BINSWAGER’S DISEASE

Also known as subcortical vascular Dementia Blimey I never heard of this one before This is a rare form of dementia that involves extensive microscopic damage to the small blood vessels and nerve fibres that make up your brains white matter. White matter refers to nerve fibres (axons ) Axons send communications around your brain a bit like a computer or telephone exchange depending on your age. These are surrounded by myelin this is a whitish colour of fats and other stuff that acts like a protective blanket. The problem being once they are damaged they can't be repaired. ​ Causes Thromboembolism =when a blood clot forms in a vein Hypertension smoking diabetes sleep apnea arterial fibrillation =iregular heartbeat arteriosclerosis =blood vessels that carry oxygen away from the heart become damaged Symptoms unsteady walk /shuffling speech and swallowing difficulty mood swings loss of ability to think make decisions organise memory loss incontonance Unfortunately there is no cure for this progressive disease the life span is on average 5 years from when symptoms begin many people with vascular dementia will die from a heart attack or a stroke this is due to the blood vessels becoming more and more obstructed Antidepressant drugs can be helpful as depression is associated with disease ( it is at some in most dementias that I have seen )

Marina Barker