Dementia Support 

The Mayo Clinic describes dementia as “a group of symptoms affecting memory, thinking and social abilities.” Dementia is an “umbrella” term that describes a group of diseases. These diseases all affect the brain.

Just like “cancer” describes a wide variety of diseases (such as lung cancer and leukemia), “dementia” also describes multiple diseases that affect the brain. Loss of memory is the most common symptom of dementia. Memory loss, however, is not always caused by dementia.   

“Alzheimer’s disease” is the most widely known form of dementia (as well as the most common), but there are others such as “vascular dementia,” “Lewy body dementia,” and others.