Five early warning signs of dementia revealed – as Rosalynn Carter, 95, battles cruel disorder

It was revealed this week that Rosalynn, the wife of former President Jimmy Carter, has dementia.

The Carter Center said the 95-year-old former first lady continues to “live happily” with her husband and “enjoy springtime” and “visits with loved ones.”

Rosalynn has been married for 76 years to Carter, 98 — the longest-living president — and they’ve been home together since February, when he announced he was refraining from further medical intervention after a string of hospitalizations.

No further details about her condition were released and the Carter Center was not expected to release any further information.

Last week, their grandson Jason said the couple were in “good spirits” and ate ice cream together as they welcomed relatives to their humble home in Plains.

Dementia is a group of diseases that mark a progressive and permanent cognitive decline. It results in difficulty thinking, remembering and reasoning, to the point of interfering with basic daily functions and activities.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type, accounting for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. The disease usually develops later in life, with 73 percent of patients diagnosed after age 75.

Aging is the main risk factor for dementia due to brain damage that can take years or decades to become noticeable enough to develop symptoms.

“Our brains start to age from our early 20s,” Hana Burianova, a neuroscientist at the University of Bournemouth in the UK, told MailOnline.

‘Once they stop developing, they start to age, which means that the connections between different parts are lost.

However, the brain is made of plastic and if we are active and social, if we exercise and eat healthy, we can make new connections well into old age.

‘But when the brain ages pathologically, the neurons – which transmit messages to other parts of the brain – die. This neuron death is what happens in Alzheimer’s disease.’

People are also more susceptible as they age because they are more likely to develop health problems that can increase their risk, such as high blood pressure, weaker immune systems, damaged blood vessels in the brain, and stroke.

About 5 in 100 people in the US will have developed dementia between the ages of 65 and 74. The risk increases with age; about a third of people over the age of 85 will have dementia.

This is more than six million Americans. In the United Kingdom, nearly a million Britons have the condition.

So what are the memory and behavior changes that are cause for concern? Ms. Burianova reveals the telltale signs you should never ignore.

Forgetfulness

One of the hallmarks of early dementia is memory loss. But how do you know if an older loved one is just forgetful or if there’s more going on at work?

“We know from research that older adults, over the age of 65, will lose some detail in autobiographical memory, but their memory for facts and words is better than that of younger people,” Ms Burianova said.

And often, much of the typical “forgetfulness” of otherwise healthy older people may be because they’re not paying attention in the first place.

“Maybe they didn’t ‘encode’ the information, maybe they were told a story at a party, for example, but were distracted,” she said.

‘The difference between a healthy aging brain and pathological degeneration is the gradual death of neurons. The changes will take place gradually.’

The death of these neurons usually occurs in the parts of the brain involved in memory, such as the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus.

Someone will forget conversations they just had, or they may get lost in a place they know well, or forget their way home, despite having done so countless times before.

“Anyone can forget to turn off the stove, but it happens again and again with someone with Alzheimer’s,” said Ms Burianova.

Repeat itself

Most of us are all too familiar with loved ones who have been telling the same stories for years.

However, someone with dementia will often repeat the same information over and over in a short period of time.

“We all tell stories several times, especially to our partners. There may be a signal that reminds us, and that’s the trigger for our retrieval,” Ms. Burianova said.

‘But someone with Alzheimer’s repeats something three times in a row. It’s a symptom of their short-term memory loss.”

Sudden changes in mood

If your loved one suddenly becomes anxious or depressed on another level, it could be more than a midlife crisis.

“Someone will try to figure out why their loved one is suffering from mental health problems, but it’s more than that – it’s because part of the brain is deteriorating,” Ms Burianova said.

“Imagine the brain as a big net and part of the net starts to break, then the rest of the net starts to tear. Depending on where that process begins, it will control the symptoms.

They can’t talk

If a formerly fluent speaker suddenly starts stumbling over his words, be careful.

They may have aphasia, where a person has difficulty with speech and understanding language, which can be caused by some types of dementia.

“There is an area in the frontal lobe that deals with the initiation of language,” Ms. Burianova said.

“Maybe you tell them something and realize they don’t understand. Or they stutter or stumble when they try to produce language.’

Personality change

If your otherwise quiet and unassuming grandmother starts telling crude jokes, there may be a serious reason for this.

“Depending on what kind of dementia you have, your personality can change once it starts to affect your prefrontal cortex,” Ms Burianova said.

“There can be a lot of anxiety or OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), you can get super obsessive and some people become disinhibited.

“Suddenly your grandma starts making lewd remarks to men on the street, or they start taking their clothes off.

“Aggression can also be there, but that could be because they are afraid of their environment and feel extremely vulnerable.”