Vascular dementia is caused by a lack of oxygen to parts of the brain, resulting in that part of the brain dying. Can anyone tell me why do they have good and bad days? The brain can’t repair itself, so if the tissue is damaged giving a bad day, what’s happening when it’s a good day? I hope this makes sense.
What is happening in the vascular dementia brain?
- Thread starter BuspassBill
- Start date
Hello @BuspassBill
My wife has mixed Alz/Vas dementia. In the early stages the vascular damage was light enough and she did have good days and bad days.
My wife's vascular damage has increased and the good days have ended.
I have always assumed the brain was rerouting itself to by-pass the dead parts as there is redundancy in the brain. Eventually the brain gets overwhelmed and fails to cope. My opinion was agreed by my wife's Consultant just 2 months ago.
Many years ago I read an interesting study (called 'The Nuns Study' if I recall correctly) that involved examining the brains of deceased nuns in an American convent. One of the conclusions was that lifelong learning can build a 'cognitive reserve' that enabled some nuns to withstand the onslaught of dementia, despite having severe brain damage. It was an interesting study.
My wife has mixed Alz/Vas dementia. In the early stages the vascular damage was light enough and she did have good days and bad days.
My wife's vascular damage has increased and the good days have ended.
I have always assumed the brain was rerouting itself to by-pass the dead parts as there is redundancy in the brain. Eventually the brain gets overwhelmed and fails to cope. My opinion was agreed by my wife's Consultant just 2 months ago.
Many years ago I read an interesting study (called 'The Nuns Study' if I recall correctly) that involved examining the brains of deceased nuns in an American convent. One of the conclusions was that lifelong learning can build a 'cognitive reserve' that enabled some nuns to withstand the onslaught of dementia, despite having severe brain damage. It was an interesting study.
Thank you, the brain is such a complex organ. I’m interested in trying to understand more about its function for people with vascular dementia, rerouting is an interesting concept. Thank you for sharing.
My mum had vascula dementia. Looking back I think she did have good days and bad days. A lot of the bad days were related to issues such as urine infections. She also had TIAs. After one one these she seemed to go downhill then plateau until the next TIA.
My mum has VD and also has good and bad days. I think the brain re-routing to bypass damaged areas is a known.
Also think about our non damaged brains and how they function - we also have good / bad days affected by stress, tiredness, dehydration - all these things are also happening in the VD brain but will show themselves in dementia symptoms.
My take!
Imagine the fully-working brain has a mass of tiny lights, all of them on, with pathways in between. Dementia causes some of those pathways to get blocked but there are still enough 'alternative routes' to connect the lights. Other times, the re-routing gets too long or too complex and the connection doesn't get made. Then some of the lights go out. And like a machine, some go out immediately and permanently. An example might be when the person's body clock no longer works and they cannot distinguish day from night or lose their sense of time. When this happens, it rarely comes back - must be a big light! But other lights flicker on and off for a while before going out for good.
OK, this isn't exactly how brains work - it's just an illustration, but it made some sense of my mum's decline.
I was always fascinated by the effects of dementia on the brain. (And it's slightly different for everyone of course.) I learned a lot about memory and cognition, none of which helped my mum unfortunately
Imagine the fully-working brain has a mass of tiny lights, all of them on, with pathways in between. Dementia causes some of those pathways to get blocked but there are still enough 'alternative routes' to connect the lights. Other times, the re-routing gets too long or too complex and the connection doesn't get made. Then some of the lights go out. And like a machine, some go out immediately and permanently. An example might be when the person's body clock no longer works and they cannot distinguish day from night or lose their sense of time. When this happens, it rarely comes back - must be a big light! But other lights flicker on and off for a while before going out for good.
OK, this isn't exactly how brains work - it's just an illustration, but it made some sense of my mum's decline.
I was always fascinated by the effects of dementia on the brain. (And it's slightly different for everyone of course.) I learned a lot about memory and cognition, none of which helped my mum unfortunately
Makes sense! Thanks 🙏My take!
Imagine the fully-working brain has a mass of tiny lights, all of them on, with pathways in between. Dementia causes some of those pathways to get blocked but there are still enough 'alternative routes' to connect the lights. Other times, the re-routing gets too long or too complex and the connection doesn't get made. Then some of the lights go out. And like a machine, some go out immediately and permanently. An example might be when the person's body clock no longer works and they cannot distinguish day from night or lose their sense of time. When this happens, it rarely comes back - must be a big light! But other lights flicker on and off for a while before going out for good.
OK, this isn't exactly how brains work - it's just an illustration, but it made some sense of my mum's decline.
I was always fascinated by the effects of dementia on the brain. (And it's slightly different for everyone of course.) I learned a lot about memory and cognition, none of which helped my mum unfortunately
That's a smart good point I'm got them bachelor bachelor vascular dimension and I did not know that think about that I mean some smart cookies around here
