sad and scary stage that can make a person angry or aggressive against those caring for them.
Each of these stages lasts from 1-2 years, though this may vary depending on your condition. For example, some people might linger in stage three for a few years but blaze through the other stages in a few months to end up needing permanent support. It’s impossible to predict vascular dementia progression, so it’s essential to take your life into your own hands and do what you can to thrive. After all, this disease will, unfortunately, decrease your lifespan.
Will It Impact Your Life Expectancy?
According to the U.S. News, people with vascular dementia may have a shorter lifespan than those without it. They state that people with this dementia typically live for about five years after their symptoms start. Heart attacks and strokes, often related to this condition, take the lives of many people with it. That might be disheartening to read if you or someone you know has vascular dementia. But five years is not a hard rule, and there’s no reason to give up on life.
Instead, you should take your health seriously and contact us to get help managing your symptoms. We can’t prevent or reverse vascular dementia. Our team isn’t a physical health professional, either, and can’t manage any pain you might experience due to this disease. However, we can provide you with cognitive behavioral therapy and other therapy methods to reduce your losses and improve your life quality. You deserve joy, and we’re here to provide it.
Why Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is So Important
While cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) isn’t always used to treat vascular dementia, it can help with many of its symptoms. Put simply, CBT is a psychotherapeutic treatment that helps to spot and fix problematic behavior patterns and replace them with healthy ones. Though most commonly used for people with emotional problems, like anxiety and depression, those with vascular dementia may also benefit from it in a variety of useful ways. For example, it can:
- Manage Anxiety: People with vascular dementia may have high levels of anxiety and react poorly to their stressors. Thankfully, CBT can help with this problem by teaching coping mechanisms and making it easier for them to avoid severe emotional reactions.
- Help Depression: Dementia of all types usually triggers depression as individuals watch their cognitive skills decline. CBT can help with depression caused by vascular dementia by teaching individuals better coping therapies to make their life a little happier.
- Improve Focus: Over the years, cognitive behavioral therapy has been used to manage focus problems as severe as ADHD. People with vascular dementia may react well to this treatment and learn how to better focus on life’s challenges with minimal issues.
- Handle Anger: People with dementia may lash out at others aggressively due to frustrations or a lack of emotional control. CBT can help with anger management even for people with dementia, making it a great tool in the fight against this condition.
Cognitive behavioral therapy provides people with vascular dementia with a powerful tool for recovery. Our team at A Cognitive Connection understands this treatment and much more. We’re more than ready to help you bounce back from your cognitive loss and can help you retain as much of your abilities as possible. With the help of our intensive therapies, you can stay strong mentally and avoid long-term consequences that could degenerate and make life even more complicated to handle.
Our Other Treatments Can Help You
At A Cognitive Connection, our crew can provide multiple hands-on therapies that make recovering from vascular dementia easier. We’ll work with you or your loved one utilizing unique and powerful treatments that mitigate some behavioral problems, rebuild cognitive strength, and make it easier to focus on long-term health. Vascular dementia is a devastating condition, we know, but with our help, you can crawl back to better cognitive health and live a happier life.
Cognitive Brain Training
Cognitive Brain Training provides powerful support in rebuilding neural pathways in your brain. Even 10 minutes a day playing chess, putting together a puzzle, or reading a short mystery story can provide excellent cognitive health benefits. Our team will help you find unique cognitive exercises to increase your neuroplasticity, even with vascular dementia. In this way, you can manage your anxiety and depression and think more clearly throughout your recovery.
V.I.B.E.S.
Vibrational Individualized Body Enhancement System, or V.I.B.E.S., is an innovative cognitive health system produced by Bioharmonic Technologies. This unique tool utilizes energy, sound, vibrations, and frequency to balance your brain’s chemistry and your body’s physiology. Awakening your nervous system in this way can help your body heal. When paired with cognitive brain training, you might see long-term results that could reduce adverse symptoms.
Mind’s Eye
Mind’s Eye is another one of our most popular treatments, which is provided for us by Theta Technologies. It uses light and sound to produce deep relaxation in your mind and body. People who use this therapy often make it easier to visualize new goals or fall asleep by creating a sense of mental calmness in people who use it. Such an approach can help mitigate anxiety related to vascular dementia and make it simpler for you to focus on your long-term recovery.
Behavior Adjustments
Vascular dementia can cause extreme changes in behavior in both children and adults. Our team can help you by assessing these changes, counseling you to help you understand what’s happening, and consulting you toward a better treatment process. With therapies like brain builder, interactive metronome, the listening program, and neuroptimal feedback, our diverse care can give you the support needed to rebuild your mental and cognitive strength.
Classes and Events
Beyond these therapies, we also provide various events and classes that can help you in multiple ways. For example, parenting courses may work well if your child experiences vascular dementia (while rare, it happens). Individualized tutoring can also help with young ones and ensure that they work through their frustrations successfully. Furthermore, cognitive and social skills classes can reinforce lessons to make your recovery smoother and more efficient.
A Cognitive Connection is Here for You
Vascular dementia doesn’t have to be a curse on you or your loved one’s life. Many people work with us to enhance their brain health and walk away more confident with their cognitive skills. Even if you don’t quite recover 100% of your mental strength, we’ll fight to help you regain as much lost ground as possible. Call us at (719) 358-6637 or use our contact form to get started. We’ll help show you the benefits of cognitive behavioral therapy.
