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What is known about brain illnesses is the tip of the iceberg, both in diseases of the aging brain and in mental illness. Part of the reason is that definitive diagnosis is impossible until after death, at autopsy. For instance, Robin Williams was diagnosed with Lewy's Dementia only after his death, with any certainty.
Only a few decades ago we had the designation of "Senile Dementia" as the only diagnosis. Slowly we are making progress, and the last years have shown a huge uptick in information and in research.
Alzheimer's is named for the man who discovered it and described it, as is Lewy's Dementia. There are others, Frontal Temporal Dementia. There are some areas of Parkinson's disease that have hallucinations described, and other things similar to Dementia. And so on.
On autopsies the brains of victims of various disorders vary widely. Some present as "tangles" of neurons, which are quite useless for normal functioning. Some present as decreases in white matter.
Google will describe many different dementias if you research and I am far from an expert as most of my very limited knowledge comes from a career as a nurse, a career in which I witnessed much change and much improvement, but in which I still understand we are only on the tip of the iceberg in our understanding, and I am now many years retired.
I recommend for readers who are not of a scientific bent all of the books and essays of Oliver Sacks. The brain is a fascinating study.
Hope only that there will be some progress on what to do to prevent what those on this forum live through, live with on a daily basis.
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The way it was explained to me is that Dementia is a condition where the person may have the following: confusion, memory loss, inability to plan or use good judgement, inability to organize thoughts or activities, loss of initiative, loss of awareness of surroundings or condition, etc. Then, you look to what is causing the dementia. It could be Alzheimers disease, Vascular Strokes, Lewy Body disease, Parkinson's disease, alcohol dementia, etc. Many conditions can cause dementia, but, it may take a while to get there. For example, a person may have cognitive decline due to strokes, but, it hasn't advanced to dementia yet. As it progresses, it can progress into dementia as it gets more severe.
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Alzheimer’s is a Dementia but sits in a category parallel to other Dementia

AL tends to start later in life and when something is forgotten it is gone forever eg there is a difference between forgetting where your car keys are and forgetting you have keys to a car

Dementias are different in that the memory is not gone in the same way. They remember just about everything but they are in cognitive decline
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ALZ is one of many different types of dementia.

Each type has different causes and presentations.

It can be challenging to determine what type of dementia a person has. Neurological testing and health history help to narrow down the type.
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