Dementia describes progressive memory issues that impact daily activities

1440: Everything you need to know about Alzheimer's

What is Alzheimer's, and is it different from dementia? In short, yes—Alzheimer's is a specific brain disease that falls under the umbrella of dementia. However it is the most prevalent form of the condition, accounting for 60 to 80% of reported dementia cases.

How neurodegeneration happens, the underlying disease process of dementia

Dementia symptoms may vary between individuals, and may include mood changes, difficulty walking, speaking, and memory problems. It can progress over many years, occurring due to progressive damage to nerve cells in the brain. This degradation may happen for myriad reasons, and its triggers are under investigation.

Memory disorders disrupt the brain's ability to make, store, or recall memories

These disorders stem from reversible issues like vitamin deficiencies or irreversible causes such as stroke or dementia. Only one type of dementia—familial Alzheimer’s disease—is directly inherited and accounts for about 20% of Alzheimer’s cases.

Alzheimer's disease is the leading cause of dementia and risks rise after age 65

Read this primer about Alzheimer's disease and learn what factors increase the risk of this form of dementia, including genetics, being a woman, and health conditions, including high blood pressure.

Learn the differences between mild cognitive impairment and age-associated memory loss

Mild cognitive impairment is a condition in which people experience more thinking and memory problems than expected for their age. It's often associated with depression and anxiety. Daily routines, writing things down, and healthy lifestyle choices can help cope with the condition, but there's no cure. The condition elevates the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's.

Can your identity be preserved amid dementia?

Memory loss associated with progressive dementia raises questions about whether a person's identity can be maintained during the disease's progression. One outlook suggests we define ourselves by our social relationships—offering a potentially more humane approach to caring for those with dementia.

Alzheimer's brain changes may begin years before symptoms appear

The debilitating disorder degrades cognitive abilities. Its symptoms may start with subtle memory issues, but by the time patients notice any changes, neural changes may already be progressing, such as the accumulation of beta-amyloid plaques between neurons and tau protein tangles within them.

Why vascular dementia develops

This type of dementia, the second most common form after Alzheimer's, develops due to microscopic bleeds and blood vessel blockages in the brain. The condition isn't curable but medications to help with blood clotting and high blood pressure are part of a suite of interventions designed to minimize damage to the brain.

How family members disappeared into dementia

This narrative feature describes one family's troubling experience with frontotemporal dementia, or FTD, which emerges in the prime of adult life — as young as 40, in some cases — and degrades the brain's ability to plan, organize, express language, understand social cues, and exercise judgment.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

A dignified later life made possible through dementia villages

Dementia villages are specially designed residential communities tailored for individuals with dementia. These environments offer residents a safe, familiar, and stimulating atmosphere that resembles normal daily life—promoting greater independence, social interaction, and quality of life while discreetly integrating necessary care and support from trained professionals.

Dementia caregiver training programs exist—but they aren't common

Comprehensive dementia care programs go beyond offering support to caregivers. They train people on how to modify their homes, communicate with their loved ones with dementia, and cope with the stress of caregiving, among other skills. Yet despite evidence showing their effectiveness and the economic benefit of avoiding unnecessary emergency room visits, these programs are often poorly funded and difficult to find.

After a dementia diagnosis, it's important to plan ahead but also savor the moment

The next steps after a diagnosis include taking lifestyle steps to slow disease progression and completing legal paperwork about long-term medical preferences. It's also important to appreciate the moments and days ahead and find humor in them, when possible. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)

Various types of memory, each serving unique functions, create a complex brain system

These forms of memory, which can overlap in daily life, have been sorted into broad categories, such as short-term and long-term memory, and subtypes such as implicit memory, which uses saved information without conscious awareness that it’s being recalled.

When to see a doctor over memory lapses

Memory includes various, distinct functions, like working memory (storing information temporarily) and procedural memory (your body's ability to perform a task unconsciously). Forgetting a word or losing your keys can feel like red flag memory lapses, but they are, in fact, language or attention problems, not memory ones. However, a lapse on top of stress, lack of sleep, chronic dysfunction, or an injury may be a red flag to see your doctor.

Analysis finds dementia was rare in ancient Greece

Ancient medical texts seldom mention severe cognitive decline, suggesting that such conditions were uncommon. This scarcity is attributed to factors like shorter lifespans and active lifestyles, implying that modern environmental and lifestyle changes—along with longer life expectancy—contribute to the current prevalence of dementia.

Repeated head injuries can lead to CTE and early dementia

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated trauma to the head. The condition has become a particular concern in sports like football and soccer, from youth to professional leagues, where repeated low-level concussive events are likely.

Sitting 10+ hours per day increases dementia risk

People who sit for at least 10 hours per day are more likely to develop dementia, according to a study published in 2023. This article details the study on the murky relationship between brain health and prolonged sitting. This study involved...

Smell is a robust memory cue for individuals with Alzheimer's disease

Odor is more effective than both visual and verbal cues for triggering autobiographical recall in Alzheimer's disease, according to 2021 research.

Diabetes is a chronic disease linked to insulin production and high blood sugar

Diabetes is a chronic, progressive disease caused by a lack of, or problems processing, the hormone insulin, leading to persistently high blood sugar. Around 90 to 95% of cases are Type 2 (chronic and caused by factors like diet and environment). The remainder are Type 1 diabetes (an autoimmune disorder).

Rodent evidence is mounting that dysfunctional mitochondria may be a cause of Parkinson's

Though researchers have long observed mitochondrial malfunction in Parkinson's patients, it has remained unclear whether faulty mitochondria cause the disease or are casualties of it. Rodent research published in 2025 adds further weight to the idea that it's causative.

Autism and ADHD may have overlapping symptoms and someone can have both disorders

This video explores similarities and differences between these two disorders, which both have genetic causes. Challenges with attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity are typical of ADHD. Fidgeting, problems picking up on social cues, emotional dysregulation, and being oblivious to time may occur with both disorders—though the impetus for these behaviors may differ.

Dizziness may describe lightheadedness and imbalance, not the spinning of vertigo

Dizziness is defined as an altered sense of spatial orientation, and may include feeling like you might fall over. Vertigo is associated with feeling like you are spinning or your surroundings are spinning.

Schizophrenia is challenging to diagnose and treat

The disorder is diagnosed by a clinician who observes behaviors and medical history and may run additional tests to rule out other explanations for symptoms including physical injury or other mental health disorders. But, ultimately, it's largely a diagnosis of exclusion—since there is no definitive test for the disease. Antipsychotic medications can help control its symptoms for some patients, but there is no cure for schizophrenia.

Delirium tremens is the most severe form of alcohol withdrawal

Due to the impact of alcohol on the central nervous system, withdrawal from the drug can cause severe effects. Roughly 1% to 1.5% of heavy drinkers will experience delirium tremens, which includes tremors, seizures, hallucinations, and more. Onset typically occurs 48-72 hours after the last drink.

Doctors differentiate between a phobia and fear by asking patients whether their fear interferes with their day-to-day activities.

Sclerosis is the technical term for the lesions or plaques that form without myelin

In the absence of myelin, the body forms scar tissue called sclerosis. That scar tissue hampers nerve's abilities to transmit nerve impulses, essentially acting as a roadblock to speedy communication.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

Marburg virus, related to Ebola, is also extremely deadly, and has no available vaccine.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

The concept of phantom limbs, the perception that amputated limbs are still present, dates back to a French military surgeon in the 16th century.

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

The power and influence of the American presidency have expanded significantly over time—far beyond what the founders envisioned.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

Dirty lightning is a thunderstorm created from friction between rising and falling flows of ash and smoke during volcanic eruptions.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.